The lights came back on, as streams of flame shimmered out of existence, the holodisk reaching the end of its recording, capped off with a cheerful wave by the red-headed star performer of the entire presentation.  Lea herself finished up, with a few closing words, clasping her hands together with a small bow at the end.  

“Alright, class.  Everyone please, give a round of applause for Miss Zeal’s presentation on fire magic, with an extra thank you to the material she provided from her lovely source, Miss Ferris.”  Aire couldn’t help but admit that it was impressive, honestly.  It was a sight to see Lea’s red-headed friend weave fire like it was a part of her body, and honestly it made her more than a little jealous.  She was just a normal girl, despite her dad being particularly gifted with lightning.  She had no talent, latent or otherwise.  She slumped in her seat as her classmate sat behind her, their teacher looking over the class roster.  With more than ten minutes left to the class, almost everyone was done with their presentations.  

Aire had done her own with her dad’s help, as he explained and demonstrated his own handle on electricity.  Yanaes showed off and showboated with his presentation on wind magic, as he was more than capable of a live demonstration.  Of course, there were other people who researched the same elements, and others who went out of their way to do presentations on more obscure branches of magic with composite mana and sources.  Honestly, it was a nice change from studying about history, or fumbling through math equations, and a welcome spectacle.  A little bit of a bummer that she couldn’t do any of this herself, but it was a nice change of pace all the same.  

“Miss Zealan, you are aware that you’re the only person who hasn’t given their presentation, correct?”  Miss Rangers was peering to the back of the class, as a ball of light appeared above the girl in the back’s head.  After failing to answer, the ball bounced against her head once, grabbing her attention immediately.  Aire craned her neck back, nudging her long bangs from her eyes, looking to the back of the classroom.  

There was a long moment of silence as her classmate lifted her mess of snow-white hair from her desk, framing her heavily tanned skin.  “Yes, sorry.  I just-”  

“You just drifted off, yes.  We know.  We could hear you snoring through the last three presentations.”  She felt bad for snickering at her, given what little she knew about her.  Honestly, seeing someone like her here was just strange.  Aire only knew one other aren, but those crimson eyes, the darkened skin, the unnaturally silvery, white hair, it was all something almost all of them shared.  

Arlee Zealan, particularly, was an odd one.  She rarely spoke at length to anyone and had seemingly shrugged off other students’ attempts to get to know her, including Aire.  Honestly, Aire was just thinking ‘it’s probably the focus on video games’, or maybe she just wasn’t interested in her in general?  Though, if she wanted to be left alone, she could hardly blame her.  

Having your entire city and culture razed over the course of a single night would probably cause anyone to be a little reserved.  Aire didn’t have much time to dwell on that, though, and didn’t care to, as she shrank in her seat a little when Arlee passed by.  Honestly, she was pretty sure Arlee just didn’t like her.  At least, that was the vibe she got.  Aire just sighed, and looked to Yanaes, seated next to her.  “So… what do you think is the over-under on her topic being shadow magic like every other edgelord in class?”  Her long-time lamian friend seemed to snap from a trance.  

“Seventy-six and eighty-four centimeters respectively.  Wait, what did you say about shadow magic?”  Aire just blinked at him with the rising urge to smack him, looking back to Arlee as she stood at the head of the class and spoke quietly with Miss Rangers, who dimmed the lights.  

“I… dude, for the love of… come on.”  She paused, and looked at the desk behind her, a mess of pink hair sound asleep and dead to the world.  Eleris was out like a light as soon as her sister’s presentation had been finished.  It was genuinely, incredibly impressive how she somehow fell asleep on a fold out desk, but she was making it work.  “... Right.  Just… gods, find a better hobby.”  A tiny smirk pulled at her lips, though, as she heard Arlee clear her throat.  

“I… um.  Hi.  I don’t normally do this often.  At all.”  Honestly, it was the first time Aire had ever heard the girl talk at all, much less in front of a class like this.  “My topic is… er, well.  It’s a bit controversial, but, hey, what isn’t nowadays, right…?”  She looked around as if she was searching for validation, but found only a disinterested classroom.  In fact, some of the students were downright annoyed that she’d slept through their own presentations.  

“Now now, everyone.  Please give Miss Zealan your full attention.”  Miss Rangers’ arms were crossed as she peered back through the rows of students.  “Aire, your sister.  Please.”  

“Hey El, Yan wants to sell you Lea’s measurements.”  

“What?  But I already told El.”  It was a dry response, one that got snickers from nearly everyone in class, and turned the blonde in question’s face beet red.  Honestly, she didn’t know what she expected, but the response was the sound of a hand loudly slapping the desk behind her.  

“How much!?”  A fresh wave of laughter livened things up, as Lea just hid her face in her hands, her girlfriend just pretty much embarrassing the hell out of her.  While it was virtually impossible to read Eleris behind her rosey bangs, her cheeks turned pink as she slowly looked across the giggling classroom.  Arlee just had her arms crossed at this point, though the tiniest smirk was present on her face.  

“... You done?”  

“Yeah, you two done?” Yanaes chimed in.  Eleris gave a small thumbs up while Aire sank silently in her seat.  Arlee sighed as she scratched her head.  

“So… I didn’t bring a holodisk.  My presentation is entirely practical.  And may be a bit of a… look, I’m a necromancer.  Miss Rangers has given me permission to do my demonstration, of course.  It had to be cleared with the principal as well.  So, um... Yeah.”  She took a deep breath, fidgeting on the spot as Aire was sitting all the way up.  Everyone was.  Necromancy was a taboo branch of magic, yet in spite of that, it had its own religious order and an entire jungle worth of arachne and elves that practiced and studied it to the point of perfection.  

“Necromancy is, at the end of the day, another form of magic, with a particular affinity.  What makes it special, is that it specifically is used to control souls and bodies.  Typically dead ones.  Messing with live souls typically means killing an animal, or a person, so, uh… yeah, can’t do that.  Or at least, most of us don’t want to do that.  Not the point, usually.”  A dark rumble of muted laughter echoed from her audience; there was something very charming about how awkward Arlee was.  She’d always seemed so aloof, and serious before.  Now, she almost seemed as timid as Lea.  

“Normally, these souls are invisible, as they should be.  With the right magic, though…”  As she exhaled, pale blue energy swirled about her arm, as she kneeled, placing her hand on the floor… and suddenly, the room dimmed, filled with floating wisps of various sizes.  Aire was more than just awestruck.  She found the entire display beautiful, and could even hear a low ‘wow’ from her sister behind her.  It was one of those things that was placed firmly in the ‘things I’ll probably never see in my lifetime’ category.  Glancing behind herself, Aire could see Eleris parting her bangs for a better look while Lea just marveled at the sight, as did most of the other students.  Yanaes was deathly silent, but not for lack of interest.  He watched Arlee with intense scrutiny.  

“Stray souls are just called ‘wisps’ by necromancers.  Nothing special, or fancy about them.  You can tell how… old they were, how powerful, or how weak, just by observing the size and brightness of the wisp.  The souls of insects, small birds, and rodents are what you see glittering between the larger wisps.  Those are the souls of people, and of powerful beasts.  Of course… that gets to the meat of necromancy.”  She raised her hand, drawing a small soul towards herself.  

“The energy, the mana from a soul is potent.  It carries with it all the experiences that creature or person experienced in their life.  Some necromancers will consume souls for power.  A strong enough soul can influence a necromancer’s mind when consumed or absorbed, or even transform their body.  Some do this deliberately, despite the danger.  The souls of dragons, for instance, are potent and packed full of mana.  The soul of an average bear, less so.  The soul of an insect, like a butterfly or moth, borders on inconsequential.”  There was a long pause, as she sighed.  “Truth be told, I certainly could resurrect this soul right here.”  It was a large glowing mass that dwarfed the others, floating through the midst of the other wisps silently.  “It’s the soul of a desert chimera, an old and powerful one at that.  But seeing as that very well may wipe me out for the day…  I’ll uh, not do that.”  Yanaes let out a sigh of relief.  “Besides, I already have an example of my work in the classroom.”  

Aire didn’t know what to expect when she heard the sound of footsteps from the back of the room, as a woman came strolling down from the library at the back of the lecture seats.  She was much like Arlee, and much… not.  It was difficult for Aire to articulate.  The way she carried herself seemed so unlike what she’d expect.  Hands behind her head, a bored look to her eyes, a messy bob of short, almost spiked hair that nonetheless was long enough to frame a really pretty face perfectly.  Her attire was something else as well.  A black tank top that only extended halfway down her midriff, a comfortable looking black leather jacket with a fur fringe around the neck, a slightly different shade of white to her hair.  On the bottom half, she wore loose cargo pants, a frayed denim, over a pair of dark sneakers.  The harder she looked, though, the weirder things got.  

She was a shade or two paler than Arlee, and under her tank top, a pale glow flickered in what could only be a vertical gash through her entire chest.  Her hands remained behind her head as she looked around the classroom, and finally spoke.  “Yo.  I’m Arlee’s mom.”  Of all the things any of them had expected to hear, that was probably last on the list.  Two plus two clicked in Aire’s head.  And probably the heads of everyone else in the room.  “I’d say, ‘hey kids, wanna see a dead body!?’, but it’s not like you’ve got a choice at this point!”  A closer, more scrutinizing look revealed scars all over her body, as well as the hint of a gaping gash under that top of hers.    

“So, I’m sure you can all guess the story here.  Delphinian, young, not able to just… you know, move on with her life.  Definitely dabbled in necromancy as a child.  A lot.”  Arlee rubbed at her neck under her muffler, and everyone could see visible sweat on her skin as she spoke.  “... but, I’m not here to give you my life story.  I’m giving a presentation on what made this possible.  And before you ask, no, I won’t bring back any of your dead family members or pets.”  Considering that they could all see all the souls still floating about, the tone was hilariously off-setting the mood thus far.  

“I’m not going to pretend like being undead is entirely fun n’games, either.  I’ll let Arlee get more into that, seeing as it’s my kid’s project and all, and I’m just here for support.”  Arlee’s mother sighed, scratching her head, looking around the dimmed, wisp-filled room.  All of the students were transfixed, especially those four jokers that showed up early.  “See… longer someone’s dead, the more they… forget.  I’d say about now, because my kid’s a little talented and all… I’d say I have most of what matters.”  

“That’s right.  Necromancy is far from easy, if you want to do it correctly.  It requires an abhorrent amount of mana, and the longer a person’s been dead, well… the more of their early memories they don’t come back with.  My mom, for instance, is missing roughly the first thirty percent of her life.”  Arlee smiled at that, and looked to her.  “But it used to be over sixty percent.  She used to not even remember how she met my dad.”  All the while, their teacher was the one taking notes on all of this, as more than a few of the students in the classroom could see her writing in a large, leatherbound journal.  

“Memory isn’t even half of it, though.  Without the proper technique and knowledge, raising a person from the dead will almost always result in a mindless zombie, or a violent poltergeist.  It goes for animals, too, in case you’re wondering.  Those are just tools.  A body with no soul.  My mother is a properly raised undead.  A revenant.”  With a bit of hesitation, she gestured to her mom, and mimed out raising her shirt.  

“... What, you want me to flash them?”  Arlee’s palm met her face, and Aire couldn’t help but snicker ever so slightly.  These two were nearly as entertaining as watching Yanaes get all flustered by his own mother.  

“J-Just… enough so they can see your wound.”  The poor thing was clearly embarrassed as her mom just shrugged and lifted her tank just below her bust line.  There was a sudden silence in the room, as everyone got a good look at the cause of her death.  A scorched wound from a huge blade, blueish green flames wicking out of it once exposed, extending just past the length of where her sternum should be.  

“So… these are soul flames.  Typically, these are the easiest way to identify a revenant, like my mother here.  They’re the culmination of a person’s soul, enhanced by necromancy, and given tangible form.  If I was to remove your ability to see the wisps floating around in this room, this flame of her soul would still be visible.”  Mileena lowered her shirt as Arlee spoke, hands behind her head.  As she scanned the classroom with those dull crimson eyes, her gaze settled on Eleris and Aire longer than most of the other students in there.  

“And if such a flame went out, Miss Zealan?”  Their teacher posed the question, mostly to move the presentation along.  Arlee, however, shook her head, and gave her a small nod.  She appreciated the push into her next point, at any rate.  

“It’s uh… not possible, actually.  Revenants are incredibly durable in comparison to well… anything.  It’s actually safer to say they’re closer to elementals than anything that’s alive in the traditional sense.  It doesn’t make them more or less of a person, though… it just makes them different.”  She waved her hand.  “If their body gets destroyed, they enter a phantasmal state.  If I somehow bite it, my mom wouldn’t be bonded to me anymore, but she also wouldn’t just die.  A revenant’s soul is ‘branded’ in a sense as soon as they’re resurrected.  Immutable, and unchanging.  Some consider it a truer immortality than vampirism or elven immortality, others consider it a fate worse than death.”  

“Eh, it is what it is, don’t be so dramatic.”  Arlee’s mother was something else.  It was hard to tell she WAS her mom and not her older sister or something, what with the way she acted and that fact she barely looked older than her daughter.  It made Aire wonder just how young Mileena was when she died.  “Don’t ya think we should be wrappin’ up?  Time’s runnin a bit short, if you haven’t noticed.”  

“Er, yeah…”  As she cleared her throat, Arlee looked around, across all of the students in the classroom.  “To be honest, this was partly to clear my head.  Clear the air with myself, talk about this art I learned because I was… broken inside.  A lot of necromancers aren’t bad people.  They’re… broken.  Grieving.  Hurt.  Unable to handle a particular loss, or just loss in general.  A power that allows you to kick the order of things in the teeth, and take something back is intoxicating to some.  Some people abuse it.  Make more of it than what it is, what it should be.  It’s just soul magic, at the end of the day… a-and that’s the end of my presentation.  R-Really.”  

There was a very brief, awkward silence at that, no one quite sure how to react.  The silence was crushing, and as it began to sink in deeper, Yanaes rose from his seat and clapped loud and hard for her, joined by Aire, Lea, Eleris somehow still paying attention, and then, in rapid succession, the rest of the students rose to clap for her, just as hard as they had for anyone else, if not harder.  Then the muffled sound of the school’s bell was heard right before it sounded clear as a bell in the classroom.  Considering they were in a magical room on the roof of the building, yeah that made sense.  

“Right then, on that fascinating note, I have wonderful news!  No one is getting booted from the course the first day.  I’ll see you first thing tomorrow for the proper course introduction, students!”  Leera clasped her hands together, as she had been clapping along with the rest of the class.  Arlee could be seen breathing a sigh of relief, as her mother gave her a hard slap on the back that sent her stumbling forward a few steps.  

“Atta girl!  How’s about I hang around, and mooch off of you for lunch?”  Arlee’s eyes widened as she swallowed.  Students filed out of the room, instantly transported down to the first floor, but Aire approached her, along with Yanaes, Eleris, and Lea.  “... Huh?  Friends of yours?”  

“N-No, um... well, not yet.  Hi, Mrs… Zealan?”  Aire spoke, a little unsure, the tomboyish revenant holding a finger up to the girl’s lips.  

“Ah nah, no, just call me ‘Mileena’.  Or Mils.  Hell, even Milly will work in a pinch.  Not good with this formal shit.”  Arlee just sighed, pushing her mother’s hand down, with an exasperated sigh.  

“... What is this?”  They were all a bit taken aback by that.  “Going to invite me to sit with you at lunch or something because you suddenly think you know something about me?”  Her tone was suddenly that familiar biting tone that Aire recognized so well from all of last year.  “Look, I don’t need pity, okay?  I said what I needed to say.”  

“... I think you do.”  Eleris spoke up quietly, cutting her eyes down at Arlee from that thick curtain of her bangs.  “I think you’ve probably been hurt in ways we can’t even wrap our heads around, and I think you need a few friends.  Pity or not.”  Before any of them could respond, Arlee just went flush, her hands balling up into trembling fists.  

“...I don't need anyone else I could lose.  Just leave me alone.”  She turned around and swiftly exited the classroom, disappearing quickly down the hallway.  It left them all stunned into silence, while her mother just sighed and scratched her head on the spot.  

“Dammit, this kid…”  Mileena glanced over them and sighed before adding, “Try again with her at lunch, okay?  She can’t keep doing this.  I’ll be hangin around the, uh… shit, the computer lab I think?  Or is it the library…”  She tugged at the visitor tag on her jacket.  “Only places I can go aside from the cafeteria.”  Yanaes offered a small wave as he watched Mileena follow after Arlee, a conflicted expression across his face.   

“Well, you tried, El,” he said as he gave her a soft pat on the back.  “Now it’s my turn.  I got this.”  He slithered out of the classroom to his next class, leaving Lea and the Leerhart sisters to wonder what he was going to do, as they checked to make sure they had all the books they needed for their own classes.  The sounds of footsteps and slithering tails filled the hall, as they all headed in separate directions.  

Arlee made herself scarce after her home room presentation.  She was frustrated, having been confronted by the pink-haired goon.  She kept playing the moment back in her head.  It was, frankly, distracting her as she went from class to class, practically on autopilot.  Before she realized it, it was time for her lunch period, and she made her way to the cafeteria, quickly finding her mother.  Of course, there she was, nodding off and resting her head on her elbow as she lazily waved to her.  It wasn’t so much an issue of money, as it was the fact that she couldn’t buy anything without Arlee and her student ID present.  

“How’d your other classes go, kid?  Nothin’ gotcha too stumped, did it?” Mileena asked, taking note of Arlee’s sour expression.  She only shot her mother an irritated look, and sighed, gesturing for her to stand up.  

“... Come on, you need to come with me if you want to ‘mooch off of me’, right?”  Now, ironically, there were few arens that were strapped for cash.  Due to their more unique circumstances, as well as the destruction of Delphinus on the Devoid outskirts, and the startlingly few arens left… the other peoples, races and territories had banded together to put together the Delphinus Relief Fund.  Thanks to the sheer impact and public outcry, it was one of the most well-funded charities in recorded history.  And they had severely overestimated the number of survivors from that night as well.  By the time the charity had been fully funded, many of the victims from that night had died under intensive care or worse, had vanished without a trace.  The remaining arens suddenly found themselves possessing a staggering amount of wealth split between them.  The Zealans, by that token, were set for life just as much as any of their kinsmen.  

“I mean… you know I don’t need to, but your school’s got all these little rules and such that I can’t just buy somethin’ myself, y’know?”  Arlee certainly did know.  As she’d heard it, a girl had gone missing a few years back, and all they found was her bloodied clothes floating down one of the canals.  The security at Grand Divide schools was particularly intense if you weren’t a student.  Of course, by the time she’d paid for herself and her mother and returned to her table, there was a familiar face waiting for her; that lamian boy from her first period.  At first Arlee thought she had returned to the wrong table, but she noticed that he had, in fact, deliberately taken the seat across from her backpack. 

“Hi,” the lamia greeted her with an enthusiastic smile.  Arlee could only feel her eye twitch as she looked back at her mother.

“Mom, for fuck’s sake.”  Mileena just shrugged, stuffing her mouth with a chicken sandwich.  This clearly wasn’t up for discussion.  A low groan escaped her lips as she sat down, clearly defeated.  

“Now now, don’t blame your mother for my presence,” he said as he moved his coils out of her way.  “I’m here because I want to be.”  

“Uh huh.”  She was clearly less than excited about all of this, and she could see all of his female friends sitting across the cafeteria, glancing over every now and then.  Arlee’s eyes narrowed, as she looked at him.  “So what can I do for you… uh…”  Shit.  She didn’t even remember his name.  He’d JUST given a presentation about wind magic in first period, too.  He was the first student to present, and she was already drawing a blank on his name.  “Uh… you…?”  His grin continued to widen as she struggled to remember his name.  Her initial indignance at his arrival was replaced by an awkward silence as he watched her wrack her brain until, as if he was a cat playing with a mouse, he finally let her loose and freed her from this tension.  

“Yanaes, at your service, fairest Arlee,” he said with a theatrical bow before offering his hand for her to shake.  

“…Right.  And you think I’m going to respond to you any differently than I did to the pink sheepdog because…?”  She lingered on her words as she sat down, a tray full of cafeteria pizza, and a soda to accompany it.  Clearly, she felt as though she’d get to enjoy it in peace if she could just make this one guy leave.  While he didn’t flinch at her words, he did retract his hand when it was clear she wouldn’t shake it.  

“Oh, I have no reason to think you’re going to change your mind.  Not yet, at least.  I’m not here to ask you to eat with them.  I’m here because I want to eat with you.  And your mother, of course.  Orange?”  He held an orange in each hand, offering them to Arlee and Mileena.  Her mother swallowed, and accepted the orange with a muffled, “Thanks, kid,” while Yanaes still held the other orange up to Arlee.  

Was she being ridiculous?  Possibly.  Antisocial?  Oh, definitely.  Though, at the same time, she had put a significant part of who she was on display to get her school presentation done, so maybe these people felt like they had a chance to get to know her.  

“... Alright, fine.  Give me that before it fuses to your hand.”  She snatched the orange away, and swiftly peeled it, her face still smoldering.  “Your friend pisses me off, by the way.  It is… really jarring getting spoken to like that by someone with a voice that…”  

“...Mmph.”  Mileena swallowed before butting in with, “She sounds like she’s half asleep and stoned.  Really gentle voice though, but man did she let you have it there.”  Arlee just grunted a response to that, her cheeks tinged pink.  She’d never been called out on her attitude like that before, and it sort of stung.

“The Leerhart sisters mean well,” Yanaes spoke up with a fond smile.  “Aire is… for the pot to call the kettle ‘black’, naive.  And part of me thinks the real reason ‘the pink mop head’ spoke to you so harshly was because you shot her little sister down so bluntly.  Take that with a grain of salt, though.  Even I have a hard time reading her.”  He took a large bite from his pizza and quickly chewed and swallowed it.  “I know it’s kinda presumptuous of me to ask this after only speaking to you for a few minutes, but please hear me out.”  Arlee leaned on her elbows against the table and held her face with both hands, brushing her bangs out of her face and behind her ear, as if to say, ‘I’m waiting, get on with it.’ 

“Please forgive Eleris.”  Arlee’s face grew more intense, but Yanaes waved his hand as if to assure her.  “Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not asking you to walk over and apologize to her.  You could refuse to speak to her at all, that’s all up to you.  What I’m asking is that you forgive her for saying what she said, the way she said it.  Aire and El did what they did because they care.  That’s just kind of who they are, and it’s why I love them.  So, please, don’t hold their actions earlier as a slight against you.”  A small frown remained on Arlee’s face from when Yanaes started speaking, to when he finished.  

“... Gods, what did I even expect?”  She let out an aggravated groan as she shook her head, bringing her bangs back into place.  “I’m more pissed at myself than anything, Ya-naes.  That being said…”  She leaned ever so slightly closer, a tiny, mysterious smile lighting her face.  “You know how dangerous being a necromancer’s friend is, right?”  

“The thought crossed my mind, yes,” he nodded with that same wholesome smile.  “And feel free to call me ‘Yan’, if you find it easier to say.”  

“Fine, fine.  Yan.  Wave them over here.  I could use some pity friends.”  He gave Arlee a deep nod before turning in his seat and gesturing to his friends to come over.  All the while, Mileena had a big smile on her face as she ate silently.  She was letting Arlee feel this situation out for herself at this stage.  Even if she wanted to be her mom all the time and help her make good decisions, she barely made good decisions for herself, even when she was properly alive.  This, on the other hand, just made her smile.  Arlee noticed, and just grinned at her mother, punching her lightly on the arm.  

“What are you grinning at, weirdo?”  

“Oh, nothing.  Just seeing ya get over yourself is a helluva improvement to all the constant mopin’.  Or gods forbid, all the soul callin’ in the house.”  Mileena turned to Yanaes, and gave him an eerie thousand-yard stare.  “Turns out, getting your memories back after you’re dead for eight years is a fuckin’ process.”  

“I can imagine.  Okay, no I can’t,” he conceded as he scratched the back of his head.  “But it sounds awful.”  

“Plus, it’s nice to know that Zack’s girls want to be friends with my daughter,” Mileena added, earning a look from both Yanaes and Arlee.  

“Wait, you knew who they are?” Arlee asked with a hint of frustration.  

“Not until Yan mentioned the name ‘Leerhart’.  Then it kinda clicked.”  Arlee continued to give her mother a scrutinizing look.  “What?  Their dad drinks at the bar I work at.”  Arlee rubbed her brow, wondering who else her mother knew.  Yanaes seemed just as apprehensive.  

The sound of shuffling came up behind them, and Yanaes turned to welcome Lea and the Leerhart sisters before rising from his seat and moving to the same side as Arlee and Mileena.  Aire just had a bewildered look on her face as she looked Yanaes in the eyes.  

“How?” was the only word that left her lips, Yanaes grinning widely in response.  

“What can I say, I’m a snake charmer.”  Aire put her hand on his head as she sat down, with Lea and then Eleris next to her.  The tables were rectangular, the rest of them sat opposite from Arlee and her mother.  

“Was I really that unbearable before?” Arlee asked, trying to ease up, and relax.  

“We were taking bets on whether or not you were mute for about half the year last year.  Lea actually called it right.”  The small blonde nodded, her voice even more quiet than her girlfriend’s.  

“You, uh… I’ve gotten dragged around Kyril a bit on my mother’s business trips.  Most of the ar-I mean, Delphinians I’ve seen were…”  She didn’t say more, and she didn’t need to.  Arlee knew.  “...You’re one of the more well-adjusted ones I’ve met.”  

“Eh, no point in being somber ‘bout it now.  We nearly died out.  Still might.”  Mileena, on the other hand, was boisterous, loud, and ill-mannered.  It was honestly a minor miracle that she had a kid in the first place, much less someone with a decent enough head on their shoulders.  

“So, uh… how’s school been treating you, Arlee?”  Aire decided to break some ground between them, and Arlee honestly couldn’t blame them.  She’d been tight-lipped and taciturn for a year, and it had gotten to the point where it was driving her a little mad.  

“It’s different.  I had some schooling in Riev, but it was hardly traditional.  I had to complete a year of supplementary courses to get up to speed, but I had a good bit of math and science under my belt already.  You… kinda need to know those to pull off necromancy in the first place.”  Yanaes listened to Arlee recount her previous schooling, a pleased smile on his face.  There was childish giddiness to the catharsis he felt in that moment, making the first steps in befriending Arlee.  

“Oye.  Yan.  You keep smiling like that, and your face will stick like that.”  Eleris leaned back and glanced at him, her bangs parting slightly with the motion of her head to reveal a flash of deep blue.  Arlee had to admit, even for an aren, this Eleris girl was hard to read.  All she could ever see was her mouth, and she only seemed to have two settings: straight-faced, and a mysterious smile.  

“... Why ARE you being so smug about this anyways.”  Arlee tilted her head as she asked, “How did you get these three to hang out with you in the first place?  I’m surprised they don’t get tired of your smug face, hanging around you so much.”

“It’s because I’m one of a kind,” he said confidently.  “But, real talk, the sisters and I have been next-door neighbors since we were six.  Mister Leerhart is like the dad I never had.”  

“Also, El and I happen to like his smug face very much, thank you,” Aire chimed in.  

“Thank you, Aire.”  Aire did seem to hang around him the most.  Arlee couldn’t really fathom her.  She must have spent most of her time managing her obscenely long hair to get it to look just right.  It was honestly impressive that a normal human could manage that much hair without magic. 

“Besides, pretty sure your mom is the most smug person here," Aire pointed out.  "Seriously.”  A glance to her side revealed that, yes, Mileena was grinning ear to ear between bites of her lunch.  

“Sorry.  I’m pretty sure she was just born that way.”  

“Yep.”  As if to emphasize the sentiment, Mileena licked her fingers one by one.  Lea just sighed and laid her face on the table.  

“I wish my parents were, you know, fun.”  The smallest member of their little group was the most agreeable, and the most timid sounding.  Lea was a genuine wall flower, through and through, and even as Arlee had noticed her hanging out with these three, she still spent a good chunk of her time alone.  She kept quiet about how observant she’d been.  It was a little weird, all things considered. 

“You could always join me and my mom the next time we go to the shooting range,” Yanaes offered to Lea.  “I promise I won’t try to steal you from El.”  Lea blinked, her cheeks running through several shades of pink as she stared at Yanaes, before Eleris laughed.  

“Please, Yan, you know you’re not her type.”  It was a swift response, but an accurate one.  

“To be fair, her type is ‘Eleris’,” Yanaes retorted.  “It’s a very defined and exceptional list of people.”  Eleris covered her mouth as she tried to stifle her laughter from the lamia trying to butter her up.  

“To be honest, it’s not that I’d mind, but…”  Eleris crossed her arms, leaning over the table to look at Yanaes with that mysterious smile on her face again.  “... Nah, you’re still not my type.  Not cute enough.”  As she sat back down, her arm wrapped around Lea, and pulled her close, the smaller girl returning the gesture.  Aire just rolled her eyes and gave Yanaes a look that screamed “you should know better by now.”  The lamia shrugged, just having fun.  

“Just you wait, I’m going to learn how to revert my appearance so I’m the same size and age as Maro.  Then I’ll be the cutest.”  Aire promptly reached across the table and pinched his cheek as she looked over her glasses at him.  

“Yeah, don’t do that.  That’s El’s thing, not mine.”  Of course, she saw Arlee was a bit confused, and she felt like she had to clarify.  “Maro is Yanaes’s kid brother.  Really sweet kid, but I think this guy gets pouty when all his attention gets stolen.” 

“Right back at you, my possessive lid~,” Yanaes teased back at Aire.  Her cheeks went flush as she let him go immediately and glanced to the side.  Arlee tilted her head to the side ever so slightly, as if confused by how she was acting.  

“Is this how childhood friends act around each other, or…”  

“Nah, ya just met a buncha weirdos, kid.  The best kinds of friends to have, by the way.”  

“Damn right,” Yanaes affirmed, rubbing the cheek Aire had stretched.  

“Yeah, pretty much.”  Aire just shrugged.  “My best friend is a smug womanizer, my sister is a horny, flirty super girl, and her girlfriend is a timid wallflower who is WAY too noisy in the other bedroom when I’m trying to sleep.”  Arlee felt her jaw drop slightly, as Eleris and Lea both looked down, trying not to give away how embarrassed they were.  “And today we’re folding in a necromancer who brought her own mom back to life, and is about as social as the cacti that grow around Delphinus.  Or what’s left of it.”  Yanaes’s mouth creaked open before trying to nervously laugh it off.  

“...I feel like there’s some pent-up frustration in all that,” Yanaes spoke up.  In response, Aire quickly placed a finger on his lip as she leaned across the table, staring him down so intensely that Arlee (and everyone else) began to back away slowly.  

“Uh…”  Arlee was about to say something, but her mom just clapped her hand over Arlee’s mouth.  

“Not even a little bit.”  She practically whispered the words, and Arlee couldn’t help but snort, trying not to laugh.  These people were out there, for sure.  Meanwhile, Yanaes seemed to shrink under Aire’s gaze, his heart racing with her finger still pressed against his lips.  

“…Gods, you’re so hot when you assert yourself,” he whispered back to her, completely at her mercy.  Lea tugged at her collar, as she glanced at Eleris, while Aire froze up on the spot.  

“I-I..?  You... ”  She was stunned by him, and not even remotely sure how to respond.  

“Eh, six-out-of-ten.  Too lanky for me,” Eleris quipped as Lea just looked between the two, back and forth now.  

“W-What the hell, I’m your sister!  Come on!” Aire blurted out into the cafeteria.  

“Yeah, El!  Just a ‘six’?  Rude,” Yanaes chimed in.  Arlee wasn’t sure if Eleris winked at Aire just then, or what, but the teal-haired girl sat down, tugging at her own shirt collar.   

“Fine.  Eight’s the highest I’ll go.  It amazes me that she eats as much junk food and fast food as she does, and doesn’t have anything to show for it.”  For emphasis, Eleris just crossed her arms under her bust line, which drew an audible swallow from Lea next to her.  Overall, the pinkette had a much fuller figure than her sister.

“Hey, they are perfect the way they are!” Yanaes shouted, causing several of their peers to turn their way.  

“W-We’re just built differently, that’s all!” the younger sister insisted, covering her chest as if it was bare.  Arlee couldn’t help but chuckle, watching how Aire looked between Yanaes and her own sister.  

“Is this just how friends are with each other?  Or do you two actually have feelings for each other?”  Arlee felt like she might have asked something a little bit too personal by the look Aire gave her.  

“...Maybe,” she finally said, not exactly denying it.  “But being called a ‘girlfriend’ or thinking about anything past that makes my skin crawl for some reason, so, well… I’m not as romantic as El is.  And I’m no perfect cinnamon bun like Lea.  And as much as I love Yan, I can’t say I can really see myself in a traditional sort of relationship with him.  And he understands that.”    

“That’s why it’s important that I dote on Aire when she asserts her possession of me,” Yanaes explained.  “Also, I have feelings for all of them.  Including Lea, even if she is not-so-secretly my rival for Eleris’s affection.  Which is an uphill battle because Eleris is a lesbian-leaning bisexual, and I’m just a little too heavy on the Y-chromosome.  At least, according to her.  I, for one, think I am securely in touch with my anima,” he said with a sway of his layered hair.  

“I… have no comment.  On any of this,” Arlee conceded.  “Wow, do I not feel like the odd one out anymore.”  It was hard for her to even consider (let alone understand) half of this, given her distinct lack of social grace.  For Arlee, this was her first time really befriending people her own age.  It was strange, quirky, and sort of charming in its own way.  Also very strange, but she wasn’t exactly the picture of normalcy herself.  

“Don’t worry about it, Arlee.  It’s just you gettin to experience what it is to have a more normal life.”  Her mother took another bite of her sandwich.  “You’re just finally wrapping your head around gettin back out there, opening up to people, and you know… uh…”  Arlee stared at her mom, long and hard, knowing exactly what she was about to let spill.  “...You know, never mind that.”  

“...Yan, did you hit your head?”  Lea was still hung up on the lamia’s choice of words as she looked the taller pinkette over.  “You make El sound like she's a hard butch.”  Her pale blue eyes shifted to Arlee.  It was clear the girl was trying to steer the conversation back away from whatever her mother had almost let slip.  It wasn’t hard to imagine the issues any aren who survived the Delphinus massacre might have, and the less said, the better.

“Everything is relative, Lea,” Yanaes said defensively.  “Don’t even pretend to act like you’re the one on top in the relationship.  I know just how much you enjoy surrendering yourself to El, placing yourself at the mercy of her powerful arms, and her strong hands.  And believe me, I get it.  I’m actually really jealous.”  Lea, Aire, Arlee, and even Mileena all looked at Eleris.  There was a long, awkward silence.  For a girl with messy hair and the genuine definition of “voluptuous”, it made a little more sense why she was pissed Aire could eat damn near anything without getting fat.  Eleris, by contrast, looked plush.  Which most of them knew not to be the case, but when she was at ease, it was difficult to tell she was anything but normal.  

“Yan, I know I’m strong, but I… I’m not a bodybuilder or anything...”  

“El, you can lift a school bus.  With one arm.  You have literally saved a kid from being hit by a car by CROSS-COUNTERING THE CAR.”  Aire paused, as she looked over her sister.  Deceptive was one way to describe her appearance.  Perhaps because she was tall enough to pull it off, but perhaps that was how she was.  She appeared soft and voluptuous, but under that were muscles of corded steel, as far as Aire could tell.  Just like how her bangs did a great job of hiding her emotions most of the time, only her shoulders offered a hint of her true strength.  Arlee couldn’t help but raise her eyebrow.  

“... Shit, really?  If that’s all true, I wouldn’t mind sparring with you after school.”  Arlee threw it out and let it hang in the air for a moment.  

“That might not be the best idea,” Yanaes confessed.  “Eleris has a tendency of causing… collateral damage.” 

“...Uh, well.”  Arlee rubbed her arm awkwardly, glancing at her mom.  “What else do… people our age do after school?  I’ve kinda just… sparred with mom and my thralls.”  

“You have thralls?” Yanaes said in incredulous wonder.  “Can… can we meet them sometime?”  Staring around the packed cafeteria, Arlee considered this for a moment.  

“... Yes, but not where I could cause a panic.  They’re… pretty big.”  A soft sigh left her lips, as she smirked ever so slightly.  “Honestly, they’re more like really big pets that get stronger than… no, wait, that’s really just what a thrall is.  Should I keep you in suspense?”  

“Yes, I’m sure the payoff is huge.”  Aire was grinning ear to ear, smiling as she did.  “How about this; you come and hang out at our houses-” she twisted her finger between herself and Yanaes, as Arlee nodded, “-and you can show off your thralls in our backyard!”  

“And you know, bum around, pet dogs, play video games, order pizza… you know.”  

“Normal teenager stuff,” Arlee surmised.  

“More like ‘cool kid stuff’!” Yanaes stepped in.  “From the perspective of normal teenagers, of course.  But I’m sure once you’ve endeared yourself to my mom, she’d be happy to let you join us at the shooting range.”  A very weary looking smile crossed Arlee’s face.  How long had it been since she even thought of doing something that other people considered normal?  Arlee couldn’t help but briefly think of her older sister, but she pushed her and the past to the back of her mind.  She wanted to have fun today, not stew in past grievances.