The Problem With Pink Hair and Cat Ears

They were not the first to arrive.

Several students were already gathered near the entrance to the training hall building when they got there with some of them talking quietly but eagerly, some standing in the obvious type of silence of people who were too awake to sleep and not awake enough to be social. The rest of the class filtered in over the next few minutes. Nobody was late.

They were waiting in a loose cluster when the homeroom teacher walked in.

He was not moving quickly. He was not moving slowly. He was simply moving, with the relaxed efficiency of someone who considered arriving in a dramatic fashion to be an unnecessary expenditure of time.

Behind him, noticeably larger, was a red-haired Wolf-kin man who moved the way large things moved when they knew exactly how large they were. Not taking up space aggressively, just not trying to take up any less than his naturally enormous frame would. He was roughly under seven feet tall, athletic, incredibly defined and large muscles. He carried a scimitar, except it wasn't quite a standard scimitar. It was wide, heavy and much longer than a scimitar should have been, the blade was broad enough that Elayna wondered whether she was looking at a scimitar or some obscure cleaver.

The homeroom teacher stopped in front of them. He looked at them for a moment with his heavy-lidded, dead eyes.

He bowed the slightest, just so that you would know it was a bow, "I’m Voss," he said. "Your homeroom teacher, Azure."

A pause so short it barely qualified as one.

He glanced sideways at the wolf-kin.

"Karzen," the Wolf-kin said, with the confidence of someone who had more than likely never felt anything else than complete confidence in themselves for their entire lives. "I'm the main combat instructor for years one and two. You guys will soon start sparring with second years. So get ready for that. I suppose that's all." He added with a slightly curved smile.

He said it without threat. Just information given simply.

Voss looked at Karzen, then at the group. "Follow me," he said, and walked.

The courtyard he led them to was enormous.

The ceiling vaulted high enough that ranged magic could probably arc properly without hitting anything. The floor was dirt and grass with several large rocks spread throughout. Worn in places from recent use. The walls had the subtle shimmer of many heavy enchantments laid thick.

Voss walked into the courtyard and stopped in the middle of it. He turned around and looked at them.

"Healing enchantments," he said, gesturing with his hand at the courtyard generally. "It's passively on, activated after being still for a while after combat. Broken bones, severed limbs, internal damage, all gets fixed. Times vary. Nothing's healed instantly."

He paused.

"Everything except a severed head," he added. "Or a fully destroyed heart. Those can't be healed by the enchantments. So don't do those."

He said this with exactly the same tone he had used for everything else.

Then he looked at them in silence.

The silence stretched for five seconds, ten, twenty. Nobody spoke. Several people exchanged glances. Elayna looked at Kiri and saw her looking at Voss with her flat purple eyes, apparently unbothered by the silence, Elayna imagined Kiri would look the same even if this silence stretched for an hour.

Thirty seconds passed. Forty.

Then Voss began walking slowly through the group.

He moved without hesitation through the cluster of students, walking fluidly between them and as he went he pointed at them. A slight extension of one finger. A small nod of his head. Each gesture barely qualified as a gesture and yet it was absolutely clear what he meant. You. You. You.

He did this to about fifteen people, in about less than ten seconds. He didn't explain his criteria. His expression suggested he didn't consider explanation for his actions as part of his job description.

He completed the circuit and walked back to his initial spot in front of them.

"You're with me," he said, to the students he'd indicated. "Rest with Karzen."

He walked toward the far side of the courtyard.

Elayna followed, looking around at who else had been pulled into the smaller group. She recognized faces. Cait she spotted immediately, she was staring at Elayna with a happy smile and already moving with the casual ease of someone who felt that this was exactly where they wanted to be. She also saw Kiri. Evelyn. Zyvara. And—

A Lizard-kin. Scales catching the courtyard light faintly, he was walking confidently along with the group.

That must be Zett, she thought. Kiri mentioned him last night, said he looked strong. I wonder how he fights. He has no weapon with him. Is he a monk?

And near the edge of the group she saw someone with dark hair, pointed ears, completely void-black eyes that gave nothing away. High-Elf in every feature except those eyes.

Is that Nyx? she thought. Zyvara said something about a dark elf with unusual magic. I don't think I saw a Dark-Elf in the other group.

"I don't know how you fight," Voss said, stopping and turning to face them. "Before I can decide how to train you, I need to see it. Choose a partner. You—"

"Elayna."

Cait's voice came before Voss had finished his sentence. Several people looked at her. Cait was already looking at Elayna with the expression of someone who had made this decision approximately sixteen hours ago and was only now announcing it to others.

"—may begin," Voss finished, without acknowledging the interruption.

The group reorganized and quickly formed pairs. Kiri paired up with a tall boy carrying a spear.

Evelyn looked at Zyvara. Zyvara looked back at her and something passed between them.

"Fine," Zyvara said.

Zett and Nyx each found partners. Elayna found herself across from a girl with steady eyes and a short sword, and tried to focus on that rather than on the pink-haired cat-kin currently positioning herself across from her with both swords already out and pupils blown wide and dark with something that looked very much like extreme anticipation.

"Kiri. Tomas," Voss said. "Begin."

Tomas, the guy with the spear, was fast.

Faster than he'd looked standing still, "how people fight is always the most honest measurement of them", Elayna remembered Vaelithra's saying and looked at the fight. Tomas moved into distance quickly, the spear cycling through his grip with confident ease, readying himself to thrust with it, Elayna realized from his grip and stance.

He got close on the first approach. Closer than Elayna had expected.

And then Kiri blasted him away.

Not dramatically. Just a precise and quick burst of wind with exactly enough force to put him back where she wanted him. She was standing exactly where she'd been before, expression unchanged.

She started to cast quick wind attacks at him, he dodged and quickly came in again.

Kiri blasted him away.

A third time. A fourth. Each time he got slightly closer, adapting, adjusting, changing his approach. Kiri sent him backward before he arrived close enough.

"Will you stop that!" he shouted after the fifth time.

"Why," Kiri said. “I win.”

His expression betrayed his frustration and he went in a lot faster, a feint built into the approach that was actually quite good—

Kiri sent a precise wind slash along the ground that caught his lead foot mid-step, disrupted his balance for exactly a fraction of a second which was all she needed, and had her follow-up at his throat before he'd finished regaining his balance.

He stopped moving, straining his head to not get cut by the wind slash Kiri was hovering’ there.

"Kiri wins," Voss said. "Next."

A large guy strode confidently to the middle of the yard. Carrying an absolutely enormous hammer on his back.

He fought wildly, not with much technique, just with the violence of someone who had hit things with a very large object long enough to decide that this was his best option for offense. And it seemed to work just fine. He swung the ridiculously large hammer way faster than anyone expected him to and his opponent couldn't get in range or block well enough and eventually got hit once, getting lifted off the ground and sent several feet away and not getting back up.

Voss stared blankly at the hammer-wielder currently smiling proudly. "Next." he said, just as blankly.

Then two sword users walked to the middle, one carried a simple long sword and the other one caught Elayna's attention.

A guy wielding a long, curved sword, a Nodachi. Elayna thought, with mild interest.

They both nodded respectfully to each other and took their stance, then both dashed in to meet in a clash of blades in the middle.

The nodachi user was slightly quicker, and the moment lightning came into his blade Elayna's attention sharpened immediately.

Ooh, she thought.

She knew lightning. Had been using it herself long enough to recognize and understand it immediately, she almost felt something like kinship watching someone else use it. But his was different from hers, not better or worse, just different the way two people can speak the same language with completely different accents. He ran it along the blade rather than through, used it to extend his reach with arcing strikes, he also didn’t use the properties of lightning properly to enhance his body. But his arcing strikes were really precise and powerful.

"Woah," Elayna said quietly to herself.

His opponent fought well but couldn't deal with both the speed and the lightning arcs simultaneously. The nodachi user won cleanly.

"Next," Voss said.

Evelyn and Zyvara then walked up.

And Elayna started wondering how Zyvara would fight, she was of a race she’d never seen or heard.

Zyvara didn't waste time, the second Evelyn and Zyvara nodded, starting the fight Zyvara threw up her hand.

And the first orb of loudly crackling, black and red violent energy had left her palm before Evelyn had time to react properly. Although the orb was not aimed at Evelyn precisely, it just established range. Maybe the range at which Zyvara was accurate. It hit the ground between them with a sound like something burning and electrifying at the same time and left a charred crater in the dirt.

... That’s so cool. Elayna thought wholeheartedly. Not once thinking that the magic itself looked incredibly oppressive and sinister.

Evelyn looked at the charred crater and then at Zyvara, she frowned and smiled at the same time. Then lowered herself before throwing herself into a sprint.

Close the gap Evelyn, Elayna thought, watching with rapt attention.You have to get close enough to hit her. You can't sit back and defend.

It was the obvious approach since Evelyn used an axe and no ranged magic. It was also clearly what Zyvara expected, because the second orb came faster and larger and was aimed directly at Evelyn this time. Evelyn read the trajectory of it and her large great-axe came up mid-sprint to partially deflect the impact. The force of it still pushed her sideways. She absorbed it and kept moving.

The exchanges that followed was fierce. Zyvara firing in rapid succession, each shot requiring Evelyn to dodge or deflect or just push through, the black and red magic crackling loudly and snapping in vicious arcs of light filling the space around them in sharp aggressive pulses. But Evelyn was closing. Steadily, systematically, eating the distance despite everything being thrown at her, the body-strengthening and defense magic doing its work visibly.

She got inside range.

The great axe came up. Zyvara was stood perfectly still under the incoming strike. Evelyn had her—

The burst came from within.

Not a projectile. Just, straight out from within Zyvara, at point-blank range, releasing something from her own body in every direction simultaneously, the same black and red destruction magic blooming outward like an expanding field. There was a sound like something tearing. Sounds like short and sharp, repeated electric sparks pulsed at the edges of the burst as it slowly faded out.

Evelyn hit the ground hard.

She lay there for a moment. Then started to push herself up slowly, one arm not quite cooperating.

Zyvara stood in front of her before she finished rising. A smaller orb of black and red, this one quiet, hovering in her open palm, perfectly still aimed directly at Evelyn's face from inches away.

"You lost," she said.

Evelyn looked at the orb. Then at Zyvara. Then, with the steady calm of someone who had assessed the situation and reached the obvious conclusion she said:

"I’m done," with a small smile.

Something shifted in Zyvara's expression, it was brief, genuine. She let the orb dissolve and extended her hand.

Evelyn took it. Zyvara pulled her up cleanly.

"You're not bad," Zyvara said. "But you'll never hit me with your short-range physical attacks. You can't close that distance, not against me."

Evelyn looked down at her with a strange expression. "Good to know," she said, in the tone of someone who was already working on that problem.

"Next," Voss said.

Zett's fought next and his fight lasted less than a minute.

The Lizard-kin moved in a way that was immediately different from everyone else. He moved low, close to the ground almost beast-like in his movement. His opponent used a sword, and he wasn't able to do much. Zett was inside his guard within the first few seconds, pouncing between attacks with his beast-like fighting style.

Zett danced around his opponent's blade and threw quick and precise punches. It didn't look like he was struggling. He just kept dodging his opponent's sword like a wild beast until he, who had probably never fought magic beasts or... someone like Zett, before, keeled over from one final gut punch that rendered him unable to move.

Strong, Elayna thought. Kiri was right.

Voss stared blankly at the finished fight. "Next."

Nyx's fight also lasted just under a minute.

Her opponent was quick and tried to hit her but kept finding empty space each time. Nyx had a very unique movement technique, her body would blur for a fraction of a second and then she was somewhere else the next second. A movement covering distance so fast it barely registered as movement, more like short teleportation, a before and an after with nothing but a blur of her silhouette in between.

Nyx’s offense was some sort of purple-black magic acid. It came from wherever she arrived after her blur, burning quietly but viciously through everything where it landed. Her opponent struggled to get close to Nyx while dodging the vicious acid at the same time. He eventually managed to predict her blur-step move correctly once and got a hit in, a weak hit barely cutting Nyx's skin but a hit nonetheless. But then Nyx quickly sped up and didn't give him the same opening again.

The fight was over quickly. After Nyx had adjusted she just kept wearing down on her opponent with her acid-like attacks until he eventually fell over in exhaustion. It looked like it must've hurt like crazy to get hit by. The boy's shoulder had gotten hit and Elayna could hear the flesh sizzling.

Elayna thought the boy was quite impressive for his tenacity and ability to dodge.

"Nyx wins," Voss said. "Next."

It was time for her to fight.

Caitlynn walked first onto the courtyard and met eyes with Elayna standing slightly nervous at the side.

Elayna knew she had to take this fight seriously and walked onto the grass and faced Cait across the courtyard.

Cait already had both swords out. One a shorter and slightly curved one held loose and easy in her left hand, she was shifting her grip and hold on it several times, and held a longer one with a slightly weird grip in her right hand. Elayna wasn't quite sure what to expect. Cait's green cat-eyes were bright, but the pupils were blown wide and dark, not the narrow controlling slits of a feline being watchful or carefully observant, but something closer to a black hole consuming the iris, the dilation of a cat that had found something extremely exciting and couldn’t pretend otherwise.

Cait was also smiling, widely.

Right, Elayna thought as her heart started beating a bit faster. She settled into her stance. She's definitely strong. Don't hold back.

She'd planned to ease in. Maybe one careful exchange to read what she was dealing with.

The fight started and she got approximately half of a first exchange before she dropped that plan entirely.

Cait was fast. Not just fast but fluid. Her swords moved in ways that didn't follow any logic Elayna had trained against, the shorter sword drew her attention while the longer one struck fiercely, forcing her to focus more on it, that she'd expected. But then that reversed as Cait's longer sword feinted and she tried to stab Elayna with the shorter one. And then her grip on the shorter sword reversed and Cait went for cuts aimed at Elayna's arms and for thrusts with her longer sword, and then neither of the swords did what Cait's grip or stance suggested and Elayna was forced to back away in slight panic.

It didn't feel like some weird technique exactly, or it was technique, but technique that had been worn so deeply into instinct that it had come out the latter side as something that looked and felt like pure chaos. Like someone had taken instinct so long their body acted seconds before their mind did.

Elayna's footwork kept her in the fight.

She couldn't match Cait blow for blow, the two-blade pressure was too constant and oppressive for her, but she didn't need to match her. She needed to not be where the swords was and throw counter attacks off of parries, which was a lot easier said than done. Her feet knew this though. They'd been doing it since before she could remember, thousands of corrections with a training stick to her feet, every pivot and transfer of weight until it lived somewhere below conscious thought.

She felt Cait notice her footwork.

The way she came at her changed — not dramatically but just noticeably enough. Like Cait had seen something in her she hadn't expected, and decided this fight was now worth paying more attention to than she'd originally thought or planned.

She then noticed Cait’s expression change into something happier than it was before.

They went back and forth. The exchanges between them were harsh and insanely fast, neither of them giving ground easy, but Elayna was taking more steps back than forward. Her breathing was harder than she wanted it to be.

Then Cait did something with her left-handed shorter blade that made no sense, but it was quick, quick enough that drew Elayna's right arm into a panicked block that definitely wasn't completely necessary, and in the space that had created Caitlynn’s longer sword came wide from the side and Elayna had no time to defend properly.

She twisted her body and blocked it. Just barely.

The impact of the poor block pushed her arm out wide and Cait was instantly close, already inside Elayna's guard with her shorter sword coming in for a stab, but Elayna had her sword ready—

The kick caught her in the stomach.

Elayna tumbled. Hit the grass and rolled, absorbing the fall, her training taking over. Pain burst from her stomach, but she came up fast already looking for Cait, already thinking about what to do next.

There she is, Cait thought.

Elayna was getting up. One hand briefly touching the ground for balance after she’d clutched her stomach, the other still holding her sword, eyes finding Cait immediately and not letting go. Her breathing was harder now. Her hair had come loose on one side. There was grass on her uniform.

She looked absolutely wonderful.

Not the grass or messy hair stuck to her forehead. Not the heavy breathing. It was the not stopping.

The way she'd taken her kick and rolled with intent and come back up with her sword still in her hand and her eyes immediately on Cait, ready. Like the fall was just another move in their dance rather than the end of it. Like she was adjusting for it, already planning around it, ready for the next steps, ready for another kick.

Saints, Cait thought, and felt something pull tight and insistent low in her stomach, something slightly straining in her panties, felt the damn tape protest, felt something very warm and immediate and not entirely appropriate for a supervised first-year training session.

She's actually good.

Not surprisingly good for someone her size... maybe surprisingly tough for someone her size... but not better than expected given the cute face. She was just simply, good. Clean footwork Cait had never seen outside of serious long-term training, extremely solid sword technique worn into good fighting instinct. All the obvious qualities someone had when they’d been training diligently for years, years under someone very skilled who knew exactly what they’d been teaching.

She wanted to fight her more, wanted to see her face after another kick. Immediately. She wanted to fight her for considerably longer than was probably appropriate right now. She wanted to push Elayna down on the ground—

One thing at a time, she thought, smiling internally. And let's not pop a boner right now.

She moved in.

The exchange was harder and fiercer now after Elayna had adjusted, she’d found a way to slightly compensate for Cait's two-blade pressure by parrying differently, using the reach of her blade against Cait's longer sword and the crossguard for her shorter sword. It was clever. Genuinely clever and Cait found that delightful in a way that was doing things to her focus and lower parts she would absolutely have to deal with later.

She got inside Elayna's guard again, Elayna reacted quicker than before and Cait knew she would so she'd brought both swords to bear down simultaneously. Both of Elayna's blocks were good. But they couldn't be perfect at the same time, and in the fraction of a second they weren't—

The shorter blade traced a deep line across Elayna's forearm. Cleanly, and then a second time in a crosscut. Elayna's arm visibly tightened. Her grip changed slightly, she'd now suffer from a loss of precision and strength in her blocks and parries.

"Where did you train, Elayna?" Cait said, circling her. "Who taught those fat cheeks to move so well~?"

Elayna's jaw tightened.

Fat cheeks Elayna could let go. She was working on letting comments like that go. But something about the casual way it had been attached to — to the footwork, to the thing Vaelithra had spent years drilling into her—

She glared at Cait. "Someone who could wipe the floor with you," she said harshly, and well before she'd decided to.

She became aware, immediately after, that this was possibly the least dignified thing she had ever said in a combat situation and felt a blush accompany her glare.

Cait's grin widened. "Oh~?" she sounded pleased about something. "Now I'm interested."

Then Cait dashed in.

Not with the same unpredictable pressure from before but faster instead, more committed. Elayna had half a second to register that the distance between them had collapsed before Cait was already within arms reach, her longer sword swept wide, Elayna needed to use all of her strength to block the blow because of the damaged arm and weakened grip. So when Cait then came with ther shorter sword aimed low, Elayna had to twist her body to lessen the damage of the incoming cut, but Cait started twisting her own body and—

The kick unbelievably fast this time. By the time Elayna realized it was coming it had already landed, harder than the first, much harder. A full committed kick that caught her square in her stomach and sent her tumbling for real this time, and far as well, the grass flied by in a blur under her.

She tried to control the roll, barely managed to. Came to a stop.

For a moment there was no breath. Just the emptiness after a hard impact to the upper body, the body's brief refusal to cooperate, the chest locked up , the lungs deciding independently that they needed a few seconds before they were going to do anything else.

She got one hand on the grass. Then the other.

"So," Cait said, from somewhere above her, sounding extremely delighted, "when do I get to meet this person?"

Elayna wheezed.

"I'd like to thank them," Cait added pleasantly, "for making you so fun to kick."

Elayna was getting up, one knee off the grass, wounded sword arm rising, eyes coming back to Cait when—

"Stop."

Voss interrupted. Flat. Not loud. Simply present.

Elayna watched Cait’s expression go through three stages in approximately one or two seconds.

First the wide grin, the black-hole pupils, the look of someone mid-something-absolutely wonderful.

Then the look of someone who had just had that something-absolutely wonderful taken away. Not anger exactly. It just looked like the kind of expression of a person whose drink had been spat in, whose evening had been interrupted at precisely the wrong moment. Elayna thought.

Then her expression turned neutral. Controlled.

Cait lowered and sheathed her swords.

"Heal," Voss said. "Both of you."

The courtyard enchantment was already working, Elayna's arm was warming up and there was a faint glow of blue and green mana around it, the cuts closing with the sensation of something being knitted back together from inside. She flexed her fingers, it stung but it immediately felt like she'd regained full function of her arm.

Meanwhile she noticed Cait standing there, watching her, hip cocked out to the side and looking so pleased it frustrated Elayna.

There was a moment where the class seemed to pause. People started talking about the fights and walked around in loose clusters. Elayna stood still and stared down at ground, feeling Cait's eyes on her.

Then Karzen walked over and brought the other students over, all of Azure now assembled.

Voss turned and looked at the full class.

He stood in the middle of them.

Completely still. For a long moment.

“Form a line” he said out loud, to no one in particular, "Try to land a hit on me," he added.

Nobody moved for exactly one second. Then the next second everyone moved into a line. And then after, one by one, stepped back out of the line.

... Because nobody could hit him.

It wasn't dramatic. There was no counterattacking, no epic display of some mysterious power from their combat teacher, no announcement of what he was doing. He just — dodged. He just wasn't simply, dodged everything that came at him. With ease. Every attempt of theirs found empty space or was redirected with movements so small they barely even qualified as movements.

Twenty seconds per person’s attempt, maybe thirty. Each person stepped back with the defeated expression of someone who had completely run out of any ideas on how to land a single hit.

Voss' expression was identical throughout. Which was to say... nothing. He just stood there with his hands clasped behind his back throughout. Blankly staring ahead, at nothing in particular.

Elayna went somewhere in the middle of the group.

And the first time she completely failed at even getting close. She went in three times, joining the line again and again. Each time she felt like she was doing no better than anyone else — no closer, no more effective, no different, running into the same empty space. But she kept adjusting, went in more committed each time, kept making him move slightly more. Not dramatically. But in the end, just like everyone else, she'd only managed to chase after him while not really getting close. She felt she was missing something obvious. She stepped back, very unsatisfied.

One by one the class stepped back and didn’t rejoin the line, having ran out of options.

Cait went last.

She came in with both swords. unpredictable, incredibly fluid movements, forcing constant recalculation. For a moment it looked like it might produce something. She was inside his space fast, got inside where the sword should have been able to land, she swung and it missed and Voss was everywhere Cait’s sword weren’t, and then out of nowhere after another missed strike of her sword.

Her left hand found his shoulder. She grabbed it.

The longer sword was already moving, the torque of the grab becoming the setup for a strike—

His hand closed around her left wrist.

He threw her in the other direction.

But Cait went with it.

Rather than fighting the momentum she let it take her, used it, twisted mid-air and somehow — impossibly, in the half-second of being thrown dropped her sword and got her free hand onto his other shoulder. Her knee was already coming, already aimed for his back—

He wasn't there.

Elayna's breath caught.

... What?

She couldn't explain it, even watching from the sidelines. He had been there and then he wasn't, and the movement he'd used to not be there was so small and so precise that it didn't look like a movement at all. Cait's hands which had been on his shoulders just slipped like she'd been holding onto air. Like he'd simply stopped occupying that space between one moment and the next.

Cait landed on the ground. Rolled. Came back up, picked up her swords.

She looked over her shoulder at Voss.

He was standing exactly where he'd been standing before she'd moved, looking at nothing in particular. The courtyard was completely silent. Every student watching, with nobody speaking.

Cait looked at him for a long moment. She didn't look angry or embarrassed, and not really surprised. Just looking like she'd extended a hand expecting to find something and had found something else entirely and was still trying to understand the why’s and how's.

Her long sword was rested on her right shoulder, the blade flat against it, easy. Her left hand had the shorter one and it was spinning. Slowly, casually, the grip and hold of it cycling through and between her fingers the way someone's leg bounces under a table. Like having a weapon in her hand was simply her resting state, and stillness without one would have felt stranger, she looked as if her brain naturally functioned on a higher level in this state.

Voss looked back at her with his dead eyes.

From somewhere in the group that had been with Karzen, a voice broke the silence, quiet but carrying:

"Hey, she just grabbed him right?"

"Twice," someone else said. "She grabbed his ass twice."

"... That's our homeroom teacher you know..."

"That knee almost landed," another voice added, sounding mildly distressed about it. "She almost—"

"Who is she? Anyone know her?"

"She's in our class, man" someone said, and after slightly long pause added. "...I'm pretty sure she's in our class."

"I think her name's Caitlynn," someone offered, as if they were speaking about something that might not have even existed.

She was still looking at Voss with a long considering look. Then her gaze moved to the assembled class. Moved through it. Found what it was apparently looking for.

Elayna was standing somewhere in the middle of the crowd, slightly grass-stained, arm freshly healed, watching Cait with an expression that she was trying very hard to keep neutral and felt she was not quite managing it. She also tried very hard not to think about the warmth she felt in her face.

Caitlynn’s grin came back.

Not the small teasing smile she'd given her numerous times. Not the deliberate polite warmth she had with new acquaintances. This was a wide one, a full one. A smile with pointed and sharp canines, the kind of smile that said something pretty specific about what she was currently thinking and feeling.

In the crowd, a boy standing two people to Elayna's left made a very quiet but obvious sound and appeared to need a moment.

A girl on the other side took a small unconscious, scared step backward.

Elayna looked at the grin.

Then looked at the ground.

Then looked back up, because apparently she couldn't help it, and found she also couldn’t help the intense heat creeping up her face and ears.

"Enough," Voss said.

The courtyard was quiet.

"You're good," he said, to the room generally, in the tone of someone reading a weather report. "But not nearly good enough. You have seven years."

He looked at them for one more moment.

"Same time tomorrow," he said. "For now you have mana control and theory. In one hour. Academic wing, you know where."

He walked away without checking if anyone had questions.