"The girl everyone's been whispering about. Oime national spelling bee champion at ten years old. Two-time winner of the Ameri Grappling Federation's sixty ay pou division's annual tour. Three-time winner of the World Karate Associatioeey-five ay-five pound divisions. Paraded around publicly as The Sn's pride and joy before she disappeared from the public eye entirely due to her health," Al rattled off as we departed the dining hall.

  Stel sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. "Albert, please."

  Al gave her a sympathetic grin as we tinued across the courtyard, his eyes darting around suspiciously as he kept his voice low.

  "Everyone knows who you are, Stel. I mean, I didn't at first. I just saw you scatter your painting supplies all over the pd went over to help," He shrugged, putting his hands behind his head.

  Then, he snickered.

  "And who would've thought. Miss mysterious and untouchable Stel Matsudaira. A hardanga and figurine collector who saw my 'Raging Angels' neckd key a absolutely ballistic," He chuckled. "It's fate, Stel! 't deny it. We were meant to be friends."

  She shook her head, a pyful smirk on her face as she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'm a geek. A mega nerd. Get over it."

  "Is letting that get out such a big deal? You're amazing, Stel. Way better than the whole perfect princess act," I offered, fshing her a slight smile.

  "Oh trust me. It's not that. I mean, sure, some people might have a few snarky ents about it. But that's not what I'm worried about. It's..." She trailed off, trailing her fingers over her heart as she frowned, lost ihoughts.

  She suddenly seemed a lot more vulnerable and uain than before.

  "I was raised to be, well, this. I mean, my mother always told me I represented some long legacies and tradition. That it was my duty to carry them on. That getting to follow my dreams and do what I love rivilege that came with a cost," She smiled sadly, g her hands in front of her.

  I felt a fsh of sympathy for her.

  It sounded like a pressure that was hard to escape. Like she couldn't just exist and be herself.

  I didn't want to assume anything, though.

  "What kind of traditions and legacies are we talking about, Stel?" I asked softly.

  Stel smiled, folding her arms behind her back as we crossed the grassy quad.

  "Well, everyone knows The Sn was one of the heroes who fought in the final battle and 'survived' the Nightmare of Nht? But she knew better than anyone she was living on borrowed time," She respoilting her head back as she studied the sky. "Her husband — my father I guess, still carries oorch, but he was just a regur albeit brilliant guy who built a small empire in Sili Valley."

  She shrugged, eyeing me carefully as she let me absorb what she was saying.

  Albert stroked his . "e to think of it, the timing does seem a bit odd. The Sn's son died in battle against Osmium Titan. And then while everyone was m, she came public with an infant daughter in the days after the final battle."

  Stel flinched, pursing her lips as she tensed up.

  "She was already running out of time, and she knew she'd never have another ce to do what she felt was right. She decided she wanted me to fulfill her final duty," She replied, looking off into the distah a determiare.

  "And what was that?" I asked, feeling a bit fused.

  She didn't seem like she was a fighter. Well, she obviously was given her accodes, but not the multigeional master her mother was.

  She oised and graceful, but not in a fighting sort of way.

  "I see. You're adopted." Al suddenly interjected, studying her carefully. "And you are well aware of it it."

  She nodded with a proud smile, lifting her up as she gave him a satisfied look.

  "Bingo. Read between the lines, did you?" she said with a smile. "Heh. You're a sharp one."

  Then, she lowered her eyes as we kept walking.

  "I remember the day she told me. I was... overwhelmed. I was mad, I think. Disillusioned and hurt. But there was nothing I could do. She'd already handed me off to some of the best protectors, tutors and bodyguards in the business. She always assumed the worst, and she didn't trust anything except a small, tight inner circle. Their son died itle, and she had no one else to leave the mao. And with so much at stake, she decided to expand her family... the only way she could," She expined, shaking her head wistfully.

  "Wow," Al whispered, his eyes wide with awe. "Jesus, Stel. That sounds like a lot to handle."

  She ughed, her tourning cold and distant.

  "I've always been a quick study. I was used to it. I adapted. That's what I do." She smiled, her eyes seeming to darken as her eyes settled on a group of students nearby. "I was always in their shadow. Their legacy. It's a gift and a burden. Part of me resents it sometimes, and I really don't like being lied to or used."

  She smirked, shaking her head. "It was clear my mrew to love me as her own and raised me as such, but it was a lonely upbringing since my status as their heir was known. Plus, she was always out o missions or disappearing for weeks at a time. My adoptive parents were my support, but they old me where I came from. She only did when she knew she was dying and didn't have much longer left."

  Albert gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, and she shrugged.

  "Anyways, she made it crystal clear she wanted me to make good use of the clout she'd leave me, my resources and my advantages. But in her own way, she loved me and just wanted me to be happy. She believed in hard work and initiative. And that I had the right to use her name aage however I saw fit. She wanted me to take up her mantle. Instead, I ran away from the Matsudaira glomerate into a smaller city for the st two or three years under an alias. It was a nice vacation. Got to see some new sights. Nobody knew who I was. Made a couple of real friends for the first time in my life as me and not 'Lady Matsudaira' or whatever the heck her servants called me."

  Stel giggled. "Really, all I ever wanted was to just be my own person. Enjoy a bit of freedom and pead quiet, you know? I had a lot of stuff to figure out. Not a lot of people to talk to this about, either."

  She sighed, looking up at the sky again as we walked through the campus grounds.

  Albert eyed her, listening with i and passion.

  It was a raw, emotional admission, and I wasly sure how to respond.

  "That sounds so lonely and isoting, Stel. I'm sorry," I whispered. "How are you handling it? Are you able to step away from everything and focus on school? Is that something you want?"

  She nodded, her eyes fshing with purpose as she csped her hands in front of her.

  "People live and die for their cause. They give up everything, fighting for a ake a difference. I have to show the world I have what it takes to be a part of it too," She replied, with a sort of steel in her voice that caught me by surprise.

  "Sure, I got to figure myself out. Messed around anonymously oer. Got sucked into a few fandoms without Mother breathing down my neck all the time. Caused a bit of trouble here and there. But at the end of the day, I want to prove myself. I 't let myself just bum around. Not with the kind of authority I've been gifted arusted with."

  I could feel my eyes widening as I watched her, both entranced and a little taken back by the suddeion and iy in her voice.

  "So, that's why you wao stay at the academy? You don't just want to be on your own, but to find a cause and make a difference?" Albert offered, giving her a knowing smile.

  She nodded, her eyes glinting with a wry smirk. "You could say that, in a sense! I did a lot of soul-searg i two or three years and found something that motivated me to enroll here. Just a little idea that kept me going when I felt like everything ointless."

  Then she ughed, her shoulders sagging a little. "In short, I really don't care about my image or being a dy at a tea ceremony or whatever mother used to care about. I don't want to fight for the sake of fighting. But I do represent her. So, I'm not just going to sit bad rex a her legacy just crumble. She had a lot of unfinished busihat she left behind."

  My heart felt like it was melting a little, and I couldn't help but giggle in admiration.

  There was a vi and an earness in her voice that couldn't be faked or manufactured. She was driven, and I wasn't sure if I'd ever seen anyone like her.

  She was... an enigma. A blend of innod curiosity and a sharp determination and drive that left me a little speechless.

  Albert nodded. "But enough about that, it's the st weekend we have before csses start up again. And I did tell Stel I'd show her my own haul of geeky paraphernalia. Which is totally not as cool, but whatever. We geek out together and not worry about all the serious stuff."

  She snorted, slugging him in the shoulder. "Whatever, Albert. Just don't start posing like a Mystery Ranger Z Cospyer or anything."

  I looked between them, smiling to myself.

  Albert hadn't been lying when he said he'd made a new friend.

  She wasly my usual type of friend, and I couldn't rete to her her upbringing in the slightest.

  But she was a good person. Someoh a strong sense of purpose and a deep, hidden warmth that showed in her smile and her gaze.

  She'd been through a lot, it seemed. And I could uand a little bit of what that was like.

  I knew what it was like to be isoted, to feel alone in a crowd.

  And I also knew what it was like tle with trying to find out who you were or who you wao be.

  Maybe that was what drew me to her. The brokenness. The vulnerability.

  I could sympathize with that.

  Or maybe, I was just looking for people to t to after everything I'd lost.

  But ohing was certain.

  Al had found a kindred spirit in her.

  They had a lot in on, from their love of id their enthusiasm for all things cute and geeky.

  And strangely, as they talked and joked and ughed their way back to the dorms, I was happy for him.

  I was happy for them both.

  And just like that, I felt the warmth of a new friendship blossoming.

  The three of us asded Al's dorm building, and I couldn't help but grin to myself.

  As we stepped into his dorm and Albert closed the door behind us, I could feel a bubbling, swirliion in my chest.

  It wasn't adrenali wasn't eveement.

  It was something warmer, more f.

  "Oh geeze, what happened here?" Stel asked, raising an eyebrow as we passed over the shoe rack that held the grisly, stained remains of my ruined sneakers.

  "Heh. You know horincess Eris came crashing onto campus a couple of days aght? We were actually caught outside, and she drenched us in a bunch of that gunk. She ended up getting chased off campus though," Al chuckled. "This stuff smells and looks like barbecue sauce, but I have no idea what it really is."

  I frowned, pig it up for a sed.

  "No matter how much I'd try to wash it, I couldn't get the stains out..." I trailed off, giving Stel an awkward smile. "I retty mad about it in the moment, but now It's just one of those crazy things you experience from living in this city, I guess. It'll make for a ory one day."

  Stel tilted her head, blinking at the sneakers as she studied them. She pressed her lips together, furrowing her brows as she stood o them, and I gave her a curious look.

  Then, she sighed. "Sheesh. People these days..."

  She snorted, shaking her head dusting her knees off.

  Then, following along with Albert, we took our shoes off and walked down the hall to his room.

  "Sorry for the mess," He mumbled, as we stepped into the small, well-anized space.

  It was a cozy little room, with a ly made bed, a shelf of ic books, and a desk with a monitor, and a mouse mat with a stylized drawing of Arcadia Vox grinning on it.

  "A mess? It looks really in here. Well-kept. Frankly, I expected worse from a teenage boy's room," Stel ented, crossing her arms with a smirk.

  Albert chuckled nervously, giving me a sheepish grin. "Well, as sed gen as my mom was, she was still a bit of a drill sergeant like my grandma was. You could say she rubbed off on me in some ways. She always went out of the way to make sure I learo keep things anized."

  I noticed Stel staring at the pair of small, framed photos on Al's desk. One of him and his parents on his seventh birthday. I was o him, looking awkward, anxious, and uneasy as he gri the camera.

  Another was of us ughing and posing when his parents took us out to the amusement park for the day when we were in middle school. We were just kids then, too young to really appreciate how precious that time was.

  But now, the memory still brought a smile to my face, and I khat Al had to be thinking about the same thing.

  We hadn't ged much, except that we had a better grasp on what was important and what we could lose.

  Then, Stel walked over to the end of the room, walking out to the baly I'd jumped out of when I fronted Dark Princess Eris cloaked under my luminary mirage. She tapped her , taking in the view of the campus in the midday sun.

  "It's a nice view," She mused, squinting as she leaned over the railing. "Much better than the o of my suite."

  I tilted my head. It was easy tet with her in front of me that Stel wasly living in poverty. She'd been raised well, with her mother's porestige to lean on, and all the perks that came with it.

  But we were 'mostly' on equal ground here. Each student had solo dorms due to presence of the young knights, but we didly have penthouse apartments or anything.

  I folded my arms as Stel paced around the baly for a sed, looking curiously down below. Then she chuckled to herself and walked baside, and Albert gestured at the chairs in his room.

  Stel stared at him quizzically as he wi her, holding his index fio his lips in a shushing motion.

  He reached down under his bed, heaving out a rge, ky sole that looked like it was from an antique store.

  It whirred and blio life as he hooked it up to the monitor, and soon, we were all gathered around it.

  "Woah, that's retro," Stel ented, as Al set up a stack of cartridges. "WOW, is that a copy of Legend of Ninja Toma?"

  "We may or may not have gone diving garage sales for treasure a couple of times," I giggled, nudging Al. "Just one of many in this stash."

  Stel shook her head in disbelief. "Geeky paraphernalia not as cool. Are you kidding? Everyone's been trying to replicate the meid artistic fidelity of the first rumble brawler, but no one's mao recapture the same goofy style the first series did."

  Al quirked an eyebrow, surprised by the sudden iy in her voice. Then, she sighed, shaking her head.

  "Not like I really have the time to find out for myself, unfortunately," She shrugged, taking a seat on his bed.

  "You're full of surprises, Stel. A secret meganerd! Well, e on! We've got a few hours before dinner. I insist," Albert smiled, handing her a troller.

  "I get behind that," She replied, smiling as she took a deep breath.

  She seemed rexed and tent, and her earlier seriousness and iy seemed to melt away as she smiled back at him.

  It was like she wasn't just able to put her walls up around him. She didn't have to hide or put on an act or fake her emotions.

  Al was just like that. He was the most approachable and passionate friend anyone could ask for.

  He would've been ideal as a Knight, and he did go for it, but he hadn't been chosen.

  I did wonder if there was something more to it — given the weird paradox we ran int the Cataclysm. Plus, the creature I'd fought until my st drop of mana seemed to go out of the way to try and hunt him down at all costs.

  Shaking my head, I pulled up a chair to join them.

  "Hey, tag me in!" I spoke with a grin.

  "You're on, Sienna!" Albert replied.

  As we settled in to py, trading quips and friendly insults bad forth, I couldn't help but feel a little grateful for being here.

  It was only the opening week, but I'd made friends. Good friends.

  Ae everything, despite the chaos and the noise and the darkness of the world around us, I couldn't be more thankful.

  Soon, we would have to face whatever the future would bring.

  Our worlds would unfold and morph into nees and sizes.

  Little did I know just how much.

  But fht now, the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders, and it was just us.

  And it was fun.

  It was enough.