Chapter 28 - The Common Room

Who’s who:

Felix Sutter: Poor boy living in Sacramento, recently found out magic existed. Hard worker, knows the price of everything.

Leona Thorne: 5th year Commander of Dragon house. Long black hair, casually throws around huge amounts of magical power.

Christopher Mau: The black cat. 3rd year Dragon student. Possibly has nine lives. Unusually lucky and dexterous.

Beatrix Brynwyll: 3rd year dragon student. A little uptight. 

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Seamus Morsin, last scion of the old blood,
Perished silently in the cradle of nobility.
The cause was written as Witch’s Wasting -
A rare and cruel affliction,
Stripping the soul like bark from wood.
But no healer had seen the signs.
No court wizard had been called.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 47

===============

The Dragon common room was in a nondescript hallway on the fourth floor, behind a grand painting of a princess in a tower. The singing had ended a staircase ago, along with an order to ‘fall out and follow me’.

The display was over, now it was time for bed.

Chris chuckled when he saw the painting.

“Sense of humor this year.” He said.

“Wait, what?” Felix asked. Chris nodded to the portrait.

“Our room moves around every year. Annoying in some respects, but great in others. We have actual security, unlike the other rooms where anyone can just walk in.”

“The password is Oillipheist.” Beatrix whispered to Felix.

“Bless you.” Felix said with a trace of sass. Beatrix looked at him frostily.

“That’s what I said!” Chris said.

“An Oillipheist is a type of dragon native to the Emerald isles.” Beatrix haughtily informed them. “The mnemonic helps remember the password.”

The other students started walking through the painting, two at a time. 

“Yeah, but isn’t that like, terrible security?” Felix asked. “Just guess types of dragons until the door opens? Aren’t we pretending to be military or something?”

Felix didn’t know what imp of perverse had overcome him.

“Yes… but there’s more security than just a hidden room and a password.” Chris explained. “Outside of the start of the year, there’s ‘door duty’, which is a real pain. Someone’s on deck to run ego checks, which generally just turns into visually confirming it’s a Dragon. It’s great for doing homework!”

“Wait, even at night?” Felix asked.

“Nope.” Beatrix said. “If you miss curfew, you’re locked out and get to explain why you missed it.”

“It’s not so bad.” Chris said. “Phoenix house is super nice, you can always go there to crash or hang out with friends if you get locked out. Sure, they’ll rag on you a bit for it, but then they’ll feed you cookies.”

It was Felix’s turn to walk through the painting, and he followed everyone’s lead.

“Oillipheist.” He said, then slowly reached forward with his hand. He never met the expected resistance, his hand going through the painting with just minor ripples across the artwork.

“Cool.” He said to himself, and slowly - just in case something went wrong - pushed his way through.

He found himself in an antechamber, with another open door on the far side. He stepped through, and got his first look at the Dragon common room.

Black walls were filled with golden murals of dragons, and bright lights combined with windows to make the place feel roomy. It was segmented into four parts. One segment was a ‘study’ section, a number of study cubbies near a well-loved reference bookcase. Another was a ‘casual hang out’, neatly aligned sofas around a fire. There was a clear ‘fun’ section with some game tables, and a ‘flexible’ area held a number of tables and benches, again all neatly lined up. Corridors went off in both directions, and there was a door leading to another room at the back.

“Alright everyone, find a seat, settle in.” Leona announced. The raven on her shoulder nearly blended into her hair, but a ruffle of his four wings reminded people he was there. The students scattered around the room, the older students grabbing the plush seats in the casual sections, while the younger students went for the long benches by the table. The four adept students Leona had called Cadre were standing next to her.

Now that Felix was looking, he could see each of them had an additional golden braid around their left shoulder.

“Welcome back!” Leona called out, and met with a roar back.

“You all know me. I’m Leona Thorne, and I’m the Commander of Dragon house this year.” She said. “I know you’re all ready to get to sleep or do whatever you want, so I won’t keep you long. First off, the Polymorphic room. It’s going to be on a schedule an average of 20 hours a day. The remaining 4 hours will be allocated to people based on points and seniority. Everyone will get custom time with the room, but I encourage you to think about what you want, and see if it’s already on the schedule. We’ll be flexible with it. Talk with Officer Merton if you want to see a particular room. If enough people want something, and a room’s being unused, we’ll swap the hours over. We’ll also be using the room for morning exercise.”

That announcement got a number of scattered cheers, including from Chris.

“No more snow runs!” He gloated.

“Oh, just you watch, Thorne’s absolutely going to make us do snow runs.” Beatrix said. “The only difference is we won’t need to stomp snow through the castle before getting back to the common room.”

Leona continued with a number of announcements about various teams and activities, most of which was going over Felix’s head. He’d had too much today, and wasn’t ready for the deep end, no matter how much he wanted to swim.

Fuck.

He just realized he’d forgotten to write all the stuff down that was happening. Paracelsus - Professor Paracelsus now - was going to murder him.

“What’s the polymorphic room?” He asked. Chris and Beatrix grinned.

“Our reward for coming second in the house contest last year.” Beatrix oozed smugness. “It’s a room that can turn into any room you want.”

Felix was exhausted, but even he caught the implication.

“Wait, so it’s basically a super version of the room everyone else has?!” He asked, and immediately followed it up with another question. “Wait. If that’s the prize for second, what’s the prize for first?”

Chris wobbled his hand.

“Traditionally, Unicorn and Dragon trade off first and second, and they like their room, and we like our room. We only lose our room if one of the other five houses manages to beat us in points, and it does happen now and then. They’ve got a bloody time chamber. Three hours in there is one hour in Camelot.”

Felix’s mouth dropped open.

“You’re fucking kidding me.” He said. “That’s insane!”

“This is the best institution of magical learning in the world.” Beatrix’s smug knew no limits. “We’ve got the best everything.”

“Oh come on, we do not have the best everything, that’s just asking to be complacent and not look at the stuff that’s wrong.” Chris retorted.

The two rapidly devolved into good-natured bickering about practically everything, and soon the argument had gone deep into religion and politics. The moment it touched on economics Felix was out.

And Leona was still going through her announcements. They were quick, they were to the point, there just happened to be a lot of them. 

“... and finally, morning exercise begins tomorrow, bright and early at 5AM. That’s all.” She said. “Sutter, Mau, Brynwyll, I want to see you three. Everyone else, dismissed.”

The students erupted in a flurry, the boys going down one hallway and the girls going down the other. A few immediately went to the door to the Polymorphic room, and slipped inside. A set of friends crashed into the cozy area and broke out decks of Monsters and Magic, and started to shuffle up. Curiously to Felix, there was almost an even mix of boys and girls in Dragon house. He would’ve expected more boys in the military organization, but perhaps things were different here.

After the crowd - which was being generous, there were only thirty or so people in the entire house - Leona gestured, and the three of them walked over to her.

“Sutter. Welcome again.” Leona said. Felix nodded. “Mau. Brynwyll. The two of you seem to be getting along with Sutter. Any objections to being his guide?”

“I’ll get off door duty?” Chris asked hopefully.

Leona tilted her head.

“If the two of you are showing him around for the entire first year - yes, that’ll be your primary contribution, and I can shuffle things around. That means everything. Orientation, tutoring, exam prep, covens, everything.”

Beatrix smiled and nodded.

“Right then. Sutter, if you’ve got any questions, see Mau or Brynwyll first. If you end up having a problem with them, you see Officer Merton. You’re off any duties during orientation, but you’ll start having some work around here during your first week. Any questions?”

Leona’s gaze was intense, like an entire glacier crashing down towards him. It completely deleted all of the thousands of questions Felix had tumbling around his head.

“Err… no ma’am.” Felix awkwardly said.

“Commander Thorne’s fine.” She said dismissively. “No need to get too fancy. Right, I’m not your parent, but it’s getting late, especially considering the hour we need to wake up at. I recommend you see to your affairs. Dismissed.”

“Come on.” Chris said, getting up. “Let me show you to your room. Or rooms.” He grimaced.

“What’s up?” Felix asked, following along as the boy moved down the boy’s wing.

“We use suite style rooms here.” Chris explained. “One set of six for every year. Except you’re the only first year, so you’ve got the whole set of rooms to yourself. If you like that, great! Otherwise, it can be a little isolating. If you’d like, we could probably see about moving you in with the 2nd years. There’s only three boys, you’d fit right in.”

“I don’t want to cause trouble.” Felix said. “They probably have plans for those rooms already.”

“Eh… probably not.” Chris said. “They’re as new to Dragon house as you are. Well, here we are.” 

Chris gestured to the fourth door on the right, the last room in the row. Felix’s mental map broke slightly - wasn’t this exactly where the corridor they’d walked to was? 

“Remember, no bwca in Dragon house, you’ve got to do all your cleaning yourself.” Chris said. Felix stared at him.

“The heck’s a bwca?” He asked

“You know, bwca?” Chris said. “Little fairies you leave milk, wine, and honey out for, they do basic chores in exchange?”

“Ah. Alright then.” He said. “Good night I guess.”

“Night!” Chris said. “I’m just next door if you need anything. Knock between the hours of 1PM and 2PM on days that don’t end with Y, and I’ll see what I can do.”

Felix was nodding along until he caught up to what Chris was saying.

“Hey!” He protested. Chris grinned.

“Got you good with that one, yeah?” He said. 

“Shut up.” Felix groaned.

“For real, if you’ve got a midnight problem, there’s almost always someone up, talk with them. If there’s an emergency, a true emergency, yell bloody murder and wake us up. You’ll have to be loud. Suites are moderately silenced, rooms are strongly silenced, so we don’t annoy the piss out of each other. We don’t ward our rooms otherwise. Thorne will probably actually murder someone who fucks with each other in their suite. Outside, eh, we’ll goof off and horseplay, but the rooms themselves are sacrosanct. When you find a room you like, knock on the blank nameplate three times to claim it. Your stuff will be there. I’m going to hang out here for a few minutes while you explore, in case you have any questions.”

Felix nodded and entered.

The place felt… soulless, for lack of a better word. Oh sure, there was a tiny kitchenette and a small living room with three sofas around a coffee table. There was artwork of a magnificent silver-scaled dragon on one wall. A nice hallway had six doors on one side, and three small bathrooms on the other. One last door at the end implied it was for laundry. The whole place was roughly three times the size of his trailer. A layer of dust over everything suggested the place hadn’t been used in ages.

“Hey Chris?” Felix asked.

“What’s up?”

“If we can’t use the, uh, fairies to clean, can we at least use our magic to?”

Chris poked his head in and swore.

“Okay, yeah, this is bullshit. You should clean your own shit up, not have to deal with all this neglect. Not as a brand new tadpole.”

He grabbed his staff and swung it in a complicated pattern. 

“Thabat!” He shouted, and absolutely nothing happened. Chris looked at his staff with dismay.

“Performance problems?” Felix sassed.

“Shut up.” Chris’s ears were burning.

“I don’t know, after earlier I think I might need to tell Beatrix that you’re having problems with your… staff.”

“I will end you.” Chris swore, starting to move his staff again.

“With the way you’re handling your staff?” Felix’s grin was almost reaching his ears.

“Thabat!” Chris shouted, and this time a wave of magic emanated from his staff, cleansing about half the living room and barely making it to the hallway.

“We’ll fix the rest later.” Chris declared.

Felix had a million questions, most around ‘why are you using a staff when everyone else uses a wand’ and other related stuff, but he was just too overwhelmed. The promised early wake up plus his jetlag, exercise first thing in the morning and promised exams?

Felix was done.

“Good night.” He said, moving to the first door and knocking on it three times. Like magic - no, it was actual magic - his name appeared on the door.

F. Sutter.

“Sleep well, don’t let the dream gremlins get you.” Chris said.

“Wait. Those aren’t real, are they?” Felix asked. Chris didn’t answer him, and Felix heard the sound of pounding footsteps running away. “Chris? CHRIS!” His voice broke awkwardly on the last shout.

A slamming door answered his question about that.

“God damnit.” Felix swore, and opened the door to his room.

It was spartan. A bed, a desk, a chair, and a wardrobe were all done in small to extra small sizes. A mage light hung overhead, and there were no windows. Felix wasn’t particularly large, but he could easily reach out and touch both walls at the same time. It almost felt like home.

His luggage was open, and Felix nervously opened the wardrobe, only to breathe a sigh of relief. Everything was there. He looked at his desk, and the previously-empty desk now had all of his books and writing implements. He closed his eyes, turned around the room, and whatever moving magic the castle had finished putting his stuff away.

“Cool.”

He did a quick double-take at the books on his desk, remembering what Erik had said about magical books.

“Um, hi?” He said to them. “We’re here, I guess. I’m sorry it’s not nicer, but I’m really looking forward to learning from you all! Please stick around. It’s been a long, long day. Let me tell you all about it.

Without quite realizing it, Felix spent the next twenty minutes narrating the day to his books. His stationary books that weren’t moving at all. He figured it was the poor boy’s version of writing in a journal.

Felix then went to explore the bathroom. The utter lack of plumbing was baffling, but otherwise, it was a fairly simple setup. Shower, sink, mirror, toilet, and the buttons were blessedly clearly labeled. He’d heard stories from his mother about absolutely wild designs, like where a chain from the ceiling on the other side of the room flushed the toilet and whatever.

Felix cleaned up, taking a quick shower, changed, then laid down in bed, staring at the mage light. The persistently on mage light, that floated up near the ceiling.

“Off.” He said. “Turn off. Lights out. Good night. Buenas noches. Apagado. Argh, turn off you stupid thing!”

It remained stubbornly on, taunting him with its eternal brightness. Felix got up with a growl and looked all around his room for a switch or a rune or something, before coming up completely blank.

He’d had enough. He flopped back down in his bed, stuck his pillow over his face, and tried to go to sleep.

Morphos eluded him, and Felix realized just how alone he was.

He’d never spent the night away from home before. There was nobody close. His mother was in another dimension. His friends were far away, and the ones here were too recent to truly be called friends. He was the only person in a suite meant for six.

He was so alone.

The pillow over his face was great at absorbing tears.