Celeste~

I defined my curls and did my hair in a nice updo that would keep it out of my face for today.

I put on a casual outfit that consisted of a nice halter top and denim jeans to go with it. Making sure I didn't forget anything I needed I looked around before heading out of the door.

There was hardly anyone out at this time, I guess there was no reason to keep up appearances if we would all be separated and with thousands of new people soon.

Both Chloe and Rain were waiting for me at the door when I arrived, they were up bright and early, ready to hear the juicy details of our conversation. As much as I disliked that they believed in the potential of a me and Caspian, I was happy to tell them. I wouldn't mind a second and third opinion on this. It was a weird, complicated situation and I was already apprehensive about it.

"Heyy, come in come in we've been waiting." Rain smirked while Chloe brought me inside.

"Of course you have." I rolled my eyes and tried to contain a smile as I walked through the door.

They both rushed to the couch, so eager to know what this was all about.

"So, tell us absolutely everything." Rain said. Chloe's red eyes peered at me while she waited for my response.

I told them the whole situation, and they were in utter disbelief that she was such a manipulative witch. I mean we all knew that some screws were clearly loose but none of us believed that she would take it this far. "Well we were wrong about one thing, the bitch is actually psycho."

Chloe mumbled while she tried to make sense of the whole situation.

"Yeah that's for sure." Rain said, with a similar expression on her face. "The whole thing is all very weird and I'm definitely apprehensive. Part of the reason I even agreed was because in this scenario I didn't really have anything to lose. I'm not on the same pedestal that he is so I could never fall as far." They uttered noises of agreement while they were still lost in thought.

"And trust me guys, we're not doing the whole being stupid enough to not consider the possibility of feelings in this equation either. We spoke about that and we simply just have to stay with each other long enough to make his whole marriage situation way less worse." I was nervous for their answer, this was no longer just a game of me and Caspian's potential, this was real life.

Rain spoke, "Well this is a pretty fucked situation you've gotten yourself into Celeste. I mean, forced to pretend to be in a relationship with someone because they weren't careful, I don't know if that's fair." It was both settling and unsettling to experience the actual advice that they give, their usual essence of bubbly optimism, sarcasm and sexual innuendos were stripped when things like this became kinda serious.

"Ah, I don't know. I said what I said to Anastasia kinda intending to give off that message if I'm being completely honest." It wasn't his fault that she was manipulative as much as it wasn't mine.

"Yeah I understand, still though, if this affects you negatively in any way you should just call it quits. You owe him but not enough to sacrifice your peace or anything like that, at the end of the day he was the one who decided to sign a contract with just anyone." Rain quipped back. It was clear that she was not the most open to this kind of agreement, and rightly so. These were very unknown territories.

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"Yeah for sure." I meant that too.

"Do you think this could go wrong in the love department?" Chloe spoke, of course changing the conversation to love.

"No because the department doesn't exist."

"Oh don't give me that, even you and Caspian spoke about the possibility of it." Sigh, I guess I would have to entertain this topic for a little while.

"I highly doubt anything will arise from this. It would be short-lived and vague. Plus, our lives do not align at all, it's a culture clash to the fullest extent."

"Oh but they do. Very much so actually, you're powerful he's powerful, you guys are both here for the next few years. I'm seeing some similarities between you."

"Even if we were the perfect match on earth nothing is going to happen, he's not interested. He barely wants a fake relationship with the princess's best friend let alone some average nobody." I didn't have any issue with the last part and would actually much rather keep it that way, they knew this which is why I didn't understand why-

*Knock knock

A knock at the door interrupted my train of thought as well as our conversation. I looked over to Rain who had a facial expression that told me she didn't know who the hell was at her door. We both looked over to Chloe who shrugged her shoulders, clearly not having invited anyone over either. Rain walked over to the door and looked through the spy hole.

"Looks like one of the practitioners, they have the same purple garments that they have. I don't know why they're here though."

*Knock knock!

"Damn, they're adamant. Should I open it?"

"Yeah." Me and Chloe said in agreement.

She pulled open the door to meet the man who stood in front of us in his gown. His skin was darker than I had ever seen, paired with the purple irises of his eyes created a very ethereal look for him. I didn't know if the colour of his eyes was a result of his power but I assumed that was the case."Hello, according to my knowledge Celeste is here, would I be correct?"

His teeth also had an otherworldly glow as they shimmered and shined a soft purple haze in his mouth. He was looking directly at me when he spoke of my whereabouts. I didn't know if he was being condescending or not but I was gonna take the less pessimistic approach and believe that this professionalism was a quirk of a serious practitioner like him.

Chloe and Rain turned to me. "That would be me"

"You need to come with me please. Orders from the academy." He held up the sheet of paper that was in his hand and showed it to me when I stepped forward. I guess I was going with him. I gave an awkward goodbye to both Chloe and Rain before walking out of the door.

I wondered if this was about the assessment, I knew that there was a possibility that we could get called back but I had a feeling that it wasn't about that. "Is this about the assessment?"

He paused for about 15 seconds before he answered.

"No." Well okay. We walked along the corridors until we came across a very vacant section that was locked off with a door buzzer that had to be opened with his ID. We walked through the doors and met a part of the Academy that was strictly for the Teachers. The walls were white marble from floor to ceiling and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it resembled an insane asylum or a hospital more than it did a place to reside. I saw a few other practitioners on the way, they gave me weird looks as I walked past but I didn't dwell on it. We weaved our way through the hallways until he brought us to a room. The door was just as white as the walls were and had the same entry system as the other one. He tapped his ID as we both walked into the room. It was small and dimly lit with a single light bulb hanging from the ceilings above the table. "Take a seat miss Luxe." Oh we're using second names now. I took his instruction anyway and took a seat on the chair.

He did the same and took a seat on the chair opposite to mine. He was still for a second while he was centring his thoughts. "So, do you have any idea why you may have been brought here today?"

I answered honestly. "No." He took another deep breath, what is with this guy and his dramatics.

"Okay, we have reason to believe you have involvement with the Angels, you're familiar with them I presume?" I had just as much knowledge about the Angels as anyone else, I had no idea why he was questioning me out of all people about this.