The Alchemist's Daughter

Chapter 3: The Dorms

Briar hid in the corner of the common room, pretending to be very interested in a random book she'd snatched off of one of the floor to ceiling bookshelves. Truthfully she was trying to keep her face out of view of her new roommate, Aden, who had trotted out from their room behind her, making friendly conversation while she screamed internally.

Aden told her about how he'd come back from abroad to take the entrance exam, since Aeres Incendis was his father's alma mater. He told her he was still getting used to Wescester's cold climes after the warm weather of Astyra. He politely asked if 'Heath' had ever been abroad. She shook her head after, "Mmm"ing and "Ah"ing and trying not to look him in the eye. The book really helped with that.

"If it's not too personal a question, why do you want to be an alchemist? Is it just that you have such a clear talent for it?" Aden asked her directly, with his unguarded friendly smile. Briar felt a deep chagrin that it seemed Aden was determined to be her friend no matter how much she politely tried to ignore him.

"...I've always loved alchemy. My father..." She trailed off. Heath's father didn't practice alchemy one bit. "M-my father married a renowned alchemist's sister, so... They say it runs in my blood." She managed to recover, glancing at him over the book to see if he bought it.

"Oh! How interesting. What alchemist, if I may ask?" Aden beamed at her. Briar's throat went dry. Surely putting him in mind of her father would make him remember and recognize her...

"O-oh, I... I mean, if you've been abroad so long, surely you wouldn't know of him," she waffled, stiffly turning a page in her book.

Luckily at that exact moment, the sweet faced older woman in the maid's attire swept into the common room and rang a little bell.

"Boys! Attention please!" She called out to the crowd of teenagers loitering around the large common room. "I've a few announcements and instructions, and then you're free for the rest of the day."

The boys pattered happily at that, and she rang her little bell again. "I will have quiet," she demanded, her sweetness dropping off her like a cloak, revealing steel armor underneath. The boys hushed in an instant.

"I am Mrs Clark, and I am your dorm mother," she began, some of her warmth returning as the boys stayed well behaved. "You're to come to me with any problems or questions that are not related to your studies."

"Breakfast starts at six in the morning in the dining hall downstairs, dinner starts at seven in the evening. For lunch there will be sandwiches and pastries left out, but there are also several cafes on campus that are closer to your classrooms so you needn't come back here to eat."

"Your rooms will be serviced daily, so please vacate them from ten in the morning until noon, even on the weekend or other days with no classes. Laundry is collected and returned twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. There is a linen bag in the bottom of your wardrobe to collect your worn clothes. I ask that you leave them on your bed for collection on those days."

"Your class schedules are in the top drawer of your provided desks. Please look them over before bed tonight."

She cleared her throat and squared her stance. "I will add that I will not be having any untoward behavior on my floor. No drinking libations, even those you may have created through alchemical means," She warned sternly. "No more than four boys in a room at a time. No visitors outside of the common area. And absolutely, not under any circumstances, am I to find a girl on this floor."

Briar paled and shifted awkwardly on her feet as several of the boys laughed and elbowed each other.

Mrs Clark rang her little bell again and the tittering died. "If I catch so much as a whiff of perfume on my floor, I will route out the delinquent who sullied this hallowed hall of learning and send them straight to the headmaster for expulsion, mark my words!"