184 Mirch University [Jacob Terrence]
The mont we stepped through the front gates, the bold letters spelling MIRCH UNIVERSITY towered over us like so ancient monunt. Diane stopped walking to stare up at it, eyes bright with awe.
“So this is what a university looks like,” she whispered.
Her new ID badge hung neatly around her neck, Diane More, while mine read Jacob Terrence. They were strange and borrowed nas, but necessary ones. To everyone in the Godslayers, we were siblings, though not biologically related. But at the sa ti, we were lovers. And while the world we ca from never frowned on such things, this world… did. This world frowned on a lot of things, and forced one to conform if they wanted to fit in. Washing every day. Presenting yourself properly. All these strange rituals. What good was a toothbrush anyway?
“We’re late,” I reminded her. “Go to your class.”
Diane puffed her cheeks. “I told you I should’ve taken the sa course as you.”
“We’ll still et in general education classes,” I said. “Besides… we need to get used to this place if we want to accomplish the mission Lord Eclipse gave us.”
That got her moving. With a dragging sigh, she waved and hurried off toward the design building.
It was a miracle I wasn’t a slave anymore.
I didn’t know freedom could feel… warm. Sweet, even. I sat through my first lecture and learned at my own pace, though everything still felt new and strange. Our high school credentials had been faked, of course. On weekends we attended GED reviews to make the lie true. This world had far too many things to learn.
But Lord Eclipse had prepared us. One month of intense training from language, manners, history, and psychic tutoring that drilled the letters and numbers into our skulls until they stayed. Now it was just a matter of blending in.
When the morning classes ended, I stepped out into the hallway and heard it again.
“He’s cute, kinda gloomy though.”
“Yeah, but the gloom works on him.”
I didn’t understand it. Lady Alia had worked hard to make look “well put,” whatever that ant. Diane had also taken an interest in her own appearance lately, probably why she chose fashion design in the first place.
I found her in the cafeteria, sitting with a group of girls and a handful of guys orbiting her like flies. Irritating. My chest tightened with a sharp stab of jealousy, and I grabbed a tray from the lunch lady, retreating to a far corner.
Diane noticed imdiately and glared daggers at .
One of the boys leaned in. “So… you got a boyfriend?”
Boyfriend. Another new word. It ant sothing like a chosen partner, I thought.
Before Diane could answer, one of the girls chirped, “She’s with soone,” then turned, waving over. “Right? Co sit with us!”
A seat was freed beside her. Diane’s death glare softened only enough to grab my sleeve and yank down beside her. Then she pinched my arm hard.
“What was that?” she demanded under her breath.
I shrugged, staring at my tray. Too many eyes were on ; too much noise, too many voices. I’d learned sothing important in class today. It was that crowds drained .
“It was nothing,” I said.
The more ti I spent around people, the more I understood why crowded places made my skin crawl. It wasn’t the noise or the stares. It was the shadows. My shadow wasn’t just a shadow. Instead, it was my real body and my true self. This flesh was only a tool, a puppet hand I moved around. Whenever soone stepped too close and their foot brushed the edge of my shadow, I felt it like a pressure on my spine.
No wonder crowds made uneasy.
The girls at the table leaned forward with bright, nosy eyes.
“So how did you two et?” one asked.
“How long have you been boyfriend and girlfriend?” another chid in.
I blinked. “What is a ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’?”
They all exploded in giggles.
“Aaah, cutie patootie!”
“He’s like a baby deer!”
“Adorable!”
I had no idea what any of those ant.
Diane waved her hands quickly. “We’re new to Markend,” she said.
That was my cue. I stuck to the information packet George and Alia drilled into us.
“We grew up together,” I added.
Diane groaned softly as the girls squealed.
“Childhood friends to lovers?! That’s sooo romantic!”
I was beginning to suspect my studies on social cues were pitifully inadequate. George taught how to drive, how traffic worked, what licenses were, and even how to do taxes. Diane, from what she said, learned fashion and etiquette from Alia. We were becoming different kinds of “normal.”
One of the guys nudged with his elbow. “Hey man, join a club. You look pretty built. Maybe soccer? You on steroids?”
I stared at him. “I don’t know what steroids are.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Then you’re just naturally buff? Damn.”
“I’m not interested,” I said quickly.
We were here on a mission. Nothing was supposed to distract us.
Diane leaned toward , whispering, “You should accept. It’s a good excuse to co and go from campus. And it wouldn’t hurt for you to stretch your legs.”
I sighed. “I’ll think about it.”
I focused on my food, watching where everyone’s feet were in relation to my shadow, when the cafeteria TV switched to a replay of Eclipse humiliating the New Vanguard.
“Why does the dia keep showing this?” one student complained. “Are they stupid or just trying to start drama?”
“Probably sensationalism,” another replied. “Broadcasts like this rake in views.”
“But it is a problem,” soone else argued. “If our heroes are that incompetent—”
The gossip turned sharp, acidic, piling over each other until soone slamd their tray down.
A student with short brown hair stood up, face red with anger.
“Shut up!” she snapped. “All of you! You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”
The cafeteria fell silent.
Diane watched the girl storm out of the cafeteria and tilted her head. “Who was that?”
“Millie,” one of the classmates answered. “She’s been… stressed.”
Millie’s arm was in a sling. Her face looked tired, almost sickly, like she’d just co from an accident.
I asked, “What happened to her?”
“Bicycle crash,” a girl replied casually. “Or so the story goes…”
Another leaned closer, whispering, “But I swear I saw her without an arm a few days ago. Now it’s back. Like, completely back!”
Soone shushed her. “Don’t say that. Don’t even joke. You can’t guess if soone’s a cape. It’s illegal. Unmasking law.”
A few nodded nervously.
Millie didn’t look back. She walked away with sharp, angry steps while a brunette hurried after her.
For a mont, I wondered sothing stupid. Since Lord Eclipse and Lady Alia were also college-aged, couldn’t they have done this infiltration mission themselves? I rolled my eyes at myself. They had important duties, important fights, important futures.
They obviously didn’t avoid school because they hated studying… probably.
I shook the thought away.
I sent a clone after Millie and the brunette. My shadow clones were perfect spies, since they could flatten into thin sars on the floor, slip into any darkness, and pull themselves along until they rged with soone’s shadow. No one noticed a thing.
Diane and I finished lunch, and then went to our shared general subjects. Halfway through a lecture, I stiffened. My ears ward.
The clone had found them making out in the locker room against a row of tal shelves.
Was this campus filled with nothing but young people in heat?
Diane tapped my arm. “Jacob? Your ears are red. Are you sick?”
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
When classes ended, Diane clasped her bag and said, “I want to try the book club. You should go to the soccer club. et people. Get familiar.”
I nodded, but I didn’t go anywhere near the soccer field, since it was too much running.
Instead, I headed for the recreation club.
I heard they often worked closely with university staff, perfect if we needed internal access later. And more importantly, the club president was Natasha… who had been making out with a girl who might have regrown an arm.
It was too suspicious to ignore.
I pushed open the club room door.
It was quiet and empty, except for a woman with dark hair sitting at a desk, legs crossed, tapping through papers.
She looked up and smiled politely.
“Looking to join?” she asked.
I nodded, filled in the form as neatly as I could, and handed it to her.
She took it, glanced at it, and then t my eyes.
“I’m Natasha,” she said. “Club president.”
I kept my expression straight, though my shadow curled behind like a tail.
“I’m Jacob,” I said. “I’d like to join.”
“We’re a pretty open club,” she said. “Events, small projects, sotis we help organize campus activities. Not hard work, but you have to show up. That okay with you?”
“That’s fine,” I answered.
Natasha flipped through my form with a pleased nod. “Good. I’ve been looking for new blood. As a sophomore aiming to graduate early through the advanced program, I need soone trustworthy to take over this club after .” Her smile sharpened. “That soone might even be you.”
I blinked. “Surely you jest.”
She laughed once, before turning her chair and reaching for a stack of papers in the corner. Without hesitation, she fed them into a small shredder beside the table.
The sound of ripping paper filled the quiet room.
My brow furrowed. “What… are those?”
“Applications,” she said casually. “Rejected ones.”
“Why?”
“Because only a select few are allowed to join,” she answered, brushing shredded strips aside. “This club has criteria. Unique criteria.”
Her eyes glimred as she watched . Sothing was very off.
Finally, she asked, “Tell , Jacob… did you like what you saw?”
My stomach tightened. “What do you an?”
Her expression hardened. “Don’t play innocent. Peeping tom.”
I stared back, lost. “My na isn’t Tom.”
She froze. Then she placed both hands on her head, fingers dragging down her face. A long, strangled sigh escaped her.
“I can’t believe this,” she muttered. “You—”
She pointed at , her cheeks pink with frustration.
“—are a cape. An unregistered one. Don’t bother denying it.”
My heart thumped. She didn’t look like she was lying.
She continued, “But I’m willing to overlook it. If you join the club. Register with the SRC. And maybe consider the hero track.”
I swallowed hard. She didn’t seem to know anything about the clone I sent after her. Nothing about what it saw. But she was absolutely sure I had done sothing. I forced myself to stay calm.
Natasha crossed her arms and leaned back. “I’m more observant and more cautious than most. I already checked your background.”
My blood ran cold.
She began reciting it in a soft voice from my supposed childhood in the lawless, how Diane and I smuggled ourselves into the city, and how we had nothing but each other. It was all fake, built up by George, but she looked convinced.
“And because of that,” she went on, “your situation is ideal.”
“...Ideal?” I echoed.
She nodded. “If you don’t join the club and register, I will report you. And Diane. You know it’s a cri to conceal powers while living in Markend. Moreover, you smuggled your way in here. Being a minor doesn’t protect you as much as you think.”
My hands tightened in my pockets.
“The university,” she said, “is a transitory ground for young capes like you. You won’t get a cleaner chance than this. You can join the hero track without years of official training. You’ll learn on the field.”
Then she leaned forward, eyes narrow.
“And I will look past the fact you peeked at and Millie.”
I nearly choked. She wasn’t joking. I screwed up, badly. I wanted to bla bad luck, but honestly, I’d been too careless with my powers. Still, how did she know? Was she bluffing?
No. Her face held no doubt. She was absolutely convinced she caught .
At least George’s fake docunts held up. If she learned what I really was and what Diane was, she wouldn’t be inviting into so secret hero club. But what frightened most was the speed she did her “background check.” Barely half a day had passed. She was dangerous.
And yet… This could be an opportunity.
It was a way to get inside and complete the mission Lord Eclipse entrusted to us. Most importantly, a way to isolate Diane from suspicion. I wouldn’t let anything threaten her.
I took a slow breath.
“I’m joining,” I said quietly. “So you don’t need to scare .”
Natasha relaxed slightly. But she stepped closer, her voice lowering into a warning whisper.
“Good. Then keep your mouth shut about and Millie.”
I nodded, realizing shortly that I stepped on what George would call an enormous landmine.
Diane was already waiting by the car when I stepped out of the campus gates. She leaned against the passenger door, scrolling through sothing on her phone with a seriousness that did not match the bright sunset behind her. When she noticed approaching, she straightened, studying my face the way she always did when sothing was off.
“You look troubled,” she said the instant I slipped behind the wheel.
I buckled in and rested my hands on the steering wheel. The question had been batting around my head since lunch, and the mont I saw her, it ca out before I could stop it. “Diane… is it possible for a girlfriend to have a girlfriend?”
Her expression twisted into confusion. “A girlfriend having a girlfriend? I’m not sure.” She tapped her chin. “My classmates call their friends besties or girlfriends, so… maybe it’s like that?”
I stared at her. Sohow Diane was adapting to this world faster than I was. I tried to catch up, but every ti I thought I understood sothing, another bizarre detail tripped up. I didn’t regret coming here, not for a mont, but sotis the uncertainty made doubt my own decisions.
I leaned closer and whispered, “Would you kiss your girlfriends? And touch them in sensitive places?”
Diane’s fist shot out and punched my shoulder so hard I jerked back against the seat. “Ow—! Diane, what was that for? That hurts!”
Her entire face was bright red, and she couldn’t look at . “Of course not! That would be wrong—and weird—and—just no!”
Now I was even more confused. So a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship was different from a girlfriend-girlfriend relationship? How many rules did this world have? How did anyone keep up with them? Maybe I should ask George. Or Lord Eclipse. Or both. Preferably when Diane wasn’t around to punch again.
She finally cald down enough to ask, “Why did you even ask that?”
I opened my mouth to tell her about Natasha and Millie in the locker room… but Natasha’s warning hit like a slap. I felt the weight of it press down on my shoulders. If she found out about Diane and her power, our entire mission could collapse before it even began.
I shut my mouth and shook my head. “Never mind. Forget it.”
Diane didn’t push. She trusted enough for that.
I started the car, letting the engine hum fill the silence. “Where do you want to eat?”
Her eyes lit up instantly, a welco change from the awkwardness earlier. “I want to try those soft things called ice cream. The ones they sell around the block. Everyone keeps eating them, and they look… fluffy.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Ice cream isn’t fluffy, I think.”
“It looks fluffy,” she insisted, folding her arms.
“Fine. We’ll get the fluffy ice cream.”
Diane grinned like she’d won so great argunt, and the car rolled forward into the fading light.
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