Lydia couldn't sleep although Sleep had come close, hovered at the edge of her mind, and then retreated every time a new sound introduced itself to her awareness. Pipes humming behind the walls. Footsteps three corridors away. The faint scratch of tree branches against the dormitory glass. Someone laughing outside at an hour laughter had no business existing.
Her senses refused to obey her. Sounds overlapped until her head throbbed with pressure giving an intense headache, a headache so bad that she couldn't think straight; footsteps from the corridor felt as loud as thunder, whispers from outside the dorm window arrived in her ears as if speakers stood beside her bed. Even breathing felt too loud.
Her body did not belong to her anymore.
When she tried to reach for her bag from the top wardrobe shelf, she did not stretch—she launched. Her fingers grazed the wood, her knees bent with unfamiliar force, and the next second she was flat against the ceiling with a loud, humiliating thud.
Phantasia floated up calmly, she was reading a book upside down on the air.
"Okay," she said, inspecting Lydia like a mechanic inspecting a faulty engine. "We are not jumping anymore."
Lydia peeled herself off the roof and landed clumsily on the floor.
"Why don't we sit down and do nothing for a while?"
"But I can hear literally everything," Lydia groaned, pressing her palms to her ears. "I feel like my brain is about to explode."
"I know, sis… I know."
"Did you go through this too?"
Phantasia nodded. "I had to fight between keeping myself solid and ghostly. It became a huge inconvenience for about a month. So much so that I had to get a single room to avoid disastrous accidents."
"Like?"
"Phasing through a roommate and potentially getting stuck halfway and killing them."
Lydia's eyes widened. "Oh my God!"
They laughed. The kind of laughter that came from shared absurdity of each others ability.
"Well, I am still learning," Phantasia added.
Lydia side-eyed her, she did not want to be victim of hazard.
Phantasia laughed louder. "But I got the phasing under control."
"Oh! Because I thought…"
They laughed again, and for a brief moment, Lydia forgot that her senses were on fire.
That calm disappeared the moment she stepped into the Administrative Office.
A short female goblin sat behind a high desk, spectacles perched on the bridge of a nose too small for them, flipping through parchment with alarming speed.
"Name."
"Lydia vale."
"Ah!" The goblin's eyes widened. "The fox."
Lydia blinked. "The what?"
"Schedule," the goblin said, shoving a parchment into her hands. "Power Control and Manifestation. You need it. Desperately. Next time, try not to launch yourself into ceilings. The Academy has had enough structural damage from new breeds this century."
Lydia stiffened. "How do you—"
"We know everything. Next!"
She walked out of the office with ringing ears and a pounding head, grateful that the first class on the schedule sounded like exactly what she needed.
Power Control and Manifestation. But on getting there she discovered something....She was late.....again.
The theatre-like classroom was already full when she pushed the doors open. Conversations were flowing freely until her presence sliced through them. She noticed that Every class in this school seemed to be overly large for some reason.
But her thoughts were disturbed by the incessant murmurs that erupted immediately she made her entrance.
"Look, it's that girl."
"Hey! Her ears are pretty."
"Is that the Purple Fox?"
Lydia froze under the attention, she could hear every single thing even though they were in whispers and that made her incredibly uncomfortable.
Then she heard a voice coming from the podium, it was deep and calming more like ASMR type voice.
"You are late, miss."
He had been speaking about mental clarity concerning the honing of powers
"You have to understand that manifestation and control work hand in hand. The first rule to tackling it is having a clear mind, and a clear mind does not—"
Then the door opened and the disruption happened. The constant mumurs about a "purple fox"
His gaze lifted lazily and there she was, the cause of the commotion.
Purple ears. Purple hair. Slightly disoriented expression. Trying to pretend she was not drowning in awareness.
So this was the Purple Fox, he had been briefed about her by Neleus the day before and since then he had been eager to meet the new hottie in school.
He studied her without expression...she did not look dangerous neither did she look threatening nor did she look special.
So she has purple hair, purple ears, and a nice body figure...Big deal! He had seen rarer creatures.
He had seen creatures far more composed.
"You are late, miss," he repeated.
She recognized him immediately she couldn't forget a face like that not in a million years...the portraits used for illustration from yesterday his picture was there!
One of the Seven-Stars. The Wolf Prince. Kael!
An incredibly hot ash haired guy and his wolf ears looked so good as he twitched it too!!
She swallowed. "Sorry!" She muttered more to herself than to the class.
His eyes rolled slightly. "I said you are late, madam."
Her cheeks burned. She could feel the attention from every corner of the room pressing into her skin.
"I'm sorry," she muttered and hurried to find a seat.
"Sit."
She did without question and her heart was racing. Not only because of him it was also Because her hearing had just picked up twenty-seven different heartbeats in the room.
Kael could see that she was distracted. Maybe nervous or Overstimulated from her awakening or was it just the new pressure that came from being newly introduced to popularity.
He could see it in the way her fingers twitched slightly on the desk, in the way her ears kept on shifting and twitching at any single sound.
He turned back to the class.
"As I was saying. Manifestation is not power. Control is. Any beast can release ability. Only a trained one can restrain it."
His eyes drifted briefly to her.
"Especially newly awakened ones."
A few students chuckled they knew exactly who he was referring she stiffened on her seat.
Good, he had to make sure she was listening.
Was he talking about her?
Yes.Definitely, Lydia knew he was because apparently she was the only one deserving of attention in the class.
Her ears twitched in annoyance she folded her arms.
What was his problem???
He noticed and she knew he noticed.
And for a brief second, their eyes met.
He did not look away.
Neither did she.
Something wordless passed between them—itvwas not attraction, nor hostility...it was just recognition.
You see me.
I see you.
Then he continued the lesson like nothing had happened.
And Lydia realized something comforting.
This class might actually save her from breaking the Academy roof again.