“Oh, come on, it’s the weekend!” Liliana argued as she stabbed a fork into her food.
She’d avoided Marianne until lunch. The other girl had slept in during their first weekend day. Liliana never got the same luxury. She was up before the sun rose every day, no matter if she tried to sleep in or not. Not that she did, she had too much to do. It meant she got the time to practice her skills in the forest and even cajole Rauk into letting her spend some extra time in the training room before lunch, but as soon as she’d entered the cafeteria Marianne had pounced.
“Exactly! The club fair is going on during the weekend, and we need to look at all of it! I heard from an upperclassman that they take this opportunity to show off what they can do. The only thing that beats it is the festival they hold in the fall.” Marianne slapped her hand on the table.
Liliana sighed and elected to shove food into her mouth rather than replying. She’d expected this, she had. She’d hoped that after they’d toured the elective classes Marianne would get distracted, or be appeased, and Liliana could use the two free days of their weekend to further her training while everyone else was busy with the fair.
She’d already seen the fair, all the clubs putting up stalls and displays between the elective towers and the class buildings, completely commandeering the outdoor training grounds. She’d had to make a very large circuit to avoid the fuss just to get to the first year building.
“You did already agree,” Alistair pointed out, the traitor.
“I did no such thing.” Liliana hissed, pointing her meat knife at him in an explicit threat.
“It was implied,” Emyr agreed, not even blinking when the knife was redirected towards him.
“Traitors, the lot of you.” Liliana grumbled, her shoulders drooping as she went back to eating her food, directing glares at all three of her friends.
“It’ll be fun. You like fun.” Marianne cajoled her sweetly.
“There will be people there, Mari.” Liliana whined.
“That’s a good argument that, can I change sides?” Emyr asked, the realization dawning on him suddenly that this endeavor would involve people, and a lot of them.
“Nope. Death before betrayal Bealstal.” Marianne informed him with a chipper tone that didn’t fit her words.
“Then kill me.” Emyr said bluntly.
“Me first, I call dibs,” Liliana jumped in.
“No one is dying!” Marianne huffed out, rolling her eyes.
“Not with that attitude,” Liliana snarked, but her scowl was morphing into a smile no matter how hard she fought it.
“It’s just a fair! Not a war!” Marianne groaned, rubbing her temples.
“Wait, is a war an option because I’d rather,” Liliana sat up straighter in her seat. Marianne let out a loud groan and buried her face in her hands.
“Are you guys checking out the fair?” a familiar voice asked before a body plopped into the seat next to Liliana.
“Anya! Save me!” Liliana turned to the wolf girl with wide, pleading eyes. Anya’s eyebrows rose, her ears swiveling as she looked around in confusion, not entirely prepared for what she’d just jumped into.
“From what?” Anya asked.
“People,” Liliana said, spitting the word out like a curse. Anya just looked more bemused at the explanation and she turned to Alistair, the only one acting normal at the moment.
“Liliana doesn’t like large crowds of people,” Alistair began.
“No, just people at all.” Liliana corrected. Alistair continued on as if she hadn’t spoken.
“And Marianne wants to go to the fair. Liliana agreed,”
“I didn’t!”
“She implied an agreement, and Marianne likes to bring Liliana out because otherwise she’ll cloister herself in a training room or study room and forget to eat, or drink or to take care of herself.” Alistair finished, spreading his hands and shrugging his shoulders with a ‘what can you do?’ face before he went back to calmly eating his food.
“Oh, so you need some help, Marianne?” Anya said after a moment, her eyes bright and her tail wagging behind her.
“Yes! Please!” Marianne nodded, lifting her head from her hands to look at the other girl.
“Okay, so we’ll all go to the fair together and get Liliana here some much needed sunlight and interaction.” Anya said with a nod and sharp toothed grin.
Liliana crossed her arms, face in a pout. Her eyes kept flicking to the wagging tail as her fingers twitched on her arms. She really wanted to know if her fur was as soft as it looked. She was fairly certain it was rude to ask, though.
“What clubs are you interested in, Anya?” Marianne started the conversation now that the argument had been decided in her favor.
“I don’t know if I’ll take any, honestly I’m most interested in fighting, but none of the clubs here specialize in that.” Anya said with a shrug.
“You were rather interested in Polaris. Have you considered the Beastology club?” Liliana spoke up. She might not want to go to the fair, but she wasn’t going to be rude to Anya about it. She quite liked the girl.
“That’s not a bad idea. Are you thinking of joining that one?” Anya asked curiously.
“Yea, that and Alchemy club are going to be the ones I pick.” Liliana said easily, biting back the tangent she wanted to go on about the clubs themselves. She was excited about starting them.
“That’ll be a lot to juggle with the course load, too,” Anya said. “If I pick a club, I think I’ll only do one.” The wolf girl said decisively.
“It’ll be a lot, yea.” Liliana agreed with a shrug.
She didn’t mind having a lot to do, and clubs weren’t graded. They were there for students to expand their skill sets. The benefit of the Alchemy club was she wouldn’t have to provide her own materials, the school provided everything, including ingredients. Beastology focused on beasts and was geared towards tamers, so it went over how to care for different creatures, which Liliana would need to know if she planned on bonding more, which she very much wanted to do.
The five of them finished up their food and set out to the fair, Liliana and Emyr dragging their feet. Alistair walked next to Emyr, making sure the other boy couldn’t slip away and Marianne had threaded her arm through Liliana’s as soon as they stood up, gluing herself to Liliana’s side. Anya took Liliana’s other side, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was a prisoner being escorted to her execution.
“Oh, look, Lili! A dancing club!” Marianne exclaimed, dragging Liliana to watch the show being put on by the club. And that was how the fair started. Marianne getting excited by each new presentation and pulling Liliana with her. Anya caught on to the mood quickly, and before long she was joining in the towing of Liliana every which way.
“Oh, these are so good,” Alistair groaned as he took another bite of a cupcake they’d picked up from the Baking Club.
Liliana nodded as she devoured her own treat, licking icing off her fingers in a completely uncouth manner that would send her father into a rage if he’d ever seen it. None of her friends commented, and she even saw Marianne licking vanilla icing off her own fingers.
“Alistair, you should join that club so you can make us all sweets.” Liliana decided. Alistair startled, looking flummoxed by the suggestion.
“Me?” he asked, pointing at himself as he looked at her as if there was another Alistair around them she could’ve possibly been referring to.
“Yes, you.” Liliana said.
“I never thought of baking before,” Alistair said honestly, his hand dropping and suddenly looking rather insecure.
“It could be fun for you. You always like A-“ Liliana cut off suddenly, her hands tightening into fists, “cookies. You always liked cookies, and used to beg the cook for extra servings of dessert.” Liliana bit out, her mood ruined by the name she’d almost uttered. Her heart twanged, a sudden shooting pain going through her chest. She lifted her hand to rub at her chest, but it did nothing to dispel the ache.
“Yea. Maybe you’re right, Lili.” Alistair said softly, catching her hand in his much larger one. He gave it a squeeze. “I think I’ll take your suggestion,” he said softly before releasing her.
“Lili! Look at this!” Marianne called out, tugging on her arm, oblivious to the painful reminder Liliana had just endured.
With a soft, sad smile, Liliana let her friend drag her along to the next booth, some kind of wood carving club. It took four more clubs before Liliana could summon the happy feeling she’d had before, and even then her chest still throbbed.
“Emyr?” Alistair called out, looking around.
Alerted by his voice, the three girls paused and looked around. It was Anya who found Emyr. He had slipped away unnoticed somewhere between the jewelry crafting club and the blacksmithing club. The group converged around him where he was looking over a stall covered in odd bits and bobs.
“Enchanters Club?” Marianne asked, picking up something that looked like a ribbon but gave off a strong sense of Mana that you didn’t feel in mundane objects.
“Yea,” Emyr said softly, putting down a ball and picking up a block of wood. “I thought it would be a good thing to pick up,” Emyr said with a shrug.
“Hello, hello!” a voice called out.
A girl who looked to be a second year stepped up with a wide, pretty smile. Liliana looked over the older girl, noticing her easy confidence as she smiled at all of them. She was a pretty girl, Liliana could admit. Long, wavy blond hair flowed behind her full form. Bright, light gray eyes shone as she took them in.
She was easily one of the prettiest people Liliana had met, which was saying something as this world seemed flooded with gorgeous people. Liliana immediately clocked her as a noble, her perfect posture and polished accent gave her away, even if her looks hadn’t.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I’m Marise Featherborne, second year, which is why I got stall duty today,” Marise greeted them, flashing her smile once more.
It was enough to dazzle someone, truly. Liliana resisted the urge to squint and rub her eyes. Yea, she was sure being a second year wasn’t why Marise was stationed here.
“Did you make any of these?” Emyr asked, surprisingly. But his tone was all business, and he seemed utterly unaffected by the beautiful girl who focused her attention on him.
A small, pained sound next to her drew Liliana’s attention, and she saw Marianne’s eyes were wide, mouth slightly open and a pink flush on her face.
Oh jeez. Liliana thought, and she turned to Anya for help, only to see the wolf girl similarly bewitched. Her tail was wagging furiously, her ears perked so high it had to hurt. Liliana rubbed at her eyes with a resigned sigh. Teenagers. Hormonal teenagers. She steadfastly ignored the fact that she was a hormonal teenager herself.
“I did, here,” Marise leaned forward to gently unwind the ribbon that had been in Marianne’s fingers. A sweet floral scent washed over them from Marise, her perfume undoubtedly. It reminded Liliana of honeysuckle and jasmine.
“Excuse me, darling.” Marise said softly with a sweet smile at Marianne before she turned to show Emyr the ribbon, going over what it did, how she’d made it.
Even Liliana was finding it hard to breathe a bit. Marise was rather gorgeous enough to drive someone to distraction, made all the worse by how obviously passionate she was about enchanting. Her gray eyes filled with the light of excitement.
“Oh my gods,” Marianne whined as she looked between the pretty second year and her hand, where Marise’s fingers had brushed against to take the ribbon.
“Yea,” Anya sighed wistfully, shooting puppy eyes at Marise that the second year seemed to not notice, too engrossed in the conversation with Emyr.
I need to get them out of here before they faint. Liliana thought as she shook her head, turning towards Alistair for assistance, only to see her brother shooting a dark glare at Marise. His arms were crossed, his hands gripping tightly to his upper arms as if he was holding himself back.
“Okay, time to go.” Liliana said, freeing her arms from Anya and Marianne.
She turned the girls around and shoved them away from the stall. As she walked, she grabbed Alistair and tugged at him. Her brother dug his heels in and Liliana would swear she heard him growl.
“Em!” Liliana called out, “let’s go!” she laced enough of an order in her voice for him to perk up. He took one look between the four of them before focusing on Alistair, who had a thunderous look on his face. Emyr was at his side in seconds.
“I’ll see you at the club, yeah?” Marise called out.
“Yea,” Emyr called back distractedly over his shoulder as he took over guiding Alistair away from the stall. Alistair shot glares at Marise as he walked off and she waved at all of them, either unaware or amused by the chaos she’d caused. Liliana could find it funny herself, even if she was stuck herding her friends away and watching Alistair out of the corner of her eye to be sure he didn’t challenge Marise to duel over Emyr.
“She was just so…” Marianne sighed wistfully as Liliana pushed the girls further away. Liliana heard Alistair mutter something uncomplimentary under his breath that the girls ignored.
“Perfect.” Anya agreed with a silly smile on her face.
“Maybe I should join the Enchanting Club?” Marianne asked.
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Anya agreed with a vigorous nod.
“No, you won’t.” Liliana declared as she slid between the two girls again, looping her arms through theirs. It was her turn to drag them to the next stall.
“But Lili!” Marianne whined.
“You aren’t interested in Enchanting, just Marise. Why waste your time like that?” Liliana asked.
“Because she’s so pretty.” Anya said with a pout. Liliana rolled her eyes, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Here look. A Band Club. You wanted to get a Music sub-affinity, didn’t you Mari? Learning instruments would be good,” Liliana said as they stopped before the Band Club giving a concert.
“I can already play the harpsichord.” Marianne said with a frown.
“You can’t take a harpsichord into battle, Mari. You need something smaller. Like a flute, or a fiddle or something.” Liliana said.
“Ugh, I hate you and your cursed logic.” Marianne pouted, but she seemed interested in the concert and by the time they finished watching, she seemed to have gotten over Marise. Their group continued on until Anya nearly bolted towards another demonstration, forcing the rest of them to jog to catch up.
“This is a club?” Anya asked as she watched the show before them with wide eyes. Liliana stopped next to her, eyebrows raised high.
“It looks like a sport?” Liliana said hesitantly as they watched two teams chasing after a ball.
She’d say it looked like soccer, but the various projectiles and weapons included in it made it hard to draw a comparison. Only the fact it had a ball that had to be kicked around and the two goals shared any similarity with the Earth sport.
“I’m sorry, is that a ballista?” Liliana choked out with wide eyes. It was, in fact, a ballista and it seemed, based on the colored arm bands, that they were manned by members of the teams.
“Did that ball just fly?” Alistair asked with interest as the ball rose from the ground and shot over the heads of the players who had been chasing it.
“I’m joining. Where do I sign up?” Anya decided, looking around until she located a sign-up sheet that had a fair list of names on it already. It explained how they could even have a sport like this, as there were no other schools for them to play against. So many students signed up they had more than enough for multiple teams.
“Do any of you want to sign up with me?” Anya asked with excited eyes.
“Nope. I choose life.” Liliana said, crossing her arms in front of her in an X.
“Yea, it looks a little much for me.” Marianne agreed with a wince as a player was tossed ten feet in the air in a vicious move involving a very large hammer.
“Looks like it meets on different days than the Baking Club. I’ll sign up with you.” Alistair said, taking the pen from Anya to add his name.
“You’re signing up for Scrimmage, Rosengarde?” a voice called out. Liliana groaned, scowling for a moment before she collected her features. Alistair’s smile dropped as he turned to face Zir’elon.
He’s like a cockroach, keeps popping up where you don’t want him to. Liliana mentally grumbled as she looked at the dæmon prince.
“Yea, what of it, Kastrioti?” Alistair asked, standing straighter as he crossed his arms. Liliana noted that while Zir’elon was taller, Alistair had him more than beat in the muscle department. Honestly, Alistair looked like he could easily snap Zir’elon like a twig if he felt so inclined. Liliana wouldn’t mind it if he did.
“I joined too. Guess we’ll see each other on the field then.” Zir’elon said with a smile that held no kindness in it.
“One can hope,” Alistair said, returning the sharp smile with one of his own.
“Ali, ready to check out the next stall?” Liliana called out when it was clear neither boy was going to back down from their posturing first.
Alistair held Zir’elon’s eyes for another long moment before turning away and re-joining them. A derisive snort came from behind them, but Liliana gripped Alistair’s arm tightly to keep him from turning around and confronting Zir’elon.
“Is that smoke?” Emyr asked after another few stalls.
Liliana perked up and looked around, seeing a vibrant pink cloud of smoke rising into the air. She was the one to dart off this time, leaving her friends behind as she weaved through the crowd of students. She burst through the press of bodies into a rare clear area in front of a stall with potions with a sign declaring it the Alchemy Club. Liliana could see a bubbling cauldron, where the smoke had originated from.
“Don’t run like that!” Marianne scolded, out of breath as she caught up to Liliana, who had just finished signing her name on the sheet for the club.
“But Alchemy.” Liliana said simply, pointing at the cauldron, where three students were huddled around, one dropping ingredients in, the other stirring and the third preparing the ingredients.
“You should’ve expected that,” Alistair said with a shrug as he joined, Emyr and Anya following in his wake. Alistair made a very good buffer for the crowd. Others moved out of the way of his bulk instinctively.
“What are they making?” Emyr asked Liliana as he stopped next to her.
“Ah, I’m not sure,” Liliana said sheepishly.
A student popped out from beneath the stall, startling all of them as he grinned a bit manically. His brown hair was spiked every which way, and he had a purple smear of something on his cheek. He wore a thick leather apron over his uniform and it was covered in dried substances and stained a multitude of colors.
“We’re making a Dreamland Potion!” He said in a chipper, excited voice. “Here look, we have one right here and if you toss it down like this,” he picked up a vial from the stall and tossed it down to the side of their group.
Pink smoke, like what had come from the cauldron, billowed out, condensing together until it formed a very lifelike, dog sized rainbow colored dragon that paced next to them. Their group took a step back instinctively from the threat. The empty space around the Alchemy club stall suddenly made far more sense.
“It’s completely harmless! Like an illusion. In small amounts, it makes one small illusion, but larger amounts can make bigger illusions!” The student explained.
Liliana took a step forward, hesitantly waving her hand through the roaring dragon. It went through, just like most illusions. She held up her hand and turned it side to side, to see if there was any residue, but there was nothing.
“That’s amazing,” Liliana murmured.
“Charlemagne! Can you grab some more Siren Tears?” A student called out.
“I told you to call me Charlie!” the boy shouted back before turning to smile at them. “Sorry about that. Hope to see you guys in the club!” he told them before scampering off.
“That was odd.” Marianne said slowly.
“I love it.” Liliana said with a longing look at the cauldron.
“We’ve lost her, again.” Alistair said with a huff of laughter.
“Lili, didn’t you want to see the Beastology club?” Emyr asked her. Liliana’s head whipped around, her eyes wide and excited.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Liliana said, rushing back to her friends to drag them towards more stalls so they could find the Beastology Club.
“Normally I’m not one to advise caution but, um. Is that safe?” Anya was the one to speak up from where most of the group has paused a safe distance from where the Beastology club has set up.
Their reason for concern was that apparently Liliana wasn’t unique in her rabid fascination for anything furred, feathered, scaled, fanged and clawed. Because the Beastology club had brought out several decidedly deadly looking creatures as their hook for the club.
“It’s perfectly safe!” Liliana called out to her friends between chatting with an upper year who had a hand on a Fire Drake, a very distant cousin of the dragons and incapable of flight. Or reaching the great sizes of its cousins. It didn’t mean it was a small creature by any means. It looked like it could comfortably swallow a small teenager whole.
“Oh, hello Kor'iat,” Marianne spoke up in surprise. She was the first to overcome her initial fear of the beasts before them. She approached the familiar upper year scratching the stomach of an Umbra Panther.
“Mari! They have a Fire Drake! And an Umbra Panther! And a Coatl! Those are so rare, and they’re not even native to this continent! Can you believe it? And look, there’s a Nightmare, isn’t she beautiful?” Liliana pointed excitedly at the beasts, grabbing onto her friend and nearly vibrating with excitement. It was obvious she was barely restraining herself from approaching the animals.
“And a Qilin! Also not native to this continent! I never thought I’d get to see one so soon! And look! Look a Valravn! Look at the luster of its feathers!” Liliana chattered on about the beasts brought out for show, the upper classmen manning the booth looking both amused and proud.
“So I take it you’re joining?” Kor'iat asked, nudging the sign-up sheet closer to Liliana. The girl needed no other encouragement. She signed her name with haste, as if afraid someone would rip the sign-up sheet from her.
“I’d come every day, all day if I could.” Liliana said with utter seriousness.
Alistair snorted, Marianne huffed in amusement and Emyr let out what could be generously considered a quiet chuckle. Her friends wholeheartedly believed that.
“Oh, we have another fanatic. Maud, you have competition.” Kor'iat teased the girl Liliana had been talking to with an affectionate smile.
“The more the merrier,” Maud said with a decisive nod.
It took a solid half hour before Emyr and Marianne could drag Liliana away from the booth to continue their look through the club fair. Though Liliana soon found herself flagging long before many of her friends, Emyr doing even worse, his tolerance for people far lower than Liliana’s. Both were getting short with their friends, the exposure to so many people draining their social batteries dry with nothing to distract them like interesting enchantments or rare beasts. Their more sociable friends decided they’d seen enough, and the group retreated to the cafeteria for dinner, time having gotten away from them in the fair with so many things to look at.
As drained as she was, Liliana was happy when she came back to her dorm room. Marianne had been right to drag her out. She stretched tired limbs and lazily ran a hand through Polaris’ fur when he bounded to her side. Liliana settled at her desk and pulled out a sheet of parchment. She’d survived her first week at the Academy, and she had a letter she needed to write and send.