Shifting Flames {Book 1 of the Black Mancer Series}

Tess

Tess woke up with nerves and excitement. Today was the first day of school. It was the first big step towards her future.

She sat up and looked to her left, ready to tell Kiara to get out of bed.

But the person sitting on the bed across from her was not her sister. It was one of her three roommates, Chloe. She was leaning against the wall, a pillow propped up behind her. "Almost time to go." she said. She was already dressed in her uniform.

Tess was used to being the first one up. Now, she was almost the last. There was only one snoring person left, and they were stirring as the morning light poured in.

As she got dressed, the announcement of breakfast echoed in her head. She had never been this late before. Tess began to realise how strict the timetable was compared to her quiet town life.

She hurried to put on her uniform, but her roommates patiently waited for everyone to get ready. The slacker, whose name was Petunia, hurried once she realised what time it was. While they waited, they discussed and theorized the day ahead. Tess' mind was pulling at her to go, to eat breakfast and get to class. She hesitated.

Her image was at stake, and she had to decide. Was she the good, diligent student that got to class on time? Or was she the sort to chat with her friends? She had to decide.

Tess looked around at them all. They were her roommates, there was plenty of time to talk later. She squeezed past them all and out the door. She hurried down the corridor and made her way to the dining hall.

She caught up to the rush of people. Above them flew a number of older students. Tess gazed at them with a pang of jealousy. One day she'd be up there, passing all the students on the ground. Even now, though, she could see the difference in speed some of them had, and that brought to her attention the differences in their uniforms. The slower ones often had a grey, red or blue trimming on their uniforms. Those with yellow, green or black were in the middle, and those with white, pink or purple were the fastest. At least, Tess assumed they were those colours. They flew too fast for her to get more than a glimpse.

Eventually, she made it into the dining hall, collected her food, and looked for a place to sit.

As she looked, she noticed her roommates sitting at a table already, chatting with some of the seniors.

Tess hurried over to them, looking for a seat. "Oh, hey Tess!" They shuffled to make some room for her. Tess sat and looked around at them, particularly at the seniors. "How did you get here so fast?" She asked.

Chloe gestured to one of the male seniors. "Lucas is my brother. He flew us ahead. Why didn't you wait for us?"

"I didn't want to be late for class." Tess said, her head down in embarrassment. Chloe's face flickered in disbelief, but then she smiled before Tess could raise her head.

"Do you want us to wait for you?" Sandra said, the last roommate. Tess didn't miss the glance they shared, the invisible message of "Really?"

"It's ok, I don't want you guys to be late." She said. Tess felt horrible. So horrible she might even be physically sick. Was it the rich food? She looked down at the fresh honeyed yoghurt in front of her. The cooks were really talented.

There was too little time for Tess to dawdle. She wolfed down her yoghurt and rushed to class. If she remembered correctly, they were outside in the north east corner of the grounds. She hurried there, and saw that while she made it there before the teacher, she wasn't early. The students were all clustered around someone. As she got closer, Tess caught the word "Prince." Was the prince in her class? She noticed there were only a few people standing outside of the crowd. One of them being Kiara.