She guessed the disappearing road led to the two enormous towers in the distance. They melted into one another like a sculptor’s experiment, twisting near the top like a dip in a dance. Elevated tracery tattooed the stonework in green ringlets and wording. Alex lifted her hand toward the dancing building, and even from such a distance she could actually feel the roughness of the gnarled stone. She pulled back her hand in surprise, wondering how she could possibly know how something felt to the touch from miles away.
Because your fingers don’t exist anymore, her intuition answered for her. It’s all in your head.
It was jarring nonetheless, so she turned to survey the room, noticing details that she’d overlooked in her fatigue the previous night. A large misshapen clock hung above the wooden desk, its hands indicating the time without ever seeming to move, without ever ticking. It was affirmation that time could stand still in this world, yet somehow keep moving. She found a standard note of greeting and an itinerary so painfully similar to a high school schedule that when Alex picked it up, she grimaced. Today she would be subjected to psychology, intro and history. Tomorrow it would be science, sensory development, and physics. There was also a footnote about periodic general education. The absurdity of death workshops made her laugh aloud, and she could have sworn she saw the walls pulsate, inhaling her merriment.
“Good Lord,” Alex murmured. “I should have brought my backpack.”
She had hours before her first scheduled appointment. It was no use trying to go back to sleep. She was jittery with anticipation for what the day would bring. There was only one source of entertainment in the room: the wall that was corner to corner, ceiling to floor, stuffed with books.
One of these should put me back to sleep, she figured.
She extracted the thickest one: Eidolon Greats: A Compilation of Biographies. This seemed too structured, so she replaced it and ran her fingers along the spines of the others. Introduction to Eidolon and the Surrounding World. Maybe she could skim through it.
Poised in the middle of the room, an arm chair stood like a lone island, out of place. It looked like an antique, thick and heavy, the type of furniture that would usually merit the phrase “They don’t make ’em like this anymore.” Alex pushed it over to the French doors so she could occasionally glance up and feel at ease that her new world was still there. She curled her feet under her legs and propped the book on her lap.
Her brain devoured the text, a paragraph per second, retaining the information easily. She read until her head ached, the anchors of information weighing down her mind, and she was shocked to discover she’d read nearly four hundred pages. No wonder there were so many books in her room. It would probably only take her a week to read them. With a brain like this, school wouldn’t be so bad after all.
She gathered the appropriate books and turned, tripping over a backpack that she was positive had not been there before. It was identical to the one she’d owned in life. Coincidence? According to Kaleb, there were none.
She made her way to the door, which gracefully swung open of its own accord. It seemed to know her hands were full. She even would have thanked it if she hadn’t been distracted by a girl across the hall. Her back was to Alex, covered in a fuzzy lion’s mane of bushy grayish hair.
The girl spun around at that moment to find Alex there and dropped several of her books. “Oh!” she said in surprise.
Alex smiled in greeting, but the girl scooped up her books and scurried down the hall.
That was weird, Alex thought, trailing behind. When she reached the winding ramp, an arm was flung in front of her face, chopping the air like the swing of an ax and preventing her from following.
“You should wait a few more seconds,” Tess-the-Pest advised. “Just in case.”
“Just in case of what?”
Tess didn’t respond. Instead, she made a face like she’d swallowed a mouthful of lemon juice.
“Who is that?” Alex asked.
“Calla Bond. No doubt going to fetch her brother. I have no idea why that girl is on our floor.”
Bond. So she wasn’t tied to a tree outside.
Tess’s lips moved slightly while she eyed the ramp, counting the seconds since Calla had left. “Okay. We should be good now.”
Bewildered, Alex journeyed around the ramp and down to the vestibule. Tess walked a straight path, maintaining her statuesque posture, and spirits scampered out of the way when they saw her coming. The air around her screamed authority so loudly that Alex fought the desire to cover her ears.
They passed the fountain, and Alex noticed it now contained a misty, white substance. Tess held out her arm and wiggled her fingers along the surface of the captive cloud. “I’ll show you to your first class.”
It wasn’t an offer but a command. Alex had been planning to wait in the vestibule until one of the Lasalles appeared. She felt anxious without them, but something told her that disobeying Tess was a bad idea.
They stepped outside into another gray day. Drops of moisture speckled the cool air like water on a camera lens. The spirits occupying the tables littered around the square didn’t seem to mind. Tess passed a bench with two sharp-featured boys with beak-like noses and nodded in greeting. “My brothers,” she explained.
Alex scanned the courtyard, searching for the Lasalles, but the only spirit she recognized was Calla Bond, who tramped up the steps of the school, constantly watching her feet like the ground might crumble beneath her. She bent down to adjust the cuff of her jeans, and someone bumped her shoulder and knocked her sideways onto the ground.
Alex began to voice her disapproval when she nearly tumbled over a jagged slice of the bench that was overlooked during the cleanup.
“The bench was your doing, wasn’t it?” Tess asked, coming to a stop.
“Self defense.”
Tess glanced in her direction. “I heard you didn’t run. I’d be careful if I were you. Anyone who missed the first display is going to be chucking heavy objects at you to see a live encore.”
Alex hadn’t thought about that and felt a strike of paranoia, but everyone in the courtyard seemed preoccupied. The two girls at the table nearest to Alex and Tess were seated opposite one another. One was holding flashcards of random objects while the other girl had her eyes shut tightly. “Apple, hammer, moon,” she whispered. Alex’s mouth fell open.
“Meditation activity,” Tess explained curtly with a wave of her hand. “So how did you do it?”
“What?”
Tess took an exaggerated step over the stray mound of rock. She kicked it with her heel and began to walk again. “Control it.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing. I saw the bench coming, and then I just felt a pain in my head.”
“I’m sure you could do it again if you tried.”
“No, I couldn’t.”
“It isn’t typical, you know. Being able to do that on your first day. You must have family here.”
Alex remembered what Jonas had said about Tess and her self-righteous cult. “I have no idea.”
“Hmm.” Tess remained quiet until they reached the stone doors of the school. “What session do you have first?”
“Psychology.”
The doors lurched open, revealing an entrance hall. Hushed voices of students and loud chirping reflected off the walls, echoing all the way to the tip of the fan vault ceiling. Alex breathed in the smell of fresh paper and pencil lead.
The largest of three staircases greeted them front and center, leading to three levels of balconies, similar to the structure of Brigitta Hall. Two rippling staircases hugged the walls on either side and disappeared under dark archways.