Riley thought she was dreaming when she first opened her eyes. She was in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. But the part that felt most like a dream was Elliot, sitting in a chair next to her bed, his eyes focused on a book held loosely in his lap. His pose reminded her of a mural in the Kitrun Temple back home. The mural was of Kitson, head bent to a book of prayer, singing life into a field of raspberries. Sunlight touched Elliot’s hair the same way as in the painting, creating a golden glow in his brown curls and around his head. His physical appearance couldn’t be more different - Kitson looked more like Riley with straight black hair, upturned eyes, and a face of smooth round shapes. Riley liked the way the angular slope of Elliot’s nose made him look distinguished, like his face had been engineered to hold his glasses up.

  In the quiet of the moment, Riley almost expected Elliot to open his mouth and sing like Kitson had. Sing life into his book, sing life into the quiet that surrounded them, sing life into her tired, weary body. It was the sound of the belltower chiming three times that shook Riley from her hazy, dreamlike state. Three? How long had she been asleep? How had she even slept at all? And where was Herbert?

  Riley reached out with her senses and found Herbert’s energy coming from one of the four windowsills across the room. He seemed unbothered and pleased about something, but Riley was a little more uneasy, spotting a grey tabby in the corner of the room. She still wasn’t clear on whether Herbert might be attacked by someone else’s familiar. Would they be able to sense that he was connected to someone or would they just think he was a tasty snack? Unclear.

  What are you doing all the way over there? Riley thought to Herbert. He sent her an image of a slice of fruit that he was slurping on. Someone had given him a treat. Ok, well just be careful of the cat in the corner, she warned him. He responded with a warm feeling and an image himself riding on the cat. Riley relaxed. Herbert had made himself a new friend.

  Riley shifted and Elliot looked up from his book, a gentle smile forming on his face. “How are you feeling, sleepyhead?”

  “Wha- where are we?” Riley asked, trying to figure out which of her many questions was most important right now.

  “Nurse’s office,” Elliot said. “Nurse Felicity performed a mild sleep enchantment on you and Bruno.”

  “Oh, is he still here too?” Riley yawned, pushing herself up into a seated position. Elliot motioned with his head to the bed on Riley’s other side. There, Bruno was fast asleep. It was a bit off putting to see him like this - she was used to him towering over her, not drooling on a pillow. It felt intrusive, so she turned her focus instead to the woman approaching the foot of her bed. The grey cat was trailing close behind the woman, it’s tail curling around one of her legs when she stopped next to Elliot.

  “I’m Nurse Felicity,” the woman introduced herself, the skin at her eyes crinkling warmly as she spoke. “How are you feeling, dear?

  “Better than I have in a while,” Riley admitted.

  “Oh, good,” Nurse Felicity said, looking pleased. “Now, I like to talk to you a bit more about your health. I have a private room that we can adjourn to if you’d like, or we can stay here.”

  “We can stay here,” Riley told her. “Elliot already knows about my sleep problems.”

  Nurse Felicity nodded and continued, “Well, there’s always a few first years who have trouble with sleep, so just know you’re not alone in this. I can give you a sleep tonic to help you out for the next week or so, but this isn’t a long term solution. Some people find that their body adjusts over time. Some people swear by earplugs. Others like to buy peace stones or noise dampening amulets.”

  “Oh, thanks,” Riley said, shifting uncomfortably. She really hoped her body would adjust naturally. She had tried earplugs already, and any magical items were sure to be more expensive than her family could afford. “I’ll take the sleep tonic, please.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I’ll have it ready for you by the door for when you leave,” Nurse Felicity said. “Take all the time you need. And make sure you wiggle your toes before you get up - sometimes remnants of the sleep enchantment can linger in your feet and you’ll need to shake it all off before you stand.”

  “She gets right to the point,” Riley commented once Nurse Felicity had retreated back across the room. “I bet Bruno likes her.”

  Elliot’s lips curled in amusement. “I bet when he brought you in here they exchanged a total of four words: ‘Sleep enchantment?’ ‘Yes, please.’” Elliot mimicked Bruno’s gruff voice surprisingly well.

  “I bet they didn’t even have to talk,” Riley said. “They just had instant telepathic communication. You know, the kind that all direct people have.”

  “Or they just blinked a couple of times and knew exactly what was happening,” Elliot added. Both of them were grinning now, having fun with the imagined scenario.

  “Nah,” came Bruno’s voice from behind Riley. She turned to see he was awake now too, a smile dancing on his own face. “It’s all in the eyelashes, like this.”

  Bruno clasped his hands under his chin and made a ridiculous pouty face, fluttering his eyelashes quickly.

  “You’re awake!” Riley exclaimed.

  “Not like you’re particularly quiet when you talk,” Bruno said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Oh, sorry!” Riley said, giving him a nervous smile.

  “Ignore him, Riles,” Elliot said, rolling his eyes. “He’s just teasing.”

  “How do you know?” Bruno shot back, frowning at Elliot.

  “I’m good at reading people,” Elliot stated. “Kind of needed to be to grow up in my home. Years of training, provided by my good for nothing brothers, and you, sir, are like an open book to me.”

  “You’re full of it,” Bruno said. Bruno was shaking his head while Elliot had a smug look on his face. Riley meanwhile was distracted by the fact that Elliot had called her “Riles.” She hadn’t ever had a nickname before, and she liked the feel of it. Coming from Elliot it made her feel kind of gooey inside in a satisfying way. She’d been somewhat of a loner back home, other kids thinking that she was weird because of her interest in magic. But here she could be Riles. Here, at this school, between her playfully bickering friends, she could be herself.

  “Wait,” Riley interrupted, a thought occurring to her. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

  Elliot shook his head, explaining, “Professor Broc said something about his lichen being in a vulnerable condition.”

  “Mmm,” Bruno grunted affirmatively, as if he knew something about lichen cultivation. Elliot and Riley waited a moment for him to elaborate, but in classic Bruno style, he did not.

  “So, no class this afternoon,” Elliot said. Riley was relieved as she didn’t want to miss classes. For her, Ms Purple’s offered the opportunity of a lifetime, and she wanted to soak up as much as she possibly could.

  A thought occurred to Riley at that moment, one that she hadn’t had time to process yet since waking up. It seemed sort of a crazy thought, because some of the pieces were missing from the puzzle. But maybe Bruno and Elliot could help her piece it together.

  “I think,” Riley started slowly. “I think I know who pulled the orientation prank. And I think it was Cappy.”

  “What?” Elliot said, looking confused. “How’d you get that conclusion?”

  “The crow,” Riley elaborated. “When the lights went out. I think it said “Capernicus,” which “Cappy” could be a nickname for. And then right before I fell asleep - Cappy was asking Bruno about orientation. About how he felt and his opinions.”

  “But it was a prank by third years,” Elliot reasoned. “Cappy is a first year student, like us.”

  “Yeah, and it would’ve taken a deep grasp of magic to pull off,” Riley added. “Which I don’t think Cappy has. He doesn’t even have a familiar. But I think it was him, somehow… I mean maybe he had help from someone, or something. The name thing seems like too much of a coincidence, right? What do you think, Bruno?”

  “I thought you already knew,” Bruno said. “Cappy told us all about it on our way over here.”

  “What?!” Riley demanded. “I fell asleep, I must have missed it.”

  Riley was right, Cappy was involved! But that didn’t explain how the magic dampening worked. That didn’t explain anything at all really. Riley felt a familiar tingling excitement in her body. It was the same curious feeling that she would get growing up when she would hear mention of magic in a book or a story. Magic was so prevalent, laced through everything, but so few people seemed concerned with how it worked. So many seemed to give up at the limits of the power that they could channel, whether it be simple charms or no power at all. Riley had always been different in that way - always determined to know more, always wanting to understand the core of it all, even with the limited scraps of information that had passed through her hometown. It was all so mysterious to her and she had to fight to unravel what little she did understand. Now, here was another mystery in front of her, one that she felt she must get to the center of.

  “Bruno,” Riley said. “Tell me everything.”