Scarlet

It takes five whole minutes for them to stop bantering. Five. Whole. Minutes.

I groan to myself – internally, of course – before immediately perking up the moment they move on.

“So how was your first week?” Belle asks everyone, having already introduced Denise to her suitemates during the bantering. And Denise, Emily, Michael, Bridget, Jessica, and Angel all answer back to back.

“It was okay.” “Fine.” “No complaints here.” “Kind of exciting!” “Surprising.” “Okay…”

They then look at me and I answer with a shrug, “Nothing unexpected.”

“Actually,” Michael says while leaning forwards onto the table and looking at me, “I’m a little curious what the blood magic class was like.”

All of the others turn to me at that, making me sigh. So I tell them all about the class, surprising them slightly by the unique professor for it, and especially by the fact that our year actually does have a second blood magic student in it.

“I’d honestly expected that you were the only blood magic user this year to contract,” Michael says with a frown.

“Actually,” I start, “they didn’t contract this year. They’re a Class II Guardian who contracted years ago but is only now entering the university after graduating from high school.”

“Really?” he asks, and the others appear surprised as well, with Belle mentioning, “That’s not something you see a lot.”

Right. Mostly because the majority of the fae seem to pick young adults between seventeen to twenty-five years of age to form a contract with. Both due to them having more time, and just plainly because they’re more likely to go off fighting than older or younger people.

Not to mention the rare magic he has.

The others bring up their own classes as well, and the conversations split off, more than one forming at once before I finally remember to press the order button, not directly participating in much of the conversations going on and focusing on my stomach which is growling like crazy.

Good thing people can’t hear because of how loud the cafeteria is. Otherwise, I might be embarrassed.

A screen appears soon after on the center of the table, and I quickly put in my order, the others following suit immediately afterwards. Then the screen flashes a thank you message followed by a timer for our wait.

“Um, S-Scarlet?” one of Belle’s friends – each of whom have been rather quiet during the conversations – finally asks with a bit of a stutter. This one being the one sitting closest to me, Angel.

I look over at her and ask, “What’s up?”

Her eyes glance at my ears for a second at my question before immediately returning to my eyes again to find them slightly narrowed as she asks, “Could you sign my autograph.”

My jaw drops open.

What?

I stare at her for several seconds, Belle eventually noticing and smirking at me with a knowing look on her face before returning to her conversation with Denise – who took the seat next to her.

“Uh, sure?” I eventually answer after sending Belle a brief glare and turning my focus back to the girl with a slightly confused expression on my face. “Do you have something to write on? And to write with?”

She hurriedly fumbles around in her purse before pulling out a paper and pen and handing them to me. So I quickly sign both my first and last name before handing them back to her.

The girl looks at the paper with what looks like awe before hugging it to her chest in a rather adorable manner for a few seconds and then safely storing it in her purse.

I can’t help but smile a little at how adorable the girl is being before glancing at the others.

“By the way, if you’re an orphan, where did your last name come from?” Tar suddenly asks, having returned from the Farshore at some point.

From what Allen tells me, my first and last name were both on a note in my crib when he found me. But he won’t tell me anything else about the event at all. Which is still infuriating to this day, but in the end doesn’t really matter much.

“Hmm,” Tar hums, not saying any more.

I don’t think I’ve ever actually run into any family with the surname Asger before though, as it’s not exactly a very common name. I also don’t know any Guardians who have that name, so it’s quite possible that my Guardian parent – assuming it was a Guardian that was my parent – didn’t even give me their last name.

“Your human parent had to have been a Guardian,” Tar says, clarifying a bit more on the subject, “otherwise it wouldn’t have even been possible for you to be born in the first place. Not with a weak regular human’s genes mixed with a blood lycan’s.”

Oh? That’s interesting.

“The blood lycan genes would’ve devoured the human genes in an instant, much less let the two parents conceive a child,” Tar finishes as the others around the table continue chatting.

Hmm. Kind of depressing just how strong a blood lycan’s genes are compared to a humans.

“So Scarlet,” Michael suddenly asks, bringing my attention to him from my thoughts and inner conversation with Tar. “Have you decided on whether you’ll be helping us for the Interschool Tournaments or not?”

My eyebrows rise for a second before returning to normal as I look through the others, taking in their reactions.

Emily and Denise both look hopeful, whereas Belle just looks confused – likely not having realized that my position in the team was still a little tentative.

And Michael isn’t showing any inclination whatsoever.

“Yeah, I’ll be helping you,” I answer before looking up as our food gets here, a robotic cart of some sort rolling over with it on before the thing puts all of our plates around the table in no specific order, making each of us grab our plates and move it towards us. “But I will be splitting off and going solo in a week or two during Fractures.”

The first part of my answer made them all release a pent up breath I hadn’t realized they were holding. But the second part? That makes them tense up again.

“I’ll still be sticking with you for the first Fracture of each Demonic Assault, don’t get me wrong. But I’ll be splitting off and going solo after that in each Fracture we go to,” I clarify. “In the same Fractures that you’re in, of course. Just to make sure we’re nearby in case something happens.”

My clarification seems to make them all relax a little again.

“Well, I’m glad to have you on the team for the tournament,” Michael says with a light smile, and I nod in response.

It’ll certainly be interesting, that’s for sure.