The lower library smelled like old paper and the faint sweetness of the apple Theo was eating.
Lucien sat across from him at their usual table, notes spread between them.
Theo pushed his glasses up his nose and leaned back, stretching until his chair creaked.
“So… what did you even do before the academy?” Theo asked, casual.
Like it was nothing.
“Most of us have been training since we could walk.
You just… showed up one day and started keeping up.”
Lucien paused mid-sentence on his notes.
For a second the question pulled him somewhere else—crowded streets, the weight of a delivery bag, the simple frustration of late orders and bad traffic.
He caught himself before the words slipped out.
“Nothing very interesting,” he said instead.
“Just… regular stuff.”
Theo accepted it without pushing.
“Fair.
My father had me memorizing mana flows before I could read properly.
Drove my mother crazy.” He tapped his quill on the table.
“Anyway.
Come eat with us after this?
The group’s meeting in the dining hall.
Nothing fancy.
Just complaining about professors and stealing the good pastries before they run out.”
Lucien almost said no out of habit.
Sitting alone sounded safer.
Quieter.
Then he thought about another evening in his room with only borrowed texts for company.
“Yeah,” he said.
“I’ll come.”
Theo grinned.
“Good.
Lira’s convinced she can beat me at cards tonight.
We need someone neutral to keep score.”
The dining hall buzzed when they arrived.
Students packed the long tables, voices overlapping, plates clattering.
Theo led the way to a corner where three others had already claimed space.
Lira spotted them first, waving a fork like a weapon.
“Finally!
I was about to eat your share of the bread.
Theo dropped into a seat.
“Blame the library.
Lucien decided resonance chains were more important than food.”
Lira turned to Lucien, eyebrows raised.
“Nightshade himself graces us with his presence.
Brave.
Most people avoid our table after the great pudding incident last month.”
Rowan, a stocky boy who was already on his second helping of stew, snorted.
“That was your fault.
You started it.”
Iris, sitting with her arms crossed and an expression of practiced boredom, muttered, “Everything’s someone’s fault according to you two.”
Lucien sat down, feeling slightly out of place.
The group was comfortable with each other in that easy, teasing way.
They knew the rhythms.
He didn’t.
Yet.
Theo passed him the bread basket.
“Ignore them.
They’re loud but harmless.
Mostly.”
The conversation flowed around him at first.
Lira argued passionately about which professor was the strictest.
Rowan kept eating while offering surprisingly sharp observations about mana theory.
Iris delivered dry comments that cut through the noise like a well-aimed shadow.
Lucien mostly listened, the noise wrapping around him like background static from a busy street.
Familiar in a distant way.
At one point Lira turned to him directly.
“So.
Truthfully.
Are all Nightshades as intense as the stories say?
Or is that just Elara scaring everyone off?”
Lucien took a bite of bread to buy time.
“We have our moments.”
Rowan laughed.
“That’s diplomat speak for ‘yes but I’m not admitting it.'”
The teasing stayed light.
Lucien found himself answering more as the meal went on, the words coming easier.
When Lira lost a quick card game to Theo and dramatically accused him of cheating, Lucien joined the laughter without thinking.
The sound felt less strange each time. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Someone at a nearby table mentioned Elara in passing.
“Lady Nightshade skipped breakfast again.
Probably training until she drops.”
The comment barely registered before the conversation moved on.
Lucien noted it quietly but said nothing.
As the hall started emptying, a crowd formed near the notice board.
Students pressed closer, voices rising.
Lucien followed the others over.
A new announcement had been posted.
Mandatory First-Year Field Exercise
Mixed teams.
Three-day assessment.
Survival, teamwork, and mana control.
Theo groaned beside him.
“Great.
More ways to embarrass myself in front of everyone.”
Lira’s eyes lit up.
“Finally something interesting.”
Iris shrugged.
“As long as I’m not paired with the usual idiots.”
Lucien read the details quietly.
The exercise loomed ahead, another piece of academy life he’d have to navigate.
The group kept talking as they left the dining hall, plans and complaints mixing together.
Theo fell into step beside him on the way back.
“Glad you came tonight.”
Lucien adjusted his satchel.
“Me too.”
The upper dorm corridor was quieter when he reached it.
Most doors were closed.
One, however, stood slightly ajar.
Elara’s.
Just a crack.
Nothing dramatic.
But enough to notice.
He paused for a second, then closed it gently on his way past.
Probably nothing.
She’d likely forgotten.
The latch clicked softly into place.
As Lucien stepped into his room, he realized it had been the first meal since arriving at the academy where he’d forgotten, even briefly, that he didn’t belong.