And that…
That was exactly where my misfortune started all over again.
I stood there for a long, heavy moment, staring at the seven imposing buildings lined up before me like silent judges waiting to deliver their final verdict on my already ruined night.
Red.
Black.
Blue.
Grey.
Gold.
White.
Green.
Each one glowed faintly with its own distinct hue, the colored lights spilling from windows and doorframes like proud banners, competing for attention in the quiet darkness. Seven colors. Seven chances to avoid spending the night curled up on cold stone or wandering these endless corridors until dawn found me collapsed somewhere undignified.
I didn't know what the colors meant, if they represented ranks, bloodlines, elemental affinities, death sentences, or simply some sadistic designer's idea of aesthetic organization, but it was painfully obvious this was where new students were expected to sleep.
Which meant I had to pick one.
I rolled my aching shoulders slowly, my body protesting in places I didn't even remember injuring during the day's endless parade of humiliations and near-deaths. A long, weary sigh escaped me, carrying every ounce of exhaustion, frustration, and lingering terror I had been holding back.
"Alright, Nyx," I muttered to myself under my breath, trying, and failing, to inject some false confidence into the words. "Let's beg for shelter with whatever scraps of dignity you have left."
I walked toward the Red dorm first, the building bathed in a deep, almost bloody crimson glow that made it look like it was pulsing with restrained violence.
Knock. Knock.
The door swung open almost immediately.
A tall guy with bloodshot eyes and a sharp, predatory grin leaned against the frame, looking me over from head to toe with open disdain. The way his gaze raked across my soaked, ruined dress made me feel like dirt scraped off the bottom of his shoe, something annoying, something unwanted, something barely worth the breath it would take to dismiss.
"We're full," he said flatly, his voice dripping with bored disinterest.
The door slammed shut before I could even manage a nod, a plea, or a single word.
I stood there for a second, my hand still raised awkwardly in the air like a fool caught mid-gesture.
"…Okay," I whispered to the closed door, shoulders slumping. "Red has serious anger issues… but it shouldn't take them out on me." I shrugged one shoulder weakly, trying to convince myself the rejection didn't sting as much as it did.
Black dorm was next.
I knocked once.
Nothing.
I knocked again, harder this time, the sound echoing down the quiet path.
The door cracked open just enough for a girl to peer out suspiciously. Her eyes flicked over my face, then down to my ruined white dress, the same one I had woken up in that morning, now stained with blood and dirt, wrinkled beyond repair, and clinging awkwardly to my body like a second, shameful skin. I looked more like a wandering ghost than any kind of princess.
Maybe I should just play the part of a ghost and scare everyone out of the room so I can have it to myself… But this isn't an academy of humans. These are supernatural beings. I'd probably be cast out and bound with spells before I even finished my first haunting line.
"No space," she said curtly, snapping me back to the present.
"Please," I said quickly, pride slipping away faster than body heat on a winter night. "Just for tonight. Even a corner of the floor…"
"No outsiders."
"I'm not an outsider," I replied, desperation creeping thickly into my voice. "I'm just… currently… homeless."
From deeper inside the room, another voice muttered sleepily, "Shut the door. I want to sleep."
The girl didn't say another word. She simply closed the door, gently, almost carefully, like she was doing me some small, twisted kindness by not slamming it in my face.
Somehow, that soft, deliberate click hurt worse than any outright rejection.
I moved on before the last fragile scraps of my dignity could fully evaporate into the cold night air.
Blue dorm followed.
I knocked.
A voice answered from inside without bothering to open the door.
"Occupied."
"I just need a corner," I called out, pressing my forehead briefly against the cool wood in defeat. "Or the floor. I don't care."
Silence.
Then the sound of footsteps moving deliberately away from the entrance, as if my very presence was something to be ignored.
I stared at the polished surface of the door, my faint, exhausted reflection staring back at me—disheveled, soaked, defeated, and utterly out of place.
"How come there's not one kind heart among you?" I asked no one in particular, the words barely louder than a sigh, carried away by the night breeze.
Grey dorm was worse.
The door opened fully this time.
Hope flared in my chest, bright, foolish, and painfully brief.
Then a hand appeared in the gap.
And a bucket of ice-cold water splashed straight into my face.
Sudden. Merciless. Freezing.
I gasped sharply as the shock of it soaked through my already ruined dress, streamed down my hair in heavy rivulets, and burned my tired eyes.
What the fuck?
Then the voice from inside spat viciously, "Get the fuck away, you cursed one… My brother died because of you."
The door slammed shut with enough force to rattle the frame before I could even form a coherent reply.
I stood there, drenched yet again, blinking water out of my lashes, droplets running down my chin and dripping onto the stone steps in steady, humiliating patters.
Anger surged through me immediately, hot, violent, and all-consuming.
What does he mean I killed his brother? I can swear on every gods I've never killed anyone in my whole miserable life.
I'm fucking breaking this door down.
He needs to tell me which brother of his I supposedly killed.
The thought burned bright and feral in my mind, my fists clenching tightly at my sides as every ounce of exhaustion, humiliation, and raw pain from the entire day coalesced into something sharp and dangerous. My nails dug into my palms until I felt the sting of broken skin. The cold water dripping from my hair suddenly felt insignificant compared to the fire raging beneath my ribs.
I took one furious step forward, ready to pound on the door until it splintered or someone answered me...