“No, you move out of my way.”

Namu shook his head as he picked up his Runes One book. Lily was outside the classroom door, probably actively blocking it, waiting for him to come out. That was how Lily normally acted or talked to the people they saw as beneath them. It wasn’t because their dad was famous; they had been like that their whole life.

“Namu! Come on! You’re wasting our break.” Lily stomped their foot, then groaned when they noticed him carrying his book with him.

“It isn’t my fault you left your class so fast.” Lily had just come from Divinations Two, which was a few rooms down from his. “I can’t hang out with you anyway. I’ve got to put this book in my room. I have homework tonight.”

“I’m not fast. You’re just slow. And can’t you drag it around with us?” Lily said as they headed to the stairs that led to the main floor.

“To where? Where do you want to go?”

“Outside.”

The thought made the book grow heavier in his hands. “I can eat outside with you later, but I’m not dragging this book out there with me. Plus, I have my time with Mr. Vero next.”

Agitation flitted across Lily’s face as they threw up a hand. “And let me guess. You want to rest. Fine, I get it. I’ll catch you later.”

Then they took off, taking two stairs at a time. Namu watched as their long glossy brown hair swayed alongside their hips as they moved through the people.

He rolled his eyes and took the turn for the stairwell when he got to the main floor.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

When he reached his hall, he paused when he smelled that odd alluring scent again. Then he saw something strange. Well, it wasn’t too strange: just that morning he had seen something similar downstairs at breakfast after that student who had looked scared to death ran into him.

He couldn’t believe there were two here.

It was a mini-troll. Standing in his hall. But this one was not the one he saw downstairs.

This one had a bright violet mohawk, unlike the green matted mess the other one had. This one was also dressed nicely, with shiny black shoes and a purple suit.

Was he interviewing someone?

He had heard of mini-trolls before. Apparently, a couple had been students here years ago, maybe around the time when Mr. Vero was. But he had never seen one before. He noticed this one and the one from earlier didn’t look much like the giant trolls he had seen pictures of. These smaller ones had faces that were a little more squished in. Also, everything was a little smaller and compacted; a little off, but they looked quite nice. Quite professional.

It was almost as if someone had combined two kinds of magick or even more to make them like that. Possibly visionary magick and transformation magick. But how had that someone gotten it to stick if a spell had done it at all? Lily’s dad had mixed science and magick together. Was it like that? There was no way that Lily’s dad was the only one who had tried to mix magick with other things. He was sure other people and creatures had tried it too.

The mini-troll was talking to another student outside their room. He must be a first year since it was a boy Namu had not seen in the hall last year. The boy, whose skin was a deep tan, a little darker than Namu’s, looked skeptical of the mini-troll for some reason but nodded and let the troll in.

Namu didn’t know what to think of it, but he kept walking. Maybe he would get started on his Runes One homework for the night before he went down to Mr. Vero’s.

But then an idea came to his mind regarding combining magicks. What if he combined a healing plant soul or essence and maybe something with another kind of soul or essence that might help it stick better inside him? Like glue? No, that was stupid. But maybe the plant’s healing properties would transfer in soul form to his own soul. Maybe, if combined with something else that Mr. Vero might know of, it might actually stay.

He would have to bring that up later to Mr. Vero.