Life was made a little simpler now that her friends were on board to help her on her journey to become normal and to keep her in the school. She still spent a large amount of time with the Rimanis students but as the semester went on they gradually become more independent of her aside from the third years who constantly stole her attention. As for Teras, there had been no reports of his capture and Mr. Slithers had made no further contact. Slowly her espionage behavior dulled down. Her reflexes no longer got the better of her and she relaxed into the life of a school girl. Shadoe was beginning to feel what it meant to be normal. Rosaline would take her aside occasionally and show her the latest fashions which Shadoe would pretend to be interested in with her in front of the cameras. They would have hair-braiding parties in Rosaline’s room for the photographer to show how Shadoe would style Rosaline’s hair into a Rimanis style for fun.
Dawn continued her studies with Ms. Danner and Shadoe would accompany her on the methods but Dawn’s abilities were growing rapidly under Ms. Danner’s tutelage. Ethan and Eugene often went to the library together while Shadoe and Dawn were at the scrying lessons. Shadoe knew if she went to the library all she would want to do is look at the newspapers which would prove nothing of use to her. Kai continued his duties as a cultural representative and in a master plan between him and Shadoe, they kept the Rimanis and Belanbar as far away from each other as possible. Kai often would take the Belenbars to breakfast much earlier than the Rimanis and vice versa during dinner. Lunch was unavoidable but Shadoe convinced Mr. Watkins to convince Principle Crane to allow the Rimanis to sit outside in the grass for lunch instead of the hall.
Time swept by quickly and before they knew it, the end of the semester was approaching which meant a heavy workload. In Brewing they were preparing jars and jars of preserved organs for the fifth years’ examinations. Rosaline still refused to let Shadoe do any of the dirty work but Khelfan seemed happy to be doing the work for her. In Astrology they were mapping and predicting the future from the movements of the planets every night. They were learning twice as many spells than they used to each week with Mrs. Spohn. Languages of Wild People was one of the few classes where she could actually show her strengths in the language thanks to her own blood. Dawn, however, seemed to struggle and Shadoe devoted her time in the class to helping her…especially with her pronunciation.
“Ashra du volti akla,” Dawn paused thinking of the next part of the phrase while Shadoe was waiting for her to remember the next part of the phrase, “Kalik” She looked to Shadoe for guidance, Shadoe slowly nodded her head in suspense of her next words “agri mirju?” Shadoe burst out laughing. She fell back on the soft grass outside of the school. “What did I say?” Shadoe composed herself from the laughter as Ethan and Eugene joined them.
“What’s going on?” Ethan sat down.
“Shadoe is making fun of my Rimani.” Dawn huffed.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Shadoe apologized and sat up. “You got the first part ‘This is my younger sister’ right except you should accent the ‘a’ on ‘akla’ more.” Shadoe modeled the sound and Dawn repeated. “The funny part was when you tried to tell me that she is seven. You told me she is a frog. Actually you told me he is a frog, ‘Kalikta’ for she, ‘Kalik’ is for he.” Shadoe tried to hold in her laughter.
“It wasn’t that funny.”
“It was in Rimani.” She laughed. “What were you two up to? I thought we were all meeting here after dinner.”
“We were in the library.” Eugene quickly answered.
“Getting books for the essay on the Great Genocide after effects.” Shadoe and Dawn nodded. Prof. Coraggio had assigned everyone an essay to research on the effects of the Great Genocide to a specific group in pairs. Shadoe was paired with Khelfan who had volunteered to do the entire essay on the Star Elves for her since she was busy helping the others. Rosaline had advised her that this was best because appearing too smart wasn’t good for her new image.
