"Do you always leave your hair like that?"
Sophie jumps at the face that appears in the mirror. She tears her gaze away from the cut on her jaw, now just a thin scar. "Yeah, why?" she asks Vertina.
Vertina wrinkles her nose. "Okay, it's just that you always put it up in a braid. Don't you want to try something new?"
Sophie stubbornly continues weaving her hair and ties off the end with an elastic. "It keeps my hair out of my eyes. That's all I need."
There's a knock at the door. Edaline smiles at her brightly from the doorway. "Are you ready?" she asks. "Dex is already downstairs."
"I'll be just a minute, Mrs. Ruewen," Sophie says.
"Sure thing. And please," she scoffs. "Call me Edaline, honey."
It's been over a week since Sophie moved to the Lost Cities. She assumed she would live with the Dizznees at Rimeshire, since they were one of the most involved families with the Black Swan besides the Endals. Not to mention that Dex was Sophie's best friend.
Surprisingly, the Collective assigned her to live with Juline's sister instead. Their reasoning was something about proximity to Everglen, and connections that Grady Ruewen had to Alden Vacker—not that it mattered much. Sophie still spent her spare time at Rimeshire with the Dizznees and her nights working with the Black Swan.
Grady and Edaline treat her warmly but keep their distance, which Sophie is grateful for. It was odd, seeing little reminders of Jolie Ruewen lingering throughout Havenfield—framed photos gathering dust in the corners, an Elite Levels cape in the coat closet, the shoes that Edaline doesn't wear.
There are other things, too—a single dark cloak tucked in the back of Jolie's dresser, a dagger hidden behind the bedroom door, and the shattered remains of a Black Swan pendant under her old bed. Sophie chooses not to mention these to Grady or Edaline.
"Are you going to stare at your reflection all morning, or can we leave soon?" Dex asks.
Sophie looks to where he's leaning against the doorway, already dressed in his red Level Five Foxfire uniform.
"Sorry," she replies. "I guess I'm a little nervous."
"Don't apologize," Vertina pipes up. "You could afford to stare at your reflection a little more. Maybe you'll be more willing to do something about it." Sophie glares as Vertina cackles.
Dex offers Sophie a comforting smile. "Hey, you'll be okay. I'll show you the ropes." He gestures over his shoulder. "Seriously though, we should get going. Ready for your first day?"
She's faced down bloodthirsty ogres, an entire organization after her head, and Lodestar himself. What's a few hours of school five days a week?
Sophie takes a deep breath. "I'm ready."
As it turns out, she was maybe not as ready as she wanted to be.
The spotlight settles on her the instant they get to Foxfire—literally. Dame Alina makes a nice show of emphasizing Sophie's tragic background—how her parents abandoned her in the Neutral Territories and she attended Exillium all her life (Stina started snickering here), never knowing the warmth and care of a proper elvin home until the Ruewens adopted her, so would everyone please do their best to make Sophie feel welcome, thank you very much.
It's all a cover story, of course, but Sophie still wants to curl up in a hole and die. She's not used to being the center of attention—even within the Black Swan, she operates in top secrecy with a select crowd of people. She tries and fails to ignore the tide of pitying and curious looks thrown her way.
Once orientation ends, the crowd of prodigies begins chattering and mingling in the few minutes before the morning session starts. Dex grabs Sophie's hand and drags her away before some curious Level Twos can approach her, their eyes burning with questions.
"Come on, I want you to meet some people." Dex says, waving to someone across the courtyard. "Guys! Over here!"
Two prodigies in the crowd whirl around. "Hey! What's up, Dizznee?" the curly-haired boy greets, offering him a high-five.
The girl next to him peers at Sophie curiously. "You're the new kid, right?" she exclaims with wide blue eyes.
Sophie winces. "My name is Sophie, actually."
The girl snaps the bright purple gum she's chewing and sticks out a hand. "Marella. Not Mare, not Ella."
"I'm Jensi Babblos. This is so cool—we've never had a new prodigy in the middle of the year," the other boy says with a toothy grin. Then he blinks. "Whoa. Are your eyes brown? Your eyes are brown!"
Sophie blinks. It's been a while since anyone commented on her eye color. "Thanks?"
"Ignore him," Marella tells her. "He had too much sugar this morning." She yelps when Jensi elbows her.
Dex just snorts. "Figures." He glances over at Sophie. "What's your first session?"
Sophie glances down at the schedule in her hand. "Um. Alchemy?"
Dex makes a face while Jensi barks out a laugh. "Good luck! Lady Galvin hates me. Not because of anything I did, but because of my brother. I mean, I also gave her plenty of reasons to hate me on my own—"
"I can't blame her," Marella mutters, and Jensi sticks out his tongue at her.
"What's Exillium like, anyway?" Jensi asks. "I heard that they train you to see in the dark by making you live in a cave for two weeks, and you have to sleep on the ground and avoid getting eaten by cave spiders."
Marella laughs. "Your brother only told you that to scare you into getting better grades," she tells him. Jensi sticks his tongue out at her again, which only serves to make her laugh harder.
Sophie remembers the time Sandor took her to an underground cavern and trained her to fight without relying on her vision. It worked, but it also gave her a mild fear of the dark for a while after. "That's not far off, actually," she tells Jensi, and he looks at her with eyes as big as moons.
Dex clears his throat. "I should probably help Sophie find her first session now."
"It was nice meeting you," Sophie says with a small smile. She feels a little selfish realizing that Dex had good friends aside from her, but she's glad he does. He deserves some kind of normalcy. Sophie's not exactly great at that.
Marella snaps on her gum again. This time it's neon green. "See you around."
"Watch out for her cape, new girl! The cape!" Jensi shouts after them. Sophie raises an eyebrow in confusion but smiles and waves back.
The crowd of prodigies outside is slowly dispersing into the building, and Dex quickly steers Sophie through to get inside. Everyone stares as they pass by. She keeps her head down and ignores the whispers that follow as she hurries after Dex.
"I can probably find my session by myself, you know," Sophie mutters to him.
"You couldn't find your way out of a paper bag if I gave you a map," Dex shoots back. "No offense. Also, it's nice to be in charge for once. You're on my turf now." He grins back at her as she groans.
They head down corridor after corridor, each one startlingly identical. Sophie loses track of how many turns they've taken, despite her photographic memory. Dex points out the lockers, the Level Five wing, and the path to the gym while Sophie's head spins. She knows the layout of more than a dozen Black Swan hideouts by heart, but Foxfire is another story.
Dex comes to a stop in front of a door. "Here you go!"
"Great." Sophie sighs. "Thanks, Dex."
"Of course. By the way..." He clears his throat. "Weapons aren't allowed on campus."
She nods. "Okay."
Dex groans. "That includes the throwing stars I know you keep in your boots. Just..." He holds out a hand. "Make life easier for both of us. I don't want to have to tackle you in the hallway on your first day."
Damn it. "I'd like to see you try," she says, but hands over the weapons anyway. She watches longingly as Dex tucks them in his pocket, and feels a little unsettled without their familiar weight in her boots.
"You can get them back from Magnate Leto at the end of the day," he tells her. "Good luck!"
Sophie takes a deep breath and steps into her first Foxfire session.
In hindsight, she really should have listened to Jensi.
Barely halfway through the session, Sophie manages to spill a vial of extremely irritable serum onto her wrist, because of course she does. It's the cherry on top of everything, really, because Lady Galvin doesn't even shriek this time. She just dismisses Sophie to the Healing Center with a sigh and continues squeezing the slime out of her cape from Sophie's earlier fumble.
When she's back out in the hallway, Sophie realizes she has no clue where to go. She's pretty sure Dex pointed out the Healing Center at some point, but that was a while ago, and she's not about to go back and ask Lady Galvin for directions.
Sophie chooses a corridor at random and follows it until she's definitely sure she's passed the same door three times. Her sense of direction was never great, despite Sandor's best attempts to train her photographic memory. Normally she relied on tracking the minds of the dwarves or gnomes that guided her.
There's no one here to guide her, though. She's on the verge of transmitting directly to Dex for help when someone behind her clears their throat.
"You must be lost."