It was a waiting game. 

    This whole 'The Founding Royals want to meet you desperately' malarkey. It was nothing more than a smokescreen. Nothing more than an exercise of their power over the Head Master, and therefore the school. In my Blood history class, I learned that the Count has placed rules about The Founding Royals trying to take over the school. It had happened way back when this school had been a novice idea and people were struggling with the bounds and leaps in human society and technology. The Founding Royals' houses and courts were more numerous than they are now, but they nearly succeeded in the coup they had made which nearly wiped out the entire vampire population. After that, they met with the Count, Lady Elisabeth and their allies and they all unanimously vetoed The Founding Roayls meddling in school affairs.

   Strangely, the class called, the Parameters of the Human Mind was where I figured out how The Founding Royals manipulated things behind the scenes and slowly but surely gained more and more control over the school in the centuries since that war with The Count. That was until the current Head Master Barney Medvedev took up office and has been just as silently undermining their efforts and controlling what is said about the school in human media.

    The class also showed that seemingly our brains operate on a different wavelength than the average human. How it all works exactly, I dunno, but I am barely scrapping by in that class and can't wait to drop it sometime soon.  It comes down to the fact that humans are on a different wavelength than ours, we can influence them easier than they can influence us. Surprisingly, there have been a few cases where humans influenced the vampire or dhampir, though they did stress that the person in question also was doing drugs. Since we are different species, we react quite differently to the effects of the drugs on our system. 

    I still shiver as we leave the classroom, ready to go to lunch, but the line of people exiting the room is not moving. "What is the hold-up people?" Jerry shouts as he stands on his tiptoes to see over the sea of heads in front of us. There are murmurs as heads bend together, yet nobody moves forward. "I seriously don't get it," Jeremy mutters angrily. "We will miss out on lunch if this continues."

    As if on cue, my stomach rumbles loudly, voicing its protest at being made to wait. Snickers follow the sound, but now people start to get impatient and start shoving one another. 

    "I can't move!" a prissy voice floats back to me as more and more people start shoving forward. "The Blood Guard won't let me pass!" The voice of Peaches snaps to the people behind her. A gasp comes after she speaks the last words, so that means they are finally going to show themselves. Now people start shoving for a whole different reason, they are aggressively shoving to catch a glimpse of the Founding Royals' faces. Turning to ask Jerry who the Blood Guard are but he just stares wide-eyed in front of him. To the doorway where people quieted down and now all started moving the other way as if to make room for someone to enter. I grab Jerry's wrist and things get a little violent as we are pushed back.

    The pain of having people repeatedly standing on his feet seems to have pulled Jerry out of whatever stupor he was in as he is now pushing people back and snarling under his breath as he does so. It is to no avail as whoever is at the door, relentlessly pushes their way in and the people aside.  Pressed up against the teacher's desk is not how I wanted my second meeting with Her Royal Highness Lady Madeline to be. 

    The last time I was in her presence, her eyes sized me up from my head to my toes, and I just knew I was not up to scratch. Not that I mind, I could care less what she and the others of her ilk think of me. I represent an anomaly; something that could wreck their plans of staying in power after my parents so conveniently disappeared one after the other. As great as it would be to have all that kind of power, I don't want it as it sounds like too much work. And it doesn't make one happy, just more enemies. Which I don't need at the moment or any stage in my life. Not surprisingly she taps her folded fan against her cheek before turning on her heels and gliding out of the classroom without speaking.

    Her way of walking is peculiar, her feet seem not to make contact with the floor, but she skates along the surface instead. There is no lifting of the feet, she never removes her foot from the floor but pushes it out like a skate on ice. Still, I get a distinct feeling that she wanted me to follow her and when I do her guards don't stop me. They do stop anybody from following me.

    The more we walk down the building corridors, the less upset I become about missing lunch and the following classes. I feel something inside me shift as my eyes follow her movements, I move my head from side to side to loosen my neck muscles. My stride becomes longer, more fluid, more like hers. She giggles, the sound like glasses clinking together. It is a pure sound, but I feel no attraction to her. The more I move the more relieved I feel, it is like a heavy weight is being lifted off my shoulders so I can stand straighter, the weight is also gone from my chest so I can breathe deeper. Weirdly enough this way I feel more like me, the real me. Not the young child who had to adapt to blend in with others, but who I was meant to be, should I have grown up with my parents instead of Elena?

    I don't hate her, of course not. She took care of me and raised me to the best of her abilities. And I am grateful for that and her guidance. It is just, that I felt something was lacking, something that until now I didn't know what it was. During the walk, I figured it out. With Elena and her family far, far away from here I had to adapt and restrain myself to fit in. Here I don't need to, here I will not be looked at weirdly when I just blurt out things that would have popped up in my head when my powers were blossoming. What a difference that would have made during my childhood. 

    "And now you know." These are her parting words as she moves away from me and I realise that we had walked around in a circle and I am standing in front of an empty classroom. Naturally, my stomach decided that time to complain loudly that it had been hours since breakfast and I most likely missed my lunch, yet I bravely made my way to the cafeteria. Where I am surprised to see half of my classmates, seated neatly in rows at the bolted-in tables. All eyes turn my way as I open the door that creaked loudly and slammed shut by a gust of wind. 

    "There you are, Ainsley!" I startle at the overly joyful voice of the Head Master as he smiles at me. Slightly uncomfortable at the sound, I  smile back weakly and scurry to an empty seat bedside Jerry. "As I was saying before Ainsley interrupted us, we need to be on our best behaviour as The Four Royal Houses have made their presence known as some of you have seen." He made a gesture for everyone to calm down as they started murmuring amongst themselves. "They have visited certain people who will be in The Trails. This would also explain why not everyone has seen them as they are selective of the people entering The Trails." He glances in my direction before continuing, "Don't feel distressed if you haven't seen any of them or their Houses yet as all Four of them will preside over The Trails themselves this year."

    The fact that The Four Royals themselves will be presiding over The Trails was the only thing anybody could talk about for days on end. The Four Royals presiding over The Trails wasn't new as they would do so every so many years, but for the last decade, none of them were present. So now there were all kinds of speculation going on about why they would choose this year to attend. The most likely correct theory was that this year many high-ranking people were entering The Trails. Thus forcing The Royals out of their hidey holes so they would have the first pick at whomever in The Trails. 

    "Who do you think is gonna win?" Jerry asked me a few days later as it became apparent that certain people started wearing the colours of The Four Royals on their uniforms to show that they were sponsored. 

    "Donno, but I do hope all the contestants survive it," I state as I shove the last piece of toast in my mouth. Jerry rolls his eyes at the statement and turns to Ragna Laislov, a second-year and a Dorm Watcher to see how the odds for the several bets are going. "Better yet, I hope I survive it," I mutter softly as I bring my plate and mug to the sink trying my hardest not to think about the official envelope with The Trails logo burning a hole in my schoolbag and what it might contain.

    The Trails was not based on the age of participants as I saw several first years like myself enter into The Trails. Usually, they don't make it past the first Two Trials, or if they do they give up on the third as this is the hardest of all. What surprised me most about this whole thing is that everyone is a Bonded couple. "I have to say," I grumble to Jerry as we pass another Bonded couple in the corridor to our next class, "I didn't know our school had that many Bonded couples. I thought it wasn't something of a regular occurrence?"

    "That is because they are not students from our school." A smooth sound from behind me. I don't need to turn around to know who it is. The fast beating of my heart and my rising temperature are a dead giveaway. "Besides that they aren't truly bonded couples, most of them are political arrangements." I sneak a sidelong glance at him as he comes to walk beside me, proudly displaying his family's colour ribbon pinned over his school crest. "Hold still." He grabs my arm and I nearly go into cardiac arrest from the touch. Obviously, it has been a while since he touched me and embarrassingly I lean into his touch on my chest. 

    None of that now.

    He smirks at me as he trails his hand down my chest suggestively before pulling it away taking the R-rated images my mind came up with, with him and waves casually to me as he walks on. Now the amount of Bonded couples and unfamiliar faces make sense, I am surprised that I didn't think of it before. Patting my own chest I feel something smooth touch my skin that shouldn't be there. Glancing down I see four different colour ribbons pinned to my chest two of them are Hunter's House colours; Silver and dark mossy green; Lord Bran's colours and two are Gold tinged with black and silver tinged with white.

    The white and black show that you have lost members of your clan.

    Hunter's voice sounds in my head.

    Since the Count and Lady Elizabeth disappeared before they could establish their own clan colours, we do not know what your original clan colours are. So I opted for the mourning ones instead. This also means they will give you less hassle about it. 

    Thank you.

    I feel a tear roll down my cheek as I caress the mourning ribbons. Warmth floods me and I feel like Hunter has just given me a hug.

    Always, my lovely, always.