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one-session-a-week plan with Hazen.
    “I don’t need to be there, Little Synfee. Neither does Hazen, but he’s much more obedient than I am. I suppose it works for him, if he’s going to let advisors boss him around for the rest of his life.”
    “Well we got paired up, Hazen, you and me, for one session of practical a week.”
    “Three sessions.” He made a tsking sound, and waved a finger at me.
    “How did you know that? You didn’t even go to class.”
    “Carren caught up with me earlier; he was worried that people would give you a hard time today.”
    Suddenly, Cale’s strange behaviour made sense, and I wanted to hit myself. The professor had asked him to befriend me, and had even grouped me together with him and Hazen to make it stick. I would have been flattered that someone was looking out for me if I wasn’t temporarily disappointed that Cale hadn’t been struck with the sudden urge to be nice to me. It might have been a romantic notion, but I still hoped that someday I would randomly stumble across someone who simply didn’t care about my heritage, though Cale certainly did a very good job at acting like he didn’t. 
    He walked me to the gym and deposited me at the door with a flourish of a bow before disappearing. I left my books at the door with all the other bags and knapsacks and book-piles. Ranger Physics quickly became my favourite subject of the day, as the Professor—a handsome human man by the name of Arrol—had everyone working too hard to spare the time it would take to stare at me. And the physical exertion was nice too, if I was honest with myself. Only humans seemed to be able to inherit the ranger abilities, so the class was devoid of elves or fae, but their abilities were all far superior to mine, and by the end of the lesson I was beginning to understand why I hadn’t specialised in the ranger ability despite my previous tutors being convinced that I had. This left me with a heavy heart as I shuffled out at the end of the day, knowing that it would likely be one of the classes taken off my timetable.
    To my relief, Cale wasn’t waiting for me when I got outside, and I immediately took off for the office, hoping to get my new timetable and be on my way home as soon as possible. I opted for one of the paths that I was familiar with, from my childhood walks with my father, as apposed to going through the main gates again. It was a small service gate in the wall behind the Black Guard barracks, which were isolated enough in themselves. They weren’t really barracks, not like the soldier’s barracks used by the King’s Guard, only a series of connected buildings around a centre courtyard that they used for training. Usually I would have gone in and worked off the stress of the day with whoever was running the afternoon drill, but I was just too drained, both emotionally and physically. So I bypassed the barracks and headed straight for the service gate, which was unlocked, as always. It led into an abandoned walled garden, and though the wall was in a crumbling state of disrepair—so much so that I could skip right over it—the forest around this particular stretch of the castle wall was so dense, that it barely needed guarding anyway.
    It was easy for me to pass through, as I’d been doing it since I was four years old, but, even so, I managed to tear the sleeve of my tunic-dress by the time I finally broke free into the game trail that would lead me to the outskirts of my own village settlement. I checked to make sure I hadn’t dropped any of my books, and then began the long walk, finally free of the constant stares and whispering. It didn’t take long for the forest to begin its seductive call to me, and eventually I let my guard down completely. Everything around me seemed to immediately slump, the leaves bending as if some invisible wind pushed down on them, even the grass started to curl in on itself. I didn’t panic though, merely closed my eyes, revelling in the