“You don’t like it?”Chrissy’s face fell.
Wave felt like a jerk and shook her head quickly.“No, no.It’s lovely.I just didn’t even think you could get thecurtainschanged.”
The smile returned to Chrissy’s face, and she walked over to the curtains and trailed her finger over the fabric.It rippled and changed back to the boring creamy white it had been before.At Wave’s gasp, she grinned widely and traced her finger over the fabric again, turning it back.
“Oh!Can I hire you to do a round in my room?”Wave begged.
“If you promise not to wear those offending shoes ever again, I’ll do it free,” Chrissy replied.
“Deal!”
Chapter 3 – Wave
Orientationweekwentquickly.Wave traversed around the campus with all the other new students who were excited and nervous about attending the university.Wave could sympathize even though she was a third-year transfer.
Mixing with so many other species might also have something to do with the nerves.Or the subtle signs of factions in play.Most realms had their own schools and ways to run them.Tracthesian Academy blended them all rather seamlessly.
It was also pretty much impossible to tell first-year students apart from older students, or even from some of the teachers or faculty, by looks alone.Age wasn’t a requirement to attend Tracthesian, maturity was.
Spirits matured relatively young into their powers, while some others did not.Bigger shifters usually manifested around twenty, and it wasn’t rare for an angel to be closer to forty.After a certain point, the aging slowed down again.Almost no one had a pure bloodline anymore, and as the powers mixed, aging calculations were thrown out the window.When Wave looked into a mirror, she saw a pale twenty-something stare back at her, not someone well over thirty.
Maybe she was fixating on this so much because she had lived most of her life among humans.The unspoken rule to keep peace on earth was not to flaunt other forms or powers among the general population.It was rare for humans and, what they called, supernaturals to mix or reproduce.Not unheard of, but rare.Who wanted to see their spouse or kids die long before they did?
Another thing that threw her, after her mostly human-led school experience, was the loose hierarchy among students and faculty.No one else seemed to bat an eye that someone might be a teacher in one subject and then a student in another one.
Okay, they were often long into their studies, but still, there was no clear separation between teaching assistants, teachers, tutors, or long-time students.Professors with tenures, researchers, and administration were the only positions that held a clear-cut position of authority.
Except that it wasn’t that clear-cut.Not when she had to take into account that some of the student body consisted of royalty.A few of the teachers held some title or another.Following clear protocol was impossible in most cases when overlapping duties conflicted with rank, not to mention the deference owed to those who had pure power.
To put it mildly, it was a mess.
Being a storm spirit was fine and all, nothing special about it.Ranking-wise, she was pretty much an unimportant mid-level creature.No one paid much attention to nature spirits unless they were the leaders amongst their kind, and even then, the truly powerful didn’t bat an eye.
Now, being half-stormbringer was an entirely other matter.If nature gifted had any sort of hierarchy in their ranks, being a stormbringer was akin to royalty.Being a descendant of one of the oldest and purest stormbringer lines added a few layers of specialty to that title.Her father had equaled a demon prince or an archangel.Grandfather held a yearly lunch with Lucifer, and in Wave’s opinion, her grandfather was scarier of the two.
Wave’s hair started to float, and she hastily swept her fingers through it, dispelling the electricity.She really couldn’t afford to think about her family here.As far as anyone knew, she was a mere storm spirit, gifted for sure, but just a storm spirit with unknown parentage.
Where her father’s side would get her into all kinds of political trouble and power struggles, her mother’s side would get her killed.If she was lucky.
Sirens had been hunted, captured, and executed for centuries.In fact, there wasn’t a time in their histories when they had been safe.Wave knew that from bitter experience.
The distant rumble of thunder caused Wave to jerk her head up.Thankfully, the corridor seemed empty with nobody around to notice her slip.She really needed to get herself under control.A siren-stormbringer could cook up some pretty nasty thunderstorms, even without much of an effort.
Wave shook herself and turned her feet to march toward the library.She was working today, and she didn’t want to be late.All this wallowing could wait until she had retired alone onto some very distant island in the middle of the ocean.It didn’t take long to reach the library, and then she got to work.
Mrs.Riverson, Wave’s new favorite person, had shown her their old organization system during her first shift, and Wave had attacked the shelves with determination.In reality, that meant that after a week of working after her orientation classes, she had placed five books in their proper shelves.
Wave was frustrated beyond belief, but Mrs.Riverson seemed happy even about her impromptu system of piling books in their correct aisles, if not in their proper shelves.She was determined to get at least one book on its shelf today, even if the pile of ‘tricky’ books grew every day.
Those were the ones that leaked anything suspicious, and the book she was currently holding definitely belonged to the tricky pile.Maybe she should start another pile and label it the ‘asshole pile’.
“Stop that,” she hissed as the book lashed at her again.This one wasn’t harmless or curious.It was malevolent and determined to get its claws into her.The bell from the reception desk rang.“Be right there,” she called out, focusing on wrangling the book.
“I don’t have all day,” an annoyed voice soon said straight behind her.Wave gasped, and the book decided that its time had come.Even as Wave desperately tried to clutch it tight, her fingers slipped, and the book flared open.
“Duck,” she screamed and dove to the floor.Luckily, the person listened and hit the ground almost at the same time as she did.Black smoke billowed out of the pages, turning the air around them hazardous.
Wave turned to check the person next to her.Brown eyes, decorated with golden flecks, glared at her.There was nothing warm in them, and even before Wave looked further, she got a sinking feeling in her stomach.
