Chapter Text
Arc I : Purposeful Reflections
Mara Artisan adjusted the straps of her backpack nervously. Tight. Loose. Tight. Loose. Which one was more comfortable? She wasn’t quite sure. She wasn’t really used to wearing one of these things. But her sister Integrity had gifted her one so she thought she might as well use it. Tight. Loose. Tight. Loose. How long was this line going to take? Did registration usually last this long?
It would be better if her dad, Artis, was here. He probably had to do this before when he went to school, unless the train worked differently. At least with him she wouldn’t be so gosh dang scared about messing it up. Like what if she got up there and signed her name wrong and then they couldn’t admit her into the school? What if she was never enrolled to begin with and they sent her home? What if they asked for some sort of registration fee that she couldn’t pay for?
No, no, Mara. Don’t be silly. That’s just dumb anxiety getting in your head.
The small room left much to be desired. Dark brown wood panelling on the walls with boarded up windows, candles held out by arms on the side of the walls, a grand fuzzy red rug placed on the ground creating a walkway over to the small registration table.
She looked at the students in front of her. There were two. Well, technically three, but she wasn’t sure if they counted because two of them were standing side by side. They must be here together, Mara thought. She examined them curiously. Two elves, one boy and one girl, very similar in appearance, with skin almost as pale as Mara’s. There was one big difference between them. While the girl had long pure black locks of hair, the boy had his dyed white, the black roots evident even to someone like Mara who hadn’t really seen hair dye before.
“Straighten up, Celia,” the boy said sternly. “You think mom would want this to be everyone’s first impression of you?”
“S-sorry…” the girl, who Mara assumed was named Celia, said under her breath. She straightened her back up and held her head up high in a way that Mara thought looked… somewhat pained and forced. That was… huh. Okay.
Eventually the person in front of them finished and went on her way, leading the two… Mara was going to guess they were siblings… walking further ahead. She tried not to eavesdrop into their conversation, even as she did move closer. She thought about it for a moment. She was curious about the registration process.
It was hard to hear much. Her vampire hearing was good, yes, but she didn’t want to make it obvious that she was listening. Act inconspicuous, she told herself as she looked up at the ceiling.
“Names please?” the person sitting at the desk, who looked more like a combination of cogs and gears than an actual person, asked.
The girl started to speak but the boy interrupted. “Trevor and Celia Sykes.”
“Ah.” The cogperson looked down at their clipboard. “Ah! The Sykes children. Of course. Great to have you here. How is your father?”
“Don’t know. Can we get this over with?” the boy, Trevor, said.
“Right, of course. Here, just fill out these forms.” They handed the clipboards over to Trevor and Celia. At least, Mara thought they did. It was hard to tell since she was still attempting as hard as she could to look like she wasn’t eavesdropping. The ceiling was really high up. And really nice. She hadn’t noticed it last time she had been in the castle.
Mara heard the sound of the clipboard scrape across the table again and the shifting of gears. The cogsperson coughed. “Very good. I will print out speciality IDs for the both of you.” There was another sound of cogs turning and a small little *ding!* and then a moment of silence. “Here you go. I expect to see you two in orienta-”
“What the fuck is this!?” Trevor yelled. “This is unacceptable!”
“I beg your pardon?” the cogsperson asked.
“These initials. On the ID badge.”
Celia piped in. “Trev, it’s not that big of a dea-”
“Ah. The initials.” The cogsperson coughed in a faux, public service voice. “Ms. Celia Sykes has been placed in Team FACE and Mr. Trevor Sykes has been placed in Team TEAM.”
“This is ridiculous. We can’t be in separate groups!” Trevor slammed down on the table. “I demand to be placed in Team FACE.”
“Sorry, but Team FACE does not have any vacancies. If any should occur, then perhaps restructuring can be discussed.” The cogsperson didn’t change tone, almost as if they couldn’t tell the tension in the situation.
“This is…. Ugh.” Trevor picked the clipboard up off the table and then slammed it down. Mara wasn’t looking up at the ceiling anymore. Is it really eavesdropping if the person keeps slamming crap?
Trevor held Celia’s hand and pulled her away from the table. “Whatever. C’mon, sis. I’ll see if we can get this worked out later on.”
“Y-yeah…” the black hair girl said in a low voice. For a moment, her eyes locked with Mara’s. Her face, which was already very red, suddenly got redder once it became clear that this whole altercation was being observed by someone else. Mara couldn’t help but feel bad. She made a note to try and befriend Celia later.
“Next in line, please!” The cogsperson said, still in that relentless customer service voice. “Name, please?”
Mara stepped forward and gulped. She was… very nervous. Very nervous. “Um. Hi! My name is Mara Artisan, level 9 half elf va-”
“Just your name is necessary. Thank you.” They looked down at their clipboard for a moment. “Ah yes. Top of the list. Ms. Artisan. Unfamiliar with your last name. Brought here by special request by the headmistress, is that so?”
“Uh, yeah. I guess. Haha.” Mara felt so awkward. This was so weird. So bizarre. What should she say? She’d never done anything like this before!
“I see. Well. Fill out these forms.” The cogsperson slid the clipboard over.
She took it up in her hand. Oh gosh. There was a crapload of junk here. Lots of text, most of it in common, though some of it in other languages that Mara didn’t understand. Was she expected to read all of it? She didn’t realize this would involve a lot of reading! She barely read anything as is. She lightly coughed. “Um. If I’m supposed to read all of this, I might need more time?”
“You do not need to read all of it. Just fill what you can in and sign your name, Ms. Artisan.”
“Oh… okay!” Mara looked at the clipboard again and looked through the form. Name. Race. Education. Year. Her PDIT date. Oh gosh, what was that again? Her dad had told her about that stuff before she left. Ah, yes. Two weeks. That’s what it was. There was a spot on the form already checked in for something called special accommodations. “Oh. Is that related to my….”
“Your vampire condition? Yes, Ms. Artisan. Do not worry. Headmistress Sinderman has taken necessary steps to ensure that you will be accommodated for.”
Mara smiled. She needed to remember to thank Serinep- Headmistress Sinderman when she could. She found the spot to sign her name at the bottom and did the best she could. Her mom had forced her to practice over the Summer. She did a giant M and then a bunch of scribbles afterward and handed it back over to the cogsperson.
They took the form and looked it over. “Very good. I will print out a speciality ID for you.” They took the paper off of the clipboard and placed it in their neck, where the gears moved and pushed it inward. After a few moments of clanking sounds, the gears rolled again and a small, laminated ID card popped out. They handed it over to Mara. “Here you go. I look forward to seeing you at orientation tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you!” Mara said, taking the card in her hand and inspecting it as she walked off. It looked… nice! It had what looked like an ink illustration of her face, a little icon image of a blood splot on it, a section that said Team NAME, and right above that was her name….
Mara Artisian?
What the crap!?
They spelt her name wrong!
She thought about turning around and going back and asking if it could be corrected but… would that be rude? She would have to cut in line and it would be awkward plus she didn’t want the cogsperson to think they did a bad job and get in trouble over a tiny little error. It was fine. It was fine. It was just a little typo. Not a big deal. Until then, she would just try to find her dorm room.
Her registration letter said that her room was room 204. If the way Integrity explained it to her was true, then… that meant it was… fourth room on the second floor, right? Or the fourth room on the twentieth floor? How many floors did this place have? What did floors even mean? This was the only building she had ever been in with stairs.
It was very strange walking the halls of the campus. Not just because it was empty or quiet, or because of the feeling and knowledge that it was daylight outside. No. It was because last time she was here, it was just a castle. One that she fought in. One that she killed… him in.
She tried not to think about that.
Her mom told her to just… not focus on that sort of thing.
She tried to focus on happier thoughts again.
Like if that bottle of blood she had saved in the fridge was still there.
Would she even have access to it?
That was a good question.
She got to the twentieth floor. This castle was way too big. Bigger than it probably needed to be. But a good place to run the school! Plus it meant a lot of places to explore. Not that Mara wanted to do much of that. She wasn’t really the type to wander off.
She looked at the doors. Last time she was here, they didn’t have numbers. Now they had fancy, new plated metal plaques on the front, letting you know exactly where she was. Room 204! She saw it! Right there! She took out the key that was handed to her in the mail. Okay, so just put it in the lock and turn and aha! That did it! The door was open!
She walked inside. There was a bed (well, more of a mattress pad on a metal framework), a dresser, a nightstand and a desk. The walls were plain white and the furniture a simple brown wood. There was no window, it seeming to be painted over by white paint. There were two doors, one that lead to an empty closet and the other that lead to a bathroom.
It was so nice! So perfect! There was so much here! She walked over the switch by the door. Integrity had called these light switches. She practiced flipping them up and down. Holy crap. This was so cool! Did she really deserve all this stuff? She’s never had a room this nice! She set her backpack down and jumped onto the bed.
This was rad as heck.
She laid there for a bit. She was sort of tired. She had been trying to get used to being awake in the day since that was what her life was going to be like now. It was a bit difficult, because this was also while her mom and dad were trying to train Integrity to be awake at night, meaning times when the two sisters could interact over the summer were… sparse.
Okay, if she was to be honest with you, reader, she did stay up the entire night before having a mini going away party with her sister in her room. It was some of the most fun she had ever had.
She missed her.
And her parents.
It was then she realized how quiet the dorm room was.
She wasn’t used to this. Even when her parents weren’t home, the cave carried echos.
She really was alone now, huh?
Her family were back in Whatever. Were they doing okay? What were they up to? What was dad reading? What was mom working on? Was Integrity still trying to see if she could eat potato chips? The idea that they were just… doing things… without her…
She needed to get her mind off of things. She lunged forward and got out of bed, heading towards her backpack. She heard other kids brought suitcases to school, though Mara decided she didn’t need one of those. For one, she didn’t have a suit. Two, she didn’t have much to really carry around. She was able to fit all of it in one over the shoulder bag. She pulled out a pillow and a blanket and placed them on her bed. She placed her outfits in her dresser, folded up as best as she could (though it wasn’t like her mom was here to get mad at her for that stuff…). She set down the makeup that Integrity had given her on her desk, next to the small journal she had brought to school. She also took out a picture that Veronica girl had made for Fidan as a special gift. It was her entire family standing together happily, her mom and dad with arms wrapped around each other while Integrity and Mara gave peace signs. It made Mara happy. And then made her sad.
That was it. That was all she could unpack.
She laid back in bed.
She was tired. She should try to sleep. She had orientation tomorrow morning. She’d get to meet her teammates! That would be fun!
Yeah! She had to keep her head up! Things were going to get better!
She fell asleep, doing her best to combat the tears filling her eyes.