Chapter 7

Gremlin night

I spent the next several weeks thinking about everything that happened. In my spare time, I'd gotten the names of a few interesting clubs and extracurricular activities to sign up for. poetry, beekeeping, and Emperor Club. 

The kidnapping attempt still weighed on me. Even I knew that something that traumatic was something that was supposed to weigh down on you in a debilitating way. 

The Demon that attacked my village had the elders on edge even as recently as my fifteenth birthday.

And yet I was more bothered by how unbothered Calamity seemed to be about it. 

She said she had classes, and that she had to keep doing her own thing… but that didn’t sound right. Why was I so bothered by it? 

I quietly fiddled with alchemy homework. Shaking a vial of purple flower petals that if soaked in eighty percent ethanol would create a tincture that, in small dosage, would act as a pain killer for headaches and abrasions, and if evaporated rapidly, in a quantity forbidden to students, would create a gaseous sedative. 

My head weighed heavily with such a weird sense of guilt. Everything had worked out for me since I got here and yet knowing that Calamity had so much to deal with on a regular basis made my heart ache. 

“Hey”  the focus of my thoughts pulled me out of the trance I was in as I watched the lavender liquid flow “I need you to get out of the dorm for the night.” 

I looked at her; Calamity was disheveled and looked like she’d seen the end of the world firsthand. Her hair and bits of fur were matted, from what I couldn’t be sure. She’d been out doing her own errands and seemed like she’d just got home. 

“Something wrong?” I looked at her concerned. 

“Cramps” she flatly stated. “I’m not good company while in pain, even passively, and if I’m not left alone, I’m gonna kill someone” 

“Cramps?”  I echoed, “Did you eat something?” 

“You haven’t had your glamor long enough but…” she held her stomach letting out a groan as she leaned against the door frame “Sooner or later the physical alterations will make your body start acting in a way a person who was a girl at birth would do around this time of the month” 

There was a silence as the gears in my head clicked into place. “OH!” I yelped, “crap I’m sorry.” I got up, shoving a bunch of my stuff into my messenger bag “Do you need me to get anything while I’m out? Or like…?” 

“No rush but like…I dunno some of the sparkly lemonade if you can.” she stumbled to the side as I pushed out,  “I just need space to think and-” she let out a rough growl as she clutched her stomach “Kill me” 

“Lemonade it is!” I say spinning around and turning out the door. 

“Don’t forget the gremlin bowl!” she yelled as I shut the door behind me. 

The Gremlin Bowl. Right. 

Gremlins are a subcategory of Fairies. they’re the mischief-making kinds of creatures. Loosening screws, moving things just enough so that they’ll fall over with expert precision and timing so as to hit someone’s head on the way down, often nonfatal, but sometimes…not-so nonfatal. 

Every year when the moons were both full in the sky in the harvesting season, The sounds of the hard work of mortals working away at pulling uprooted vegetables and cutting wheat and corn with their scythes would wake up gremlins in droves, sending them…somewhere quieter.  

The ensuing chaos in such a mass migration became a thing of legendary nightmares in early recorded history and spoken folklore. Thus begetting The Gremlin Nights. 

The Gremlin Nights were celebrated with a mixture of superstition and fear, alongside the feasts that would come with the end of the harvest. 

While they never liked to be seen by mortals, their large swarming processions would move in hoards. Despite being so numerous, one could only ever really see them at the edge of their vision. 

During the migration, it was customary to leave offerings to them to keep them from causing mayhem in your home. 

I dropped three foil-covered chocolate coins directly into a pot, keeping an eye on them as they landed in a pile of other candies and treats left in offering. I was reminded of my childhood. That first time I’d come to understand what the holiday was. 

“Gremlins” was also often a regional term of endearment for children, who caused chaos and needed to be kindly told the candy in pots wasn’t for them. 

This began the tradition of kids running around in their best gremlin outfits to mimic the fairies and then getting chocolate in turn. 

The real Gremlins enjoy the flattery. Or so the stories tell. 

It’s not uncommon for people of all ages to participate in dress-up for the holiday, what little “costume” I had on was simply my cape and hat. The saddle bag with my notes…” spell book” 

Sometimes that still hit me like a slap in the face 

My cape. My hat. 

I had a spell book, well..a notebook full of weird nonsense but still, they were spells. If I read them out with the right intent, magic would happen. So..a spell book. 

Recently classes had taught me a “deep pockets” spell. A pouch strapped to the belt on my pants let me flick it open and whip out my staff at whim, no need for the scabbard that I’d had weeks ago. 

I was becoming a better witch with every passing day. 

Roxanne from months ago would be amazed at how far we’ve come. 

Admittedly the Roxanne from months ago would be shocked to know that we were Roxanne. Though, not surprised about it.  I’d always felt like a girl of course. just didn’t know I could be. 

“Hey, Roxie!” Suddenly I was aware of Lilith walking alongside me; I was taken aback by the new look she sported, it was the most I’d ever seen of her bare skin in the entire time I’d known her, Clothes that made her look like the board of an Emperor Game, decorative chains that clinked and jingled as she walked aside me a hat with bells, the thing that caught me the most off guard was her face without a hint of makeup to be seen. 

Even with the make up I’d be hard-pressed to not say she was attractive but now that I got to see her without it…she was really pretty. 

I blinked myself back into focus “Lilith! You look amazing!” I moved around her from one side to the other looking at her all over.

She grinned “I know! Court Jester is probably the best way I can shake things up for the holiday~”  She suddenly looked me up and down “Wait…do you not have a costume?” 

“uh…I’m a witch.” I said reaching to fan out the cape a bit

“Oh no!” She grabbed me by the shoulders with both hands “You’re a witch every day and you only get one gremlin night a year. I am going to fix this” She grabbed me and yanked me in the other direction, making me yelp.

“Gah!” I tried to protest “You really don’t have to! I’m fine just being me for Gremlin night!” 

“Nuh uh, we gotta make you look awesome!”

I let out a whine, knowing there was no way to get past that determination.

***

Lilith’s house was large, with a wrought iron fence, and a cobblestone pathway leading up to a porch with a sign bearing a carving of a spiderweb. hanging at the entryway. 

As she led me through the home we crisscrossed paths with all manner of people. Her family. four generations of her family from her mother and father’s side. Parents, grandparents, and at least one great-grandparent was mentioned

I was formally introduced to her mother, Mikala,   I’d seen her a few times in the hallways of the academy though I knew her more as Ms. Akamai. ; “She’s so skinny, she must stay for dinner after you're done with the gremlins” Her comments spoke of a kindness that left me at a loss for words. What else could I do but agree to the offer? 

As we were walking up toward Lilith's room her mom called back up to us, “ Oh by the way! Since your father’s event is over I’ll be going to the West-Gavin ballroom tonight to help him tear down the Professional Duelist’s Organization’s stage, so be sure to meet me there tonight when you’re out so I know you’re all okay!.” 

Minutes later we were alone again.  Lilith smiled while sharing the story of her family as we sat in her room. It was cluttered but in a way that felt…balanced. “My family immigrated here from The Islands long before I was born.  My dad and mom met while he was visiting home  after a Fighting Tournament.” She talked as she brushed my hair. “Uncles and their families, everyone moved to settle in, they built our home.”

“It’s so big, how do you not get lost?” 

“I don't know!” she said pleasantly “My first memory is me wandering the hallways, so I guess it’s just impossible when you’re so familiar with the place” 

I could feel her pulling my hair into a ponytail “Any costume ideas you want to try?” 

“I..well..I think it would be kinda cool to try out being a clown a little bit” 

“Hmm…I’m biased…but I like that idea” she grinned leaning behind me as we made eye contact through the vanity mirror I was sitting in front of

“So…do you mind me asking about your home?” Lilith  leaned around me, grabbing some dyes and accessories.”

“I…well” I closed my eyes a moment, trying to think “I..it’s this little village...Olmsteady.” 

“Is it exciting?”

“Not really. I mean, you’ve got a big house and a big family…mine is..me..parents..sister”

She adjusted the ponytail my hair had been adjusted in, pulling it upward, the holder held tight to my head. “What about their history?”

“My dad never told me…I think my Grandfather died before I was born. Never knew my grandmother. We had an uncle and he left..” 

“That sounds..lonely” 

I sighed in agreement, “Yeah, I don't know…” as my hands fished around in the air, fishing around for… I don't know.  “Your family is so large, but you all seem so close. My parents, my sister, our neighbors, or town, we were there for each other but I never felt connected to anyone.” She continued mulling over pigments and paint schemes, but I could tell she was still listening intently.

I continued, “Everyone’s lives seem so exciting, for better or worse. The most interesting thing to happen to Olmsteady ended long before I was born, and I’m just carrying the bones of it.”

She perked up, “It’s not all, like, exciting. We've had our fair share of bad history.”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Some people are kinda...” her eyes searching as she trailed off. “Trying to think how to put it. I’m sure you’ve seen all types since you came here from home. Us being from The Islands, some people treat us differently.”

I just stared at her for a moment. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would give this beautiful girl and her beautiful family any trouble. They’ve been nothing but kind to me. I thought back to what happened with Calamity, but that couldn’t be it, I’m sure she’d have mentioned by now if she was secretly the granddaughter of a great wyrm or a demon lord or something. She must’ve noticed the question I was asking with my eyes, as her face changed as if to answer it.

“Like… I know you’re a little tan yourself, but were there any people like me or Calamity that were part of your village?”

I laughed reflexively, “If there had been, I don’t know if I’d have moved. You’re both amazing and strong and-“

“No no no, that’s not exactly what I’m asking, although thank you for the compliments. I mean, were there any… darker humans or beastfolk or elves, anyone like that?”

“I mean, one delivery woman that brought in supplies was a wood elf. She wasn’t very tall, and she had maple bark skin and one of our neighbors always triple-checked the incoming supplies because he said…” and it hit me.

I could finally feel the point she was getting to. I hadn’t noticed it before, because she was usually painted or wearing layers or whatnot, I’d never thought about how she was darker than me. I looked for a moment in the mirror, comparing myself to her. My tan had faded somewhat with lack of sun exposure and the glamour, but comparably I looked like porcelain, like sun-bleached leather.

She put a hand on my shoulder and leaned down to make eye contact through the mirror. I saw the paleness of my skin compared with the soft darkness of her own. The little freckles that contrasted more brightly on my forearm; There were little freckled spots on her’s to, but they were also different. An abject horror began to crawl into me as I began to realize what she meant.

“For some people, it’s just skin, or fur, or scales, it doesn’t matter. For others…” she drifted a bit into silence again “I don’t think I ever dealt with it as much as my parents did when they grew up. but some people, it eats them up. Consumes them alive until they’re just a fire of hate in a screaming pyre. I’m sure Calamity has experienced similar sometimes, with her being beast folk. It’s not even always so loud and aggressive, but sometimes just as violent. I guess it could also be like flavors of ice cream, or which side of the plate you serve your drink on. Sometimes the fire is just a spark, a low ember waiting to catch, but both can spread. People get very weird about it” she said as if to defuse the tension.

I could sense a touch of sadness in the way Lilith spoke… I think it was the first time she’d ever let that positivity slip while I was around. It also made me wonder just how much of the negativity Calamity dealt with that was just Briar and people hating her because of her dad, or something worse.

“I’m… sorry” I apologized to her as I turned up to her, catching her eyes. In that moment it all felt like lot, almost too much. “I feel so stupid-” I began to grumble.

“Hey, you’re just asking questions, no shame in that. You didn’t realize and meant no malice. There’s a difference between intentional and unintentional ignorance.” She was saying as she took my hand into her’s suddenly, and then let go. “Trust me, you’re probably like… maybe the first person who’s ever really stopped to let me explain it I think?”

A moment's silence began as she pulled the seat to face sideways “So. Mimes are interesting. They’re about vulnerability. The mime as part of clowns highlights..a lot about everyone. “

We’d changed topics? 

Lilith wiped my face with a damp cloth, patted it dry and began applying a very pale foundation all over. 

“The first day we met I was in my mime wear; I usually try to keep distance from people on those days as part of the act.” Lilith carried on “It’s something that pulls more attention when you play that part. Clowns are weirdly dressed and that highlights them because it’s a mockery of what's normal, but mimes stand out because they are lonely.” 

Lonely. So..we hadn’t changed topics. 

“So..if it’s okay I think you’d make a rather nice mime.” the sentence was framed in a way where she was looking for me to comment,

“I think I can try” I smiled a little as I looked at her “I’m not as lonely as I was back then..but I think I can do it.” 

“Trust me. With Calamity and me, you’re never gonna be lonely again.” 

In the comfortable silence, she took a moment and slipped a thimble made from a shiny grey stone over the top of her index finger and began tracing over my face in the mirror with, the makeup on her vanity flowed up into the air like water from a bottle, shifting and shimmering around my reflection, until it overlapped with it. She made a tapping motion then, and then drew a circle over one of the eyes, big enough to encompass it fully, then slashed her finger through the center horizontally, pulling the bottom half of it to the other eye. 

“Just a second and…” -She reached out with her free hand, grabbing the new ‘mask’ from the air “Now hold on as I line up everything.. 

She pushed it to my face. And I could feel the sensation of it on my skin all at once. I had been doing makeup by hand for most of the time I’d been living in the dorms so I knew the feeling but this was..All of it at once, with none of the messiness. There was a small bit of worry it might interact weirdly with the glamor, but…it seemed to work just fine. 

“Tah Dah~” she smiled, flourishing her hands then suddenly with a look of realization “Oh right!” and then she slipped to the side so I could see myself in the mirror. “There you go!” 

Oh…Wow. I looked incredibly silly. “That is..”

“Perfect?” 

“Yes!” I spun around in the chair, “Thank you this is gonna be awesome!” 

“Of course! Sometime I will have to show you the traditional stuff, buuuuuuut pressed for time and the nights on;y gonna be young for so long you know?” 

I couldn’t stop grinning, even as we went through the process of getting the rest of my outfit put together I kept smiling, which..contrasted a bit heavily with the way the makeup looked but, Lilith didn’t seem to mind so I think that was okay. 

Very quickly I was donned in black slacks and suspenders,  which I’d seen my father in exactly one time growing up, but this had a very…me kind of feeling 

A striped shirt and a fancy little bowtie pulled everything together. 

“There we go…now before we set off, you wanna see the best part of my room?

“I’d like that,” I said, my cheeks were practically aching with the smiling at this point. 

We turned and she showed me to a large curtain that had been closed for the majority of the time I’d been in here.

She pulled it aside and revealed a balcony that showed off the entire street with all it’s lights. Off in the distance The academy could be seen, it’s towers and floating pillars distantly visible. 

“Oh Gods that is…”

“Yeah, This is the best place to relax. Oh, and it’s even got this banister right here” she said excitedly. 

And before I could properly react she’d put one foot on the railing and did a slight spin, balancing precariously as she spun on the ball of her foot a moment, suddenly squat on both legs in front of me, teetering back. 

“Lilith? That's uh..that doesn’t look safe at all!” 

“Oh, it’s fine, just watch!” 

And suddenly she pushed back with her legs from the banister and flipped backward, plummeting. 

We were on the third floor of her house; I let out a panicked shriek, reaching to grab her as my hands wildly reached as she dropped out of sight 

“Oh no no no no!” I let out a shaky squeak as I slowly looked over the rail, expecting the worst.  

“Hi!” she suddenly poked her head out from over the railing. 

“What the actual hell! Lilith!” I freaked out, stumbling back. 

“Sorry…I couldn’t resist seeing how you’d react, and forgot I’d never told you about my gravity magic.”  she apologized leaning back before taking a few steps backward. 

“Gravity Magic…” I leaned forward looking down at her, “I should have known.” It had been alluded to in class, but we hadn’t reached that part of the semester yet. I hadn’t thought I might see it out in the world. 

Lilith was standing firm on..well in the middle of the air just off to the side of her balcony. There were interesting little details I could see now that I knew she’d done something to alter her relationship to gravity, the bells on her clothes hadn’t jingled at all as she moved. The way her pant legs shifted on her legs was a lot different from how they moved while she was walking on the ground at school. 

“I should have known” I repeated myself,  “That’s…honestly impressive” 

“Yeah it kinda runs in the family, they teach it in schools still but kinda just..super easy for me,” she said doing a little twirl on her heel. “I sometimes walk to school from here.” 

“That’s gotta be a sight for some to come across; local clown girl walking to school in the sky” 

“You’ll be surprised just how few people actually bother looking at the sky” 

“Wow you’re cool,” I said without thinking

She blinked, seeming stunned a tiny bit before throwing out her hand “C’mon!” that grin took over her face again. “We’re losing nighttime!” 

Suddenly my stomach tightened as I looked down at the ground beneath her, that rush of tingling in my feet as I realized how high up we were. 

It was safe. 

It was magic…

I held my breath and took her by the hand as I moved to hoist one leg over the rest, I could feel buzzy tingles as the magic she was using expanded around me. 

It’s a lie to say my feet touched solid ground. But I didn’t fall. And that's what mattered most at the time. 

With that I was out all the way, trying to keep the anxiety under control, that logic of knowing I should fall at war with the defiance of it. 

“There we go!” Lilith grinned, reaching into her back pocket and slipping her jester's hat back on, once again not a single jingle or jangle of the bells as she pulled it down on her forehead. 

Somewhere in the distance, upbeat brass music played. Festivities had started in town.  

In the corner of my eyes, I could see clusters of gremlins dancing and playing around in the streets far below us as we started in the direction of town. I couldn’t make out little details of them, I don’t know if it was how far up I was or if it was just their nature but they all just seemed like blurry clusters. 

We continued walking into the city, the sounds of the music growing louder. Soon we were in the town square, my hand still in Lilith as her magic redirected our walking motions into a descent down invisible stairs, gravity slowly taking hold again as I could feel the subtle shift in the suspender straps around my shoulders drawing a little more taught. There was a slightly higher speed in the way I walked, a peculiar…tingle as if the magic was pushing and pulling in ways I would only notice until later that night when i was home in my dorm when everything was back to normal. 

With the money we had, we got sparkling lemonade for ourselves and collected grab bags of candy that I stuffed into the pouch with my staff.  

The music surged and swelled, moving around us, and the lights of the Gremlin Night Festival left me feeling more at ease. 

I’d never felt so much excitement and happiness in one place. Back at Olmsteady, Gremlin night was a big event, but nothing so grand and indulgent as this. The size of Olmsteady made anything more than a feast and children going door to door in hunts for gremlin treats implausible. 

I did my best mime attempts, silently pulling on the heaviest piano I’d ever seen, and dueled swords with a loud and brash jester keeping pace with her all to the sounds of incredible cheers from those surrounding us as we entertained. 

Everything was right. 

***

The exhaustion I felt in the moments as we entered the ballroom building, and even with how completely ruined my makeup was from all the sweating I’d been doing, I still couldn’t help smiling with satisfaction with how much fun I’d had in one single evening. 

“You really nailed your miming, Roxanne” Lilith said as we carried along through the hallways, her voice echoing in the mostly empty space and us both having to pull back on the volume of our voices, from the sounds of the outside world. 

I smiled despite how tired my breathing was “I think I learned a bit off of watching you at school” 

“All the more proof I’m gonna make a good teacher someday”

“Oh really?” I asked with a hint of awe. 

“Well, of course, it runs in the family” She gave me a light and friendly shove. I had been too tired to notice that I had strayed too close to her. 

We walked toward a staircase, soon finding our way to the second floor, overlooking a ballroom area. A comfortable silence fell between us as we relaxed, soda cans having been cracked open as we waited to find our second wind and to hunt down Lilith's parents. 

“What are you going to do when you get older?” Lilith asked me. 

I reflected on that “I..honestly don’t know.” I think Calamity had asked me this too, or something similar. There was still that part of me that wanted to continue in the footsteps of the witch that inspired me as a kid. A nomadic witch who wandered the world fighting monsters and evil. 

Having lived in San Venus now though…that initial thought had changed. 

I’d liked the clubs I was in, the stuff I was learning, the people I was meeting. 

“I guess right now? I think when I grow up I’m gonna find out what I wanna do when I grow up” I couldn’t help but laugh at such a roundabout way of explaining my lack of plan for the future. 

I was seventeen…life wasn’t going anywhere, right? 

“I get that” She clacked her can against mine “The future is ours to map out, I think is what Mr. Teuenfreux would say..or a sailor would probably say” We both giggled at that notion.

We were both startled out of enjoying each other's company by the echoing din of the door slamming open, clattering against the wall behind it.

“That's what I’m trying to tell you, Ma’am, We can’t just let you set up a ballroom without a prior appointment even if no one is currently using the space, we have cleaning and catering, and there’s a whole thing about making sure staff is ready to help an-” 

As we peaked over the railing, the person who had been talking was interrupted “Do you think I care?” A woman wearing a  pink coat frilled with white fluffy trim nearly spat in the other woman's face. “I’m paying you for the privilege of letting us use the space, the least you can do is agree”

The other woman, a bespectacled redhead, was wearing a staff-uniform waistcoat over a princess costume, tiara and all. The Gremlin Night Princess tried to rebut  “But there’s procedure ma’-

“And I don’t care. Again. We are going to use this ballroom for our meeting, and you are going to accept my payment.” 

As I watched her and listened to her teakettle tone something in my head clicked. 

The woman in pink looked like Ms. Everheart.  She couldn’t have been, though—too much color. In every sense of the word, she had too much color. Her skin. Her clothes. Her face was made up to look…Wealthy? Like some sort of overbaked doppelganger. I wanted to say it was a doppelganger at least. This woman contrasted too much with my understanding of Ms. Everheart. My mind did worry though.

“So now run along, I have to start arranging everything for the various members who will be here shortly” 

“I..really shouldn’t ma’am, it’s not-”

“Go…Away” She leaned in further, the finger she was pointing with now glowing visibly with threatening magic. 

“Yes Ma’am!” the ballroom employee said before turning and darting off. 

Lilith and I were now fully ducked behind the railing, hiding out of sight as we heard the sounds of the woman hastily pulling tables and chairs around with her magic.

A new voice spoke, another woman, A smoother voice that sounded like silk and deep, I was reminded of a poisonous snake as I heard her.  “And there you are, you’re very late.” This second woman had brought with her more. There had been no sounds of them having entered the room. I speculated the exact spells they’d used. Teleportations…but was it a single spell for a mass of people? Multiple individual spells? 

“Only by minutes.” The woman in pink responded as we watched chairs dance into place under table bedecked in pink tablecloth “Time is nothing we need to worry about” 

“Minutes make a moment's difference Astriel”  A third woman warned cryptically. Her voice was much…older, gravely. Somehow my mind conjured jowls and and images of a tusked behemoth as we kept hidden and out of eyeline.  

“And As I said. The meeting doesn’t begin until everyone is present.” We watched the woman in pink, Astriel sit down “Time is not what defines the start of the meeting. And we should all know this by now”  

“We should leave!” Lilith said in a hushed panic as she tugged on my sleeve. 

I ducked as I watched the women's heads spin in our direction. 

There was silence before one of the other women spoke “I know. Yes.” 

The third person spoke up in the moment “We always know. We can always tell” 

My stomach clenched. Lilith mimed a handful of motions at me that translated to a repetition “we need to run” 

 Me and Lilith kept crouched and quietly darted out and down the stairway, keeping eyes over our shoulders in case we’d been seen. 

“Gods, that was terrifying,”  Lilith spoke after we’d safely reached a space in the ballroom hall. 

I  kept my eyes behind me as we walked ahead. “I didn’t know people could be so scary” 

“You’d be surprised,” interjected Lilith’s mother, Mikala, her voice sending us into panicked screams. 

A lot of apologies were shared before eventually we were corralled out of the building to meet Lilith's dad. Kale, a man made of muscle that looked as tall as a mountain and as tough as stone, his physique accentuated by just how much he could carry in both arms. We watched him and the rest of his duelist league mates tear down the fighting stage in minutes

I wouldn’t shake the sensation of being watched until we were back at Liliths home, The food that had been cooked up by one of Lilith’s cousins was a huge pot of noodles and a cheesy meat sauce served with a lot of shrimp and a glass of “Honey Gum Fruit” juice that tasted out of this world 

There was an insistence on using a teleportation spell to get me home. I couldn’t say no, plus it was far later than I expected and darker than I cared to walk. 

A line was drawn on the ground, and a complex motion of hand symbols was made by Mikala. This action created a ‘doorway’ that looked like it was made out of lightning. I was instructed simply to just..picture where I needed to go, and walk through. I’d never done it before, but I could just barely make out the other side I was picturing, and I trusted them.

The hair on my arms stood up on end and for a second I felt something not dissimilar to a static shock as I pushed through into the hallway of the dormitory building. And when I looked behind me I was alone, nothing there. 

I was all in one piece

In my original attire I patted everything down, running through my quick check list of personal belongin., everything was accounted for, and nothing was forgotten. 

I still felt a sense of nervousness from the experience at the ballroom, though now that was far outweighed by the mass of delicious food in my stomach. 

For now, I was safe. And that’s what mattered. 

As I closed the door walking into the dorm I heard Calamity call out to me “Did you get my lemonade?” 

Oh. 

Adra_Collins

Heyo everyone, sorry for the wait, this chapter needed a lot of delicate work I felt like. So I wanna thank my friends Rayne, Kandy for making sure everything I wrote was good enough coming from me, and my other friend cassandra for doing similar and also editing some bits of the story.

 

I wanna hope chapter 8 doesn't take forever to upload but only time will tell. If you are interested I have a patreon and a ko-fi That are primarily tip jars