What May Come

Daj

It was the morning after Nura spoke with Vanta. She joined a gathering of young Threshpanians within one of the student commons. There were three dozen students taking part in the Tovre's astrogations course, and all of them were nervously awaiting the updated standings in the placements to be announced.

The commons was little more than a collection of tables and chairs where students could study between classes. It could only accommodate twenty in anything resembling comfort, so the crush of furred bodies was claustrophobic even for youths who lived in cramped conditions all their lives.

Nura kept her eyes locked on a viewscreen mounted on the bulkhead. The screen currently displayed the latest standings of the pilot course. Nura was pleased to see Canas daj'Gan in the second placement, beneath Davik rev'Horn.

It came as no surprise to see a boy holding the rev in the top spot. Honored as the rev were, Nura couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Davik. It must've been lonely to have never had a twin, neither in life or in womb.

Her eyes were starting to burn from the lack of sleep. Gods of Water, but she felt like a mess. After speaking to Vanta, she ended up sobbing into her pillow for an hour or two. She couldn't even really say why. Relief and gratitude, a fair amount of shame as well. She capped off her evening by neglecting her studies and watching Fey'lin dramas until the middle of the night. The sooner these teenaged hormones were out of her system, the better off she'd be.

Nura looked around at the other prospective astrogators. Not all aimed to someday work at a starship's nav comp but were expanding their skill-set to make themselves a more attractive candidate for a position on a crew or perhaps a marriage into another family. Nura took a wide range of biology courses for similar reasons.

Amid a sea of brown and black fur, Meras shi'Tomi stood out like a nova against the void. Her imperfect white coat was singular and set her apart from the rest. The crowd didn't press as tightly around her, as if having a disgraced family name was something communicable.

Her eyes were lidded as she watched the screen and her arms were crossed over her chest. Meras knew what to expect from the placements and only came as a formality, or perhaps for masochistic curiosity.

No, that's not it at all, Nura decided. Meras came as an act of defiance, a declaration that she could be shunned and ridiculed, but she would not be intimidated. She would never be afraid.

It was the most magnificent thing Nura had ever seen.

Before she knew what she was doing, Nura was sidling through her classmates. She broke through the small ring of bodies encircling Meras and stood by her side.

Meras glanced in her direction, then did a double-take. "Something the matter, Daj?" she asked, her voice carrying equal measures of confusion and wariness.

Nura realized she was staring, probably appearing like a lunatic of some sort. She gathered her wits and turned towards the viewscreen. "It seemed less crowded over here," she said.

Meras gave a rueful laugh. "You see the watchers in the wings?"

"Couldn't miss them," Nura replied. She glanced towards the doors of the commons. They were being kept open, and a crowd of students almost as large as the gathering of astrogators was massed in the corridor.

Some were curious onlookers or gossips, still others were twins coming to support their siblings. The greater portion, however, were senior students from the pilot course. Nura easily picked out Canas from the crowd. While she was glad to have her brother near, she wasn't sure why the rest of the pilots came to watch.