“I swear on my brother’s name, if we got kidnapped and die by drowning, I will personally bring you both back to life and kill you again.” Irene screeched in horror.

Yeri just sat there, face blank, as they headed straight towards the water. And that’s when the strangest thing they could’ve ever imagined happened. The sand before the carriage shook, and from it rose a huge disk. As they drove towards said disk, it began to split, revealing some sort of tunnel beyond.

Wendy’s jaw dropped. “Are we . . . are we going to drive underwater?” She never got an answer as Yeri and Irene were too dumbfounded. They watched as they entered a crystalline tunnel that went down under the waves. Magic was a truly fascinating thing. The deeper the carriage travelled, the darker the tunnel became, until intermittent lanterns of varying colours appeared on the walls. Slowly, the girls began to become used to the fact that they were driving down a tunnel in the middle of the depths of the ocean. Once again, they fell into a chat.

“I’m really not so sure about this, guys.” Yeri sighed.

“What do you mean? What could you possibly fear, there’s no boys there!” Wendy snickered. It was no secret that, besides Ian, Irene’s brother, Yeri was not fond of boys.

“You know, actually Ian told me that because they’re sibling schools, Tenebris and Umbra had started a campaign where the students interacted!” Irene said excitedly, as Yeri visibly paled.

Wendy rolled her eyes. “And we all know how reliable he is.” She was right, he didn’t have the best track record when it came to reliable sources.

“For once in my goddamn eighteen years of life, I hope to death he’s wrong. I really am going to get kicked out if that’s the case.” Yeri said.

“Okay, well, in the case he is right, what would that even mean? What kind of interactions would benefit the schools? I mean, are we actually going to pretend that Tenebris trains them how to be gentlemen? ‘Cause, I don’t know if you’ve met my brother, but he is so not one.” Irene pointed out.

“Touche. Perhaps for fighting or dancing lessons? Or maybe Tenebris is fed up and is asking Umbra to teach them some manners,” Wendy giggled at the thought of any boy she knew learning the importance of the dinner fork versus the dessert fork.

“Good luck with that,” Yeri grinned. “I’d bet they don’t even know the difference between dancing and fighting.”

Wendy brightened, “Though, there’s always the possibility of finding a good looking one! They not bright, I bet I could easily enchant one.”

This time it was Irene rolling her eyes. “Are you actually serious, Wendy? You’re thinking of courting one of those things?!” Yeri exclaimed.

“Well I’m not planning to be a loner my whole life, like you,” Wendy smiled at her sweetly. Yeri just pouted. In truth, she had never really thought about having a partner, but she spent many restless nights worrying about the days where her friends would find someone and leave her by herself. Besides Yeri, those around her had come into their auras quickly. Yeri was always the weakest, and she absolutely hated it. Even if she was magically incapable, she was not physically weak. Luckily for her, Ian decided, unbeknownst to Wendy and even Irene, to teach Yeri how to fight without magic. Of course, such a thing was incredibly far from socially acceptable, so it was kept a secret between the two of them. Now, Wendy may have been fooled, and didn’t think anything of the strong bond between the two, but Irene knew something was up. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for Yeri, Irene thought she was just interested in Ian romantically. At least that was the case until their first ball. Their first ball was attended when all the girls were thirteen, and Ian was sixteen. Irene and Wendy were having the time of their lives, but Yeri was definitely not. Every time a boy would walk by, she would cling to one of her friends. Of course, this was very suspicious to Irene, because if she liked her brother, why did she avoid every other boy like the plague, even the particularly handsome ones. Wendy really didn’t read between the lines at all and instead poked fun at Yeri.

Yeri was not mentally sound either, her magical weakness was also her mental weakness, and she always struggled with the fact that she knew people would just leave her if she ended up being as useless as she was now. Little did she know, that would all change. And quickly.