Allyson turned off the lights on the second floor new-member house. Isabelle and Neha had already gone home together–light duty came with a rule that forbade crossing campus alone, so Neha had to join as an escort.

She walked past Miriam on the way to the basement. The pledge master typed away her laptop, finishing today’s notes. As much as Neha and herself and the rest would offer their opinions, the ultimate success or failure of this batch rested on Miriam’s strong shoulders.

And failure wasn’t an option.

It was a lot of pressure, and she knew Miriam had been working long hours since summer–really since her apprenticeship last year–to prepare for it.

The basement of the Northside house was smaller than the main house, dominated by a single large room and a couple storage closets. That made closing down a relatively light task. She checked all the storage closets, turned off some lights, turned on the auxiliary security system, then made her last check of the central room, the reason the basement had to exist.

The door hummed as she approached, just as it always did. She didn’t see the blue glow as brightly as the rest of her sisters did. Instead, there was an audible tone, a resonance through sound instead of light. She ran her hand down the door briefly, reverently. Then she grabbed the correct key from her carabiner and opened it.

The floor glowed the same light blue as it always did, even as the resonant tone washed over her. She’d gotten a pianist in Delta Sigma to help her figure out the sound once. It came out to a D3–she’d preferred music in D, A or G major or its associated minors ever since.

The blue glow was strongest on the surface of an 8 inch thick metal ring inlaid into the floor. Its 20 ft diameter encompassed the entire basement room. The runes inscribed onto it shone almost neon and dug into her skull. She knew from her history lessons–the actual history lessons–that the ring was another 8 inches deep into the ground and covered with runes beneath the earth as well. The metal had been liquified by magic, then poured.

Allyson smiled as she swept the room–Elya had left more smiley stickers on the structural columns supporting the ground floor. They didn’t actually touch the roof, instead they were knee high solid stone blocks covered in runes. A matching set of runes sat on the ceiling above them. Allyson didn’t understand the theory, but it was crucial that the basement form a single open plane, uninterupted by walls or pillars.

She knelt down to inspect the ring. A quick brush with her hand and the resonance ran up her arm, as healthy as she’d ever seen it. The hum was almost overpowering here. She checked the glyphs–they were still well defined with their blue glow. A look at the surface of the metal showed that it was still spotless. Unlike the rest of the basement the ring was self cleaning, and any kind of dirt on it would be a warning sign that it was weakening.

Linking the ring here to its big sister in the main house was arguably Delta Sig’s greatest achievement in the last decade. That held both in the difficulty in the magic, and in the impact on the sorority–being first exposed to a smaller resonant space had greatly reduced the amount of trauma and serious injury among their new member classes.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Allyson gently placed her full hand over the metal and let the peace of the Delta Sigma resonance wash over her. It wasn’t part of the closing routine, but it reminded her of her place, her loyalties, her undying devotion. She wasn’t the same person who had walked into the Northside house three years ago, and that was okay. She focused for a moment and found it–seven tiny new notes, both heard and felt, not quite matching the D3 of Delta Sigma quite yet. Still independent, still with their own rhythm and tone.

They’d be a part of the greater symphony soon.

Everything looked fine, so she turned off the light in the basement and went upstairs.

Miriam and Elya were waiting for her, laptops packed and ready for the 20 minute walk back to the main house.

“I’m all ready to go, Miss.” Allyson told her superior.

“Good girl, lets get home.” Miriam grabbed her backpack, brushed Elya’s shoulder.

Elya made a small sign of affirmation with her left hand, then grabbed her own things. They walked down the street towards campus, and Allyson watched the un-fruit, with their colorful-but-somehow-still-blue glow and their unreal textures. They grew on vines on the un-vines up and down the street. It reminded her of a fairy garden, centered on the Northside house and extending about half a block in each direction. Beauty, but only for the initiated. Beauty, but only for those who could see. Beauty, but only for those who had given up everything to be one of them.

The otherworldly plants lessened as they got further from the Northside house, though they’d pass two more smaller groves near campus hotspots on the way home. The first hotpots hadn’t shown up until last year, and it wasn’t until recently that they understood they could ‘claim’ t hem with their own resonacne. They weren’t quite as blue yet, though one of them was getting close–a C# instead of a D.

She touched one of the fruit, enjoyed the way her mind couldn’t quite comprehend the sensation. Only Samie had managed to eat and enjoy them, but Samie was… changed. She wondered if one of the new members would end up like her. Probably not–they’d lucked out once and hopefully all learned from that experience.

They spent a while walking in silence as Miriam tapped away on her phone. “Which one do you think will turn first?” She didn’t look up, but kept typing.

Allyson idly fingered the bracelet on her left wrist, given to her by Sarah during their house ball last spring. “I think Becca first, then Luna or Persephone or Diana. I can’t read Riga, but Claire is going to be a problem.”

Elya said nothing, of course.

“Mmmm, that’s not a bad guess,” Miriam said, “But I think you’re wrong. I think Luna is going to sink right in and lose herself. Claire will take some work.”

They kept walking for a while and passed one of the campus hotspots. Allyson heard the wardstone they were using to attune the groves, to turn them into loci of their own power. The sound felt even closer to their resonance than yesterday, and the fruit looked almost blue as well. She passed her hand through one, enjoyed the tingle that ran up her arm.

Miriam spoke up again as they left the grove behind, still reading off her phone. “Lots of activity in the hills tonight. We might have a bit of an active night.”

The master manipulator looked up from her phone, giving Allyson that look of joyful menace she kept so carefully in check around the pledges.

“You, my little servant, on the other hand,” Miriam said, “you don’t need to worry about a thing until tomorrow–I got a text message from Sarah.”

“Wha–“ Allyson didn’t get any further.

Miriam snapped a finger in front of Allyson’s eyes, made a symbol with her hands, and Allyson’s mind went blank.