“What job sends someone off on five year assignments where you can’t even see your family?”

  My ears popped up in surprise, and I realised it was Senna who had spoken, because my ears had turned themselves left, towards her. She voiced the question with intrepid curiosity, voice husky and a notch lower in volume.

  “She works in the military, in special ops, but even I don’t know what she does, or where she goes,” Kane replied, and I noticed his tail twitching sporadically as he spoke, “but we know she’s safe.”

  He lifted his left arm, where a small bracelet with three crystals jangled together: cerulean, navy blue and dull gold, all with a speck of light within, pulsing in time. It was an artifact and a rather pricey one too.

  “See these crystals? They tell me how they’re doing, based on how bright the light is, and how it pulses.”

  He tapped them, causing little clinks as the crystals, each small and octahedral, bounced around. I found my eyes tracking the clinking gems intently, until I shook my head and refocused.

  “Cute,” said Sophia.

  “I want something like that, too,” said Yvonne, “but it must have cost a good fortune.”

  “Yeah,” Kane agreed, “it was a special gift from a family friend, he’s a retired jeweler.”

  I felt something soft brush against the tip of my tail, and found Dr. Khor behind me, but he was just telling the table opposite to quiet down. And now that I was listening for it, the students were all chattering excitedly. I’d learned to filter out background noises–they used to give me terrible migraines–so I hadn’t noticed.

  And then it was time for round three. Sophia flipped over her cards with a flourish.

  I don’t like school.

  I’m vegetarian.

  I can kick this table in half.

  Talk about brevity. I instinctively looked to the circular table, with its pinewood top, six legs and small scratches across the face. The tabletop was quite thick, as tables go, and I doubted I could kick through it.

  Yvonne put her hand over her mouth and snickered a little, clearly knowing the answer, and finding whichever lie it was enjoyable. Or maybe it was Sophia’s blunt attitude, clearly noticeable even through text.

  “You said you did Taekwondo?” Kane asked.

  “Yeah. Still do,” she responded.

  A slapping sound caught my attention: it was Senna, who was bent over sideways, looking at the tabletop side-on while smacking the face with her fist.

  “You can kick this thing in half?” she muttered, “it looks sturdy enough to use as a riot shield.”

  Sophia chuckled a little, but didn’t say anything, letting us mull it over.

  I let my gaze drift to the matte c\halkboard behind her, which had recently been cleaned, and tried to envision her delivering a powerful axe kick into the table, making it crunch and splinter under the force of her reinforced boots. I could see it happening, Sophia had a lithe powerful build that hinted at years of training and conditioning, and her quads looked like they could crush watermelons.

  The table would not be winning.

  In that case… which was the lie?

  Riyem Military Academy is a somewhat selective government school, and all students (bar the few exceptions) who enrol must pass multiple rounds of tests, so it would be strange for someone who didn’t like school to voluntarily enrol. Unless they were kids desperate to escape their homes and build a new life through service.

  I sighed. I knew how bad conditions in the slums got in Swomoc, the capital of Ulverich, but Riyemba, city of refugees and the hopeful, had it even worse. I reminded myself how lucky it was to be born into my position.

  “Any combatant worth their salt could fold this table like a little napkin,” Senna exclaimed.

  “No they couldn’t. It would take exceptional skill and power to even make a dent in this thing,” Kane fired right back.

  “Only if the academy had spent any amount of money buying good materials.”

  “It’s not about that. It’s about how good the martial artist is.”

  “Sophia here is clearly a damn good martial artist.”

  Two glowering pairs of eyes turned towards Sophia, who was viewing the argument with twinkling amusement in her own blue eyes.

  Then those blue eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “No. I am not going to smash a table just to settle your petty little argument.” Somehow realising their intention without a word being said.

  “But pretty please?” Senna begged, giving her cutest pout.

  “No. Stop looking at me like that.”

  Senna laughed, breaking the effect.

  “I’m just pulling your leg, don’t worry about it,” she said.

  Kane looked a little peeved, as if he was looking forward to seeing Sophia kick a table. And maybe I was too.

  Next was Senna:

  I lived through a natural disaster.

  My father is a very successful businessman.

  I want to become a travelling doctor.

  We mulled it over silently. Natural disasters were very common in many places, fuelled usually by buildup of excess mana in an area, causing catastrophic damages and devastating crops. However, Verlaise sat almost centre of the continent, away from the Eastern coast, where catatonic storms would sometimes wipe through, and not nearly far enough South to be sitting on a quake line.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “I think it’s the last one, ‘I want to become a travelling doctor’,” said Kane, “because a doctor wouldn’t be studying at a Military Academy.”

  “Shit, I was thinking the first card, but that makes a lotta sense, dragon,” Sophia replied.

  “I still think the first one’s a lie,” Yvonne said, “I’ve lived in Riyemba since I was little-”

  “Still are,” Sophia added teasingly.

  “-and it’s been so peaceful it’s almost mundane. Nothing like the Southern lands.”

  I finally made my decision and muttered, “I think it’s the first one.”

  “Because it’s so unlikely?”

  “No I… just picked randomly.”

  “Good guess, you two,” said Senna, “that’s a lie, I didn’t live through a natural disaster, I lived through two.”

  She put her hands on her hips and thrust her chest out, as if she was really proud of that fact. I would be traumatised, honestly. Father liked to tell tales, and little Félis would have nightmares about the white demon of Sarbazan, or the thirteen day magical hurricane that tore great oaks from the roots and turned an entire forest into so many splinters of wood. I think now that he may have exaggerated a little, for dramaticism’s sake. Either way, Senna was quite impressive to be able to smile about what must have been a terrifying experience.

  I found myself yawning into my hand. The loud, echoey room was not doing good things for my mental constitution.

  “Félis? Félis?” said Senna.

  A hand waved over my field of view, jolting me back into focus. Senna giggled beside me, retracting her arm.

  “It’s your turn, kitty.”

  With a small sigh, I flipped open my cards:

  I learned to shift at nine years old.

  I enjoy journaling.

  I come from a poor family.

  “Ooh, that’s right, beastkin can transform between human and their original form! I’ve never seen it happen before.”

  “It’s not… that interesting.”

  “No but, how does it work? Is it like casting a magic spell? You know, like yelling ‘cat transform’ and shifting.”

  I simply stared back, a little dumbfounded, until dragonboy was clicking his fingers in front of me.

  “You two, save the chitchat for after we finish this activity. Half the groups are already done.”

  I realised he was right when I scanned the room: most of our classmates were gathered in the front half of the class. Kane was also a little pink at the ears. Perhaps the talk about shifting was making him embarrassed too.

  “Right then. I believe ‘I come from a poor family’ is a lie,” said Senna.

  “Me too,” agreed Yvonne.

  “I’m with you on that one,” said Sophia.

  “Honestly? Same, I don’t think you come from a poor family,” confirmed Kane too.

  Huh? What’s with the sudden unity? I’m not that obvious, am I? My uniform was the same as everyone elses, and I wasn’t wearing any jewellery either.

  “How did you know?”

  “I’m not sure actually, but it’s probably because of your accent?” Senna replied.

  “You’re all right, my parents are… pretty well off, yeah.”

  With the activity concluded, I was pretty much ready to doze off for another 13 hours, but Dr. Khor wanted to announce our first major assignment. It seemed that on top of our regular classes, which included, but weren’t limited to weapons handling, magic, communications and vehicle control, (of which only weapons handling mildly interested me) we would also have one central assignment than ran over the course of several weeks.

  He announced with a loud voice and some authority, “I will now give you your official instructions, and any questions will be taken at the end. Your first major assignment, which officially begins at 1300 hours tomorrow, and concludes in three weeks time at midnight of the 26th. I will now give you an overview of your assignment, which is to procure one item, or a set of items, as requested by your assignment sheet, to be handed out tomorrow. You will have three weeks, including class time, to track down parts, ask for assistance, create, or harvest your item and present it to me before the deadline. The assignment will be completed in the groups you now find yourself in, and will test prerequisite skills, as well as skills learnt in the first two weeks. The marking criteria is simply a pass or a fail, and failure means taking supplementary classes for the following month. Do you have any questions?”

  A girl stood up, “what kind of item will it be?”

  “You’ll have the pleasure of finding out tomorrow.”

  I could almost hear the smile in his coarse voice, and could only assume it meant bad things. Based on what he told us, the item would probably be difficult to get, and wouldn’t be on the market either, as the assignment was intended to last several weeks. Some kind of alchemical solution, perhaps? Or a specific set of equipment?

  —

  Cafeterias are dining halls, but noisier, dirtier and the food probably tastes worse. Or that was what I was thinking to myself as I waited in line to receive my lunch. The academy cafeteria was very open, with big windows and entrances on two sides and a big line of benches near the third side, where staff were placing plates of food to be taken by us students.

  Lunch today appeared to be roast pork, with some steamed vegetables and… some yellow-white sludge?

  I found myself sitting on the marble stairs just outside the cafeteria, overlooking some green parkland with benches and trees and a winding red brick path.

  “It’s not a bad view, huh?”

  I craned my neck up to find Senna on the step above, mismatched eyes looking down at me.

  “Um… yeah.”

  “Can I sit with you? You look lonely.”

  I nodded, and as she sat down beside me, mumbled something.

  “What was that?”

  “I’m not lonely,” I muttered.

  “Oh, sorry, I just assumed… It’s a bad habit of mine, I’m always getting ahead of myself,” she let out an embarrassed laugh.

  “I don’t mind.”

  “Thanks,” she returned, with a mouthful of roast pork, “ooh, this is pretty good!”

  We ate until Senna’s plate was sitting empty on her lap, and mine was empty except for that yellow substance. I’d never seen anything like it before, and I didn’t want to touch it.

  “Why’d you not eat your mashed potatoes?” she asked, “you tore through everything else pretty enthusiastically.”

  My face heated a little. Enthusiastically.

  “So that’s what they’re called?”

  She made a surprised sort of noise, maybe like a bird choking on a worm. “You’re telling me you haven’t had mashed potatoes before? Before I came here, every other meal was potato, and your skill as a cook was essentially decided by how many different ways you knew to cook the thing!”

  “Poh-tay-toooes?”

  She was dumbfounded. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of potatoes before.”

  I stared back. To be honest, I was a little worried, and didn’t quite know what to say.

  She went on, “every kid on the Southern side of the continent knows what a potato is. Are you pulling my leg?”

  “I’m from the North though?”

  “Oh. Well, they don’t grow up there, but surely you’ve heard of em?”

  “This thing?” I stared at the gooey mess that was sitting on the corner of my metal plate. It had deformed into a sort of disk shape by now.

  “That stuffs mashed potato. And if you won’t eat it, I will.”

  She shoved her spoon into my mashed potato and took a big dollop. Suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, I really wanted to eat the stuff. I grabbed her hand as she was about to put it in her mouth, then gently pulled it towards me, and licked up a little mashed potato. My eyes widened when it melted on my tongue with a burst of rich flavour. Tugging the fork a little closer, I took more of it into my mouth.

  She giggled. It was a high, tinkling sound. I abruptly realised that I was eating from her fork, which she was still holding, and I was still gripping her hand as I tasted the mashed potato.

  “No, it’s okay. You look like you’re enjoying it.”

  “Thank you,” I returned demurely.

  After lunch, the students were given time to wander around campus and familiarise themselves with the location, so while Senna went to find the rest of our group, I took a little nap in a warm spot on the roof.