"Why are you fighting back?" I ask Candice in our new dorm. It's got sparkling beds made out of marble, but inwardly I think they're too cold for my taste. "And who?"

Candice's face darkens. "You promise you won't tell? New ones only get a detailed account on their fourth day."

"Sure. Cross my heart."

She sighs. "We're fighting the Etherians."

What? Fighting Ether?

"Why though?"

Her face blanches now. "Most of the time we can forget that we have to fight against them. Makes life much less stressful. But the lost causes are here for a reason, and that's to fight Ether."

This doesn't make sense. Why would there be a reason to fight Ether?

"Ether's been super egoistic since the beginning," Candice continues. "Lost causes. . . aren't exactly their dream citizens. We took refuge, and they've been going on without us. See how our society's more regimental? That's because the founder of Alium wants lost causes back in Etherian society, so the Aliumites have been. . .I don't know, keeping ready for when the signal comes."

I feel something run down my spine. Not anything solid, for sure. "What signal?"

She shrugs. "I don't know, I've told you. That's what we know."

"Yo, Candy!"

Candice huffs. "Jinx, I told you not to call me Candy!"

"Yeah, but it's easier than saying Candice." Jinx peeps in. His maroon hair is artfully ruffled and the teeth that show when he opens his mouth are white and even. I feel a stupid flutter in my chest.

Candice glowers at him. "Well, I don't think it's too much bother just adding different sounds to the same syllable."

"Whatever," snorts Jinx. "Heyo Elara," he says to me. "Ready for pyronetics?"

Wait a bit. Something's weird. "Hang on. . .how can you do pyronetics without magic?"

Candice smirks. "Lost causes have their own type of magic."