The common hall was loud, crowded, and chaotic…which suited my purposes just fine, if not my senses. Snagging a spot against the wall near my mother’s mural, I clutched my journal to my chest, sat down, and observed. By the looks of it, at least half the other students were in their practical application periods, too.

Across the hall and to my left, a trio of Diamonds stood together in a circle, conjuring an indoor flurry…which I could only hope and assume wasn’t acidic. And just a bit off to the side of them, a couple more of their kind puppeteered the stone of a dragon pillar, laughing at their own horrible attempts at ventriloquism. A gaggle of Jades cavorted with shimmering spirit creatures in one of the pools, while another—a deepborn—hovered off to the side, levitating in place with glowing eyes.

I frowned. Guess that doesn’t count as flying. Where do they draw the line?

In the next instant, the thought had vanished. There were marvels everywhere I looked, magic steeped in every action. Glyphs crowded the edges of my vision as my Innate Abilities rushed to keep up. It must have been a half an hour at least that I just sat there, taking it all in, before I remembered my task—the memory somehow triggered as a tart scent stung my nostrils.

Shit. Right. Opals! Focus on the Opals, you dumb bi—

My call-stone grew suddenly warm, thrumming faintly where it pressed against the fine fur beneath the collar of my tunic.

“Hello,” a low, purring voice said from between my boobs.

“Fuck!”

I was on my feet in an instant, heart battering my ribs, tail slapping at the wall and fur raised on-end as I snatched the glowing pendant up and stared down at it. But there was no mark there. Just foggy illumination.

“Who the fu—“

“Look up and straight forward,” said the voice.

My gaze snapped upward. It only took me a moment to pick him out through all the rest, leaning against the far wall of the chamber almost directly across from me. I met his eyes. With his hand lifted to his muzzle, I could only just make out that his teeth were bared in a smirk.

Shen.

“How are you doing this?” I hissed. “Who gave you my mark?”

“I told you,” he said. “I’m inventive. So, you were looking for me?”

My lip curled in an expression I imagine mirrored his own.

“Actually, I was doing almost the exact opposite of that,” I said, closing my hand around the stone and squeezing it hard for a few seconds—which, according to my coven-mates, should have ended the call.

Soft laughter issued from the stone as, shaking his head, Shen crossed the hall and headed my way. He let his hand drop to his side, and as his own stone settled at the end of its cord, mine cooled, the glow went out, and the thrumming ceased. I released the pendant to let it hang free again, crossing my arms over my chest and putting on my best scowl.

“I don’t appreciate being stalked,” I said as he drew within earshot. “And I’m getting sick of having to say it.”

“Stalked?” Shen’s left eyebrow leapt upward. “We are Opals who encountered one another twice before now…first, in the wing designated to our kind. And now, a third time, in the common hall.” He chuckled. “It’s good, I suppose, that you didn’t lose your sense of self-importance along with your memory.”

“Don’t try to gaslight me,” I growled, peering up at him as he stepped in close. “You know exactly what you’ve been doing.”

“Gas…light? What? I’m trying to help a hopelessly lost underclassman and kohai of my own kind. I think I may know what I’m doing better than you do.”

“And you’re doing it to get something out of it. And actively seeking me out and eavesdropping on me in the process. In other words…stalking.”

Shen’s tail tipped flicked.

“So, then. Am I to understand you do not need the assistance of a more advanced Opal?”

“You are to understand leaving me alone, please and thanks,” I said.

“So you do need help.” He grinned.

“Yes. I need you to help me by going away.”

It was weird, really, how easy it had become to say things like that to someone so much bigger and more powerful than me. Weirder still how it felt like a perfectly natural part of me, though I’d never been like that back on Earth.

Maybe there’s more of the Old Zia still here than I thought. Like her personality was bleeding further through to me the longer I lived in her body. If only her memories were so easily regained.

I think Shen’s eye twitched. I wasn’t fully focused on him.

“Hm. That’s fine. I’ll let you exhaust your other options. And when you come to me in the end, I won’t even say I told you so.” Then the creep turned and ambled off, taking his precious time.

I let out my breath, and my tail finally slowed its lashing.

With him out of the way, at least for now, I forced myself to focus. Scanning the crowd for their telltale iridescence, I sought out other Opals. There was a small group of them lounging on some low couches not too far off, deep in discussion I couldn’t pick out from the general din of the hall. And there was a trio of them huddled around a table, arguing over what looked liked a mass of sketchy blueprints scattered across its surface.

But groups were intimidating. So I kept looking, this time for an Opal that was higher level and alone. But the only one I could see was Shen, who of course hadn’t left the hall but merely crossed to its opposite end to lean and linger. Casually looking off in another direction, as if that would fool me.

Sighing, I resigned myself to my remaining options. Three of the loungers were below the level requirement, and the one who wasn’t had a weirdly short list of Abilities. Stock-piling Favor for something big, maybe?

Most promising was the group clustered around the blueprints. A 6Gem and two 7Gems. But they were still deep in heated debate. I moved closer, staying out of view of my targets by keeping a pack of Jaspers between us. I couldn’t tell which voice belonged to which Opal, but I could hear most of what they said.

“The thing is, if this backfires, you could end up with dead or messed up babies. No one likes dead babies.”

There was an exasperated sigh.

“We’ll test it and prove it with animal eggs, it’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know,” said another voice. “I think Mal was right. It’s too ambitious for the timeframe.”

“Mal doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” snapped the second voice. “This is fourth year. We have to step it up.”

All too quickly, my wall of Jaspers began to disperse, but I resisted the urge to scramble to keep out of sight. If this wasn’t my opening, I didn’t know what was. Before the Opals could look over and notice me standing there and watching them like a weirdo, I started forward.

“Um, hi,” I said casually as I could while ambling up. All three looked over to me at once, each with a different expression of surprise on their face.

“You,” said one, a medium-sized deepborn with a yellow cast to her scales and fur. The first voice I’d overheard.

“Er, yeah,” I said. “I was just curious. Watcha working on? It looks really interesting.”

“None of your business,” snapped the owner of the second voice, a somewhat larger, mostly green deepborn.

“Wait, no,” said the third of them, a very heavy-set gray skyborn. “Maybe she could help us.” And before either of the other two could argue, he turned back to me.

“It’s for eggs,” he said. “It would hold them in time, as they are, so the spark inside neither develops nor dies.”

At the quirk of my head, the yellow one piped up, catching the glare of the green one.

“You know, for when accidents happen. This would make it so people wouldn’t have to dispose of their eggs if they didn’t want to. They could choose to keep them in suspension, and hatch and raise them only once they’re ready.”

“If she steals the idea, I’m blaming both of you,” said the green one, crossing his arms.

“Wow. That does sound ambitious,” I said, realizing too late I’d given my eavesdropping away. Each of the three gave me a look, the sour one narrowing his eyes. Very Vyr-like. “H-how would it work, exactly?”

The gray one’s brows nudged together, and he scratched at his shoulder with the thumb of his wing.

“I mean, mostly with Onyx time-workings, of course. But that’s just the problem. Do you happen to have any ideas for circumnavigating that?”

“I…” what? “Um, not off the top of my head. But it’s something I could probably help you figure out a little later, in exchange for a s-small favor.” Non-existent gods, this sucks. They were all staring at me, total strangers, and I was just now realizing I probably should have at least asked their names or something before making requests. Oh well, too late. “Not Favor, to be clear. A favor.”

The other Opals exchanged looks, the iridescent flecking on their scales glimmering with every movement. One of them, the yellow one, eyed the top of my head quizzically.

“What kind of favor?” wondered the gray skyborn.

I chewed my lip as I considered asking if I could pull him aside to speak alone. But at this point, so many people knew about my supposed “memory problems” that it hardly mattered. I took a deep breath.

“My coven-mate is helping me out with some severe memory issues I’m having, and we need assistance with the sigil-work involved. To start with, deciphering one I’ve already got.” I lifted the journal I’d been holding in my right hand. “Which I can’t do myself because of said memory issues.”

“Er,” the skyborn shifted his weight. A sort of dark realization passed over his face, settling into something like pity. “So what you’re saying is you’re basically useless, until after this…project?”

My tail flicked, and I squeezed the book tight to my chest, as if that’d shield me from embarrassment.

“Um, well…yeah.”

Another look passed between the three, the green deepborn all smug while the yellow one seemed at once relieved and disappointed. The gray one shifted his weight to the other foot again, brow furrow deepening.

“We don’t have a lot of time to complete this project,” he said. “Only one moon. If I were to help, would you be able to help us in time?”

“Alfir,” hissed the green one. “She’s a murderer.”

Alfir’s ear twitched, but otherwise he ignored him.

“Yes, I think so,” I replied, doing my best to disregard the other deepborn, too. “We want to get this done as soon as possible.”

Alfir scrunched his snout briefly in thought, tail lashing slowing behind him.

“Perhaps we can work something out, then,” he said.

Over his shoulder and out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Shen through the shifting crowd, openly watching me now.

“I’d appreciate that a lot,” I said, holding Alfir’s gaze for a moment before flashing a look over his shoulder at my stalker. Shen’s expression was blank in a pained sort of way, with a slight scrunch to his snout like he was holding back a scowl. I smiled.

“Thank you, Alfir.”

I’d wait till I got my new acquaintance alone to tell him he’d need to be sworn to secrecy for his part of the deal.