The school campus was crowded, full of students heading to the first classes of the semester. Dara looked around, some people looked like her, a little nervous, glancing back and forth. Other students, older students, were moving around, or waving to friends they hadn’t seen for a while.

It was different from her school. There was no ceremonial procession of the new initiates, no line of carriages pulled by golems running up to the main building where new instructors would meet the headmasters and swear their allegiance to the school, giving up their previous allegiance to any kingdom they might have served.

There wasn’t much ceremony at all.

Dara shook her head. Her first class was History 170A, America until 1877.

Millie had suggested it.

“Look, Kid, nobody’s gonna ask you about the last king of Assyria. But they might be surprised if you’ve never heard of the Civil War or World War II, so start with US history, as boring as it might be.”

Dara had to agree with her. It made sense, but even so…

What if they ask me to give an introductory speech? I don’t know anyone! Are we supposed to know who the instructor is, or is it something we’re not supposed to comment on? What if—

Her thoughts cut off as she walked into a large room, the annoyingly steady white light gleaming down on ranked seats. There were more and more people walking in, most Dara’s age, a few older. Millie had told her that some people came back to college after a career, seeking to learn more. That was very rare back home. Most people who were that successful normally could hire personal tutors. But…

Dara shook her head. Enough delay. She looked to see where there were empty seats and headed to one. Dara took out her writing pad, and then pulled out some ballpoint pens. I could have used these years ago, she thought. And when she came home, she ‘d bring a cartload worth of them.

And she would come back home—

“Hi!”

Dara started as the girl took the seat next to her. “You’re a freshmen like me? I’m Nancy!” She held out her hand, and Dara took it before Nancy vigorously shook Dara’s hand. “I didn’t see you during orientation! Are you a late student? Oh man, I love that hair!”

“I, ah,” Dara tried to get her bearings, feeling a little run over. Nancy looked to be shorter than she was, with curly brown hair, her skin darker than Dara’s. “I’m Dara, Dara Stonemender.”

“Oh wow, sorry, I’m Nancy Gonzalez!” she said. “I sort of talk a lot when I’m nervous, and this is my first day at school so—“

“You’re nervous?” Dara asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Yeah, I—“

“Hello, everyone, I’m Dr. McAllister,” a tall, gray-haired man said as he walked to the front of the class. He waited for the whispering to die down while Dara indulged in a brief, horrifying thought of what some of her own professors would do if people didn’t shut up and pay attention.

She did know it might very well involve lightning bolts. Many lightning bolts.

But then everyone became quiet.

“Right, this is History 170A, for America until 1877.” He leaned against the podium as he looked at the class. “For some of you, this will be one of the few history courses you take, mainly to clear out your graduation requirements. For others, it’ll be the start of a large number of history courses.” He gestured as some students started handing out papers. “I know this is online for our course, but I’m old-fashioned, so here is your syllabus. Keep in mind this is not high school, and so I expect that if you have issues, you will contact me via email, message, or phone, before the last week of class. Office hours are printed, but if possible, let me know you’re coming so I don’t double book a meeting. Now, let’s talk about history…”

As he started up with the introduction, Dara felt herself start to relax. She was in another world, she’d almost been killed by magic, she had no idea how she was going to get back…

But now she was in a lecture, and if it wasn’t just like the one’s back home, it was still a class in a school where normal people went.

With that, Dara bent down to start writing her notes. It wouldn’t do to flunk the class on her first day, now would it?

----------------------------------------

It didn’t take long for Dara to get back into the old paths of studying. The lecturer had exhibits, mostly projected on the video screen instead of illusions cast by a mage or display crystal, but it was close enough. The class was shorter than her college, where students only attended two classes a day, but Dara didn’t mind.

And then the class was over, Dara putting her things back into the backpack she’d come with.

Okay, I do like the fact that we don’t have to wear formal robes everywhere. It’s—

“Hi! Are you done for the day?” Nancy said.

“I, um have a class after lunch.”

“Cool! You can come and eat with me! Some of my friends from high school are also here, and I bet they‘d like to meet you. Do you have any friends that you want to eat lunch with?”

“I, ah, maybe?” Dara said. “I have a…” acquaintance… “Friend. I think he’s got a class during this period, though.”

“Don’t worry! You can eat with us!” Nancy was positively bouncing on her heels. “You know, I was worried when I first came that I might not make any friends, and now here you are!”

“Right…” Dara said as she followed Nancy, feeling like she was being pulled behind a water elemental, into the crowded quad, where hundreds of students were leaving their classes and heading for the parking lots or to other classes. The heat of the day was starting to really hit, and Dara glanced up at the blazing sun in a cloudless sky.

“Yeah, I know,” Nancy said. “Good thing we’re leaving summer. It was so damn hot this year.”

Dara nodded. “What did you think about the class?”

“I mean, it’s nice, especially since nobody cares about roll call.” Nancy paused. “I mean, after the first week, they say, since teachers can drop you if you don’t show up. When I went to high school, they’d spend half the day taking roll call, and then if you were tardy they’d yell at you, but here, nobody cares—they treat us like adults.”

“Ah… yes.” Dara nodded. Nodding seemed to be safe. It also didn’t seem to stop Nancy, who pointed up at the student union.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“There they are! Jane and Marcus! C’mon, I’ll introduce you!” With that, Nancy took off, Dara having to trot to keep up with her.

Is she always like this, or is she just having… what was it Millie said? Right, a sugar high.

The two waiting for Nancy were a short girl, her dark hair and complexion reminding Dara of some of the students who hailed from the Dreaming Rivers, but here… Right. Asian. Next to her, a tall, dark-skinned teen stood, looming over his companion.

“Marcus, Jane!” Nancy said and ran up and hugged Jane. “I can’t believe we’re here!”

“Did they…”

“They saw each other this morning. This is just Nancy.” Thomas nodded. “Hi. I’m Thomas.”

“Dara,” Dara nodded and held out her hand. Thomas took it in a far more restrained manner than Nancy had.

Moments later, Jane pulled away from Nancy and waved at Dara. “Hi! So have a class with Hurricane Nancy?”

“Yes. This is… normal?”

“All the time!” Jane said. “Hurricane Nancy, cheerleader for Central High!”

“You could have been a cheerleader.”

“Nah, parents wouldn’t accept it. So, everyone hungry?”

“Starving. Like I’m going to die!” Nancy said.

Dara stared at her for a moment. “Right. I could eat lunch.”

“Great! Let’s go!” With that, Nancy charged into the doors.

Dara stared at Jane. “Hurricane Nancy.”

“Yes.” Thomas nodded. “Just one warning. If you think she has an off switch?”

“She doesn’t,” Jane said.

“I understand.” At least she doesn’t talk during class.

Inside, Dara got her normal meal, unsweetened tea and a slice of pizza, while the others got their own food. Nancy had a large cola, slice of pie, and two slices of pizza, which she started to devour, only pausing to talk about their old school, the college, and how her parents were letting her make payments on the car they’d bought for her.

“So it’s a 2018, I mean, not super new but not bad, and it’s a minivan.” She stopped. “Oh! We could all go to the beach!”

Dara stopped, put her pizza down, and blinked. “Beach?”

“Yeah, it’s great! I mean, we can talk selfies and play games, and I think Laguna is the best place to go, but if you want, there’s Dana Point—“

“Nancy?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah?”

“Breathe, and maybe we should get to know Dara a little more before we all start planning trips.”

“Like the senior trip?”

Jane and Thomas shuddered. “Yes,” they both said.

“Well, I—hang on! It’s the wizard!” Nancy said, gesturing at the TV. Dara looked up and blinked. There was a view of a shaky camera, probably a cell phone and on it was…

Great, someone did see me.

A flying creature, looking a bit like one of the drakes back home, but longer, twisted, with an almost feline look to its face—and on its back, was Dara, hanging on for dear life.

Her shoulder throbbed in memory. Another spirit. Evidently formed out of the influence of a dragon movie marathon.

I can hardly wait until the mana spikes start to fade. Not only would that stop creatures from almost killing Dara, but she had a feeling it might make finding the gem fragments easier.

“I think it’s the return of magic!” Nancy said. “And that means, pretty soon we’re gonna have more dragons.”

“What is it with you and dragons?” Thomas asked.

“I went to the school festival as a dragon for Halloween when I was five. It stuck,” Nancy said.

“It’s not dragons. It’s crystals.” Jane said. She held up a quartz crystal. “See, they’re absorbing the vibrations of everybody around them.”

“And they’re working now because?” Thomas asked.

“More people believe,” Jane said. She smirked before taking a sip of her drink. “Nonbelievers to the contrary.”

Dara stared. “Do many people use these crystals?”

“Sure! Quartz is one of the best, but there are others. I keep this one for luck.” Jane handed Dara the crystal, and Dara touched it.

It was dead. Dara had never felt something so mystically inert. “So… how long?” Maybe it’s a fad that got started when the real crystal appeared. I could…

“Oh, hundreds of years ago,” Jane said.

Dara tried to smile as she handed the crystal back to Jane. No, nothing that can help me, dammit.

With that, the conversation moved to other topics, and by the end of lunch, Dara found herself with, not entirely certain how it had happened, contact information for all of them.

The rest of the day was… more like school back home. Dara focused on the work, especially since she was in Introduction to Physics. She longed to move faster, but she’d never studied this back home. After all, atoms were indivisible! Everyone knew that.

Except for everyone on Earth.

I wonder if I could do some experi—Dara shook her head as the lecturer started covering what they’d be going over.

“No magic nukes, kid.” That had been Millie, and she hadn’t been joking.

So I guess I’ll just have to learn enough so that there’s no danger of that. Dara nodded to herself and focused on the lecture.

----------------------------------------

When Dara got back to the house, after a pleasant few hours in the quiet library, she found Millie sitting in front of the TV.

“Had fun on your first day?” the older woman asked.

“Yes. I met some people.”

“What kind?”

“Talkative.”

“That’s great!” Millie said. “They’re the kind of people who ensure you can one day wake up with ‘oh God, what’s that taste’ in your mouth in a hotel room you don’t recognize.”

“And I’m supposed to think that’s good?” Dara asked.

“A vital part of the college experience,” Millie said. “But I’ve got another thing to talk about—take a look at this.”

Dara glanced at the TV, and Millie touched a button, and the screen flashed up with the news. There was a scene of dozens of police cars clustering by a liquor store. The news reporter on the screen was speaking in a breathless tone.

“The robbery was interrupted by a man with a “gold sword” who removed the gunman’s right arm at the wrist.” Shaking her head, she gestured as the camera zoomed in on the front of the store, lingering on what was obviously a bloodstain. “He proclaimed that the city would be freed from the scourge of crime and vanished. Currently, the LAPD is seeking him as a person of interest and warns the public that while he intervened in a crime, he should be considered dangerous…”

Millie paused the screen. “So, anyone we know? A spirit of vengeance?”

Dara frowned. “I don’t… Maybe, but he seemed a little more directed than a young spirit would be.”

“The haunted house was pretty directed.”

“But obsessive. Cutting off a hand and not killing him, is a bit more restrained than an uncontrolled spirit might be. Remember, spirits, elementals, when they form spontaneously, they tend to form as archetypes.”

“So investigate?”

“Yes. Tomorrow.” Dara nodded. “I have to make some more foci.”

“And friends!” Millie said. “Hey, maybe you can get them together with you, buy a van and find a dog.”

“What?”

“Oh right, you hail from a lost and forsaken land. Don’t worry, I’ve got the movie cued up.”

Dara was silent as the first minutes of the show ran by. Then she turned to Millie. “Millie?”

“Yeah?”

“I am not getting a talking dog.”