The Clues You Left

Chapter Four - Elowen

Elowen stood at the gate of the academy as other students passed by in their fitted uniforms, she rocked back and forth on her heels. Eventually when the large body of students made their way into the academy, Elowen followed. They were going through orientation where they would be briefed on the rules of the academy and what was expected from them as students. It would also serve as an opportunity to point out all the poor people in the room, apparently as Elowen and the other nineteen students were called onto the stage to be introduced. They were introduced by name and class course with Elowen being in the middle, "This is Elowen Everglass, she will be attending the diplomat course." Elowen watched as a few teachers tensed.

They clearly weren't part of the diplomat course, the teachers were dressed in military like uniforms and standing at attention like her father had shown her. Her knees threatened to give out on her when one of them made eye contact with her, her already wet palms became soaked and it took all of her strength not to wipe the sweat on her new uniform skirt in front of the entire student body. They all sized her up, recognizing the skinny body, small hands and long hair. She wasn't like her sister, she was far from it. The only way she resembled her sister was through hair and eye color alone.

But her eyes sparkled with determination, even under a thin layer of intolerable anxiety. So as the orientation dragged on, the rules really caught her attention. As a public school student, she had dealt with a fair share of orientations and assemblies, but Dorian was different in a subtle way at first then it smacked her upside her face.

"When you send letters home, they will be checked to make sure they are appropriate before being sent off. Anyone who is caught writing inappropriate letters will be punished." The Headmaster said, eyes flickering to the group of lower class students Elowen sat with. An involuntary shiver went up her spine as she listened and tried to make herself smaller to avoid his dark, cold gaze.

After the orientation, an old woman walked up to the group. Her eyes glinted with something that Elowen couldn't pinpoint. "I'm Esther, I will be your female dorm leader, you will be in Dorm 349. Don't worry, the dorms can fit all ten of you." She said, gesturing for them to follow her. As they walked through the campus, Elowen realized just how large and gated it was. It was almost the size of the entire downtown of Glory and as a port city, it had a large downtown section filled with docks and crappy apartments.

Esther stopped at an older building, ivy climbed up its walls and the door hinges squeaked as they entered the building. "You will be staying in this room," Esther said, pushing aside another squeaky door to reveal a large dorm, five bunk beds separated by desks between each bunk with an extra desk beside each corner bunk. The room smelled musty, Elowen knew that would be a change from her home that smelt of incense and port water. "You will be expected to be awake at 5:15 in the morning, you can tell the time with the clock above the door. Anyone who fails to be ready by 5:45 will be punished, I will be there to greet you and let you know of any extra activities you will be attending after regular classes." Esther said before handing each of them their schedule sheets. "Classes start in two days to let you get the lay of the land, any tardies will not be excused and will be dealt with accordingly by either me or your teacher."

With that, Esther left, heels clicking down the tiled hallway. They all shared looks between each other that ranged from confusion, fear and apathy. Elowen looked at her schedule and almost wanted to sob. Even if she knew nothing about the layout of Dorian Academy, it was clear that she would do a lot of running if she wanted to make it to class on time. Elowen chose the corner lower bunk before unpacking her items. She hadn't brought anything more than she needed. The ten of them began to talk amongst themselves, mostly about the absolute hell that they had gotten themselves into. Notably, one student had already accepted their fate, stating with a monotone voice, "I don't expect to graduate, from what they talked about in expectations, I'm doomed." and when she got questioning looks she finished with, "I barely got the points needed to attend here, I'm almost certain I won't be able to keep up with the torture here." The girl laughed out the last part, as if it was a joke.