Shalyn

  Morning light pierced through the curtains—lighting up the small room, which held only a bunk bed, two desks, and a dresser—striking Shalyn's face directly.

  The girl rolled onto her side with a grimace, yanking the blanket over her head to block the invasion.

  Her eyelids fluttered slightly as a scratching noise emerged from under her bed—but she quickly ignored it, pressing her hands over her ears.

  Minutes ticked by. The familiar sounds of sparrows chirping on the university roof and wind rattling her windowpanes seeped into the room.

  Then came the sound she loathed most—the alarm's shrill cry, met with her immediate, guttural groan.

  "Ugh... I hate mondays..." She groaned, opening her eyes and shifting onto her back.

  Her messy hair fell down on her half-lidded eyes, blocking her view completely.

  "Didn't ya' hear the alarm? Wake up." A soft voice with an oriental accent came from the other side of the room, right as she began dozing off again.

  "A minute..." Shalyn muttered, shifting back to her side to look at her roommate.

  The girl's ginger locks—which usually obscured her freckled face—were tied back in a low ponytail that cascaded down her back. She was writing something in her notebook, from time to time peeking at one of her flasks, in which she kept a red, whirling potion, shimmering in the sunlight.

  "Seriously, ya're goin' to be late." Her tone was light and not at all harsh, but her southern accent and manner of speaking never failed to amuse Shalyn.

  Shalyn had no intention on waking up whatsoever, and as she closed her eyes, trying to relax, from beneath her bed once again came a scratching noise, that began to grow louder and louder with each passing second.

  "Ugh.... what's that?" She moved her head down, hanging off the bed and looking under it with another groan.

  There it was—the source of the scratching noise was a mouse-like creature, with white antlers growing out of its head.

  At first, the girl's attention was drawn to its sleek black fur and adorable little eyes, making her squeal loudly with an immediate urge to cuddle the creature.

  Her expression quickly fell when she noticed that the seemingly calm, sweet animal was chewing on her last clean white socks.

  "Ceren... what is that?" She accented the words slowly, quickly moving her head up, and eyeing her red-haired roommate.

  "My homework." She replied, not taking her green eyes from her notebook as she bit her finger, which was a habit of hers, whenever she was stuck on an assignment that she didn't understand.

  "Well, your homework is munching on my socks!" She snapped, grabbing the creature by its antlers.

  The creature panicked, trying its best to get away it began to hop around anxiously, before Shalyn quickly pulled it from under the bed and snatched the socks from its mouth.

  "Hay! Ribbon's got weak antlers!" Her roommate shouted, finally looking up from her notes, her thin brows twitched slightly as she glanced at the scared mouse.

  "You named this thing?!" Shalyn looked at Ceren with shock engraved on her face.

  "Shalyn please! I need' her to pass Professor Artair's class." Her roommate yelled with a wince.

  Ceren's smile returned immidately after Shalyn laid the creature down on the floor, but before that she made sure to quickly grab all of her belongings from its reach, her messy hair swayed around as she shook her head.

  Freed Ribbon quickly ran up to Ceren—in the meantime knocking down some of her belongings—and with a soft thud it hopped right on her shoulder, from where it nestled itself in her bushy hair.

  "See? Ya' scared her." The girl grabbed the creature, digging it out from her hair and placing it on her lap.

  "Ugh, whatever...." She groaned, sitting up on her bed and searching for her uniform in the dresser.

  Shalyn hated the uniform she and the rest of first years were forced to wear, in her opinion, blue and white colours always made her look like a kid. She was always jealous of the second years, whose suits were darker and adorned with silver patterns, which made her even more impatient for the upcoming year—a year in which, besides her finally reaching 17 years, she'd finally see Sylleth again after a long time.

  With a grimace, she pulled her uniform from the depths of the dresser and with a swift motion of her hand, she drew the curtains, covering her bed.

  While taking off her pajamas, Shalyn thought about the letter that she and Miss Saelwen received from Sylleth last month. The news of him becoming an adventurer was shocking to both of them, Saelwen especially, since she had known him for much longer than Shalyn did.

  "He could have taken me with him though..." She muttered frankly annoyed, straightening up the shirt she liked to wear beneath her uniform.

  "Which lecture do ya' have now?" Ceren, who went back to writing in her notebook, spoke up while mixing something in her bottles.

  "Runes..." The word barely scraped past her throat, nearly making her gag at the thought of the old professor who taught her class—and who'd been grilling Shalyn mercilessly lately.

  "Yikes... don't envy ya' there." Her roommate commented, snatching one of the flasks she kept in the drawer and pouring into it the red potion from the previous one.

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  Putting the shirt on, Shalyn opened the window, letting the cold breeze enter the room, which caused both her hair and the curtains to wave.

  Leaning slightly against the window frame, the girl listened to birdsong with a smile, while observing the main square bustling with students below. Her attention was inevitably drawn to a group clad in black robes adorned with elaborate golden decorations.

  The black uniforms—worn exclusively by noble children—always filled Shalyn with disgust whenever she saw them, though she knew the garments themselves weren’t the real issue.

  This particular group consisted of a few of the most recognizable nobles, all equally detestable to her.

  Briannan Finnini, firstborn son of the Naso Council’s wealthiest sponsor and a powerful businessman.

  Given his northern heritage, Briannan was unusually tall and broad for his age, deterring most from challenging him.

  His black uniform, in Shalyn’s opinion, clashed terribly with his close-cropped brown hair and oversized head.

  Beside him stood Sìleas Harveye, daughter of a Naso Council member and Briannan’s betrothed since childhood.

  Shalyn knew little about her—unlike Briannan, whom her friends discussed far too often—as the girl blended into the background, deemed unworthy of campus gossip.

  Before Shalyn could identify the rest of the group, the loud bell signaling morning classes rang out, as usual shaking the entire building. The girl quickly scrambled back onto her bed, pulling on her socks and light pants.

  As she stood up on her bed, reaching for her skirt, a gentle wind swept into the room again, making the curtains flutter—much to the delight of the mouse perched on Ceren's knees, though Shalyn remained oblivious to this.

  Ribbon's black eyes locked on the moving curtains, and its paws instinctively moved, as it hopped down from Ceren's lap and landed right beneath them, and with a cute squeak it began chewing on the material, which made Shalyn boil with anger.

  "Ceren! Get your failed taxidermy project away from my bed!" She yelled, snatching the curtains and trying to shake the creature off of them.

  "Hay! Ribbon, stop that! It's not food!" She got on her feet, rushing to get the creature away from Shalyn.

  Finally, with another thrust from the girl, the mouse gave up, flying off the curtains and slamming its furry body right into Ceren's hands.

  "Ah! Ribbon!" She grabbed it, stroking it's back to calm it down.

  "I better not get late because of you two!" She screamed, hurriedly putting on her blue uniform and a white skirt.

  "It's not my fault, ya' shouldn't sleep for so long..." Her roommate remarked, getting back to her seat. "The professors are always late anyways! So you still have around ten minutes left."

  "And a whole building to cross." Shalyn swiftly took her bag from underneath her bed and rushed towards the doors with a yell. "See ya! Don't let that thing near my bed!"

  "See ya' later." Her roommate waved her off, scratching her light freckles as Ribbon hopped around on her desk.

  Slamming the door behind her, the girl dashed down the hallway, her footsteps seemingly echoing through the entire building.

  Being late for classes was never pleasant—especially since she did it rather frequently, which always ended up with her getting scolded not just from the professor conducting the lecture, but also from Ceana, who had been overseeing her since a few months ago.

  Dodging other groups of equally late students with practiced ease, the girl flew down the stairs to the lower floor, sprinting through the newly constructed hallway that connected the university's two separate wings.

  As she leaped off the last steps onto the ground floor in her hurry, she nearly collided with Professor Flavian—the magical flora specialist—who sat casually halfway down the staircase sipping coffee and reading a newspaper as if it was nothing unusual.

  Landing at the bottom, Shalyn muttered a curse under her breath. She turned with a sour expression, fully expecting another scolding for running in the halls—something she'd received many times before, usually from Ceana or Astram.

  But several seconds of silence passed. When she finally looked up into the man's blue-green eyes, she realized he couldn't even be bothered to glance her way.

  "Well? Keep going or you'll be late." he said, raising his voice slightly while returning to his reading, clearly more bothered by the interruption than her rule-breaking.

  Shalyn needed no further encouragement—with a quick pivot, she dashed off down the corridor.

  The girl rounded the final corner, bursting into the corridor that was connected to the large rear courtyard. Panting heavily, she stopped, as she finally reached the meeting spot where her brown-haired friend was already waiting.

  She quickly glanced at the clock, placed on the wall right behind the girl. A smirk tugged at her lips as she read the hour. "A minute faster than yesterday." She thought.

  "You look terrible." Capricia commented with a smirk. Her small frame leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, as Shalyn quickly walked up to her.

  The girl was at least a head shorter than Shalyn, but both her tan face—adorned with a mischievous smile and small, brown eyes—and body made her look way more mature than she really was, which sometimes made the still growing girl jealous.

  "Good morning to you too..." She giggled, giving her friend a wave.

  "You slept in again?" She asked, her hand running through her hazel locks.

  "Yeah..." Shalyn muttered, trying her best to tame the mess her hair had become overnight.

  Both girls started walking towards the lecture hall, passing other, also late groups of students that hurried to their lectures in the meantime. The hallway echoed with the clatter of boots and last-minute spell recitations.

  "Ready for lady Rosamond's lectures?" Capricia teased, watching her friend with an amused expression, as her grip on the bag tightened and her knuckles turned white from a simple mention of the professors name.

  "Oh give me a break! I spend the whole weekend revising for Mr. Astrams tests... I'm drained." Shalyn remarked, grimacing faintly at the thought of the old hag's voice.

  "Then..." Capricia lowered her tone slightly, leaning over to her friend. "...Marica's ditching today's lectures, wanna go and join her?" She flashed a sly smirk.

  "Oh I'd love to... but Miss Ceana would kill me if I miss any more classes." Shalyn shook her head, looking up at the clear sky as they walked into the courtyard.

  They stepped on the gravel path, that led through a giant garden full of colourful flowers, ponds and many types of small trees. The garden was created for students to test their magic, potions or runes on the magic filled flora, but many, including Shalyn preferred to use it to hide from the teachers and ditch the classes.

  "That sucks." Capricia pouted, crossing her arms playfully.

  The girls burst out laughing and pressed forward, making their way through more groups of students and rushing along the gravel path toward the secluded building where rune classes were held.

  The aged stone structure, weathered and two stories tall blended with the rest—however the towering birch trees whose canopies obscured its large windows set it apart.

  Their branches, covered in sunlit leaves, trembled in the wind, occasionally knocking against the windows and filling the air with rhythmic taps

  As the girls stepped through a giant golden gate, that stood lone on the path, a familiar tone came from behind them.

  "Shalyn? Don't you two have any classes now?" Saelwen—wearing her usual black suit—inquired with a smile, catching up to them.

  "Ah, Miss Saelwen... We were just about to go inside." Shalyn's face brightened up in a smile.

  "Oh, and I was sure you'd be ditching Idetta's class again." The elf shook her head playfully, passing the girls and moving towards the moss-covered entrance.

  "Miss Saelwen, what are you doing here?" Capricia questioned, walking right behind her together with Shalyn. "Shouldn't you be teaching the 3rd years right now?"

  "I'm taking Idetta's place for today..." The elven woman looked at them over her shoulder, sending them a sly wink and walking inside the building.

  Shalyn's jaw dropped as she stood rooted in one place, disbelief quickly turned into a grin so wide it hurt her cheeks as she processed this information.

  Capricia reacted much faster—the moment the professor was out of earshot, she practically tackled her friend with a gleeful grin.