After Gabriella headed away toward their room in the dorms, Melissa continued inside the administration building. The air in here was musty, and there were several large cubicles sectioned off with glass walls. Some of the glass barriers had copper frames and others iron. Mel studied them for a moment until she heard voices coming from a cubicle.

She walked closer and saw through the glass a young man with black hair leaning over the administration desk, staring daggers at a blonde-haired woman. Mel stood next to the small entrance and leaned in closer to hear what they were saying.

“I won’t be forced to go through basic training with whatever trash they found from the valley,” the young man said. “I’m better than them.”

Mel felt her ears hot and anger spread inside her veins. She clutched her hands into fists by her sides, but stood perfectly still to make sure she could keep listening in on their conversation. Who was this pompous guy who thought he was better than them?

“Lift me to the advanced classes,” he said. “Let me study with the second years.”

The woman shook her head.

“No special treatment,” she said.

“What if I take a test?” he asked. “Let me take the final test for the first year tomorrow and I will prove to you I’m better than most of the people in the second year.”

The woman looked up from her papers, seeming to now take an interest in the insect who was sprawling in front of her.

“You’re no smarter than anyone in the first year,” she said in a dry voice. “Otherwise you would know better than to come here and beg me for things I cannot grant you.”

The young man leaned back from the desk and puffed out air from his lungs in an exacerbated gesture.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“I’m Austin Taveck, son of the Tavecks, and I can make your life very hard.”

The woman gave him a faint smile, almost seeming like she wanted to laugh in his face. She threw away a lock of her blonde hair from her face and her eyes sparkled.

“No special treatment,” she repeated.

“What?” he said. “This is total shit. You mean no more special treatment than you are already giving me? Who around here decides how much special treatment you give out? What are these crazy rules?”

The woman noticed Mel listening in on their conversation. She raised an eyebrow at her and Mel felt her face flush. As if the man had noticed the woman was focusing on something behind him, he turned to Mel. His eyes were dark and angry.

Mel took a hesitant step inside the large cubicle and cleared her throat, as if she wanted them to notice her now.

The man, called Austin, took one more glance at the woman behind the desk and then stormed past Mel with an angry look on his face. Mel felt the air rush past her as he exited the building. She stared for a moment at the woman behind the desk. She was giving Mel a warm smile.

Mel walked up to the desk and looked down at her hands, not sure anymore what to say.

“Welcome to Falden,” the woman said. “I’m Greta and I work here in the administration building with Henry. It doesn’t usually get this heated around here. Administration isn’t usually a topic people get worked up over, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. Anyway, what can I help you with today?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Mel said. “I was just going to let you know that me and Gabriella are going to share a room in the dorms.”

Greta pushed some papers around and then lifted a big leather book up on the counter between them. She opened the book where a silk strap rested between the pages and scanned the paper.

“Gabriella Vedere?” she asked.

“Yes,” Mel said.

“Great,” Greta said. “She’s already paid for this semester, but I guess you can work out the payment between yourselves and the next semester, you can just pay half each. What is your name?”

“Melissa Temper.”

Greta took up a long, slender pen and wrote Mel’s name in small squiggly letters on the page next to Gabriella’s.

“There, that’s done,” she said. “Your room is in the dorms with the rest and Gabriella’s name should be on the door. We will add yours later during the week.”

“Thanks,” Mel said and turned to leave.

“Could I see your letter of acceptance?” Greta asked.

Mel turned back and gave Greta a quizzical look. Not that she thought it was strange that the administration office wanted to see if she had gotten in, but rather that no one had asked about it before.

“We’ve had some problems with nobles from Stonehearth trying to sneak in servants before,” she said. “Not that I believe you are a servant. It’s just that…”

Greta looked down at Mel’s clothes and gave her an apologetic smile. Mel hiked off her backpack and withdrew her letter of acceptance from Falden. She handed it over, and Greta scanned the letter. A quick gasp escaped her lips, and then her eyes flew up to meet Mel’s.

“Oh, so you are the one from the dragon cult,” she said. “We’ve been so excited to meet you. I just didn’t know what to expect, but of course it’s you. I have to tell Henry later when he’s back. He’s been raving about having someone from the cult join us.”

Mel gave her a weak smile and felt her heart sink. No matter where she went, she would always be the weird girl from the dragon cult with the important destiny.

Greta handed her back the letter of acceptance.

“Thanks,” Mel said. “I’ll go to my room in the dorms now.”

“Hope to see you again soon,” Greta said.

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Mel stuffed the letter down into her backpack and lifted it on top of her shoulders. She left a smiling Greta in the administration office and headed to her dorm with an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

#

The next day, Mel woke up in her new dorm room in a strange bed and saw Gabriella sitting on the edge of her bed, pulling on a pair of socks. She gave Gabs a smile and sat up in her bed. She rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn. The sun was up and small streams of light shone in through the window over her desk.

The room was big compared to most places Mel had lived in lately. They had room for two single beds and two desks. They also had a small clean surface on the floor between their furniture, and it was big enough to stretch out her legs.

“Good morning,” Gabriella said.

“Morning Gabs,” Mel said and Gabriella gave her a wide smile.

They both got dressed and headed to their first class in the main building of the campus. This wasn’t really their first class of the semester, more an unofficial intro class to get to know each other and their professor. Mel had been told about it yesterday evening during dinner service and thought it would be a great idea to get to know some new people.

She still hadn't heard anything from Marcus and worried about what had happened to him. Mel didn’t know if he was okay or if he had found some place to live. She suspected he hadn’t, since she had only left him with a couple of copper pieces. She felt the coin purse burning a hole in her pants and desperately wanted to meet up with Marcus and give him the rest of the money.

But she had no way of contacting him and he could be anywhere in the city by now. Mel wasn't sure how much of an idea it was to go looking for him. She didn’t know the city and would probably only get lost herself. She figured he would contact her as soon as he could and if it went more than a couple of days, she would ask for Gabriella’s help to search for him.

Mel followed the rest of the nobles up to the second floor of the massive main building, passing lots of books and stained glass windows. Mel didn’t have time to take it all in and for now she trusted she would have time later to get more acquainted with what existed in here.

Clara walked into a classroom with Brandon and they were followed by a sleepy Flavio, who kept yawning all the time.

When Gabriella and Mel entered the room, they were the last two, except for the professor. All the desks were taken by students who were chatting with each other. Mel saw that they were all sitting next to people they knew and Gabriella walked over to two empty seats by the edge of the room.

Mel noticed the other nobles were seated around them and that the valley people seemed to be sectioned off at the end of the classroom, whereas the Aldrion students were seated in the front. Mel sat down and immediately she felt eyes on her. A chill ran down her spine and Mel searched the room.

Her gaze caught with Austin Taveck, the young man from yesterday with black hair. He watched her with a disgusted look on his face and then turned his back to Mel and the nobles. She couldn’t keep from wondering what his problem was with people from the valley. Why did he hate them so much?

A dusty looking professor entered the room. He had spectacles on his forehead and elbow patches on his jacket. His hair was thinning and on the top of his head, he was completely bare. He took up a piece of chalk and carved his name on the blackboard.

Professor Dereey

He turned to the classroom and faced his new students. He took a long hard look at each and every one of them and, as he did, everyone quieted.

“My name is professor Dereey,” he said. “You can call me Professor or Professor Dereey, nothing else. I’m going to be teaching you the basics of magic for your first semester. You will study together for the next couple of months and I can assure you this is the best way to teach magic. Please don’t disagree with my methods.”

Mel looked over at Gabs, who gave her a quizzical look and then broke out in a smile.

“Tomorrow, our real first class will begin,” Professor Dereey said. “I’ll expect you to prepare today, get to know each other, and be on time tomorrow. Tardiness will not be tolerated here at Falden, not in my class and certainly not in anyone else's. Like I said, this semester will be focused on the basics of magic.”

Professor Dereey turned back to the blackboard and wrote with his white chalk again.

Basics of Magic - History, Materials and Elements

He turned to face the class again. “These are the classes you will have during the semester and they will each have an examination that you need to pass to stay at Falden. In certain special cases, you can retake a test, but it is uncommon, so make sure you pass it the first time. Can anyone tell me what we will brush upon in history?”

A red-haired woman raised her hand in the front row. Professor Dereey pointed to her to speak.

“Please always add your first name when I point to you. That way, we will all know each other's names before long,” Professor Dereey added.

The red-haired woman hesitated shortly when he added his remark and then found her words again.

“Isabella,” she said. “And I believe we will cover the history of Aldrion and Falden. The history of the dragons and of the first magic users.”

“That’s correct, Isabella,” Professor Dereey said. “Can someone tell me what we will brush upon regarding materials?”

Isabella raised her hand again and so did four others in the front of the classroom. Professor Dereey looked past Isabella and pointed to a man who reminded Mel of Marcus.

“Dean,” he said. “Regarding materials, we will cover the four basic materials to smith dragon fire into and their uses. We will probably also cover shapes and quality as well as duration of the items. Maybe even techniques?”

The professor shook his head. “Unfortunately, we will not cover techniques this semester,” he said. “Since the elemental warriors don’t have to learn that. You will go over techniques with Master Foss during the rest of your time here. So don’t worry, Master Foss loves techniques.”

The front of the class laughed at this, seeming the ones from Aldrion, and Mel couldn’t help but feel like they had already studied at Falden for several years. Even though she knew they hadn’t. She understood nothing about what they were saying and she didn’t even know there were four different materials to smith dragon fire into. Wouldn’t you only use iron? Maybe silver for jewelry?

“Last question,” Professor Dereey said. “What will we cover in elements?”

Same thing this time. The front of the class raised their hands, and Mel leaned back in her chair. She didn’t know the answers to these questions and all she could do was to observe the others and hope she learned something.

Professor Dereey pointed to Austin, who had his hand raised.

“Austin,” he said. “We will cover the four elements, their unique true note, and learn how to replicate the notes of the elements using tuning forks. We will also cover the mental connection between a person and a magical item and how to make them glow. I would hope we would do more than make stuff glow, but that is apparently too advanced for some people here.”

He glanced back at Mel and the nobles. Mel felt her blood pumping through her veins and Professor Dereey gave Austin an exhausted look.

“Always someone who doesn’t listen,” the professor said. “Like I said at the beginning of class. I will not tolerate any critique of my methods. No matter where you come from or how long you’ve trained, we all start at the basics and work our way up.”

#

After class, Mel got back to the dorms and opened the door to her room. Gabs had gone with the others to get lunch, but Mel felt too exhausted after the class. She didn’t understand how it was possible that this intro, not even an official lesson, could have been harder than any of her work in her father’s forge or any of the lessons in the school in Windbrook.

Mel wanted to crawl underneath her covers and hide from the world. She wanted to disappear today and only wake up when she was already a great mage smith working in the dragon forge. But that wasn’t possible. She had to fight first to get there.

On her bed laid a small note with her name on and Mel opened it with a frown on her forehead.

Meet me at sunset tomorrow night by the statue in town square,

Love Marcus

Mel felt her heart skip a beat and held the note close to her chest for a moment. Relief flooded her, and she felt energized at once. She had been holding her breath all day, waiting and hoping to hear from him. She felt like she missed him immensely now that everything was changing around her and she was again a failure.

Mel wanted Marcus next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder and promising her that everything would be alright. That she would learn eventually if she only gave it time.

Tomorrow suddenly felt very far away, and Mel dreaded having to go to class before she could see Marcus in the evening. She would probably be overwhelmed tomorrow too, and Mel wished she could catch up soon.