I awoke from my dreamless sleep to the sound of someone’s knuckles rapping on the narrow dormitory door. As I woke, I jerked my head back and snapped a kink in my neck that only made it more sore–a kink I’d developed some time during my lone travels on my home planet’s desert.

“Ow,” I mumbled hoarsely, rubbing at the back of my neck as I slowly sat up and swung my legs over the mattress.

The mattress bounced with a squeak as I braced myself to push off and land my feet on the cold, stone-like floor. I winced as first my toes, then my heels, landed on the cool surface and wished more than anything that I could just dive back into the warm covers. I tiptoed over to the door with hurried steps and turned the knob, opening the door just a crack, but even slightly open, blinding yellow light spilled into my room from the brightly lit hall.

Blinking wearily, I peered around the door and out to the hall but found no one standing close enough to have knocked. I looked down and frowned at a pile of neatly folded black cloth and a folded white note resting atop it. I stepped out to retrieve the bundle but stopped at the sound of high-pitched giggling coming from somewhere down the hall to my right.

I threw my head in that direction to find the source of the giggling, remembering my trauma-filled years of enduring bullying from people who didn’t like how I differed from them or how they made fun of me for my relative weakness.

I found the group of girls that snickered and pointed my way, some with golden hair, some who looked more Edronan as I remembered them, and even one with bright blue pigtails. All six of them had the yellow rings dyed into their sleeves, and they definitely were poking fun at me for some reason. But I quirked my head at the flush of red blossoming on half of their cheeks.

I looked down at myself. Yeah, I had just gotten out of bed, but other than the jumpsuit that nearly swallowed me whole, what was so funny? Was it really just that? Or maybe my hair stuck up in some unruly and amusing fashion…?

Frowning, I retreated back into my room and shut the door. A chorus of hastened footsteps ran by, and the giggling continued with them but faded along with their footsteps.

That was strange.

I dropped the bundle on my modest-sized desk and scooped up the note. I ran a finger underneath the folded crease and pulled it open to find very swoopy, hard-to-read words.

After a moment of squinted eyes and real effort, I finally made out,

Rayden Grim,

With this note, you will find a jumpsuit that should better fit you. I am

sorry you had to endure wearing a larger size last night, but that is all I could

get you in such short notice. But now that we have had the time, we

should be able to provide you with a supply of jumpsuits your size.

The mess hall is open from 6:00 in the morning to 10:30 for breakfast, noon

to 3:00 in the afternoon for lunch, and 5:00 to 9:00 in the evening for

dinner. I have arranged for you to eat at no cost to you in preparation for

your duel. After that, we will then decide your status at the academy, and you can find work to

provide yourself the means to purchase your own food.

At your convenience, please see me in my offices again this afternoon. I

will be there all day today and will await your presence. There, we will

discuss further steps we need to take before your duel.

Regards,

Headmaster Jaeke Bohin

***

The least the headmaster could have included in his note were directions to this “mess hall.” Of course, I figured out what a mess hall was on my own, even without Dex’s help, when I read that the mess hall was open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And those were all the words I needed to read to know I wanted to find the place as soon as possible.

I figured the many students milling about the halls in front of their individual dormitories might eventually lead me to where I needed to go to get to this mess hall.

That, or I could just ask, I thought, chastising myself for not wanting to muster up the courage to talk to any of these people.

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Many yellow-sleeved students looked close to my age, with some younger, but only barely, and some slightly older. I really shouldn’t have felt trepidation to have a conversation with my peers, but a lifetime of ostracization and other children not wanting anything to do with me sort of messed me up when it came to making friends. Sarina had been my only friendly peer my entire childhood and through our teenage years before she died.

Thoughts of Sarina’s bloodied, broken body plagued my mind, which caused me to slow my steps toward a group of three boys huddled in front of a door at the end of the long hall. What right did I have to even try to make new friends? The only people I’d ever cared about had died. And Sarina had died because of me.

I clutched my chest as that thought crossed my mind. In the past few days, I hadn’t once blamed myself for Sarina’s death. But maybe that was because I hadn’t allowed myself much time to dwell on the events that had caused it. She had betrayed me and Edrona by working with Priest Kane. She’d followed his vile intentions to take over Edrona by slaughtering all of the Marked with an army of ruthless Nagari. But… she’d helped me in the end. Without her joining in on my fight against Priest Kane, I wouldn’t have come out alive. And if I hadn’t been fighting him, she would have never come to my aid, and she might be well and alive right now instead of buried underneath the dust of a destroyed city.

I don’t have to make friends with anyone, I decided to myself. I just need to ask where the mess hall is.

I continued my steps toward the three boys. I had to clear my throat three times to get their attention. Once I finally did, they turned their noses down at me and frowned.

“What?” the one in the middle, an extremely tall boy with dark hair like mine, snapped.

I lifted my chin confidently. The fire in the boy’s eyes and the disdainful quiver in his downturned lips that he aimed in my direction reminded me of the bully Dorian back on Edrona. He’d seemed to have made it his life’s goal to torment me without end. But, along with Sarina, Drayek, and the rest of Edrona, Dorian was also gone. And I wasn’t about to let anyone new bully me.

“Would you care to tell me where the mess hall is?” I said with a tone of ironic politeness.

The three boys looked me up and down, all of their eyes landing on the gray rings on my sleeves.

“You aren’t a student or a resident yet?” the one on the right, much shorter than his other comrades, quipped. “How did you get a dormitory in the academy without a yellow jumpsuit?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “That’s between the headmaster and me, I guess. Now, mess hall. How do I get there?”

“Second floor,” the middle boy chimed in again with a roll of his eyes. “You can’t miss it.”

I offered the three of them a mocking salute and turned on my heel in the direction of the staircase. My dormitory was on the fourth floor, so I didn’t have too far to go, thankfully. But later, I still had to climb to the top floor and meet with Headmaster Bohin… again. But first thing was first, food.

***

The mess hall reminded me a lot of the dining facility on The Ambition, with kiosks donning glowing screens to order and magically receive meals and long tables spread along the length of the entire room. Yes, very similar, but about three times the size of the dining facility on the spaceship. Here, there were a dozen kiosks on every red-painted wall. A line of at least ten students and some other older people with orange rings on their sleeves stood before each kiosk, all waiting patiently to order their food.

The noise from the endless chatter in the mess hall set my teeth on edge. It reminded me of the noise and bustle that the Traders’ Markets back in Edrona brought every day. I didn’t much like large gatherings of people there and found that I liked it even less here.

Not wanting to attract too much attention to myself, I kept my head down and tucked my sleeves into the deep pockets at my sides to hide the gray rings. Those boys back in the dormitory hall had seemed all too curious about my status here, and I didn’t feel like having more than one of those confrontations. The sooner I could get through this duel and receive a jumpsuit without the gray, the better.

My goal of not attracting attention succeeded all the way through my wait in line at one of the kiosks and even during my turn to make food selections.

My fingers no longer tense, I clicked through the prompts on the screen until it read, PLEASE HOLD STILL FOR SCAN.

I did remain still, but mostly because I didn’t know what to expect next. A blue wave of light shot from a disc-shaped lens atop the tall screen and ran over my entire body in an instant. I blinked from the flash, seeing white spots in my vision.

As soon as my eyes readjusted, the kiosk read, NO NEURAL IMPLANT DETECTED. ARE YOU RAYDEN GRIM?

Two words flashed at the bottom of the screen: YES and NO.

I selected the “yes” and held my breath, half-expecting another blue light to blind me. But only the words, THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE. YOUR BREAKFAST HAS BEEN TAKEN CARE OF, rolled over the screen.

I waited for a list of meal, snack, and drink selections to flash in front of me, but instead, the screen went completely back. The only thing that met my eyes was my blurred and confused reflection.

A soft hum came from the machine, and a panel at the bottom flew open, revealing a tray with a tall glass of water and a thick white package, similar to the food packages on the spaceship.

I shrugged, not annoyed in the slightest that I didn’t get to choose what I ate. At least it was free. I pulled the cold metal tray out of its tight compartment and carefully balanced it above my hands and wrists, successfully keeping the gray rings on my sleeves hidden from view. People continued to pay me no heed as I weaved away from the kiosk, dodged the lines of hungry students, and headed toward a relatively empty table.

The white package revealed a hot slab of tender beef, Dex’s system revealed to me the name “beef” with no effort on my part. It was like I’d recalled the name of the brown meat with hints of red from my own memory.

Next to the meat rested a potato. When Dex showed me the word “potato,” it initially excited me, but I quirked an eyebrow at the shape of it. Instead of a pile of gorgeous white softness, the white food was contained in a wrinkly brown sleeve. Through Dex’s database, I learned quickly that the log-like shape was how potatoes looked when plucked from the ground, and the pile I’d eaten on the spaceship had used the potato’s innards to create a mash. However, I happily discovered that the potato remained delicious in any form.

I quickly shoveled the food into my mouth, only stopping to wash it down with some of the cold, refreshing water. It didn’t taste as clear and tasteless as the water on the spaceship, but it was more than welcomed by my parched throat.

Feeling satisfied with the meal, I leaned into the rigid backrest of the metal chair that matched all the other seats around the many long red tables in the mess hall. Though no longer hungry, I reminisced over the juicy pieces of beef and the perfect salty taste that had accompanied it. I couldn’t help but wonder eagerly what they’d serve me for lunch.

With my eyes still closed and my mind still reeling over the deliciousness of my breakfast, I suddenly felt the hairs on the back of my neck and arms standing on end. I could feel someone’s eyes on me.

I opened my right eye only slightly and discreetly searched the room. Finding no one watching me at the front, I slowly turned my head over my shoulder. Once I met her stone-cold, forest-green eyes with strange flecks of purple and gold, my heart leaped to my throat.

“She found me,” I whispered through trembling lips. “Lady Euridice found me.”

End of Book 1