The east courtyard on rest day smelled like fresh bread from the nearby stalls and the faint sweetness of blooming night jasmine someone had planted along the walls.
Lucien arrived later than he’d meant to, the walk from the dorms taking longer than expected after he’d stopped to help a first-year find the right lecture hall.
Theo spotted him first and waved him over to a cluster of benches where five or six students had claimed space.
“You came,” Theo said, pushing his glasses up as he made room.
“Thought you might’ve forgotten.
Or decided we were too loud.”
“Got distracted,” Lucien admitted, sitting down.
The bench was warm from the sun.
“Wrong building, wrong floor.
The usual.”
One of the girls in the group—Lira, he remembered from a shared combat session—laughed.
“Happens to everyone.
Last week I ended up in advanced theory by mistake.
Sat through half the lecture before realizing I had no idea what they were talking about.”
The conversation picked up around him, easy and overlapping.
Someone passed around a basket of pastries.
Lucien took one, the flaky crust crumbling between his fingers.
He listened more than he spoke at first, the way he usually did.
Lira argued with Theo about the best way to stabilize a wind affinity link, their voices rising and falling in familiar rhythm.
Another boy—quiet, with a scar across one eyebrow—occasionally added a dry comment that made the others groan or laugh.
Lucien found himself joining in after a while.
“The shadow version needs more anchors,” he offered during a lull.
“Otherwise it slips when the flow changes direction.
Learned that the hard way in practice.”
Theo nodded eagerly.
“See?
That’s what I keep saying.
But no, everyone wants to brute force it.”
The discussion shifted after that, moving from magic theory to complaints about dormitory food, then to rumors about the next tournament pairings.
Lucien let it wash over him.
No one pressed him for details about his family or his progress.
No one watched him like they were waiting for a mistake. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Just a group of students taking advantage of a free afternoon.
Lira turned to him at one point, brushing crumbs from her hands.
“You’re not what I expected, you know.
From the stories, I thought all Nightshades were…” She trailed off, waving a hand vaguely.
“Intense.
All the time.”
Lucien shrugged.
“Stories leave out the boring parts.”
She laughed again.
“Fair.
My family’s the same way.
Everyone thinks we’re all brilliant strategists because of one uncle who won some border skirmish thirty years ago.
Mostly we just argue about whose turn it is to write the yearly letter to the relatives.”
The afternoon stretched.
Someone produced a worn deck of cards and they played a few rounds of a game Lucien didn’t know the rules to.
He lost the first two hands badly.
Won the third by accident.
The others teased him good-naturedly about it.
He teased back, the words coming easier than they used to.
The sun moved across the sky, warming his shoulders and casting long shadows across the courtyard stones.
At one point a familiar figure passed nearby—Darius, walking with a couple of his usual companions.
The older boy glanced their way, laughed once in that sharp way of his, but kept moving without stopping.
No challenge.
No confrontation.
Just another student on his way somewhere else.
Theo noticed.
“Ignore him.
He’s all noise.
Lucien nodded.
The group moved on to other topics without missing a beat.
Lira started telling a story about her disastrous attempt at a love potion for a friend’s crush last term.
The details grew increasingly ridiculous.
Lucien found himself laughing along with the others, the sound feeling less strange each time it happened.
As the light began to fade, people started gathering their things.
Theo stood and stretched.
“Same time next rest day?
Assuming none of us fail our practicals and get buried in remedial work.”
“Count me in,” Lucien said.
The words came out naturally.
No hesitation this time.
Lira waved as she left.
“Don’t be late next time, shadow boy.
We save the good pastries for people who show up on time.”
The courtyard emptied gradually.
Lucien stayed a few minutes longer, watching the last few students pack up.
The jasmine smelled stronger as the air cooled.
He thought about the delivery routes he used to run, the way people would wave from shop doors or complain about late orders.
Different place.
Different problems.
But the feeling of fitting in somewhere, even temporarily, carried over in ways he hadn’t expected.
A voice pulled him out of it.
Theo, who had doubled back for his forgotten notes.
“Hey.
You coming?
Some of us are heading to the dining hall before it gets too crowded.”
Lucien stood, brushing off his pants.
“Yeah.
Lead the way.”