Monday after class was calm for me. There were students milling about in all directions, but nothing I wasn't used to at this point. Barely more than background noise. Students blissfully unaware of most of what's going on around them. But that was okay. It made me functionally invisible.

Right now the only thing I was worried about was getting the mail. I knew who it was for even without the little slip of paper saying his name.

Fethris was turning sixteen today. Which left Jarec as the baby of the Tower. We might have to make fun of him for that at a different time.

The mailroom wasn't exactly empty, but there were two people working so the line was moving quickly. I couldn't have been standing in it for more than a few minutes.

"Hi, good afternoon," the student volunteer greeted.

"Hello," I greeted back while handing them the slip of paper. They were thankfully fast in putting the package in front of me. Just the one, but it was bigger than I expected.

It wasn't that heavy thankfully. I couldn't summon extra hands to help me carry stuff, but I liked to think I was strong enough to not need them.

Everyone was in the main room when I got back. Fethris was sitting on the couch facing the fireplace with the coffee table in between them. Celica was sitting with her back to me, in one of the chairs. Jarec was standing, leaning forward onto the back of the couch and looking over Fethris' left shoulder. Russel was sitting in the other chair, facing me and Celica.

"Hey, I'm back," I greeted. Not that I really needed to say much. It wasn't like Dragon Tower's door opened for tons of people. That was arguably the best part of it. The privacy of having this space to ourselves.

"You know you could ask for help with that, right?" Russel asked as I set the package on the coffee table in the middle of the lowered section of the room. I decided to sit on the step between Fethris and Russel.

"I know. But it's not a bother," I shrugged. It wasn't like there was enough of us to have mail all the time. I was sure the other Towers had a whole system for it, but there was no need for us to overthink this. It was probably the least headache-inducing part of the job.

"Being sixteen doesn't feel any different from being fifteen," Fethris commented. "But at least I'm not the youngest."

Jarec rolled his eyes. His was the only birthday left out of us. It was going to be over the summer, late June if I remembered correctly. We'd probably end up doing another big group call that day. Which meant we had the rest of the school year to tease him about it. I didn't have any good jokes for it. Yet.

"Any Nightcall traditions we should know about?" Celica asked.

"Not for sixteen," Fethris answered as he reached towards the box from presumably his parents. Instead of grabbing it, his palm was faced upwards as a green centipede crawled out of his sleeve onto the box. It looked as glasslike as ever, and was apparently as sharp as it. Cutting right through the cardboard effortlessly with its mandibles.

I tried to not think about the slight increase of the sharpness in my wrist.

The box was open and the centipede crawled down the side. The lack of weight let the top settle into an open position. The centipede pushed the box towards Fethris. It looked like it was having trouble, lots of leg movement but it only moved the box a small amount. It was just enough that Fethris could reach in. The summon turned and spun itself into a spiral before it vanished.

The first thing he pulled out was a necklace. Thick green leather rope with a medallion at the end. Dark grey metal with the front having the head of a wolf, the eyes had little red gems in them. It was hard to be certain, but they looked like garnets to me.

He ran his hands over the back of the medallion as he looked at it. After a moment he put the necklace on, I think it suited him.

"Is that the Nightcall emblem?" Jarec asked.

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"Part of it," Fethris answered.

Emblem? Was that part of the heraldry Mom had showed me? Dragons for Hearths, wolves for Nightcalls?

"You never wear any Hearth stuff," Russel commented. "Serafina I get, but you don't."

Jarec shrugged without saying a word about it.

"Vulmar wears stuff like that, he's technically the oldest," Celica said. "We could, but the colors clash too much with my skin for it."

Hearth colors were red and blue. I wore one of them all the time. The other…not quite. But that wasn't something I needed to worry about. And it definitely wasn't going on my mask. I wasn't an expert, but avoiding the color blue for now seemed like the best way to prevent any rumors.

Fethris reached into the box again. This time pulling out a book bound in light grey leather. I couldn't see the title from my angle, but he looked at it for a moment before sighing. Jarec took one look at it before he started laughing.

"What is it?" Russel asked.

Celica stood up from where she was sitting to peak behind Fethris' shoulder. She started giggling at it.

Fethris let out a deep sigh, "It's 'The First Dance'."

"Isn't that usually for small children?" Russel commented with a smile that foreshadowed the laughter he let out when Fethris nodded.

Small children? How small? Was it like a fairytale? No, I don't think the others would be laughing that hard.

"See? This is why we need to make sure you two are ready for the masquerade. Someone clearly agrees," Celica teased.

"I don't need a children's guide to dancing," Fethris placed it on the coffee table.

"We might borrow a few passages for the lesson." Jarec commented as he snapped his fingers. A puff of his blue and the book was in his hands. "I haven't seen a copy of this since I was five."

That finally explained it. No wonder Fethris looked so indignant. It was like, Ballroom Dancing for Babies. Was someone mocking him or genuinely trying to help? It could even be both, for all I knew of his family.

Another moment of laughing at Fethris' misfortune before Jarec put the book back with another snap and puff of blue.

I should probably feel bad for him, but he'd get over it by the time tomorrow came around.

"Are you sure you can't get me out of this?" Fethris asked me.

"I maybe could, but I don't intend to. If I have to go so do you," I told him.

"Why is she Representative again?" Fethris turned back to Celica to ask. I was fairly confident he was joking.

"Because she's right. We're all going, and no one's going to embarrass our Tower," Celica said it with a grin that felt more predatory than amused. I'm glad it wasn't aimed at me.

I shrugged at him. It wasn't ideal by any means, but we'd all probably be safer there in the crowds. Far less chance of any of us getting hurt and easier to keep track of everyone. We'd get through it.

"Ugh," he groaned. "You all win. Fine." He grumbled a bit before grabbing the last thing in the box.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting him to pull out next, but a wooden frame box with a dead butterfly pinned with thin needles to put the wings on display wasn't it. I had no idea what species it was, but the wings were violet with blue bands around the edges and speckles of green. It was also massive, probably about nine inches across.

"Why bugs?" Celica asked. "It's twice the effort to make those spells work on invertebrates. Birds, dogs, cats, are all much easier. Why bugs?"

"I like bugs," Fethris defended.

"Yeah but is there like a story there or…." Celica pressed.

"They always get a bad reputation, but they're important. And it's fun to mess with people," Fethris said the last part with a grin. He's a Dragon for a reason, it seems.

And so are all of us.

"Besides centipedes, which ones are your favorite?" I asked instead. I hadn't told them about my crystals thing, but I liked when people asked.

"That's a great question, I haven't thought about it." Fethris paused for a moment to think about it before answering, "I think maybe beetles."

Beetles? I didn't know much about those either. Not enough to really ask any question about them.

"You have siblings," Celica accused.

"I do. A younger sister, I think she's going to try and get into this school but that's not for two more years."

Celica's laugh sounded like a scoff, "And suddenly it makes sense. How horrified is she by the bugs?"

"She can't stand them at all," Fethris said with a shake of his head.

"So is that the real you or have you been going easy on us?" Jarec asked.

"You guys aren't any fun to scare, not that I think I can scare any of you," Fethris admitted.

He absolutely could scare one of us. Me, specifically. And he knew that. Perhaps that was a step too far for him? Or did he just view me as nothing like his sister? But maybe I was just in that not fun to scare category. No point if you can't see the scared look on their face or make them scream, I supposed.

"So no fears she might be joining us?" Russel asked.

"None at all. I don't think she would last one day in here. I hope she gets Basilisk, but we'll see in two years."

Talk about a lack of faith, but considering what we were dealing I didn't blame him for not wanting her here. We were already dealing with a life and death situation and it was only our first year. Who knew what the other years would have in store for us.

I was not looking forward to finding out. Red hadn't given me hope that it was going to be all good things.

"I don't blame you, I don't think I would want my siblings going through this mess. I mean I care about you guys but…" I didn't need to say it. We all knew the stakes.

"Exactly," Fethris responded. "I know you guys can all handle yourselves. Zella…not at all."

I don't know how he thought I could handle myself, but I appreciated the faith regardless. I wished I had some of that. But what I lacked in faith I would have to make up for in Vivian's magic training. Enough hard work and maybe he'd be right.

I didn't want to let any of them down. Especially myself.

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