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"So the sewer rat has returned" A haughty fehts

It didn’t take a genius to recognize Syrani, the most powerful, or should I say most popular, student within the school She was in her sleeping robes, her hair braided down her back Her eyes looked wild and I could see a few dark circles under her eyes

"Why are you wandering around late at night?" I asked

"I live here I have every right to coo as I please What of you? Did your dirty clanser wanted you?"

At one time, Syrani may have made me feel self-conscious or pitiful and nervous but not anyer rise to the surface and felt wind blow h there weren’t any open s near I let my skin crackle with power, and I showed her what really lay beneath the surface

Syrani stepped back and almost toppled over in fear when she saw the difference inYou’re not a rat," Syrani stuttered She tried to back away down the hall and maintain her confidence, but her fear was obvious "You’re a freak!"

Chapter 15

"This is highly unusual," Adept Lorna said She tiltedmy eye Her blue eyes pierced mine Lorna’s spiky white hair always seeular face uess she had a softer side until you heard her deep throaty laugh But she wasn’t laughing now "I’ve never seen anything like this Have you, Kambel?"

"No, I haven’t I once read about another race with eyes silver like the moon, but they weren’t here in Calandry"

"Where?" Lorna asked

"Not where…when" The elderly adept known as Ka off his spectacles, he cleaned them and slid them back onto his pointed nose as if by that action alone he could clear up the puzzle of the one discolored eye He scratched his head with an ink-stained hand "I caarde’s archives that spoke of another race from before the fall Before the Denai came to Calandry But that scroll disappeared shortly after I found it"

"Are you sure you didn’t just lose the scroll in your office?" Adept Cirrus asked

Kambel shook his head "No, I’m positive I’ve continued to search, but any other mention of Denai life before Calandry has been destroyed The few books I’ve been able to recover over the years are unsalvageable"

They had found a stool for me to perch upon, and one by one, the five adepts studied my deformed eye and asked me pointed questions I squirmed uncomfortably in the stool and tried to answer as honestly as I could, but the truth was I didn’t knoas happening to me any more than they did

But I was ure that sat quietly in a chair, observingblue eyes Her red hair was held off of her shoulders with delicate bejeweled pins and her delicate hands never twitched orthat I kneould never be able to learn or mimic How could I possibly? She was the queen