Shadow Color (NEW VERSION)

Chapter 1

"And that's why I refused to stop over and deliver my notes to him last night. Wouldn't you feel afraid to travel across Anecaster by yourself late at night? What about all those reports of people getting attacked at night?" Natsuki asked.

Macaria shook her head with a surprised look on her face, "Why would he think that was a good idea?"

Natsuki sighed as she reached for her drink sitting next to her laptop, "Who knows. I would have emailed him the notes, but the internet is down in most parts of the city which is strange. At least there are a select few places that still somehow have service. I'm glad that the Lakeside coffee shop is one of the few places that has service."

After hearing what Natsuki had said, Macaria was thankful that the coffee shop was one of the select few places that still had service. She and Natsuki come here often. To them, this was the perfect spot to get together and relax or work on homework.

"I wonder how long it'll take for them to figure out what caused the outage. There's this show I recently started watching and Stream It is about to remove it from their platform," Macaria complained as she placed her arms on the table and rested her head on her arms.

Natsuki reached for her navy-blue backpack that was sitting in the chair beside her and began to shuffle through her bag, "Too bad you're not an unknown with electric abilities like me. If you were, you wouldn't have to worry about having your computer dying with your unsaved work. Or having the power cut off at a suspenseful moment during your show," she said as she pulled a light blue brush from her bag.

Natsuki was lucky enough to be a person of unknown origins, or unknown for short. Unknowns were people who have a special power relating to one of nine elements. Most people in Anecaster are unknowns due to the excellent schooling system the city had to offer. Many unknown families move to the city in hopes of being accepted into one of four unknown schools in the area, but due to limited seats in the school, a lottery was drawn every school year. Natsuki was one of the lucky students to be accepted in one of the schools.

As for Macaria, a powerless person with no abilities, she was considered ordinary. She didn't mind being with the sixty percent of the population that was considered ordinary. Although sometimes she wished she did have an ability so she could properly defend herself without always having to rely on Natsuki.

Just as Macaria was about to speak, a man with light green messy hair walked into the coffee shop. Natsuki noticed she was looking at something behind her and decided to look to as she gathered her hair behind her and tied it back with the ribbon. "Oh, hey Klein," Natsuki said sounding unamused.

Klein turned to his left after hearing Natsuki's voice, the two sitting at the table closest to the door. "Oh, it's you, Natsuki," he replied in the same tone of voice. Natsuki and Klein were nothing short of classmate rivals who would go out of their way to outshine the other academically. They once started fighting on campus after a new spell craft professor had asked what kind of element they wielded. That day, the new professor learned that a wind and a lightning unknown can nearly destroy the entire campus.

Macaria could feel the tension in the air. She wanted to break them up but getting in between two unknowns wasn't a safe option. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see one of the staff watching them from afar as he cleaned the counter with a rag. The man looked to be a few years older than her and had short blonde hair with black glasses. His sharp glare was enough to scare her.

"What, are you so far behind that a short outage caused you to come here just to catch up on your work?" Klein asked.

"And you think talking to me is going to put me behind?" Natsuki responded bitterly as she stood up from her seat and spun around to face him. Macaria wanted to break up the two before things escalated, but she remained silent fearing she would make things worse.