Chapter 7: The Dormitory

"You're the fire girl."

Sera hadn't even gotten her pack down off her shoulder before the voice hit her, quick and bright and utterly unbothered by the hour, some girl already sitting cross legged on the bed across from the one that had apparently been assigned to Sera, dark hair escaping its braid in every direction.

"I, yes. I suppose I am."

"Everyone's talking about you. Like, everyone. I heard three different versions of what happened in the hall before I even got back here, one of them had you setting the entire ceiling on fire, which, I mean, close enough, but also not exactly what happened, was it." The girl was already up off her bed, crossing the small room in two quick steps, hand out. "I'm Mira. Water affinity. Also common-born, also scholarship, also apparently your roommate, which honestly might be the least surprising thing that's happened to me all week, because who else were they going to put you with."

Sera shook her hand, a little dazed by the sheer speed of it. "Sera."

"I know. Everybody knows." Mira dropped back onto her own bed, tucking her knees up, watching Sera with open, unguarded curiosity that felt like the first honest thing anyone had looked at her with since she'd arrived. "Was it terrifying? The fire, I mean. Not, like, is it terrifying to be you, though also that, but I mean in the moment. Did it feel like it was going to burn out of control, or did it feel like, I don't know, like it was listening to you?"

"Nobody's asked me that." Sera set her pack down slowly, buying herself a second to actually think about it. "It felt like it was answering something. Not like I was controlling it. More like it already knew what I needed before I did."

"That's kind of beautiful, actually." Mira wrinkled her nose immediately after saying it, like she'd surprised herself. "Sorry. Is that a strange thing to say about the thing that scared the entire Great Hall half to death."

"No." Sera found herself almost smiling, the first real one since the drought. "No, it's not strange. It's the nicest thing anyone's said about it so far."

They sat with that for a moment, the room quiet except for the distant sound of other students settling into other rooms down the corridor, doors, laughter, someone's trunk being dragged across stone.

"Can I tell you something." Mira's voice had dropped, gone more careful. "And you have to promise not to repeat it, because if it gets back to the wrong ears I will actually die."

"I promise."

"The nobles don't lose." Mira glanced at the door, like it might be listening. "That's not, like, a saying, it's just true. They don't lose students, they don't lose arguments, they don't lose anything, because when something looks like it might slip away from them, they don't fight to keep it." She met Sera's eyes, and for a moment all the quick bright energy dropped out of her voice entirely. "They collect it instead."

"Collect it."

"Cassia Corvane already asked about you. Tonight. Before you'd even finished being tested." Mira's mouth twisted, unhappy. "My cousin's in her year, heard it secondhand, but my cousin doesn't lie about things like this. Cassia wants to know everything about the fire girl. Everything. Where she's from, who taught her, whether she has family who'd, and I quote, feel her absence."

Sera's stomach went cold. "Why would that matter?"

"Because that's how House Corvane collects things, Sera." Mira's voice was quiet now, almost gentle, like she hated having to say it on their very first night. "They don't need to force you into anything if they know exactly what you're afraid of losing."