Chapter 5: 4. Roomie

After examining every entry in my Status display I was still left with a lot of questions. Basically I still didn't know the rules of this game, or world or life or whatever it was.

One thing I was super-curious about was the other people I'd met here. Were they all like me, or were they more like NPCs? Did they have status displays, could they access system info like that? Or were they just like, normal sorceresses and knights and stuff, without any of that meta-data I had.

That was only the start of my questions. I didn't know if I had some over-arching quest or goal, like if there was a 'win' condition I needed to strive for. And likewise I didn't know if there was a 'lose' condition, though I assumed dying would be losing.

I wasted another ten or twelve minutes trying more commands as I tried to discover another interface or menu or anything that I could query to try and answer my questions, but nothing worked.

Eventually I gave up again for now. I needed to learn about this school I'd just enrolled in, and that information would hopefully be in one of the books I'd lugged halfway across the campus.

I pulled myself upright and untied the string that was holding the book bundle together then unwrapped the paper. Inside I found two thick tomes, one large workbook, and something that looked like a fat novel.

The pair of tomes bore the unimaginative titles of 'First Year Sorcery, vol.1' and 'First Year Sorcery, vol.2'. The workbook was a typical notebook full of empty pages, obviously for me to take notes. And the chunky novel was my student handbook.

The two big magic books were very tempting, or at least the first volume was. It was full of all sorts of stuff about magic, divided in to four separate sections. Volume two seemed to be empty, but I remembered how my class schedule page filled itself in and figured the second volume text would appear when I was ready for it.

I decided to put the two big books aside then checked out the student handbook, since my first priority was finding out about the school itself. The opening line gave me pause, it felt like equal parts overly-cheerful and slightly worrying.

"Welcome to Sappho's School of Sorcery! Your journey to becoming a respected and/or feared sorceress begins today!"

I glossed through the first chapter which was sort of an introduction and brief history of the school, and by the end of it I had a pretty good idea why the knight and the administrator acted so cool towards me, and why the headmistress seemed sort of amused.

This was a school for the daughters of the rich and powerful. They were probably used to catering to princesses and the daughters of dukes and wealthy merchants and whatever else the one-percenters were called on this world. My rustic outfit probably identified me as a peasant or commoner from a mile away. And the fact that I was here on a scholarship rather than my wealthy parents' bankroll would probably be held against me.

And yes, the school catered to daughters only. All-girls school, check.

I actually wondered why Headmistress Siusaidh accepted me. I had no idea what those letters said but from Lady Grace's reaction I had the feeling the headmistress didn't have to let me in, and the knight was surprised when her boss approved me.

Then I read the next part of the handbook and that cold, heavy feeling returned to my stomach as I started to suspect the reason she let me in. I was going to be fodder for the other students.

The second chapter in the handbook contained the rules all students had to abide by, and for a complete noob who was at least a month behind all the other students, it didn't look good.

There were some basics of course, we all had to do as the faculty and staff told us. The headmistress's word was law and we all had to do what she said. Penalties for disobedience were at the discretion of the staff but it was implied they were on a sliding scale and got progressively worse for repeat offenders.

One big no-no was students were prohibited from using magic on any faculty or staff. Notably there was nothing mentioned about them not using magic on us. And when it came to using magic on fellow students, things got even more uncomfortable.

Apparently rivalry was encouraged between the students. We were expected to practice our magic on each other. The handbook made it sound like law of the jungle kind of thing. The main rules were we couldn't use any permanent magic on each other, and whatever we did it couldn't disrupt our fellow students' studies. So we couldn't make them miss classes or force them to flunk assignments or anything like that. And we couldn't kill each other, or cause any other permanent injuries. In fact any physical injuries were frowned on, but they were permitted. Also permitted if not encouraged was temporary magic, including physical and mental alterations.

Reading that sort of thing printed out in their rule book did not fill me with warm fuzzy confidence.

There were even loopholes which the book went so far as to allude to. Like students were allowed to work permanent magic on themselves if they wanted. Even a first-day noob like me could see the problem there. Just temporarily zap a student and make them use permanent magic on themselves.

The whole thing had me wondering if I could just give back the books and uniform and be on my way.

And the answer to that question was on the next page.

No. No I could not.

One of those books Elizabeth had me sign was the school registry. I'd already agreed to the rules and terms. I was here till I passed Year One or till I flunked. And Sappho's School of Sorcery had a reputation to uphold. The book didn't go into details but it didn't have to. Flunking would be a very, very bad move.

By the time I got to the end of the rules chapter I was worried. It seemed obvious now, Natasha sent me here for her own entertainment and I could only hope she was enjoying herself.

The third chapter had a map of the campus and identified all the different buildings. The most important for me would be the one I was in now which was the dormitory, and the one which contained the dining hall, and the one which contained the first second and third year classrooms.

I was still studying the handbook a half hour later when the door swung open and a tall pretty raven-haired girl stalked in. I automatically did the Info thing as soon as I looked up at her.

'Evelynn, Human, Sorceress, Level 4'

She had long black hair, blue eyes, tanned dusky skin. She looked about nineteen years old. She wore black leather sandals on her feet, a knee-length blue and silver plaid pleated skirt, and a tight pink short-sleeve blouse that showed off the curves of a generous bosom.

She stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw me and demanded "Who the fuck are you and what the fuck are you doing in my room?!"

'Primary goal achieved: Roommate met!'

I grimaced. She was level four, I was on my very first day of level one. I was doomed.

"Hello," I got to my feet and tried to act friendly and polite. "I'm your new roommate. My name's Absinthe."

Evelynn scowled as she looked down at me. She was over a foot taller than me, and that did not do anything to make me feel safe or confident. She demanded, "You're not human are you? What the fuck are you supposed to be?"

"Um," I hesitated. I couldn't think of any reason not to tell her, since I obviously wasn't going to fool her into thinking I was human. Not with the pointy ears and the green hair. "I'm a half-sprite."

Her scowl grew darker and she pointed at my stuff on my desk, "Don't bother to unpack. You're not staying here."

With that she turned and stalked back out again, presumably to go complain to the administrators.

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I sighed and slumped back onto my bed. About the only good that came out of that meeting was I realized she either couldn't do the Info thing, or she didn't know about it. If she did, she'd have already known I was a half-sprite. And she'd know my name.

Then I realized, I had to pretend I didn't know her name either, or she'd get suspicious.

That was exactly the sort of thing I really needed to know about this world, and hopefully before I got myself into some nasty trouble.

While I waited to find out if I'd be evicted or not, I picked up the handbook and got back to reading. The next bit was about the dorm rooms. I found out my closet door and desk drawers were enchanted, along with the door to our room. Only the students assigned to the room could open the door, and only the student assigned to the bed could open the closet and desk on that side of the room.

That was some small relief, at least I knew once I put my stuff away I wouldn't have to worry about anyone stealing it or messing with it.

The next few pages were a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side there was indoor plumbing here, we had normal washrooms and showers. On the down side, they were shared. There was one large washroom on the second floor that served all the girls on this level. There were six rooms on this floor, each had two beds. So there might be eleven other students I'd be sharing the washrooms and showers with.

Eleven other girls. Eleven stuck-up rich girls, with money and power and wealthy parents, who all had a head-start on magic.

I groaned as I thought again about just how doomed I was.

After a few minutes I got back to the handbook again. The next chapter talked about stuff like etiquette and behaviour and what was expected in and out of class and stuff like that. And I found out about meals, which was becoming important as I was getting hungry.

Apparently while we were in our dorm building we could dress however we wanted. But leaving the dorm we had to be in our school uniform at all times, except for rest day. Which was like a weekend but we only got one day off. I found out the dorm building had a sort of lounge slash break room on the ground floor where we could get drinks and light snacks and stuff, but the three main meals were all done in the big dining hall. And we had to be in uniform in there, except for rest days.

I also found out there were differences in the uniforms. We all had the same blue and silver plaid pleated skirts. First-year students got white tops. Second-year students got pink tops. Third-years got yellow tops. Fourth-year got purple tops. And fifth-year and above got black tops.

Footwear also varied. First, second, and third years wore black sandals. Fourth years got black shoes with little heels, and fifth-year and up got black ankle boots with higher heels.

It seemed weird to me, but I had nothing to compare it to. I couldn't remember if I'd ever attended school with uniforms before.

One thing that told me was my roommate was a year-two. And I'd be able to spot higher-year students by their outfits, and hopefully avoid them. It also told me that level progression was potentially going to be slow. Evelynn was only level four after all, and she was in her second year.

I set the handbook aside again and was just starting to think about venturing down to the break room when my roomie returned. The grumpy scowl on her face told me two things. I wasn't going to be evicted, but she was going to make me wish I was.

Evelynn didn't say a word, she threw herself onto her bed and scowled grumpily at the ceiling.

I decided not to risk leaving my stuff where she could get at it, and carefully put all my books and my class assignment sheet into my desk drawers. Then I stuffed my bag and the uniform bundle into my closet for now. I'd unpack later.

Maybe she'd calm down on her own, I thought to myself.

As I made my way down the stairs I realized I should have actually put the uniform on first. My peasant-clothes were going to give me away. At least with the uniform nobody would know I wasn't some rich guy's kid.

Still, I didn't want to face my roommate again just yet, and I was already halfway to the break room so I figured, what the hell.

There were a half dozen girls in the room when I entered. Four were in uniform, the other two were wearing what I took to be their 'civilian' dresses. The girls were in three groups. Or, two groups and one solo.

The two girls in civvies were sitting together in a couple really big plush leather chairs. They looked slightly older, like twenty maybe. The group of three in their uniforms were all year two. And the one girl by herself was a year-one.

Almost everyone turned to stare at me when I entered the room, and I froze for a moment with all those eyes on me. I even forgot to do my Info thing.

The year-one girl was the only one I felt comfortable approaching, and happily she was the one I'd have picked regardless. She was also the only one in the room who wasn't staring at me.

She wasn't as tall as everyone else I'd met here so far, I'd guess her height at about five-foot-four. She had fair skin, pretty green eyes, and most striking of all was her bubblegum pink hair. She looked about eighteen, which put her at my age too. The only thing about her that looked slightly off was I could see some obvious bruises on her legs, but I figured maybe she was active in some sports or something. Like maybe they had a soccer team here or something.

She was standing next to a buffet table where some trays of food were sitting, which was even better. I could get something to eat and introduce myself at the same time.

I quietly walked around the edge of the room rather than cut across in front of the older girls, then came up alongside her beside the buffet. The others were still staring at me but I ignored them all except the pink-haired cutie next to me.

"Um, hi." My voice came out a little more meek and shy than I'd intended. And despite how small and unassuming my voice was I still managed to startle her enough that she dropped the plate of food she was holding.

Fortunately I was near enough that my fifteen dexterity points kicked in and I actually caught it, without even losing any of the little appetizers on it.

I handed her plate back and apologized, "Sorry! I'm new here, my name's Absinthe."

"Thanks," she smiled as she took the plate from me. "Absinthe, that's a pretty name. I'm Candice. But friends call me Candi."

Seeing her smile took a weight off my shoulders and I smiled back, "It's a pleasure to meet you Candi. Friends call me Abby."

'Secondary goal achieved: make one (1) friend!'

'Candice, Human, Sorceress, Level 2'

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