“Ms. Dorfmure.”

Rom jumped out of her skin from her professor calling out her name.

“You have already awakened your quill and from the looks of the single color on one side of its feather, it’s a spectra type.”

Spectra type? Rom then raised her hand to ask a question.

“Yes?” Hash said.

“What is a spectra type?” Rom hesitantly asked. Her question was met with chuckles from other students and she had to quickly bite her tongue from saying several unpleasant words but shot a glare towards them which hushed their laughs.

Hash saw what happened and smirked before answering Rom’s question.

“A spectra type is a quill that can sense emotions of living things by colors. Red, green, yellow, and other colors represent a band of emotions that are emitted within a person in the form of a sphere called a spectrum. Depending on the intensity of the emotion, the sphere can be seen as a controlled vibrating color while at other times it can be bubbling uncontrollably. A quill can also allow its bond to see these different colors.”

That’s when it hit her. So, I have been seeing others’ emotions but which ones?

“What emotions are red, green, and orange?”

Hash raised an eyebrow at the specific colors mentioned. “Well, those three are among the negative spectrums. Red is anger, green is envy, and orange is fear. Are you seeing these colors now?”

Rom looked around not seeing as much orange from just a few moments ago when Hash sent a student flying outside of the class but there were still a few scattered around the room.

“Yes. Orange,” Rom replied.

Hash looked around and said “Good.”

Rom was no stranger to teachers using fear to teach. It usually ended with screams and hits to the face but Hash’s passive demeanor just made everyone confused on how to feel about him. Rom on the other hand was preoccupied with the realization of exalteds being jealous of her. She never thought such a thing was possible.

“You are giving off yellow now, Rom. You should ask what that color represents,” Shade said curiously but Rom didn't need to.

“Yellow must be happiness,” Rom claimed, feeling the pleasure of people deemed exalted envying her. However, the feeling was short-lived once Hash started to explain the type of jobs a bond can get with a spectra quill. Or rather the one job she couldn't get.

“There are three types of quills. Evoke quills, Fervor Quills, and Spectra like Ms. Dorfmure’s. The latter type is only within the psych division of the Seraphic Sept while the other two are what soul cleaners use to combat rekbanes.”

Hearing that her quill wasn't used for a job she had been dreaming of for years made her stomach sink.

I can’t be a cleaner. A downhearted Rom kept repeating in her head like a broken record. Shade hearing her loud thoughts asked, “What’s the real reason you want to be a cleaner?” The question was ignored as Rom blurted out “Why!?” All heads turned to her confused as to what she was referring to causing her to blush.

“I am going to need more than just a one-worded sentence to give you an answer to your question,” Hash stated.

Quickly gathering her words, “Why are bonds with spectra quills, not soul cleaners?”

“Ah, I see. You were aiming to be a cleaner like everyone else who comes to one of the exalted schools but unfortunately for you, that path won’t be possible. The abilities provided by your type of quill are not suited for fighting and expunging rekbanes. However, after a rekbane has been expunged, the host is left in a raw and vulnerable state in which a bond with a spectra quill will be greatly instrumental.”

Hash saw no change in Rom’s discouraged face which frustrated him a little, making his detached voice cold and stern. “Do you know what trauma victims go through when a rekbane latches onto them?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Shivers went around the classroom with no one longer confused about how to feel about their professor. Rom’s eyes lowered as if out of guilt for not knowing the answer.

Hash was about to speak until Rom beat him to it. “Physical trauma caused by the rekbane inflicting self-harm while within its host. This usually ends with the victim being severely disabled or dead if they are lucky enough. Another lasting injury is mental. The person’s mind is no longer trusted and from it a breakdown occurs. A person is never the same leaving families with a husk of a loved one, a sibling with an unfamiliar brother or sister, or a little girl waking up to her mother’s hands around her throat.”

Rom’s classmates looked at her with widened eyes and opened mouths. Hash raised a brow and his voice went back to being detached. “All of what you explained is true, making the importance of a bond with a spectra quill even greater. Having a person able to understand what someone is feeling and help a victim after they have been expunged can prevent a loved one from becoming a hollow husk, a sibling being unfamiliar, and maybe even stop a mother from hurting her child.”

“I never knew that,” Rom said with a saddened face. She had no idea a rekbane victim could receive help after an expunge and why would she think otherwise being a gloom. Glooms are neglected and get less than the bare minimum making the help they receive to combat rekbanes incomplete.

“Although other jobs within the Seraphic Sept may not come with fame and fortune like soul cleaners, that doesn’t make them any less important.” Hash words were said to all within the class but the majority just let it go in through one ear and out the other. One of those ears had a dangling crystal earring that meant certain cares and worries didn’t apply to him like fame and fortune since he was already born into them.

After a few discussions and teachings, “Professor Hash,” a young man said with a crystal earring in his left ear.

“Yes, Mr. Tool. What is it?”

The young man had on a silk button-up shirt with a ruffled collar and black pants that creased sharply like a knife. One of his fingers dawned a black ring that cost more than all of Rom’s possessions.

“You didn’t assign homework,” he said.

Hash tilted his head with a raised brow and said “I wasn’t going to but I guess I will now.”

Rom wrinkled her face at the young man getting the class homework just before it was time to leave.

Once the class was finally dismissed and Rom was walking out of the class, the young man with the family name Tool stopped her in the hallway.

“Hi. My name is Yale Tool and I just wanted to say that I think it's great that you, a gloom, got accepted-.”

Rom quickly cut him off with “Rom. My name is Rom.”

Yale rolled his eyes and continued speaking. “Ok, Rom. I was going to say that it's great you are attending this college but we all know the real reason why you got accepted and because of it, a very good friend of mine was not able to get in.”

Rom stepped forward, “No I don't know the real reason why I got accepted. Please enlighten me.”

Yale sighed. “The yearly raffle that allows glooms into the exalted colleges is just because a quota was set to have a certain number of you all be accepted. I personally don’t care that glooms are at the same school as me but each one of you let in means a deserving exalted was robbed of their placement. One being a very good friend of mine.”

The level of audacity and privilege is unbelievable, Rom thought with Shade adding “I don't like his face.”

Rom chuckled, causing Yale to say “Did I miss the joke?”

“Oh, no worries. Once you look in the mirror you will find it.”

He paused with an intense look of thought and then glared at Rom. “I tried to be nice even though I didn’t need to but have it your way.”

Dark red eyes appeared on the shoulder of Yale followed by a small black body within a white spiked shell with a striped red and black feather extending from its back.

That must be his quill Rom thought.

“How much is it going to take for a little lonely gloom to drop out of college within the first day so my friend can rightfully get in? We all know you are going to flunk out so how about you just get ahead of it all and get paid also? I am thinking six hundred loaves will change your life?”

His smug face irritated Rom to her stomach. “I am so happy to see your true colors. First, your dear friend can try again next year, and second, you can keep your six hundred loaves and shove it up where the sun doesn't shine.” Rom gave a fake smile causing Yale to wrinkle his nose.

The two started to stare each other down while their quills did the same until Hash came out of his classroom. “Why are you two still here? Are you all classes done for today or is tardiness on the agenda?”

Both Rom and Yale thought back to what happened to the student who was proud to be not as late to class. They didn’t have to think actually since the student was still unconscious on the floor of the hallway. Passing students confirmed he was alive by checking if he had a pulse and was breathing.

“You are correct Professor. I should be on my way so I won’t be late for my next class. Until next time Ro…” he paused for a second before looking Rom straight in the eyes. “I mean gloom.”

Yale walked away leaving Rom with their professor.

“Ass,” Rom said under her breath.

“What was that Ms. Dorfmure?”

“Oh, nothing. See you Thursday, Professor Hash.” Rom went off to her next class with Shade on her shoulder saying “I am going to rest” and then disappearing into her afro.