There was another sticker on my door Sunday morning. Bright green this time. A multi-headed snake-like creature that was breathing fire. Maybe it was supposed to be a hydra, but I couldn’t recall them ever having feathers. It didn’t have limbs but the eyes were comical. What was this supposed to be for, and why was someone doing this?

  (********)

  I was starting to hate being here. Not at the school. Just sitting here in front of Healer Sealie. She was looking over a scroll while we sat there in silence.

  I sat with my legs stretched out in front of me, my shoes neatly together on the floor so that she could take a look at my ankle. The swelling was gone. But there was still a scar, two spots of pale skin clear as day.

  But it looked better than my arm, which was still a nightmare to look at.

  I was thankful for the gloves being a part of the uniform. Not a lot of people wore them, but it was better than having the scars out for everyone to see.

  “Any updates about what this mark is?” I asked her.

  “Some theories. But we’re still working on it.”

  I let out a sigh.

  “I know. This must be frustrating. I wish I had something more to tell you. But there’s nothing for it.”

  “What about the bite stuff?”

  “That’s healing well. Not quite as fast as I would like, but given the week you’ve had I’m not surprised. You’re staying on the diet for another week.”

  Ugh. Of course I was.

  I hated this.

  “We’ll figure something out. I promise. Not much longer and you’ll be able to move on from this.”

  “I hope so."

  (*********)

  Monday morning rolled around without incident. Surprisingly. Mostly. The collection on my door got bigger. Again. This time it was a sparkly purple squid-like creature with many more eyes than it had any right to have, and seven tentacles flailing about.

  Seriously, what were these things?

  “Oh. There’s a new one,” Angelina commented.

  “Yes. I noticed.”

  “You don’t sound happy about it.”

  “Someone is sneaking around at night in front of my door to place stickers for an unknown reason. I’m not saying they have ill-intentions, but it’s a little nerve-racking.”

  “You have nerves?”

  I laughed. “Yes, I have nerves.”

  “We haven’t seen them.”

  “You must have missed the part in Monsters where I nearly fainted because the professor thought it was a good idea to bring a death spider to class.”

  “Are you going to keep calling them that?”

  “Mocking things robs them of their power over me.”

  Angelina sighed and then started chuckling. “You are the strangest Pixie.”

  “I fail to see how that’s a bad thing.” I grinned.

  She rolled her eyes but grabbed my gloved right wrist to lead me downstairs.

  (*********)

  Spellcraft didn’t have a guest this time. But I did get a few funny looks as I sat down in my usual seat in the back. Great. First it was stares for being the crazy girl, now it’s stares for nearly losing my hand in an impossible circumstance.

  Professor Telvis started class quickly.

  “Can anyone explain to me what Flare is, and how it’s supposed to work?”

  A number of hands went up. An even-looking mix of yellow, blue and pink.

  “How about you, Mister Albenion?”

  He was a Pegasus in the fourth row, the pushy guy from the Newspaper Club. “It’s the simplest fire spell, meant to generate light and very little heat.”

  “Well done. Exactly correct. While it is still a fire spell and just as dangerous as one, when done correctly it can light your way through dark places. Done poorly and it is very easy to get burned. Do it very poorly and you may even burn the people around you.”

  Yikes. Were they sure they wanted to teach first-years that? But then again if you’ve spent your whole life practicing with magic that works…does it matter? Maybe the risks were non-existent for the others.

  I repressed a sigh.

  Someday.

  “Now, all that being said, would anyone here like to demonstrate for the class how it’s done?”

  More hands were raised. I clenched my fist under the desk.

  “Mister Frostglenn.” He pointed to a Sylphid.

  Frostglenn stood up and went to the front of the class. He cracked his knuckles, then clasped his hands together, fingers interlocked.

  Mom had shown me this spell a few times. My hands mimicked the motion.

  I couldn’t see it from our angle, but I knew there was an empty air pocket between his hands.

  He exhaled into his hands and slowly pulled his hands apart. In the air in front of him floated a pale green flame that flickered. It was no bigger than a golf ball as it hovered in front of him.

  Flare.

  “Well done! A proper casting of Flare. And no one got hurt this time. Because apparently that’s where the goalpost is set this year.”

  I tried to ignore the eyes that flashed up to me.

  I was glad I was wearing the gloves.

  I was never going to live this down, was I?

  I clenched my hands together tightly. The mark on my wrist flared up in a moment of searing pain. I took a long exhale and tried to relax my grip.

  The pain eased.

  What was that about?

  I rubbed the spot again before folding my hands on top of each other in my lap.

  What was wrong with me?

  (*********)

  “You good?” Jarec asked me as we exited class.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Yeah. Just…tired I guess.” I never wanted to be popular. That didn’t mean I enjoyed being so clearly the outsider. I hated this.

  “All right. Just know that if you want to talk, we’re here. And if you want vengeance against anyone, definitely let me know.”

  I chuckled and then rolled my eyes. “No vengeance. I think everyone needs a distraction. One that isn’t me.”

  (*********)

  The next morning there was no new sticker.

  But compared to what actually happened I definitely would have preferred it.

  Pixie Tower was quiet as I went downstairs. The place hadn’t been quiet before. At least not in the morning. Unless it was somehow far later than I thought.

  “I…I’m…” Angelina was trying. “I don’t know what to say here. Just…it’s going to be okay.”

  That was not reassuring. “What’s wrong?” I asked her.

  “The first school paper came in this morning,” she mumbled.

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Because of…everything that’s happened, they did a big story on Dragon Tower.”

  Realization hit me like a truck. “Oh. Oh no.”

  Angelina nodded, more solemn than I had seen her before.

  “Well then. I wasn’t planning on spending much time reading that thing anyway,” I told her.

  “But! It’s so mean! How could they-”

  “Stop. Getting upset won’t change anything,” I explained. “Please. Don’t worry about it for my sake.”

  She looked on the edge of tears.

  Damage control Serafina.

  “Look. Let’s just focus on going downstairs and getting breakfast. Sitting in here crying about it would be like…letting them win. Or something. I don’t know. But it’s already done.”

  “You could put in a complaint to the editorial staff.”

  I was pretty sure that would not be helpful. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

  She nodded.

  I wasn’t going to do it. I had no intention of even considering it. If the article was that bad then making a complaint might make it blow up. One article could be swept away. More articles written in retaliation would be a disaster.

  None of the Pixies we passed on our way out of the Tower said anything.

  Yikes. Was it really that bad?

  (*********)

  Somehow, it was worse.

  While I was more interested in the mango spread on toast I was trying to enjoy, someone in sky blue dropped a stack of neatly folded paper in front of me.

  I let out a sigh.

  “Did you want something?” I looked up to see the student already gone. “Rude.”

  I glanced down at the paper. Hyperaware of Angelina’s eyes on me I lifted it up.

  At first glance, I was unimpressed. The front page had a sketch of Jarec, Fethris, Russel, Celica and myself sitting at our usual spot in the library. It was an all right sketch. Everyone in it looked recognizable and at least we weren’t caricatures. The floating dragon image above all of us was a neat touch.

  The headline wasn’t even offensive.

  ‘Meet The Students Who Woke The Sleeping Tower.’

  Disappointing.

  “Is this really that bad?” I asked Angelina as my eyes wandered downwards to the content of the story itself.

  She opened her mouth but only a mild distressed sound came out.

  I read on.

  Miss Serafina Stewart, who declined speaking to us, is an enigma, even among the strange group of Dragons.

  Toothless.

  Not much is known about her family. Though it is suspected she might be the first of the Stewarts to attend this school. Whether that’s connected to her inability to cast spells-

  What?!

  My hands trembled as the paper fell through them. “Oh. That’s why. Oh wow.”

  “We can go right now if you want to,” Angelina offered.

  Go? Go where…? Oh. Right. Complaint. “No. I…I don’t think that’ll help at this point.”

  “But-”

  “Angelina. Please. Can we not?” I asked, though even to me it sounded closer to begging. Ugh.

  She must have heard it too, for she crumbled inwards. “But we can’t just not do anything.”

  What was that ringing in my ears? I closed my eyes and focused on breathing in and out. The ringing stopped after several moments. “Picking a fight won’t do me any good,” I told her.

  She didn’t look happy about it, but she nodded anyway.

  (*********)

  Spellcraft was a nightmare. Everyone had copies of the paper and most were sitting in clusters talking to each other. Telvis wasn’t there yet.

  Of all the days for him to be running late.

  My usual seat, as well as both seats next to it, was empty. Thank the gods.

  I wasn’t sure who was or wasn’t in the Newspaper Club. But I was not giving anyone involved the satisfaction of seeing me cry. Screw that.

  Giant death spiders and my own magic trying to kill me was not going to stop me. Neither were a bunch of assholes who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. They wanted to play games? Fine. Let them. I’d win by not playing along.

  I was sitting in my seat not looking at anyone. I focused on the front door.

  Jarec stormed in looking pissed off. I hadn’t seen him angry before. They’d been as nice to him as they were to me.

  Our eyes met. Jarec took a deep breath and sat down next to me. The chair scrapped across the floor loudly.

  “I’d apologize on behalf of Pegasus Tower, but I’m not a Pegasus. I’m a Dragon. Which means I don’t have to do what a Pegasus would do in this situation.” His voice was even but the storm underneath wasn’t hard to hear.

  He leaned back in his chair and placed his left thumb and middle finger in his mouth and let out a loud sharp whistle.

  Ow.

  A burst of blue shot through the room. A gust of wind picked up all of the papers, even pulling them out of the hands of a few students and launching them into the air. Jarec whistled again, softer this time. They all shredded themselves to confetti that then lightly rained down on the entire class.

  Except us.

  Oh boy.

  “What was that?” I asked in him in a horrified whisper.

  Jarec shrugged. “No one talks about my Towermates that way.”

  Oh gods. There goes letting this blow over quietly.

  “What if you get in trouble?” I asked him.

  He threw back his head and let out a loud laugh. “I’d love to see that! I’ll be happy to explain to them why in detail.”

  I covered my face with my hands.

  “Did you read it?” he asked.

  “I got a few sentences in and decided it wasn’t worth my time,” I mumbled. My face felt warm and I was shaking.

  “That’s for the best. It doesn’t improve as it goes on.”

  “Did you read the whole thing?” I asked him, terrified.

  “I did. Wish I hadn’t. But nothing I can do to change it now. I don’t know what Thoth was thinking when he let that go to print.”

  I sighed and pulled my head up from my hands. My face still felt warm but the shaking had stopped.

  Thankfully.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Better. I think. Thanks.”

  (*********)

  History wasn’t much better.

  Russel’s eyes were glowing orange and he was muttering to himself as Angelina and I approached the classroom.

  “I’ll talk to him, you go on ahead,” I told her.

  She nodded and left the two of us to talk.

  He grumbled and looked at me, his eyes going back to their normal light green color.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Me? I’m great. The Pegasus guys in the Newspaper Club are in for a nasty surprise though.” Something in his grin worried me a little.

  Only a little.

  “I’m not going to ask. I want plausible deniability if you guys get in trouble.”

  “The others haven’t done anything.”

  “That you know of.”

  Russel cackled as we went into the classroom.

  (*********)

  Celica didn’t look visibly angry when I sat down next to her in Advanced Alchemy. She looked relaxed.

  There was no way she didn’t know.

  But I was not bringing it up.

  She continued to be silent despite her relaxed posture the entire class.

  (*********)

  The Main Hall was even louder than usual for lunchtime. Which on its own would be an impressive feat. Except everyone had copies of the paper with them. Or maybe it just felt like it.

  I suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore.

  “You know what?” I started to explain. “I’m not feeling well. I think I’m going to go be somewhere else for a little while.”

  Angelina frowned, but nodded. “Okay. Do you want company?”

  I shook my head. “No. I think I’d rather be alone.”

  (*********)

  The library was mercifully empty. The spiral staircase was a long way up but the view from the fifth floor was neat. You could see the entire expanse from the safety rails.

  I had noticed from down below that the rails were made of a black metal. Iron maybe? Twisted and curved to look like vines. I sat down on the floor and rested my head against the bars.

  I was a coward.

  I was going to have to deal with this sooner or later.

  Why was this happening to me?

  “Nine Towers, and you get picked by the one that brings nothing but trouble. Good going Serafina,” I told myself. I pulled my glove off of my left hand and stared at the mark on the inside of my wrist. The rest of the flesh was mangled and scarred except that single patch of pristine skin.

  “Or is this all your fault?” I asked it.

  Thankfully it didn’t answer.

  Though someone knew something. Any information might be nice at this point.

  Why did Dragon Tower choose me? Why couldn’t I use magic?

  What was I thinking, coming here? That all my problems would go away if I could be chosen by a heap of bricks?

  Was this a mistake after all?

  No.

  No, it wasn’t.

  Because they’re wrong.

  I can cast magic.

  I know I did.

  Something burned the death spiders to ash. And if there was no ghost that day, then it had to have been me. No one else was there.

  I may not be able use a rune, but I know things.

  Okay. Let’s find this spell.

  Fae Fire. A fire spell, obviously. Two words for the spell name makes it at least mid-tier in terms of complexity. Use of the word Fae implies other properties besides the heat and light.

  Okay. That meant it couldn’t be on the first or second floors, because it wasn’t something Telvis was going to cover.

  I was already on the fifth floor. Let’s start here.

  There were no titles on the spines of most of the books. Either this was by design or they expect people to use the summoning runes. Which was fair. If I could have, I would.

  But that was not an option.

  So manually looking it was, even though only one in ten books have visible titles it is.

  “Common Elite Spells,” I read out loud from the spine of a dark blue volume. “Have to start somewhere.”

  There were fire spells in the table of contents, but no Fae Fire. Though Giant Fireball sounded like it might be fun to learn when I got to that point.

  “That seems like advanced reading for a first-year.”

  I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  “Fethris! Please don’t sneak up on me!”

  “Sorry. I didn’t see you in the hall and when your friend said you wanted to be alone I got worried.”

  I set the book back on the shelf. My heart was still beating fast. “I’m…I don’t want to say ‘okay’ but…I mean…I don’t know how I feel. I just didn’t want to be around a bunch of people who are thinking and talking about me when they don’t know the first thing about me.”

  He nodded. “Fair. I had to tell some people to piss off in Kelpie Tower. Can’t wait to leave.”

  “Me neither.” I gave him a smile.

  His eyes flashed to my still uncovered arm. “Every time I see that I swear it looks worse.”

  I held it out. “I don’t know if the scars will go away. Sealie says they might not. But I’m not worried about them.”

  “No idea what that mark is?”

  “I don’t recognize it, and if they know what it is they won’t tell me,” I sighed. I pulled the glove out of my pocket and put it back on.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Not your fault. Just one more mystery to add to the pile. At least we won’t be bored.” I shrugged. “But it would be nice to keep the misadventures to a minimum. I’ve gotten more scars from this school than I have in my whole life.”

  Fethris laughed.

  Yeah, I wasn’t convinced either.