I smiled to myself.
She really was the best.
And her message had come at just the right time.
Of course it had.
I chuckled and gazed around my new living quarters.
This really was going to be the beginning of something truly epic.
4
~Vaxan~
This was a curious place.
Well, to be perfectly frank, the very notion of Loxley Academy itself was strange to me. Different species interacting safely and pleasantly. Easily. Actually coexisting in every way imaginable, something that had been furthered when the negative rhetoric concerning hybridized beings had been dismantled and utterly overturned.
The concept of peaceful and powerful coexistence was something my kind was still adjusting to, something we had only recently become an active part of.
The Basilisk species.
Furthering that was one of the main reasons that I was here attending this academy and immersing myself in this environment.
More accurately… attempting to immerse myself in it.
I couldn’t simply thrust myself into the heart of it. Not without first conducting a detailed assessment. I certainly was no fool.
Nor could I afford to be as High Lord Heir of the Excetra Crown.
My parents led our people, and their current mandate—touted as progressive—was to integrate with modern supernatural society. As next in line to the throne, I’d been sent here to gain the knowledge and wherewithal to be able to carry that further forward.
At least that had been the framing my mother, the High Empress, Norla Canor, had sold to our people. In actual fact she was looking for any excuse for integration to prove unviable. Integrating, more of our people moving above ground, would make them far less dependent on her protections. And she saw that as a threat to her power and control.
To say it was a delicate situation didn’t quite cover it.
Prior to the Severance, which had permanently disconnected the Celestial Plane from the mortal plane, Basilisks had been considered by those True Celestials who resided above as an inversion of the natural order, believed to be violators of lifeforce. We were reptilian apex predators born of corruption and unnatural magics, and thereby literally driven underground for decades. Since the Severance, the Celestial Plane’s hold and therefore any outstanding directives had been shattered, the mortal plane now free of it. As a result, my people had emerged and formed our own kingdom that still technically existed below ground, but which now interacted with the supernatural world.
And here I was now, among them.
The curious place I found myself in currently wasn’t merely Loxley Academy, it was an underground party venue termed The Caverns. I’d discovered that at this precise time, five days into induction week before classes truly began, students convened here.
The air hummed with bass music, a gentle thrum that melded both dance music and a sensual beat. Fortunately, nothing high-pitched that would harm my sensitive hearing.
I stood in the shadows of the cathedral-sized chamber, the walls resembling that of a cave, yet one that was of magical construction with ridges and fractures that glimmered with enchantments.
Violet, indigo, and electric blue orbs of light hung from the cavern ceiling, illuminating the space in a muted hypnotic way.
The place was part lounge, part nightclub.
Along the walls, alcove lounges were cut directly into the stone and lined with dark velvet seating. There were students chatting and drinking away, some munching on light snacks. Others weren’t so… restrained. Within several alcoves, brazen fornication was occurring, students in various states of undress. There was a great deal on display.
To say that it wasn’t affecting me would be a lie.
And, although I’d obviously imagined encountering eroticism like that at an Academy party, I hadn’t expected it to this extent.
It had been titillating enough when a true beauty smelling of coconut had inadvertently brushed up against me as we’d both been entering the venue at the same time. Ice-white flowing hair with blue streaks had filled my vision, swiftly followed by her voluptuous breasts pressed up against my chest, her skin radiating a soothing chill that had flowed through my very being. They had been undeniably visually appealing presented in the metallic strappy scrap of fabric that had barely encased them, and that had exposed most of her back too, putting a great deal of her snowy-white markings on display. She’d smiled at me, drank me in for several seconds rather brazenly, then sauntered off, wherein I’d been spellbound by the sight of her swinging hips and her derriere encased in a pair of shimmering pale-blue leather pants that clung to her wonderfully.
