8
Elias.
I knew from the moment I saw "Adrian Elowen" on the intake list that something wasn't right. The school only got new humans once a decade, and when they did, it was always a spectacle; noble sons and daughters, handpicked and polished. Adrian was supposed to be the latest sacrificial lamb. But the person who walked through those doors had a shadow in their eyes, a step too careful, and a mouth that almost never smiled.
The truth is, it wasn't hard to guess. Maybe the others weren't looking. Maybe they didn't want to see. I'd been watching people for as long as I could remember. My mother used to say I was born old, seeing too much, talking too little. Here, at Umbra Noctis, that habit kept me alive. It also made me notice things I probably shouldn't have.
