Chapter 1 – It Begins

Mirian woke abruptly, and then lay there, trying to figure out why. She had woken with a start, like she had heard someone scream, or like she’d been experiencing a vivid nightmare. Only, she couldn’t remember the dream, she just had this dreadful sense of loss that took her breath away, and she found herself crying without even knowing why.

This quiet sobbing was enough to wake up her dorm-mate, Lily.

“Mirian? Are you okay?” she mumbled from the other bed.

Mirian had to choke back a sob, but the feeling was at least dissipating. “Yeah, wow, sorry. I—nightmare or something, I guess,” she lied.

Then, a drop of water hit her, right on the chest, dampening her bed-gown.

It was raining outside; she could hear the soft pitter-patter of it falling with that soothing sound. But if it was coming into her dorm room, it was suddenly no longer soothing. She examined the ceiling, and sure enough: another drop hit her, right in the face. Looking up, there was a hole in the ceiling. It looked a lot like a bullet hole to her, except it had traveled through three floors and a roof to reach her and it hadn’t gotten any wider. And obviously, she hadn’t been shot or anything. She could only see the faint light coming from the cloudy sky if she positioned her head just right. She checked the covers. Shit, it had even gone through the duvet! But when she checked her chest, there was no hole or anything. Well, thank the Gods for that.

“What’s up?” Lily said, eyes actually open now, and only a little groggy. Lily’s blond hair was in its usual morning tangle, but she already had her thick glasses on. She was blind without them—in the literal sense. The small glyphs on the side of the temples linked with the crystal lenses to let her see.

“There’s a hole,” Mirian said. “It’s leaking.”

“Oh, great. Wait, what? We’re on the first floor.” She came over and squinted at it. “How the hell did that happen?” she muttered.

“No idea,” Mirian said, and then let out a loud sigh. “Just what I needed, something else to worry about.”

Lily nodded sympathetically. “Don’t you have an enchantments exam today?”

Mirian put her head in her hands. “Yes.”

“And that presentation in your artifice class?”

The clay cube covered in glyphs was sitting on her desk. It mostly worked. “Also yes.”

Lily gave her a quick side hug, then just sat there on the side of the bed with her. The moment was ruined when another drop came down and splattered them both, sending droplets over the inside of Lily’s glasses. As she cleaned them off, she said, “Listen, I can talk to housing today. I can skip my botany class this morning—it’s all review, and my professor will forgive me.”

“You’re the best,” Mirian said. “I owe you.”

“Nope, this one’s free,” she said.

There was no one in the rooms above them, it seemed, so Mirian took a tin container from under her bed and set it up on the covers to catch the water. After that, the ping! ping! ping! of the water annoyed her while she prepared for her academic battles.