#personal original

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The heavy doors swung open, leading the girls into a large room, with a floating mirror at the opposite end, surrounded by floating coffins. Red stopped herself from shivering - even knowing the real names of them and knowing what they were used for didn’t make them any less coffin-looking. The Gates were surrounding the floating mirror, which itself was floating above a small fountain full of green liquid which flowed like water, matching the green gems of the Gate. The area around the mirror was surprisingly well-lit, with candles and the fountain providing adequate light. It looked a little similar to the room they first found themselves in, at least what little Red saw of it, but with one major difference - the room was absolutely crowded with people. At every single bench in the room, people in dark hoods with purple lining and gold piping watched Crowley and the girls head to the front of the room. Red was both used to and uncomfortable with eyes on her - she did have to make appearances as the Princess of Hearts, so crowds of people looking at her was not an unfamiliar sensation, but she preferred hiding in the shadows, enjoying her freedom in them. Red was confident, but she wanted to be in control of when people noticed her; she only wanted to be seen when she wanted to be seen. So moments like this, being watched by a room packed full of people where she couldn’t easily slip away, made her tense her jaw up and her skin crawl a bit. But she knew better than anyone that fear to an unfamiliar crowd didn’t demand respect, so she forced her jaw to relax and keep her walk casual.

She glanced over at Chloe, who had her eyes locked to the very front of the room, trying her hardest to keep her head up and show no fear to anyone. Red noticed Chloe keeping her hand close to the hilt of her rapier, but not resting on it, a closed fist held a bit too tightly, but only noticeable if you were this close. She was so used to Chloe stumbling in social situations, but in moments like these, her royal lineage shone like the gems decorating the edges of her hair. The two of them were so different, but so alike, as they both used what they knew about being royalty to keep themselves presentable and hide any of their fears.

Crowley, to his credit, was not physically pushing or pulling on the girls to get them to move faster, but with the speed he was walking and the urgency in his motioning clued them in to keep up with his pace, until he had them in front of the mirror. Red glanced over at the small crowd in front of the mirror, the ones who were facing the rest of the crowd. She tried to scan each one, taking in the features not covered up by the hood.

“Oh, headmage! You’re finally here,” one of the boy at the front yelled out. Ruby red eyes shone with a genuine friendliness, putting him a bit at odds with the heavy cloak. He smiled brightly, a bit of his headband peaking out. “We’re done with the dorm assignments. We were just talking about what we should do now. You were so late, I thought you maybe had a tummy ache!” Red was just glad to see someone who was acting friendly after the run-in with Grim and how cautious she was about Crowley, though the rest of the group didn’t seem to share his demeanor.

“Haah?” One of the other figures stepped forward, looming over Red and Chloe. He seemed more annoyed at them than anything else, looking at them one would look at an irritating crow picking through a garden. “These two? Hah! I have my doubts.” Red swore she saw something under his hood twitch, as sharp green eyes noticed her staring at the twitch, giving her a nasty glare. Red couldn’t control her facial expression as she took her eyes off him, a bit indignant at how rudely she was being treated. She heard him scoff, and it took every bit of her self control to not roll her eyes.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that. How’d you two do it? Brute force? Or maybe magic?” This quip came from a guy just to the left of the green-eyed guy, and this guy was genuinely beautiful. Delicate but striking features were framed by golden hair that seemed to effortlessly fade into purple at the tips that matched the color of his eyes. He was pretty, beautiful even, but something about it unnerved her. He was too perfect looking, as if he was a statue come to life.

“If it was magic, then you both have quite the power. We’d love to have magicians like you in our dorm.” This one was said by a guy with silver hair and glasses, fingers resting on his chin as he looked over the two girls. His words seemed friendly enough, and nothing in his storm-grey eyes contradicted that, but the smile was just a little too tight, his movements far too controlled to be genuine. Even his eyes, while they didn’t hold any malice, didn’t seem to hold anything else, like he trained them to look friendly at a glance; if you looked at them any deeper, though, they were just empty.

“No way, it’s not even the official first day and both of you are the center of attention? This is almost too cool, I bet they took notes from all those light novels too…” Red whipped her head around, hearing an incredibly tinny voice next to her suddenly. A floating tablet was next to the mirror, harsh blue light shining from within as it illuminated the runes on it. The voice was talking fast and seemed to be mumbling to himself, so she only head about a third of what the voice from the tablet said. It wasn’t in her personal space, or even had eyes, but she felt like the voice on the other side was staring at the two of them just as intensely as everyone else.