Gavrus sat by himself at a lunch table eating the best damn meatloaf of his entire life. He wasn’t sure if it was beef or not because no beef he’d ever eaten had come close to tasting this good. He idly wondered if it were possible to have a cooking specialty, but then laughed at the thought when he tried to imagine what a cooking Archon transformation might look like. Aspect of the potato?

Velia and Fadius entered the cafeteria with their posse from House Day, disrupting his good cheer. The larger boy still refused to look at him, but Velia had no problem giving him a one-eyed glare so hot a rooster might crow at it.

Gavrus glared right back with his diametrically dead eyes. You are already dead, you just don’t know it yet, he thought. They had come close to killing him. If he died, Lilion would have nobody left in the world. No one to care. No one to rescue her. For that sin he was going to do everything in his power to put them down.

A plate of food slammed down in front of him, interrupting his staring contest with a crash. Gavrus snarled up in surprise at his ambusher, only to see two emerald green cat eyes lazily looking back at him.

“How’s the meatloaf?” asked Dex, sitting across from him without waiting for permission.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about Dexsia. Although she was a member of his house, he didn’t know what attachments that came with. Severa barely spoke to him, well anyone for that matter, and Obran seemed to actively dislike him. Dexsia, for all that was always nice to him. In fact, she may have been the only genuinely friendly person he’d met since he got off the sky ship. She didn’t even seem to care that he was a born street rat. He decided he didn’t want to risk rebuking her offers of kinship and quashed down his murderous thoughts. Though the dark thoughts didn’t drift too far away--left the room but stayed in the hallway kind of thing.

“Sorry. Rough day,” Gavrus said. “The meatloaf is incredible.” he added.

“I’m happy to hear that. Ever since I went through the transformation, I haven’t been able to eat anything but meat. Nothing but meat tastes good anymore. Sometimes, I even wake up at night hot and sweaty, fantasizing about beef. It’s so unfair. Why did I have to be a tiger goddess?” Dex said.

Gavrus found himself laughing at her plight. It was ironic that she had such a laid-back personality but was also simultaneously the most ferocious in the combat class. Sarrius gave her encouragement more than rebuke, which made her unique in the class of (apparently) inept first years. No other animal besides the cat fit that paradox quite so well.

“Don’t laugh!” she said admonishing with a fanged smile, clearly not too upset. “My stomach started gurgling during drills. You have no idea how much it sucks to be able to smell that far away. Speaking of which, you need a shower. You must have come here straight from the infirmary.” she concluded.

Then without any further preamble she began tearing into her meatloaf with an almost passionate energy. Her moans elicited a blush from Gavrus, who was by no means a prude but still put in very difficult territory with her display. For her sake, he hoped no one else could hear what was happening. It’s not like he could drop further down the social pole. By the time she was done massacring her plate, gravy was dripping down her face and fingers. Maybe she isn’t friendly, it's just no one else will sit with her while she fornicates with food, Gavrus thought with a smile.

“What are you smiling at?” Dex said, fixating on his face. Also like a cat she didn’t seem to miss much.

“I was just grateful you like the meatloaf is all. I’d have felt bad if you didn’t like it after I talked it up.” Gavrus said with a shrug. She watched him skeptically for a second, then her eyes grew wide.

“Ew!” she yelped, suddenly realizing the state she was in, and grabbing a handful of towels to begin wiping herself off. “This is so embarrassing!” she whined.

“I really need to figure out a way to get my willpower up. Losing control like this is not the way I want to go through life.” she said, as she roughly scrubbed herself down.

Gavrus didn’t respond. Willpower was the only thing he truly had in spades, and it was earned with a lifetime of suppressing overwhelming hatred and rage. Sarrius was probably the only one that could help someone with that brand of training.

While Dex cleaned herself, Gavrus finished eating his plate. Both completed their tasks at about the same time.

“So.” Dex said, breaking the new silence that had settled. “Let’s hear it.”

“Hear it?” Gavrus asked confused.

“Don’t play dumb. What was up with all the attempted murder on the first day of training? Why did you look like a black demon monster thing? What did instructor Sarrius tell you guys in his office; someone said the Headmistress even had to come down? Why were you staring at Velia like you wanted to eat her face?” she asked in a flurry of questions.

“Alright,” Gavrus said, now understanding the nature of her inquiry. “I’ll answer some of that but first tell me why do you care? Do you just want the hot gossip?”

Dex gave him a considering look for a moment before speaking. “I forget how clueless you non-enclave types are. So, here’s the first thing. I’m from House Arnza enclave-- most nature users are. It’s the smallest of the Great Houses. It primarily focuses on gathering rare frontier resources and ether exploration. House Arnza has a reputation of being a wildcard in terms of politics and membership. The uncouth adventurer types, if you will. I was born House Arnza and will probably die House Arnza because no other House will want me. I’m nearly as much as a social pariah as you are.” she said with a shrug.

“Okay, so what, you want to ingratiate yourself with the others by giving them gossip?” Gavrus asked, seeing the angle.

“No, you wuffle-brain! Why would I bother trying to impress a bunch of people that want nothing to do with me? I’d tell them to all go to hell, but since we are already in hell, they can just stay here. Sans meatloaf.” she said with a snort.

Before he responded she continued, “The reason I want to know if you are crazy is because the trials will be here before we know it. During the trials, students are placed in groups of threes. That will surely be you, Severa, and me. Obran will spend all his time hanging out with House Dawn, I'm sure he will end up being grouped with them for the trials. Especially since they have eight and he will already have to take classes with them.”

“Okay, I get it. House Sunset will mostly be a team. I guess my bullshit could become your bullshit. But how can you be certain what classes Obran will have? None of our advanced classes are going to be assigned until tomorrow. What if someone else gets placed with Dawn instead?” Gavrus said.

“Do you know what essence users are?” Dex asked.

“Not a clue. Only thing I know is from what the Headmistress said about ‘ether of the self’ or something like that.” Gavrus said.

“Alright, I’ll tell you. There are four different types of loci for essence users. Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit. All four deal with the primary essence that make a living creature. However, they only have access to three of the six disciplines. Two of those, are the same for everyone no matter what: Sense and Ward.

We won’t get into the nitty gritty of their third disciplines, it gets more complicated. Suffice to say, because Sense and Ward make up the majority of what they are capable of, and since their ether deals with very personal aspects of people, essence users almost always end up in the Imperial Magistrate, or Imperial Security. They spend most of their time hunting down bad guys, organized crime, sniffing out insurrectionist that kind of thing. For example, imagine if you are a body user on patrol and you sense a room full of demons coming from a merchant’s house. Or a mind user interrogating a potential terrorist, reading his mind. A heart user swaying a bunch of natives to the Imperial cause. And so on.

Obran is a Justice Archon. He is tailor made for the Imperial Magistrate. His destiny was plotted long before now. It doesn’t matter which House takes him, he will be a Magistrate. And that means he will have to train with House Dawn.” Dex said.

“Huh, fascinating. I didn’t know any of that. What about Severa though? Wouldn’t she also be good at hunting down betrayers or whatever?” Gavrus asked.

“Probably, but she is likely destined for the Imperial Army and training with House Day. Being able to call down destructive Hellfrost is no joke. That’s why most of the elemental users end up in the Army or military services. Her combat ability outstrips her utility.” Dex said.

“And you?” Gavrus asked.

“I’ll end up with either the Imperial Exploration Society, or Imperial Commandos. Weird things happen ya know, but most of where a user goes is set in stone. We nature users tend to do very well out in the wilds.” Dex said with a smirk.

“Well, I wonder what that means for me then.” Gavrus said, almost to himself.

“No clue. It’s going to depend on how your disciplines turn out. A lot of people are curious about the answer to your question though, that’s for sure. And, that brings us full circle back to my original questions. Your turn.” Dex said.

“Alright, here’s the deal. Velia blames me for that asshole Kaeso or whatever his name was dying. Remember when I beat that kid’s ass before the ritual? Well, I beat her ass too, but somehow his death is my fault in her mind. She snapped my neck in the training ring with the help of Fadius. I lucked out. It turns out I have ‘malleable bones.’ The thing between us is far from over.

As for the armor, that was my summon.” Gavrus said.

“Really? Your summon becomes a part of you?” Dex said, evidently surprised.

“Yep. That’s what it does. I don’t think it can exist in this reality without me. It makes me stronger, faster, that sort of thing. Anyways, I hope it answers your questions. I must go up to see Pilus and let him experiment on me. Thanks for the talk; I still have a lot of questions, especially about the Trials. Maybe we can meet up soon and do it again?” Gavrus asked hopeful.

“Sure thing,” Dex said, pleased with his answers. “See ya at the evening mind dump.”

“Mind dump?” Gavrus asked.

“You’ll see.” Dex said.