Might as well have lunch with her

The two of you make your way to the dorm building. On they way Lucia mention there is no special trick to getting through the gate. The guards record everyone who passes through and knows who belongs and who doesn't. She didn't know why you weren't recorded and you decided against telling her it was down to the royal carriage's illusions. People should be able to see through it but they might not have been paying close enough attention to see you sitting between Edin and Anastasia.

You briefly worried about Edin but he was with Anastasia and you doubted she'd abandon him like she did you, assuming he wasn't back already. You considered running up to your room to check but if he was back he'd being the dinning hall for lunch anyway. Lucia had to drop off her bag anyway so you could check on him while she did before you headed to the dinning hall together.

As you walked to the dorm building's front Lucia turned to walk around the side.

"Weren't we going to our rooms?" You asked.

"Yeah, then we get lunch." Lucia answered turning away from you and continuing her walk. "Come on." She didn't wait to see if you followed as she walking around down the side of the dorm building. She must be staying in a different building. You did think the dorm was a little small for a student body. You decided to just follow her. You'd see Edin in the hall if he was here.

You followed her around the side. As you walked you pictured the interior of the bottom floor. You walked past the separation between the foyer and the bathes.

Lucia kept leading you onwards as you chatted with each other about the capital. She was a font of knowledge and was able to suggest some places you should eat at if you can't get back to the academy.

Eventually you reached the end of the dorm building and Lucia walked around the corner. Following her you saw a much more modest door that she opened. "You look like you've never been here." She joked as she held it open for you.

"I haven't." You answered walking past her into the building. There was no attendant office here and from the doors lining the corridor these were just dooms.

"You said you were here on a sponsorship." She looked skeptically at you as she passed you on her way down the corridor.

"I am but my room is in the front section."

She stopped walking and spun to look at you. "What? That's for like proper Ladies, not sponsored."

"It's just where Edin and I were taken." You both stare at each other and her skeptical look doesn't leave her.

"Right." She shrugs her shoulders and keeps walking. "Well whatever, if you're here to steal there ain't nothing down here worth it."

"I not here to steal." You complain as you follow her.

"Sure you aren't, guy dressed like that, stuck outside the gates, claiming to be from the rich section, totally honest." She didn't in anyway slow her movement or hold her bag tighter in worry so you figured she was joking.

"I'm not a thief." You exasperatingly complain. "And if I were, anything I took would be on you for letting me in." You feel a grin creep into your voice.

"Good point. Suppose that means I should get a cut, straight fifty-fifty sounds fair." The grin was in her voice as well.

She was definitely joking around so you kept playing along. "Fifty-fifty. For doing what? I could have gotten past that gate no worries."

"Ah so that's why you were sitting on the grass like an idiot when I showed up." She was smiling, you were both having fun.

"Lulling the guard into a false sense of security so when I got inside she'd be none the wiser."

"You didn't even know where she was." Lucia let out a laugh as she said it.

"That is a purely incidental fact." You respond. "You're still not getting fifty-fifty."

Lucia came to a stop outside a plain door and you heard a click as she slotted her stone. She pushed the door open enough to reach her bag inside and drop it. "Guess that means I'll have to rob you after you've robbed them." You both let out a laugh and you felt the joking close. "Lets get some lunch, Trouble." She kept walking deeper and you presumed the door at the end of this hallway would lead to the doors for the baths.

"Trouble?" You ask walking beside her.

"You prefer Thief?" She countered.

"Whatever you say Mischief."

"Ew no don't like that."

"Yeah not my best." You both laugh again. "Let's stick with Lucia until I think of a better one."

"Maybe you should just leave the nicknaming to me, Mischief." She pats your shoulder with a grin and you give her a flat look. "See not a thought in that head of yours."

"Fuck off." You both laugh again.

You reach the end of the hallway and she opens the door. You were right this did lead to the doors to the baths. It isn't a long walk from here and you ask some more questions about the capital getting a little more information about the gardens. Your assumption about the vegetable garden's was correct, they were leased out to ever paid and pretty well looked after.

Reaching the dinning hall you had a quick look around for Edin but couldn't see him. It looked like the lunch was just being set up so if he showed up it'd be a bit later.

"He here?" Lucia asked comically leaning around the edge of the door to peer into the room.

"No." You answer trying to not laugh at her antics.

"And no roommate, your story's just full of holes Rascal." She said shaking her head and walking past you to the pillar.

"Are you just going to run through every variation?" You ask following after her.

"'Till one fits." She playfully responds slotting her stone into the pillar.

A plate pops out for her and with a quick check you see it is for the lowest class food. She grabs in then looks at you expectantly.

You walk over to the pillar and make of show of patting your pockets for your stone. "It's here somewhere."

She smirks as she holds in a laugh. "Terrible actor you are."

"Ah." You take out the stone the guard had thrown at you and put it into the pillar only for nothing to happen.

"Knew it." She started laughing. The moment she looks away from the stone you swapped the fake one for your actual key stone. A plate pops out for you and you pick it. She stops mid laugh looking baffled.

"All in the wrist." You say stepping over to her and hold up your plate for her to take. She looks at it then at you. You raise you other hand to take her plate. "Thanks for getting me inside."

She looks you up and down and her the right side of her mouth curls into a grin. "Alright we're even." She took hold of your plate as she have you hers. With plates swapped you both walk to the buffet. She looks a little unsure about if her plate was going to work and carefully waved it by the magical shell. Unlike breakfast this one had more meats, less fruits, and almost no bread. When it lowered she darted her hand in to grab some meat. Her hand wasn't cut off and she let out a happy, "huh," and piled up her plate.

You wave your plate by the lowest buffet and were greet with actual sandwiches. You let out your own, "huh," and grab two that looked like to contain a sauce of some sort and greenery you assumed was vegetable matter. The near total absence of meat shouldn't have surprised you as much as it did.

With plates of food the two of you went to sit down. While you just went for the closest since the hall was almost empty Lucia took a few steps further from the door. You changed directions to walk with her. Reaching the furthest table you sit down opposite each other.

Lucia's plate was almost entirely meat so the division of protein amongst the different classes's buffets was likely the same for breakfast lunch and dinner.

"You're kinda weird." She said as she started to inhale her food.

"I think it's a matter of the company I keep." You respond with a grin as you take a bite of your sandwich.

"No I'm a normal sponsored student, you're weird." She answered taking a break to chew her newest mouthful. "Why were you in the city anyway." She hadn't finished chewing when she asked.

You wait a beat to make sure you wouldn't say something that would give Anastasia away. She was trying to be anonymous and even if she did dump you in the city you didn't want to ruin it for her. "My sponsor took me to get new clothes." You pick at a sleeve of your tunic. "For some reason she thought I wasn't up-to-date on the latest capital fashion."

Lucia doesn't laugh at the attempted joke. "Who's your sponsor?"

"Who's yours?" It was a bad response because if she actually said it you wouldn't have a very good reason to refuse to tell her.

Lucia kept staring at you to the point her mouth was not full of meat for a moment before she shrugged and ate some more. "Fair enough." She said around her mouthful.

"Why were you out in the city?" You asked as you finished off your first sandwich. Your stomach was much happier now and you only nibbled your second.

"Not everyone's sponsor pays for new clothes." Lucia was still looking you up and down. She swallowed her mouthful and leaned forward to whisper. "You're not, you know, some Duchess are you?"

"No." You answer as Vatarie pops into your head and you silently add a 'yet.'

Lucia didn't lean back. "Are you someones love child?"

"Nope my father is a Lord. I'm Christopher of Alsera." You take a larger bite of your sandwich to not overshare. Lucia leaned back giving you a critical stare. "How were you earning money? I'm planning on working to earn some money as well so if you've got tips."

She didn't answer as she analysed you. "Promises not to tell anyone?"

"Yeah of course." You answer not sure why it would be an issue unless the academy did have conditions on what students are allowed to do for work.

"None of your business." She breathed out with a faint smile.

"Afraid I'll steal your job?" You joke, you didn't want to push her if she didn't want to tell you but if where she was working had other jobs for students it would be good to know.

She laughs more at you than with you. "Can't do what I do."

You get the hint and don't push further. "Why come to the Royal Academy?"

"Because I'm going to be the best Incartor the Calitian has and will ever see." The conviction in her voice told you this wasn't a passing interesting and her aura swirled with determination, confidence and hope.

"I have no idea what that is." You answer honestly. She rolled her eyes and suddenly a dragon appeared on her shoulder and snorted at you. You recognise it. The street performer had a similar but much less developed version. This one had more defined scale and it's size looked more stable, though its wings were too small for flight to be visually realistic, for you at least.

The bag she dropped off must have been her motley costume. "Incartor's create manifestations for performances and I am going to be the best."

Up close you check the magic on her dragon and see how she'd done it, and the problem with how she was doing it. "You don't need to paint onto a shell." You smile at her hoping the advise would help, you this out really early but you also haven't had to work a day in your life so you had way more time to practice, and you didn't have to focus on flashiness for the sake of an audience.

"What?" She looked so confused by what you'd said her focus on the dragon slipped and it shattered.

"You don't need to paint the colours and textures onto a shell you can just use the paint."

"No you can't."

Learning as she had must have prevented her from expanding her talents. You hold your hand out palm up and project your own dragon into it. She stares at it blinking. "Touch it." You offer your hand a little closer and she cuatiously reaches out to poke it only for her finger to pass through it.

"What? Ho- What?" She really mustn't have experimented outside of the shell painting.

"Close your eyes." Her perplexation dropped into a flat stare. "Just trust me." She glared at you for a moment before closing her eyes. "Put your hand on the table palm up fingers together."

Her aura was dripping with scarasm as she followed your instructions and put her right hand on the table. She doesn't put it far from her body so you have to stand and lean toward her to touch it. "If you're thinking of stealing something I'm going to hit you."

Rather than respond you reach out but hesitate before making contact. "Is it ok if I touch your hand?" You don't think she'll actually hit you but better safe than concussed. She mules the question for a bit before nodded. "Ok picture your dragon in your head. Make it as accurate as you can, every scale, every tooth, even every muscle beneath and how those muscules would move the scale as it walked." You waited for a moment until she nodded again. "Now picture your hand. Put your dragon's snout here." You touched the tip of her middle finger with your thumb, she clenched a little at the sudden contact but relaxed quickly. "The tip of it's left wing here." You touch the base knuckle of her pinky with your ring finger. "The tip of it's right wing here." You touch the top knuckle of her thumb with your index finger. "And the tip of it's tail here." You touch her wrist with your middle ring. "Laying flat against your hand." You wait a moment. "Got it?"

After a brief pause she nods.

"Ok now feel your magic as it moves though and around you. The magic all around your hand, moving around your mental image of your dragon." You very delicately lift all but you middle finger. "The soft tingles on your skin where your dragon touches you." You slowly trace your middle finger in a t from each point you gave her. "It's tail, its left wing, its right wing, and its snout." As you finish you take your middle off her hand. "Feel your magic as it take that shape, filling in colours and scales. Now in a moment I'm going to ask you to breath in, when you do pull that shaped magic into your hand." She nods in understanding. "Breathe in." She takes a slow careful breath. "Now as you exhale push the magic back out into the shape and colours it wants to take, don't **** it, it know what to do." She lets out a slow breath. "Now open your eyes."

She opens her eyes and looks at her hand. You'd been watching it the whole time as you talked her through the process so you saw as the dragon coalesaed in her palm. Your final instructions allowed her magic to create what she wanted without her brain trying to paint it all herself.

"It's a dragon." She sounded stunned.

"Yep, well done. Now you just have to work on letting your magic make the colours and shapes for you, like how even with your eyes close you know where your nose is, your magic knows what you want. Painting onto a shell is like trying to find your nose with your eyes closed by opening your eyes." You hope she get the metaphor even though you thought it was a bit grabbled at the end there.

"But it's a dragon." Her eyes were still glued to her hand.

"Just wait to you figure out how to do this." As you say it you conjure your dragon and hand it fly over and sniff her dragon.

"You're incredible." She said it as she breathed out.

The compliment made you uncomfortable. "I'm ok. It took me months to figure out how to do what you did in less than a minute." You deflected it onto her. Worried that if she did come to think you were anything other than average you would horrible disappoint her.

"You're right I'm incredible." She grinned at you as she said and you grinned back. "You're pretty good though." You both started to laugh.

"Christopher." You recognised that voice and when you turned your head, you saw Vatarie standing over the two of you.