I gulped.
Even though we sat in red velvet seats swathed in darkness before the sweeping stage flaring with light, the white of the three students' eyes seemed to burn holes in my skull.
I kept my gaze forward and pretended to focus on Aerel as I gathered a breath and nervously gave the three once-overs.
I did so discreetly, though. In my time at Majorie's, I'd gotten more than good at gathering information while not looking like I was doing so.
From the corner of my eye, I could tell they all had black hair, that was damp looking but not glossy, as if they'd stepped out of water and never dried.
Their eyes were also all pearly white—including the pupil.
For a moment, their attention shifted all at once toward the stage, and I felt relief sliding down my spine.
The movement they did, though… I don't think that was normal. It wasn't dramatic either, like they'd trained to put on an act. It was more like… synchronized.
Like they were following a cue or something.
*Tak*
Inspector Aerel tapped her cane. A gust of frosted wind spiraled outward. Her top hat lifted from the lectern and arced cleanly into her waiting hand.
"Voyager," Aerel chanted.
Paper petals erupted around Aerel in a brilliant swirl. They rose, spun, and swallowed her silhouette. When the storm thinned, she was gone.
Loose pages drifted downward like blank leaves, dissolving into particles of light before touching the stage.
…Okay.
That was undeniably cool.
The theater erupted into applause. For a second, the strange trio slipped from my mind entirely. Then I remembered and glanced back.
Their eyes were still fixed on the stage, but from the angle I could tell that their eyes weren't merely wet—they were reflective and wet-looking. It was kind of like… looking through an underwater bubble.
"Yes, yes… Thank you all. Quiet, now." Proctor Doe attempted.
The hall did not quiet. Figures~
"Come now…"
Nope. No luck.
"QUIET!" He roared.
"Pfft." I smirked.
The shout did it. Proctor Doe eventually got the hall's attention and started his presentation again, but after Aerel's speech, people didn't really pay attention to the presentation, much to Proctor Doe's dismay.
I caught most of it—in the academy, classes were held in separate different buildings on campus, such as the training grounds, the engineering hall, the library, admin, and many others.
Sometimes, we'd also be called as junior mages to assist with situations that arose, yada yada yada (which was bad, since I uh… still couldn't use magic. And didn't know how. That might be a slightly bigger issue than strange students. Or weird hallucinations. Hopefully I could learn, though.)
After a couple of slides on curfews and dining times, Proctor Doe finished up.
"With all that being said, those of you who do well and make a good impression will have a chance to be selected by faculty to attend the autumn ball in three days' time. I hope that's any incentive at all, given how much disrespect you've shown my presentation," he spat.
The mood shifted instantly. I tuned out most of it.
"The autumn ball?"
"Holy shit. I really need to do well, then." Some guy clenched his fist determinedly.
"This is my chance…" A girl whispered, biting her nail.
Sounds like the autumn ball was a big thing…
Doe sighed and adjusted his tie this way and that. "That is all. For those of you who are here under regular admission, you already know your schedules and are free to leave. If you are here under a scholarship, then please stay behind to receive your schedules."
*Seu-reu-reu-reukkkk*
Slowly the audience lights slid on. Thousands of red seats surfaced in warm illumination and students filed out through the enormous double door exits.
The three strange students stayed behind with me.
Yuri appeared beside Doe in a burst of fluttering pages and clapped her hands to get our attention, asking us to line up in front of her, Saph, or Liam to pick up schedules.
*Cheol-keok, cheol-keok, cheol-keok*
The remaining occupied red velvet chairs clacked closed one by one as the remaining students made their way to the aisle and lined up one by one. I worked my way to Saph's line and quietly shuffled forward with the others.
In the moment, I'd lost the three students from before. As I stood in line, I did a quick rundown of what I'd gathered about the students:
- They stared at me.
- They moved in sync.
- They stayed with me.
…Mn. Strange. It was weird that they were looking at me. I was probably overthinking things, though—
"Ba d T hin g s A re Com i ng."
Cold immediately seeped down my back and crawled deep into my chest.
I jolted and whirled around towards the noise. It was an audible noise, too—not just me thinking about the words.
I—where was that—right, it was from the person in my dream… Who were they again? A little girl? I—there was something strange about her… I lost my train of thought.
I cased the entire theater—the soft red velvet seats, the sweeping polished wood construction gleaming under the lights, the heavy stage curtains and the decorated walls—nothing.
I glanced around at the other students in the line. None of them had reacted to the voice and were still talking amongst themselves.
…Something was definitely going on. Or I'm going crazy. Possibly both. But earlier, Inspector Aerel talked about changing and darker times. Was this what she was talking about? Was it a coincidence? The thing was, even if bad things were going to happen, what could I do about it?
Nothing.
Unless…
The gears in my head turned as I thought back to one of my working theories: if something is wrong, ignoring it won't make it less wrong.
"You know what?" I muttered to myself. "For now, I'll trust the words. And even if I'm wrong, then nothing possibly worse could happen… if nothing happens, I lose nothing."
…If something does, then at least I won't be surprised.
That was when another voice spoke up. "Excuse me. The line…"
I jolted back to reality. There was a huge gap in front of me in the line of betas waiting to pick up their schedules.
"Sorry!" I stepped forward quickly and turned—
Standing behind me were the three students, their white eyes gleaming, the silky filaments of their wet black hair floating slightly around them.
"No problem," the girl standing in front smiled, much too sweetly. "Please move forward."