She came to a stop in front of a pair of doors separated by a wall and here was where the chills ran down her spine. The name plates on both doors were way too similar, and she had only come along with a vague idea of Elise’s personal underclassman companion for this week, figuring the process of elimination would serve her enough.

  With an under the breath curse, she pressed her ear against the left door to listen in. She at least knew that this underclassman was in class right now, meaning if one of the rooms were occupied, she had a free pass.

  Silence met her for a few beats and she returned to tapping her fingers to count the seconds ticking by. Nothing. She tried the next door, but the same result. She returned to the first door, though with frustrated misplaced feet, she tripped and slammed against the door.

  Frantic ruffling from the other side and whispers. Oh goodness, someone, or a few someones, were in there.

  “Who’s—ahem.” Their voice was high-pitched and as if off-balance, like after running a marathon. “Who’s there?” the person asked with what sounded like a slightly deeper version of their voice, perhaps even their natural one. Heat rushed to Veaer’s cheeks at the implication that she had just interrupted something important.

  “Darling, come back. No one’s here right now,” a second, very affectionate and sultry voice answered, and Veaer knew then it was time to use the other door and take the risk that her luck would place someone in there too.

  She took extra effort in closing the right door, embracing comfort in the quiet and dark room that appeared to be what she was looking for. No surprises in here, just drawn blinds, a bed on the left, a desk on the right. A closet that was closed. She had an itch to check it just in case and she swung it open only to reveal a spare uniform and other changes of clothes.

  Bust statues emulating marble decorated a few shelves alongside taper candles, weathered book pages and diagrams stuck to the walls. While this was humble decor often found in Miriam Manor, Veaer did wish she could swipe some of the objects for her own room. But in this case, she was here to give rather than take.

  The underclassman was always scheduled to come along to Elise’s room at the end of the day to serve her duties—gathering any refreshments, tidying the room, perhaps secret activities Veaer didn’t need to fantasise about. For Elise’s counterpart of a brother, his second in command was usually the one to take the role, but it seemed Elise didn’t want Tychon in that sense.

  Veaer unclasped her satchel and pulled out two things. A raspberry muffin and a tablet. This week’s assignment was a bit of a sweet tooth, and she noticed each time the young girl reached for the desserts in the cafeteria before any savoury item.

  She gently placed both upon the table and looked around, her gaze settling on a letter opener. She grasped its handle, spun it around and carefully held the blade between her fingers, bringing the blunt end down onto the tablet and crushing it into powder.

  What came next was quick work—taking the powder from the table and sprinkling it over the muffin, letting it get into the cracks and dusting it like sugar.

  She didn’t intend to hurt the underclassman, but if she wanted her plan to work, she needed the princess alone. An underclassman who found herself running to the bathroom for the rest of the night wouldn’t be much use in completing her evening routine with the royal, would she?

  She made sure to not leave any evidence behind, returning the letter opener to its position, swiftly exiting the room, and closing both her satchel and the door. A low rumble from downstairs was distinguishable enough that Veaer knew the end of the school day had arrived, and she had just enough time to enact the final act of her plan.

  She sprinted for the next staircase and gazed upon the carpeted steps. An entire floor dedicated to the prince and princess of Adraredon was before her.

  Each step up was electrifying, the next better than the last. Every piece was falling into place, and this would mark the beginning of the princess in her palm, like a flower bud ready to bloom just for Veaer. Thorns falling away, petals outstretched, bleeding red onto white roses—revelation would be hers and hers only.

  This time she knew the exact door she needed, if only from nights watching Elise gazing to the stars from her balcony, Tychon chatting away in a chair shuffling his cards. The two were bonded in a way she couldn’t place her finger on. As if lifetimes ago they crossed paths and now they returned to each other’s orbit. But there was always something else between them that sparked conspiracy, and not in the romantic sense. Something like they were meant to intersect in every life and then continue through, leaving each other behind. It was only a matter of when this would happen, and how. She was nervous to admit she feared a similar fate between herself and the Boudreau twins, but time was the master of that, and it had a fluctuating temperament.

  Her hand hovered over a golden door handle, beautifully engraved with twisting vines. Upon a closer look, she could see a name intertwined—Elise Excava. A nameplate wasn’t enough for her. She wasted no more time and turned the handle, bursting through the door as if it were her own.

  This was the Kingdom of Elise. A veil draped over a queen-size bed, a piano on the other side of the room, a tall mirror on another wall, with a stacked vanity. The air sung here, not that actual music played in the princess’ absence, but a choir of tea tree, lavender and clove that wrapped her being and belted ‘this is home!’. This bedroom wasn’t just that, it was half the size of the entire floor and showed in its luxury apartment style fit with a small kitchen, and a bathroom through a door to the right.

  Her immediate choice was the wall with the vanity, and she stared into the mirror reflecting a Veaer surrounded by butterflies and other small winged specimens hanging on the opposite wall.

  She looked down and used a finger to gently spread a pile of jewellery in a tray apart. A thin gold chain was exactly what she needed, and she palmed it away for later.

  Her ears perked up as a bout of commotion echoed from down the hallway. Soon, soon, soon, soon. Two voices but three sets of footsteps joined the fifth floor. Veaer took a seat at the vanity, facing the entrance. The door to the other room opened and closed, the voices muffling to almost nothing, and the three sets became one. The golden handle on her side turned and Veaer placed a hand on her bouncing knee. This was no time to be hesitant. The door parted and there she was.

  She couldn’t describe Elise’s beauty in words if she tried. She needed a palette of paint and a fresh canvas this instant. She needed to dip a brush into Elise’s golden skin and transfer it to the weaved cloth. She needed to contain those ebony strands of hair between her fingers and memorise each one. She needed those down-turned hooded eyes dusted with a dark shadow to stare at her like a flickering flame being threatened by the wind.

  She lowered her eyes for a moment, almost overwhelmed by every feeling coming for her mind and throat in an instant. Oh, adorable black socks that reached her thighs that slightly overflowed creating muffin tops. She would have fainted right there but wriggled her fingers to let go of the rush and maintain her composure.

  The young woman sighed to herself, quiet enough that Veaer wouldn’t have heard it if she weren’t concentrating on every move and sound as much as she was. Elise went over to the balcony to open the door for some fresh air, then she slipped off her blazer and placed it over one of the other chairs in the room tucked under a round tea table. Even if her presence was known, the young woman didn’t react to it or find it strange.

  Veaer’s steady gaze was interrupted by the strike of a match and she dipped her chin at the long shadow of Elise casting to her feet. The flame was brought to a taper candle and the wick came alive. Her ears twitched in anticipation.

  “I think for my next piece, ” Elise began slowly, softly. Her voice cut through the silence like a dolphin leaping from the deep blue, breaking the surface into ripples. She shook the match and tossed it in the bin, then lifted her hand with careful intimacy, barely stroking the edge of a framed specimen. “Red admiral butterflies.”

  Veaer swallowed, her words stuck in her throat for a moment. I know this, I know this. She had prepared for this.

  “And what do you wish to draw from this piece?” Veaer asked, her own voice sounding foreign, distant. A small crackle in the lightning storm Elise brought forth to her emotions.

  Elise’s fingers closed into her palm and she moved her fist away from the glass, propping it to the side of the frame. She stood straighter, not so much of a flinch but definitely a response that delighted Veaer to almost a giggle. The princess didn’t turn around, though the tilt of her head acknowledged a sense of unfamiliarity.

  “Their wings are a snapshot of the universe. We are contained in those delicate strands of brown, surrounded by a bubble of orange—a few dark dots… something to explore. This is what we call our home.” Elise separated her hand from the wall and gestured over her shoulder, calling Veaer towards her.

  Veaer inhaled sharply and her senses heightened all at once, her fingers tingling with excitement. Her gaze locked onto the golden clasp that sat pretty on the back of Elise’s neck as the princess moved her hair over her shoulder.

  Suddenly it was as if she were the one floating by Elise all this time, but now she was more than an apparition—she had a voice: “Tell me more, my princess.”—she had thought: I need this, I need this.—she had limbs: her hand floated by Elise’s shoulder blade before she gathered the courage to lower it and the warmth that came with the action was searing, but Veaer let it burn.

  She wondered if in another life, she would’ve let herself fall apart then and there, thrown the plan out the window for its complication, dancing to the hum of her heart, knowing life was not reality nor imagination but what they decided was worth conscious thought. She would’ve decided on the mystery of Elise Excava and been happy with what they had in this moment. But that was not enough for her, not yet.

  “We are so tiny,” Elise whispered, like a confession that pained her. “We are nothing in comparison to the fantastic infinite possibilities outside of what we can comprehend. How am I supposed to capture that? There is only so much room on a piece of paper, or on a canvas, or even if I used an entire wall for a mural. Nothing will come close to this feeling.”

  In a motion faster than anything since Veaer entered this room, the princess grasped Veaer’s hands and pulled her forward. She stumbled closer, her chest against Elise’s back, and her mind ran in circles of wonder and fear. Elise tilted her head back slightly, her long black hair like a waterfall that rushed past the side of Veaer’s cheek, covering the necklace once again.

  “My dear maiden,” Elise’s fingertips drifted over Veaer’s forearms absently, “a penny for your thoughts?”

  The hairs on Veaer’s arms stood at the touch and she took a deep breath before answering, “Perhaps what you’re saying is not a constant that we can qualify or quantify. Maybe it’s only…” Her breath hitched as Elise shifted in her arms and finally turned around, staring right into her soul. “An intangible experience”

  They stood there, Elise wrapped in Veaer’s arms, with a collection of frozen butterflies of all colours and sizes as their backdrop, in growing darkness except for the lit candle, and racket that came from the students on the floors below which served to remind them of where they were.

  “My, you are not what I expected.” Elise’s calm demeanour stilled Veaer. “Rosell, year 3, senior. Art stream. Most peculiarly, assigned the ground floor. How did you end up all the way up here?”

  The whimsical quality of Elise’s voice made her want to spill every thought to her, but Veaer stared hard into those eyes and knew that this was a challenge.

  “You know a lot about me.” Her arms shifted downwards from Elise’s neck and tightened around her waist, pulling her soft belly against Veaer’s. “How’s that?”

  “Not more than the school records. And what’s to say you aren’t guilty of the same considering we’re standing here, doing this?” Elise brought her finger upwards and ran it along Veaer’s chin.

  “I happen to know your underclassman is out of commission tonight. I figured I would skip the inconvenience.” She recalled the two voices from behind the door, the images that came to mind with each assumption. “Why don’t I serve you tonight?”

  A small, entertained chuckle followed an intrigued look on Elise’s face, and she stepped back. Veaer let her go.

  Elise folded her hands behind her back and paced the room as she spoke. “An experience… implying that an experience expressed in writing, voice or visually is not good enough for my thoughts. You mean something that doesn’t stay still… an obscure form of storytelling. Maybe really living and breathing. Curious.” She arrived at her bed and paused, then looked back at Veaer. “Bring me a drink, will you?”

  Veaer hadn’t realised she had locked in place and snapped herself back into motion by approaching the tea table and pouring a glass of iced tea from an opaque decanter. She padded across the room to meet Elise again, her slightly taller stature keeping the princess’ shins against the soft doonas that spilled over the bed.

  “Tell me,” Elise looked down at the glass then back up to Veaer, “why are you really here?”

  “It’s not easy to get your attention,” Veaer murmured. Then she lifted the glass and brought it to Elise’s lips.

  Elise only hummed in response as she sipped the tea, her gaze unmoving. Striking brown with rays of gold. She had the sun in her eyes.

  And in a swift move, Veaer took the glass away and dropped it.

  The glass shattered into a starry sky and Elise gasped as she was pushed into the bed. With the princess buried between soft cushions and silky sheets, Veaer unclipped the gem necklace she’d been eyeing for days. The prized jewel encircled in gold fell into her palm.

  “There is a lot to learn from a girl like you.” Veaer tucked the gem necklace into her pocket as she held her gaze to the golden chain in her right hand—her decoy.

  The princess sat straight with a changing expression—something of surprise, of anger, of excitement, of curiosity. Veaer waved the chain left to right and if she closed one eye and looked carefully, Elise’s gaping expression would be trapped in the loop.

  Veaer bent over, bringing her voice to Elise’s ear, and whispered, “I hope to mark this the beginning of our experience together.”

  And as she pulled back, she dropped the false chain onto the floor, and left through the open balcony, making her grand escape downwards, leaving the other residents of Miriam Manor none the wiser.

  CHAPTER 2

  MY INTENTION

  Year 1, Semester 1, Week 1

  Veaer Rosell stepped onto the grounds of Adraredon Academy two years ago in search of something beautiful.

  And she found it all. In the buildings that took her breath away as she tilted her head upwards and exposed her neck to the summer sun pouring over the campus. In the students who were as good looking as they were clever and creative. In the grass for being as green as can be. In the classrooms with thoughtfully arranged furniture, expensive desks, and a teacher dressed in the exact way she wanted to dress when she grew up and had enough money.

  She was spinning along the path between the learning centre and Miriam Manor on her first day of orientation, during which she had made friends with no one and familiarised herself with where classrooms were located, how they were categorised and counted on each level of each building, and noted that she wanted to explore the performance block someday, as well as the cathedral.

  Her airy daze was rudely interrupted by two girls walking from the opposite direction, the one closest to Veaer shouldering her so harshly that it sent her flying off the path and covered her skirt in freshly cut grass blades as she hit the ground. They didn’t have memorable faces except for looking quite pretty, but their expressions failed to meet the same expectation.

  They stopped walking, looked down upon Veaer in the grass, and didn’t make an effort to help her up. Their silence told her, “This is your fault.”

  Their gazes travelled across her body: to her untucked shirt, to her rolled up sleeves, to her sneakers that she had to replace with leather loafers someday, in accordance with the uniform code. Veaer eyed them back, regretfully envying their ironed uniforms and polished shoes.

  One of the girls spoke in an entirely unhelpful way, “You’re the freshman on the bottom floor, aren’t you?” She smiled with a tense lip and glanced at her friend who returned a wordless look. “She’s already halfway there.”

  Veaer couldn’t tell if the words were meant to be an insult. All she knew was: they sound exactly like the girls from my old school. But they did state fact. She was assigned the lowest floor and it didn’t take long for her to realise what that meant in the hierarchy of this academy.

  This isn’t my old school anymore, she reassured herself, quickly, but still neglected to lift herself from the ground. This is Adraredon Academy—where I will find everything that I’ll ever want and more.

  CHAPTER 3

  A CHASE OF ALTERNATIVE MATTERS

  Year 3, Semester 1, Week 9

  Two days later and no phone calls, no confrontation, and no faculty at her door.

  Veaer slipped into her leather shoes and then shouldered on her blazer, and while she was getting ready for a Monday of classes, her mind was elsewhere. The lack of attention was cause for concern. But was she secretly glad that perhaps the princess didn’t find it in herself to tell anyone else—to keep it a secret between the two of them?

  Entering the learning centre granted nothing new either. Every student was in their usual place, every piece of dialogue lacked any knowledge of what transpired on floor five of Miriam Manor last Friday.