The dining room is majestic. It is an endlessly long corridor, filled with four long rows of wooden tables and benches. On the left side, the cafeteria is displayed. Dozens of students line up with their trays, others are already eating at the tables.

Reina grabs my arm and pulls me to the row, but instead of joining the back of the line like normal people, she stands in front of a tall boy. He is more than one head taller than Reina and me. I swallow. I don't dare look at him. I don't notice that I'm squeezing Reina's arm, not until she wrenches her arm from my grasp with a small 'ouch'.

"Oh shit, sorry," I say apologetically. I look back briefly and see that the towering boy is already looking at me. When we make eye contact, he raises an eyebrow. Quickly I look forward again and see that we have moved slightly in line.

Suddenly, my vision goes blurry. I rub my eyes, but it only gets worse and I feel my head spin and my world spin and spin. I close my eyes, not knowing what is happening.

After a few seconds, it stops. But when I open my eyes, I am in a rainforest. Trees are all around me. Green and brown are the only colours – in all shades, that I see. The trees reach far above my head, so I can't see the sky.

Suddenly I feel something touch my leg. I swerve backwards and fall on my behind with a loud bang. It is a small falcon, with a tail and body like a lion. The animal slowly approaches on its four legs. With its head, it rubs against my leg. In its brown eyes, golden spots can be spotted, which it closes, when it purrs like a kitten.

I don't know what to do. Trembling, I reach out my hand to gently touch his back. But before I have a chance to know how this critter feels, the world – the trees, bushes and this other critter I can't take my eyes off – spins around me.

When I open my eyes again, I see that I am lying on the floor of the dining room. Reina is crouched over me, gently touching me. Her eyes look relieved, as our gazes meet.

I look around and see many children looking at me. Some even point at me. Quickly I stand up and rub the imaginary dust off my pants.

"Círdan!" Reina hits the right bicep of the boy who was in line behind us with a flat hand. So Círdan is his name. He seems unfazed by the swat Reina gave him and can only smile at her. "It is forbidden to use your power outside of class. And don't look at me with that smile, you...you...arch!" Frustrated, Reina punches him again, but before she can hit him, he grabs her fist.

"Power?" I feel stupid for having to ask. Frustration runs through me that I know so little about elves. About my future.

"Every elf possesses a power from birth, but from his or her sixteenth birthday it is awakened, so to speak, and when a person experiences strong emotions, it is awakened," Círdan explains calmly and clearly, without questioning why I don't know this. I nod and silently thank him.

A pair of chestnut eyes and two brown eyes with golden flecks focus their gaze on me. I stand in Círdan's eyes. "You," I say in amazement and point to his eyes.

His eyes sparkle, a small smile danced on his lips. "Me?" he asks and points to himself.

"That animal in the rainforest. That one had exactly the same eyes. Brown with those flecks in them that look like gold leaf in the sunlight."

"Rainforest? I don't know anything," his voice sounds playful. We slide a little further up the line and all three of us grab a tray and walk past all different dishes, which are in large metal oblong containers. A large serving spoon that I recognize from my previous high school is next to each tray.

"I had it right, then. You did indeed create an illusion by Aire," Reina says proudly to herself, scooping up some pancakes and then grabbing five mini packs of Nutella.

"The only illusion here is that you think I created an illusion," Círdan immediately counters, but you can see and hear from his posture and voice that Reina's suspicion was correct.

"Wait, so your power is the ability to create illusions?" I am amazed and immediately think about what my power could be.

"Yes, indeed."

I scoop a few assorted meals onto my plate and then ask Reina what her power is.

"Electricity." She rests her tray on one hand and makes a kind of bowl with her other hand, and small purple-blue sparks emerge from her fingertips. After a few seconds, I hear it crackle as well and see the electricity skip from one finger to her other. Electricity runs down her arm. Her arm hairs, as well as mine, stand up.

"Wow," is the only thing that leaves my mouth. Such incredibly cool powers both Círdan and Reina possess. I wonder what power Cian has.

After we all scoop up what we want, we pick a spot in the hall to eat. The chandeliers hanging over the tables are off, as there is already enough light coming through the stained glass windows.

Once we find a spot, we quickly sit down. During lunch, I find out that Reina and Círdan have been friends since childhood and came to Negaron together. Although their entire environment has changed, they are still as close as ever. I hope the same will be true for Cian and me. Time will decide.

After the already familiar bell rings, Reina asks me what class I have. I grab my crumpled piece of paper that has my schedule printed on it from my bag and see that I have history class. The spontaneous redhead pulls a pout. "Too bad," she says sadly. "What class are you taking next?"

"Fighting class?" I read from my sheet, but big question marks form in my mind at this word. What am I supposed to expect in that? We're not actually going to fight each other with swords or knives, are we?

"That's what you have with me. I'll walk up to the history classroom after my class, though, so we can walk to the fields together. That's where we always get combat lessons. I'm glad that at least I have a friendly face in class now because most of this cluster is made up of the 'I-feel-too-good-to-talk-with-anyone-other-else-outside-my-circle' group," Círdan sounds relieved that now he doesn't have to endure the lesson alone.

"Does that happen to include one girl named Naev?" I ask no one in particular.

"You've already met Naev? Oh god, yes she is the worst of them all. Oh no, wait, not to mention Lorsan of course." He points not too flashy to a large group furthest away from the entrance to the dining hall. There I see several girls and boys sitting, talking loudly to each other and roaring with laughter. Naev does not escape me.

Like a beautiful black diamond, she seems to draw all attention to herself unintentionally or not.

"Lorsan?" A very small light turns on for a microsecond upon hearing that name, but when I wrack my brain about where I've heard that name before, the light already goes out. Probably Cian dropped that name at some point or I heard that name once in a nonsensical conversation.

"Yeah, dark blond hair and pitch-black eyes. When you see him, you know who I'm talking about. Although he is a total asshole, he has both the face and body of a god. There's even a rumour that he has royal blood," Reina informs me enthusiastically. When she describes Lorsan, I see her cheeks turn slightly colour. It doesn't escape me that Círdan rolls his eyes.

I have to smile at the sight. Reina is often so sharp in noticing things, but that her best friend likes her, she doesn't see.

•••

As agreed, when I come walking out, from the history classroom, Círdan stands against the wall directly opposite the door waiting for me. With his heel, he moves away from the wall, when he sees me walking out.

"And, to what extent did you like your first history class?" asks Círdan interested in starting a conversation.

I think back to the lesson, which seems to have passed like a greyhound at maximum speed. One topic the teacher mentioned mainly piqued my interest. I decide to ask Círdan about it for more explanation.

"Amazingly interesting," I tell him sincerely.

"I'm glad about that." Círdan leads me into another hallway. Students in accelerated stride are catching up to us on all sides, so I automatically speed up my own stride as well. After all, I don't know how far it is to walk to the sports fields, and nothing makes a worse impression on a teacher than being a new student late to the first lesson.

"But," I begin. I look up briefly and see the underside of his jaw. "The teacher talked about how one realm called Paeral has fallen. Completely destroyed. How?" Flabbergasted was an understatement when I heard the teacher tell us that.

"One word: Vulmon. Not only did he drive the entire realm to the ground, but he also killed all of its inhabitants. Everyone except Lorsan." Anger is evident in his voice as he speaks. Repeatedly he clenches his fists, then relaxes them again.

"Lorsan is the sole survivor of an entire empire?" I ask in dismay. We round another corner and I can see the fields through the open doors. Círdan nods.

Arriving at the fields, I see several students in sports uniforms – also in the school's colour – sparring one on one.

"Surrender!" shouts a boy with the body of Achilles. His sword is pointed at a girl on the ground. It is a few inches from her throat. The iron gleams in the afternoon sun, and even from a distance, I need not doubt the sharpness of the sword, which the boy holds almost loosely in his right hand.

The girl smiles mockingly at him. Her chest rises and falls rapidly. Círdan and I walk closer. In the corner of my eye, I see that all the other twosome have ceased their fight and are watching the scene just as I am.

The boy's dark blond hair falls just above his eyes. They stick to his forehead due to sweat, but he doesn't bother to wipe them away from his field of vision. He keeps his gaze on the girl lying on the mat below him. He moves the sword even closer to her throat and I see the girl swallow with difficulty.

Where are the attendants? Surely he wouldn't really dare to injure her...let alone kill her?

"Surrender, I said," the boy repeats in a raspy voice. The girl rolls her eyes at him and tries to get out from under his grip, but fails. "Never," she replies stubbornly.

"Okay, that's enough you two. Lorsan, congratulations, you won this duel. Next time, pay better attention to your posture. You step in too quickly with your whole body, leaving large parts of your body exposed for Naev to hit you. Naev, better luck next time." Finally, a teacher appears a stick-aged man who keeps the two apart. He rests partly on his walking stick, which is made of wood and possesses decorations of gold leaf as well as some shiny gems.

Naev, again? I ask myself. Is that girl everywhere or something? When she stands up, I can indeed see that it is Naev. I sigh. This is going to be a very long lesson.

The boy, Lorsan, has a grin from ear to ear on his face and gently presses his shoulder against hers. Her expression is irritated, but her eyes twinkle.

"Is that the Lorsan that Reina was talking about on the lunch break?" I ask Círdan in a muffled tone, afraid that Lorsan and Naev can hear us.

"The one and only." Is Círdan's response. Some venom can be heard in his voice, even though I don't know the direct cause.

"Aire, is that you?" I turn to the person who just called my name. Lorsan walks toward me, followed closely by a confused looking Naev. "It really is you. I can't believe my eyes. I thought I would never see you again. Aire, I thought you were dead." Lorsan comes closer and looks deep into my eyes as if that's how he can figure out if it's really me. He stands so close that I can see the reflection of my two air-blue irises in his black pupils – and irises that are almost the same colour.

Naev looks confused from Lorsan to me and back to him. "Wait, you guys know each other?" She turns her question to Lorsan, completely ignoring me.

I have to restrain myself from making an immediately irritated comeback. Ideally, I'd like to wave my hands in front of her and scream in her ear that I'm here too, that she doesn't have to ignore me just because I'm more of a human than an elf.

But before I even have a chance to deny it, that Lorsan and I have a past, the dark blonde haired guy says in a voice full of conviction, "Yes."