The next morning, I had arranged for a wake-up call so I wouldn't oversleep. Sure enough, at 8 am, a white dove rapped on my door and began a trilling song. It started out almost peaceful, and I rolled over and kept my eyes closed, listening. Slowly, the birdsong grew more and more piercing, until it was pretty much a siren. I stumbled out of bed and opened the door.

"I'm awake, already," I told the bird, who fluttered off innocently.

I closed the door, and got dressed. Standing in front of the mirror. I looked myself over. Still me. Messy brown hair, tan skin, and chocolate-brown eyes. I tried not to care what people thought of me, but I really wanted to make a good impression on this Academy. Squinting hard, I tried to mentally comb my hair, make myself taller, curve my face shape. The effort was painful, so I quickly gave up. It didn't matter.

Meeting Felix downstairs, we indulged in the complimentary breakfast. An array of pastries and fruits covered the bar table in the tavern. The crowd was slightly unusual: some tough looking men who probably passed out at the bar last night, a family with several small children, and some middle-aged ladies who clearly had modifed their bodies to appear younger. I kept sneaking looks at everyone, intrigued, until Felix kicked me under the table.

"We have to go now," Felix said matter-of-factly. "You have a meeting with the headmaster at nine."

As we thanked the clerk for his generosity, I half-wondered whether we'd need to take another dragon to reach the Academy of Mimicry. I was surprised (and a little relieved) that the school was only a short walk away.

The first thing I noticed about the Casmirian streets were that there weren't any cars. There were, however, plenty of horses pulling carts, birds, deer, and various other animals. I may have imagined it, but I thought I even saw a unicorn at an intersection. It made me wish that I could could just become a rhinoceros and stampede through the streets. We zigzagged through the network of paths, past typical grocery stores and residential homes, and gigantic nests and caves. The city was a huge collision between humanity and nature, from the architecture to the people. I could have roamed around all day.

Eventually, the haphazard grid of roads thinned, and we walked through farmland. The path climbed steadily up a hill, and soon we had arrived at the academy.

It wasn't one building, but three. The main building was built similarly to the Eafon Inn: with sturdy stone walls and lavish window sills. The second building was tall and painted forest green; the angled roof dotted with dormer windows. The third building was modern and sleek, with a few glass domes rising up from an otherwise flat roof.. Like everywhere in Casimir, it was a mishmash of styles and patterns. Between the buildings, a courtyard with trees and benches sprawled lazily. I swallowed hard as I stared down a stone statue of a gryffin that was three times my size.

"Let's go," Felix said. I followed him through the heavy wooden doors of the main building.

Inside, the building was furnished elegantly with velvet benches and couches. A young woman sat behind an oak desk, tapping away at one of the conch shells I'd seen Mr. Cromwell use. When she saw us, she put it away.

"Hello. How can I help you two today?" she asked sweetly, blushing as if she'd been caught in the act of doing something.

"We're here to speak with Mr. Carroll," Felix told her. The secretary looked not much older than me, maybe college-aged. She had long nut-brown hair and pink cheeks.

"Yes, of course. Are you students? The agno is right there."

Agno? I mouthed to Felix. He didn't answer. "We aren't students. I've been assigned to bring Anya here as a representative of the Junior Paxion."

Felix looked very proud about that. "New student?" the receptionist smiled. "Oh, right. I believe Mr. Carroll did mention that. Hello, Anya. I'm Aymiliana Scott. Or Aymi, for short. I'm the general secretary here."

"Nice to meet you," I said politely. Aymi tapped out another code on her shell. The shell pulsed once in response.

"You can see Mr. Carroll in his office right now."

Mr. Carroll, as it turned out, was a man in his fifties, sitting up ramrod-straight at a polished desk. He spoke with a very deep voice that resonated in the echoey office chamber.

"Anya, is it?" he asked me, shaking my hand. "Welcome to the Academy."

"Thank you, sir," I said, quickly biting my lip. At high school, I wasn't supposed to call the teachers "sir". Here however, Mr. Carroll nodded at me as if it was the appropriate response, and I felt my shoulders relax.

"I understand there was an incident involving the loss of your memory. Are there any legal guardians that you know of?"

I shook my head. Mr. Carroll sighed as his pen hovered over an empty space on a form.

"Actually, I've been staying with a family called the Bissets. In Ohio. You could put them down if you want?"

Mr. Carroll shook his head firmly. "No. If they aren't Mimics, we shouldn't get them involved. According to the paper your, uh, escort, gave me, you are under the care of the Paxion. An Aureate may be assigned to you in the near future, or perhaps another family."

My gaze left the open window, where I was watching a bird land in a tree and wondering if it was a bird after all. "Sorry, what's an Aureate?"

Mr. Carroll looked at me for a long moment. "An Aureate is a member of the Mimic Assembly. A politician. They deal with law, while the Paxion deals with justice."

I gulped, hoping I wasn't angering the headmaster with my stupid questions.

"In any case, you will attend afternoon classes today. You will be in, let's see... Room Four needs another member. Go outside, where you'll find a class in the courtyard. I believe you'll find your roommates there."

"Thank you... sir," I said, slightly awkwardly, as I stood up.

"And Anya?"

"Yes?"

"Do something about that tie."

I looked down to see that it was true: a black satin tie had appeared around my neck, identical to the one the headmaster wore. I turned red and stuffed it into my backpack. At least Mr. Carroll saw firsthand how much I needed this training.

As soon as I walked out of the office, I saw Felix waiting. "Guess what?"

"What?" I asked, humouring him.

"I'm enrolled too!"

"But... I thought you were supposed to come next year?"

"Well, yes... but my dad made a call."

"Your dad can do that? Isn't this some sort of centuries old tradition?" I asked. Part of me was relieved that Felix was staying, since I didn't know anyone else, but also I kind of wanted to start this adventure on my own.

"They have the space. And," Felix looked down at the floor, "I've kind of been having trouble with my human transfigurations."

The all-powerful Felix? Admitting a weakness? I almost laughed, but didn't. "Well, I have to go find my class. I'll see you around then?"

Felix nodded, and I hurried outside.

"Everyone, this is Anya Rescottoll. She'll be joining the class for the remainder of the term."

The owl-like teacher, a shrimp of an old lady, patted my shoulder. This was no easy task, because she was much smaller than me. I could feel the questioning glances of the students. They'd already been with each other since December. Who was this new kid?

Only one girl smiled and waved at me, causing a few others to follow suit.

"She'll be staying in Room Four. Who here is in Room Four?"

Two girls raised their hands. "Excellent. You are excused for the remainder of class. Please show Anya your dormitory, and if you have time before lunch, a tour of the grounds."

The girl with bold eyes and black hair who smiled at me, marched up first and took my arm.

"I'm Esme. Welcome to the Academy! This is Fi."

The girl with blond curls looked me over. She moved with a flounce, almost, but not in a snobby way.

"Hi! I'm Fijanna. We're in Room Four. I'm honestly so happy you're here. We're the only room without three members, and it's really hard to do the projects."

"Hi, I'm—" I began, before being interrupted by Fijanna.

"Well, we used to have three people until Ramon switched. But now we have you!"

"Do you want to see the dorms?" Esme asked, pulling me towards the green building. These two were nice, but almost aggressively friendly.

They led me into the house, where a wooden staircase spiralled up several stories in the atrium. I followed them to the second floor, and down a hall with green carpeting.

Fijanna opened a birch door and ushered me in.

"This is room four!"

I looked around, taking it in. There were three single beds along one wall, two of which had blankets and a third which housed a huge pile of clothes.

"Sorry!" Fijanna laughed, pushing the pile of clothing onto the floor. "That's my stuff. I didn't know you were coming."

"Do you have anything to unpack?" Esme asked. I placed my backpack on the now-empty bed.

"Done," I told them. Fijanna laughed again.

"Let's give her the tour, Esme!"

"Wait, guys!" I called as I speedwalked after the two girls into the hall.

"The left wing is girls, and the right wing is boys. There are five floors, each with twenty rooms each, ten for girls and ten for boys. That's a total of 100 rooms and 300 students," Esme rattled off. I had to be impressed with her math skills. I definitely couldn't multiply like that. "Naturally, it's different from year to year. You can't expect there to be 150 of each gender every term!"

I nodded, trying to follow along.

"Actually, there are only about 210 of us this year. You know..."

I tuned in fully. "What?"

Esme and Fijanna glanced at each other. "Because, well, I thought you were one of them. People..."

"They aren't sending their kids this year," Fijanna interrupted. "They're worried about the purists."

"The who?" I asked, becoming slightly frustrated. They were almost as bad as Felix when it came to being mysterious about common information.

Esme and Fijanna stared at me, as if they couldn't believe a Mimic like me didn't know what they were talking about.

"The purists? The people who believe mythomorphia is bad?" Esme prodded, as if that would jog my memory. I just returned her stare blankly. She started from the beginning. "You do know what a mythomorph is, don't you?"

I nodded, glad to know at least one thing.

"So, there are some people who believe that mythomorphing is not natural, and that those who have a true form as a mythical creature are given too much power," Esme explained. "It used to be just a difference in opinion. Some people just refused to fly dragon or ride pegasus. But recently, there've been some people who've..."

"They started acting up a bit more," Fijanna interrupted. It was clearly a habit of hers. "There's even been violence towards mythomorphs. My cousin is training to be a flight-dragon, and last week someone burned down the shed at her school."

"So anyway," Esme said. "People are a bit more relunctant to send their kids to school, because they are worried their kid is going to be a mythomorph too. Either they don't want their child to be a mythomorph, or they don't want him or her getting hurt because they are one. That's why there's only 210 of us, and that's probably why Mr. Carroll let you join mid-term. Normally, he'd make you wait for next year's class."

"Good to know," I said smally, lacking anything else to say. Looking around, I realized that we had walked all the way down to the first floor.

"Oh! The tour!" Fijanna clapped her hands with glee. "Follow me!"

I followed the two exuberant escorts around campus. The dormitory building was affectionately called the Green House (not to be confused with the school greenhouse out back), shortened to Green by Fijanna. Fijanna seemed to be the abbreviation queen, and she insisted I call her Fi. My guides informed me that all the top floors were identical, but the bottom floor housed a cafeteria, library, and lounge room.

The next building was called Dome, and it was (strangely enough) the modern-looking one with the domes. According to Esme, two of the domes were lecture halls, of a sort, and one of them was the aviary. The rest of the building was composed of classrooms, offices, storage, and (the best part, according to Fi) an outdoor swimming pool. The final building, Admin, was where I'd met with Mr. Caroll earlier, and we weren't allowed in there except for guidance appointments and disciplinary confrontations with the headmaster (yes, Esme called them disciplinary confrontations). By the time I'd seen the playing fields, the courtyard, the stables, and the observatory, it was time to eat lunch.

At lunch, Fi and Esme escorted me to a room on the bottom floor of the Green building. It was the cafeteria, so they told me, but it looked more like a formal banquet hall. On one edge of the room was a table covered with a buffet spread, much like the Eafon Inn tavern. Students went up and loaded a picnic basket with food for their table. I started to walk towards the food, but Fi pulled me in the other direction.

"No, silly. Barin already got our basket."

Following Fijanna to a table, I saw Esme already sitting down and talking to three other boys. One was slightly pudgy with red hair, one had spiky black hair and a serious expression, and the third had short brown hair and a mischievious grin.

"This is her!" Esme told them, smiling at me. "Anya, this is Barin, Ramon, and Quinto."

Barin, the redhead, opened the basket and offered me a muffin. I took it gratefully. I had walked all the way from the inn, and it had been hours without food.

The one with black hair, Quinto, scowled at me. "You missed half the year, you know."

"Shut up, Quint," Ramon slapped him on the arm lightly. "I'm sure she'll be fine. You, on the other hand..."

I sat down between Fijanna and Barin and bit into my muffin. The rest of the group continued talking.

"So, how did you find that morph test today?" Esme asked.

"Don't get me started," Ramon groaned, slumping down onto the table. "They asked me to become a wombat. A wombat! I didn't even know what that was!"

"So what did you do?" Barin asked.

"I guessed. I used a base form of a bat and some heavier feet and lost the wings."

Fijanna burst into laughter. "Why did you pick those attributes?"

Ramon shifted, obviously aware of the embarrassment of the situation but determined to continue with the story.

"Because, you know, 'wom'. It sounds like 'stomp'. So like a heavy bat thing, I don't know! I guessed! Anyway, it was probably wrong."

"It definitely was," Esme laughed. "Wombats look like this."

She slid a book with glossy pages across the table, and as it passed by me I saw the diagram of a chubby marsupial. I held back a smile, imagining the hideous bat creature Ramon had presented to his teacher instead of this cuddly animal.

"I flunked it," Ramon shook his head. "I must have."

"You most definitely did," Esme patted him on the back sympathetically. "Have a muffin."

As Ramon took a muffin, the conversation switched back to me.

"So... Anya," Quinto said, squinting at me. "Why are you here now, and not at winter solstice when the rest of us arrived?"

I swallowed the final chunk of my muffin and began my story.

"I honestly could not tell you. I was found unconscious in Glenn Park, Ohio, on April 20th and I have no memory of anything before that."

This must not have been the answer Quinto expected, because he dropped his regal composure for a moment.

"I have no idea why whoever took care of me before that didn't send me here. Plus, I don't even know my own age. Maybe I'm only twelve. Who knows?"

Esme snapped her fingers. "We can fix that."

"We can?" I asked, startled. What Mimic magic could tell someone's age?

"The agno!" Fi said, as if it were obvious. "Oh, wait. You don't know what that is, do you?"

I shook my head, feeling very dumb.

"Think of it this way," Ramon told me. "Without agnos, the Mimic world would be a mess. We'd never know if anyone was who they said they were, people would literally impersonate celebrities, and bartenders would have one heck of a time trying to find out who was of legal drinking age."

I nodded. Fair enough.

"SO," Fi, Queen of Interruptors, interrupted. "Some famous guy,"

"Chrinius Ferroll," Esme supplied.

"Chrinius Ferroll," Fi repeated, "invented the agnoscope. It basically forces a Mimic to revert to who they are without any animal or human modifications when you touch it. And, if you send off your pulse to the Mimic Assembly, the council will review it and send you a full report: name, age, family, and so on."

That sounded pretty cool to me. Maybe if I did that, gave the Assembly my "pulse", they'd find my family!

"Well, where can I do that?"

The group glanced at each other nervously.

"The school has agnos everywhere," Barin told me. "But they're basic. They don't do the pulses. They just prove you're the one writing the exams and not some impostor. And there are some on the doors of the buildings, too, so no creepy people sneak in at night."

"There aren't any creepy people," Ramon added, at my horrified look. "Or at least, if there are, the agnos stop them."

That did nothing to quell my fears. What if those purist people decide to raid the school?

"Don't worry about it, Anya," Esme told me. "He's just joking. No one would dare touch this school."

"Anyway," Fi said. "If you wanted a pulse review, you'd have to go all the way to the Council Chambers. They don't just give out know-it-all machines to anyone, you know."

I nodded. It was a bit too much to hope for, I guess. Maybe someday I'd persuade the staff to let me go.

"Oh! Guys, class starts in four minutes!" Esme exclaimed, checking the watch of Quinto who was sitting beside her. "Anya, come on. We have Human Transfiguration together!"