“Yeah.”
“Huh.”
I laugh under my breath at her bewildered expression. “You know Celestine and Augustine? I mean, I’m assuming you do, otherwise you wouldn’t have woken me up at such an ungodly hour,” I ask with a pointed glare and she merely smiles, unrepentant. “In between breaking into my apartment and kidnapping me they only had enough time for the cliff notes. Something about souls and a magic cosmic blanket and this epiphaneia thing that can make people blow up." Her jaw drops, but I’m not sure which part shocks her the most.
“Hold up—what? The email said you grew up human but that’s… wow. That’s fucked,” she says with a wince. “Sorry—that came out wrong,” she says, scrambling to recover. “I can’t believe they didn’t explain more.” She shakes her head we continue our journey to breakfast. It’s mildly endearing, watching her try to figure out what to say next without putting her foot in her mouth. The administration building appears, but she directs me to the opposite entrance.
“Okay, so, that’s not great for you. But good news is that I’m here now and I know everything.” She grins and somehow it makes me smile too.
Oh no. Her happiness might be infectious.
6
NYX
The tantalizing scent of hot, fresh food overwhelms me as soon as she opens the door. I’ve never seen this much food in one place in my life. It’s all I can do to follow Tori when she grabs a tray and I marvel at the opulence: buffet tables of breads, cereals, fruits, toppings, juice, meat and eggs. My stomach turns, torn between craving and dreading the unfamiliar excess around me.
Instinct wars with logic—I want to take one of everything in case I don’t get another chance, a hard-won lesson learned from foster homes with locked pantries and group homes with too many mouths to feed. I take as many snacks as I can fit in my pocket without arousing Tori’s suspicion, and load my tray with a muffin, some fruit, and a yogurt with granola to start. I can’t trust my body to handle the rich food taunting my senses. After she pours herself some juice, Tori leads up to a table against the wall of the cavernous room so we can people watch as others filter in after us. I glance at her tray, loaded with everything I wish I could stomach.
“Is it like this every morning?” I hedge, hoping that my food insecurity isn’t obvious.
“Usually there are more people. Some students portal home for the weekends.” Because of course they do.
“Please tell me you weren’t volun-told to stay here and play tour guide just for me?”
She chuckles and shakes her head. “Don’t worry about it. I was staying on campus for a project anyway, and this isn’t the first time I’ve helped with a new student.” I nod, relieved she doesn’t seem to resent showing me around today.
We settle into a comfortable silence as the most delicious food I’ve ever had confounds my tastebuds. Others trickle through the hall, and more than a few curious looks are thrown my way. Unobtrusive staff periodically refill the buffet stations and bus tables—it’s surreal to think that was my job less than twelve hours ago. Sooner than I'd hoped, my stomach begins to protest against the unaccustomed fullness.
“So, what are we doing today?”
“We’ll stop by the Student Union to pick up your uniforms, the library to get your new tech, and then we’ll finish up the tour by taking the long way back so I can show you more of campus.”
“What kind of tech? Also—uniforms? They left that part out,” I grumble, and Tori laughs.
“We can wear our own clothes outside of school hours and on the weekends but otherwise they’re required. And the wards around the school interfere with electronics, so we have modified devices.” I nod as if that’s a totally normal thing to need for living on a magical college campus.
“All set?” she asks, standing with her now empty tray. I glance longingly at the remaining food on my plate, chastising myself for not being able to finish it. When we leave the Great Hall, golden sunlight has evaporated the early morning fog, and Tori finally puts me out of my misery as we make our way down the path.
“Just ask me before you hurt yourself.”
“What are you? Is that rude to ask? Augustine never actually told me if it was. What other kinds of whatever-you-call-it are there here? How do you tell what someone is?” She laughs at the deluge of questions.
“I’m a witch with a water affinity, so a water witch. A witch with an air affinity would be an air witch, so on and so forth. It’s not rude to ask, but assholes are everywhere so someone’s bound to get offended. If they do, they probably deserve to be. It’ll get easier to spot the differences the longer you’re here.”
I try and fail to disguise my attempt to find any outward sign that she’s a witch. “So… are witches just like humans but with a little extra—" I wiggle my fingers in a vague impression of Captain Jack Sparrow and she laughs, understanding what I don’t yet have words for.
“Kind of. Witches originated after the Fall of Eden, when Lilith made a deal with the Devil and became the Mother of Witches. In the thousands of years since, witches and other Orders have interbred, and now most people have mixed bloodlines, though there still are some “pureblood” covens. Witch blood is prized because of our ability to wield primordial magic, when other Orders can only wield elemental magic depending on their affinity.” I freeze, eyes wide at her casual info dump.
“Shit—sorry. I forgot you don’t know anything yet.” She grimaces. “Wait, that’s not—okay, let me start over. Brace yourself for information overload,” she warns, and despite how fast my head is already spinning, I desperately want her to keep talking.
“All Orders have the ability to channel magic: shifters, demons, angels, witches, vampires—you get the idea.”
“Sure, we’ll go with that.” I scoff as my legs, finally propel me forward again.
“Witches have the ability to wield primordial magic: raw magic pulled directly from the world around us. With it, we can power runes, spells, potions, and other advanced magic like sigils. Other Orders are only able to channel elemental magic for a variety of reasons. The Greeks named these elemental affinities after their classical manifestations: earth, air, fire, water. Vampires are the exception—you’ll probably learn more about them next year since they aren’t as common,” she reassures, registering the shock on my face.
“Shifters used to be able to channel primordial magic but they’ve lost the ability over time, and now they can only wield elemental magic. Where there are a handful of different shifter types, demons come in two flavors: Elemental and Sinful.”
