A Lira's job is to learn. A Ryn's job is to fight. A Mora's job is to craft. An Umny's job is to serve.

This is our Law. 

~ From the Dragonling Grimoire 

Lyosha cleared his throat, playing with his fingers. "Hey, guys. This is Anita Rhyan. She's going to be studying with us. Professor Alek told us about her, remember?"

Whispers filled the room and I felt my skin heat up. Right. This is why I hated Shkola.

I had never quite fit in - after all, I was technically enslaved to Lord Edik. While the adults recognized it as something out of my control and never treated me different, draggies weren't so tolerant of my status. Liras, at the top of the social ladder, went out of their way to annoy me. Other Ryns rarely even looked at me. Inas and Moras avoided me like Black Scale.

In other words, school sucked.

I let my hand drift to my sword again and they all tensed up. Oops. Guilt bubbled in me. I hadn't meant to scare them.

That feeling lasted about two heartbeats before a young wyk stood up. "It's dangerous." She sniffed in a high-pitched voice that made my ears ring. She was pretty, in an off-handed sort of way. Honey-colored hair and vibrant purple eyes. "Lyosha, take it back."

Irritation welled up inside of me. Oh, fitting in be damned. "Bitch, excuse me?" I crossed my arms, mentally reaching for my old pride. "I have a name, and I'm certainly not an 'it.' I am dangerous. Don't push me."

The wyk went a bit pale, but she held her chin higher. "You wouldn't attack me. T-that's," she cleared her throat and straightened up, "that's against the Laws." Her voice steadied out as the dragonlings closest to her murmured their agreements.

"Not for Ryns," I said loftily, straining to keep the upper hand. "How else do we keep our skills sharp?"

"By training." A sharp voice from behind me said. I jumped and whirled around, almost pulling out my sword. A tall, willowy Lira with long dark hair and cherry-colored eyes glared at me, not one bit amused. He had beautiful elfish features, which was hardly hindered by the black-wired spectacles he wore.

The fyn was beautiful indeed. If only he weren't giving me a look colder than ice. "Miss Rhyan, I do hope you're not threatening your fellow students."

I watched the ground, feeling a tad guilty. "I wasn't threatening them. I was stating a fact." I mumbled. "There's nothing in the Laws about attacking others. Just killing."

"Lovely." The fyn said icily. "A technicality we could have gone on without knowing. Find a seat, all of you. Miss Rhyan, you've missed little. I expect you to know as much as your classmates." He passed by, then added, "My name is Professor Alek Lavrov. Now, get to work."

The rest of the day went without incident, minus the horrible pain in my hips while I had to sit down. Lyosha took the seat closest to me and counseled me about the class. The violet-eyed girl was named Irisa, and had spent most of her life belittling others. I had thought we left pettiness behind when we were draggies, but no. Irisa had snide remarks about me every five candle marks.

"Ryns can't help killing, can they?" Irisa called out as the professor discussed how traits were passed down from parent to offspring.

Professor Lavrov inhaled, took off his glasses, and fixed Irisa with a cold stare. "As you miserably failed the genetics portion of this class, you're not in any position to make assumptions. And since we've already discussed the topic of caste inheritance and you still think that's a valid question, I'm beginning to think you've failed to grasp the concept." Every word he spoke made Irisa's face redden until she threw me an angry look - as if it was my fault! - and started taking notes again.

"If we're done with pointless questions not pertaining to this material," Professor Lavrov said, slipping his glasses back on, "then we can get back to business."

Professor Lavrov was growing on me.

My new teacher was sharp-witted and brutal. In a single day, he had already trashed four of my classmates, yelled a variety of increasingly violent threats (starting at "I will throw you out this window!" and ending with "If you ask me another stupid question, I will feed you to my leopard alive!"), and threw a book at Lyosha's head.

Once class had finished (with "If you can't tell me every bone in a dragonling body tomorrow, expect to be taking quizzes for the next six days!"), Lyosha brought me to the courtyard. He explained how it was where students had to stay until their chaperones picked them up, for security reasons.

I was appalled. "What? Why? Can't you fight yourselves?"

Lyosha just shrugged, unfazed. "I guess. But we're scholars and royals, not fighters." His eyes suddenly caught on someone and his entire face just lit up like a star. I followed his gaze to a rather small and delicate girl with pale skin, dark hair and bright eyes. She looked like a doll.

"Oh." I said, brushing my distaste for the Liras' less-than-courageous ideals out of my mind. They're just different, and that's okay. Don't judge, Anita. "Is that the girl you like?"

Lyosha gave me a startled look. "Ew, her? No. That's Esmeralda. She's a total fake. I'm looking at him." He motioned to a young fyn beside Esmeralda, with dirty blond hair and icy blue eyes. "My boyfriend. His name is Phoenix."

"Who the fuck names their kid Phoenix?"

"Phoenix is a perfectly nice name!" Lyosha said defensively. "Phoenixes are beautiful creatures!"

"So are unicorns, but I'm not naming my children after them."

"Well, maybe you should-"

"Ani." A chilling voice called. We both started and turned around. Dmitri was walking over, looking less than pleased. "Let's go."

"Don't tell me what to do," I argued back, bristling at his tone. "What if I want to hang around with Lyosha?"

Lyosha was quick to decline. "N-no. You go ahead. S-see you tomorrow." He stuttered through his words before sprinting off to Phoenix. I couldn't blame him. Dmitri was pretty terrifying. To other people.

Meanwhile, I hit Dmitri. "Ow! Ani!" He said before grabbing my hands.

"What was that for?!" I hissed. "He was a friend."

"He was too close," Dmitri growled back.

I pulled my hands away. "So what? I'm not allowed to have friends now? Really?"

"Yes- no- I mean- oh, forget it." Dmitri groaned in frustration. "It's just hard for now. I'll get used to it." It hit me suddenly - I had felt jealous when Dmitri talked about Lady Mariya, even without knowing who she was. I knew how he was feeling.

And now I felt like a total bitch. "No, you're right. I'm sorry."

Dmitri sighed and gave me a crooked smile. "You're really hard to understand, you know that?"

"But you love me anyway," I murmured, starting to walk back to the castle. "I'm tired."

"I don't really have a choice, now do I?"

"Watch it," I warned, "you have your own bed. You don't have to sleep with me. I'll kick you out."

Dmitri just rolled his eyes and kissed my forehead. "Sure you will." He slipped an arm around my waist as we walked, beginning to pepper me with questions about my day.

I told Dmitri about Irisa, Lyosha and his boyfriend - I think it relieved him, even if he didn't admit it - and then Professor Lavrov and his... interesting teaching ways. He recognized the name immediately.

"Oh, him?" Dmitri scoffed. "Yeah, I've heard about him. Arrogant bastard. He's Queen Dominika's younger brother and was top of his class, probably due to all those expensive tutors."

"Sounds like you've got a grudge."

Dmitri just shrugged and held the door open for me. "Ryns have to fight fang and claw to pass our classes. Damn Liras get extra help and then think they're better than us."

"Oh, so you just have a grudge against all Liras?" I teased, sidestepping a group of draggies running from their mother. Though I tried to keep the tone light, I mulled over the thought. Maybe I wasn't the only one who didn't like other castes... but was it a good thing?

Dmitri shrugged, oblivious to my thoughts, and pressed against a wall to avoid the chaos. "Maybe. Not all of them are like that. Only the worst of them." He took my hand again. "These kids are out of control." He muttered as one shifted into a dog-sized dragonling, trying to fly away on stubby wings. A nearby Umny grabbed her out of the air and slipped what looked like a harness around her chest.

"When my clutchmates and I were bad, my mother would tie our wings together so we had to fly as a group." I commented. The mother looked up when she heard me and glanced at her draggies, contemplating the possibility. Dmitri pulled me away from the mayhem and down a side hallway.

Once we got away, Dmitri glanced at me. "Did your mother really do that?"

I snorted and shook my head. "No. I was the only one in my clutch. I just wanted to see if she would listen."

"I'm pretty sure that would kill them all."

"You're a fyn, I'm a wyk. You listen to me about child-rearing, not the other way around."

Dmitri rolled his eyes and picked me up. I squeaked and clung to his shoulders. He blinked at me innocently. "What? I'm the fyn, you're the wyk, I have to take care of you." I smacked him upside the head and he dropped me with a laugh.

I realized suddenly that I didn't feel so bad, not with Dmitri. Class hadn't been too bad either, despite Irisa, and I made a new friend in Lyosha.

Maybe life in the castle wouldn't be so bad.

The rest of spring passed in relative ease. I finally got to meet Phoenix - a dorky dude to match his dorky name - and the three of us stuck together during the schooling events. Mind you, by events I mean dances and dinners. Boring and not worth my time? Yep. Mandatory? You bet.

Another perk to my new life was Dmitri. We spent all our spare time together, each of us learning and exploring the other. Dmitri didn't like dates or going into public, but he would always listen when I complained and took time out of his day to help me with whatever homework he could (which wasn't much, but it was sweet nonetheless). I felt closer to him than ever.

While my love life was changing, class went the same - though I quickly learned how to dodge flying textbooks - and I actually began to enjoy learning.

To be fair, it was interesting, and not because Biology meant we got to stare at naked fyns to map out the body.

Well, maybe a little. But that's not the entire reason.

I liked to understand how the body worked and I would often find myself reading more of the textbook than assigned. Some nights I didn't sleep at all, too engrossed in the skeletal system or why dragonling fire was so hot. Dmitri teased me for it, but I think he was secretly pleased about me enjoying the class he picked out. Smug bastard.

My favorite part of class was when Professor Lavrov brought in a phoenix. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen - standing at three steps tall and cloaked in marmalade and ginger feathers, the phoenix had a voice like bells. Music wasn't popular in the dragonling kingdom, but when the phoenix sang I almost wished it was.

We were each given a feather to study, which I promptly had pressed and hung on the wall on my room. Dmitri would endlessly pester me about why I liked such a frail creature. In truth, I had no clue. Besides, it wasn't frail at all. We got to witness its raw power ourselves.

"It looks sick." I murmured to Lyosha. We were finishing our work in the room after class. The phoenix was perched on one of the gates, but its head was drooping lowly and feathers made a haphazard pile on the ground.

Lyosha twirled his quill in his fingers nervously. "What if the Professor thinks we did something to it?" The aforementioned professor had stepped out to talk to one of his colleagues, though he gave us a stern "don't fuck anything up" before he left.

I snorted and straightened my papers. Ugly ink splotches littered the loose vellum and my horrible handwriting did nothing to help the messy appearance. The professor had harassed me for weeks about making my work more readable, to which I always told him that he just couldn't read. I got hit in the face with a book every time (he had incredible aim and my reflexes were poor from lack of training).

"I don't think so." I murmured, trying to focus on my work rather than the beautiful and sick bird in the corner. My heart was heavy and there was an uneasy feeling in my stomach. "We can just ignore it for now and- oh, fuck it." Giving in to the feeling, I stood up and hurried to the bird, gently reaching out to it. It cooed weakly and rubbed its cheek against my hand. "It feels really hot," I said, alarmed.

Lyosha rushed over to feel. "Is it fevered? Does it need water?"

"I don't know!" I snapped back. "It always feel warm."

"Step back." The voice jolted us away from the bird. Professor Lavrov strode in and jerked Lyosha backwards by the hem of his tunic when he didn't move fast enough.

The phoenix leapt off the fence and suddenly the air felt a lot hotter. There was a piercing light and a flash of intense heat as Lyosha used his body to shield mine. Ash filled the air and filled my nostrils, making me sneeze. Cautiously, I slid out from under Lyosha and peered over a desk. There, in the middle of blackened feathers and settled ash, the phoenix was standing.

It looked far more regal and lively than it had since we had first seen it. The faded oranges in its feathers had turned to burning crimson and ruby. Its eyes were alight, pure white and burning like fire. It chirped brightly at us before launching into the air and flying through the open windows.

Professor Lavrov stood and wiped off the ash from his coat. "The phoenix's immune system is unique." He began as if nothing had happened. "When sickness or injury is detected, instead of spending energy on healing, the body will ignite the oil on its feathers. That's what caused the explosion. I suspect it was only staying with us so that it could gain strength."

Lyosha and I warily glanced at each other. Despite the literal inferno that had just taken place, the professor hardly seemed to care. Yet, he seemed a little shaken himself. He hadn't even told us off or-

"Now, clean this up."

Nevermind.

The rest of the week was spent going over the books. I felt a strange touch of sadness as I stared at the diagrams of phoenixes. The illustrations were beautiful but underwhelming after the real thing and the classroom was strangely quiet without the phoenix's song.

Still, I managed to enjoy class after a week of 'mourning.' Other lessons included minotaurs and kitsunes, so that helped keep my mind off things. I had always been excited to learn about these amazing creatures, and, despite my aversion to extra schoolwork, I managed to pull of the best scores in class for those few weeks. It gave me an overall ranking of three out of twenty rather than the poor seventeenth slot I'd climbed into.

It honestly wasn't even that hard. Some of these Liras were ridiculously stupid. While Irisa was unluckily not one of these, most of her friends were. They would constantly taunt me, lie to me about our work, and spread rumors about me. I didn't know what I did to piss them off so much, but Lyosha said it was probably because I was showing them up - not him though. Lyosha had the coveted spot of rank one.

Something in me wondered if Lyosha would turn against me if I passed him up too. That malicious theory was derailed as soon as Lyosha began helping me study - he actually wanted me to pass him up.

"It gets really stressful." Lyosha admitted one day while we were studying. "Being number one is like... always needing to climb higher, but there's nowhere to go." He shrugged and fiddled with his quill. "I guess that's weird." After I assured him it wasn't, we moved on. I was stunned that it was never brought up again - Liras are infamous for their ability to drag problems along - but Lyosha just said what he needed to and moved on. I liked that about him.

Other than Irisa's friends, my other classmates were... decent, really. My theory of fitting in actually worked out pretty well. They didn't bother me, and sometimes they would even volunteer to join up with me and Lyosha for group projects.

There was just one problem, and unfortunately it wasn't able to be ignored.

Burian had slunk off the moment we arrived in town, but he reappeared with a vengeance. This time, Irisa was at his side as his mate. Two wrongs do not make a right, and these two wrong definitely didn't make a right for me. I had thought Burian as bad at Lord Edik's estate, but that was nothing.

Gossiping was never my strong point, but I'd heard more than enough in my time to know the half guilty-half pleased look of someone doing it. As soon as Burian started hanging around, Irisa and her friends did it constantly. I just brushed it off, assuming it was just Burian spreading lies. After all, it's not like he hadn't tried his heart out before we arrived.

Unfortunately, that wasn't exactly the case.

Professor Lavrov had us move on from mythical creatures and went into, of all things, the reproductive system. It was something I really didn't want to be going over, but Lyosha assured me we wouldn't get too much into the child-rearing part. It didn't help that Burian and Irisa were loudly planning what to name their eggs, and even offered to bring them to class for studying. The other students were disappointed when the professor declined, but I was secretly glad. I don't think my heart could have taken it.

The day I finally snapped, both Burian and Irisa decided to really put on the pressure. They arrived the morning before class arrived, side by side and talking as loud as possible. Lyosha and I were already there, trying to learn about the female reproductive system - or, more accurately, I was trying to teach the blushing fyn about it.

Keyword: trying.

As I said, Burian and Irisa were being as obnoxious as they physically could, gossiping in loud voices and cooing over draggy names. Would Dmitri and I have been like that, if we were together back then? I thought about it for a brief moment and dismissed the idea. No. Those two were just being ridiculous.

One of Irisa's friends, a pudgy-faced wyk named Serra, decided that Lyosha and I were too comfortable by ourselves. She called over to us, giggling every two words. "Lyosha, sweetheart, what would you name your draggies? If you ever leave the side of that little Ryn, that is."

Lyosha reddened and opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. I answered for him. "Lyosha isn't as obsessed with it as you and your little friends."

"Don't listen to her." Irisa said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "She's just jealous that I'm having draggies and she's not."

I rolled my eyes and returned to the diagram Lyosha and I had, but Irisa just continued on. "Well, I'll make sure not to lose mine." I tensed. Just random words, nothing different than what she was usually saying. "Anita, you can tell me how to prevent that right? Oh, wait. No, you can't, can you?"

Slamming my hands on the table, I stood up and turned to the crowd. My blood began burning under my skin as I gave the group the most venomous look I could muster. A few of the Liras looked confused and others paled in surprise, but Irisa was watching me with a triumphant smile. At least Burian had the decency to look slightly ashamed.

"Is something wrong?" Irisa asked, her voice mockingly sincere. "I mean, I'm not wrong. You failed before."

Before I could convince myself not to, I stormed over to Irisa and punched her as hard as I could. Her head snapped to the side, but, to her merit, she didn't fall and instead slapped me back. Fury clouded over me and I slammed my shoulder into her chest, forcing her to the ground. Distantly, I heard screaming and felt hands trying to pull me away, but I just ignored it.

My hands wrapped around Irisa's throat on their own accord, and I attempted to throttle her there and then. But strong hands wrapped around my waist and I was hoisted away. Thrashing around, I could feel the haziness of fury slip away slowly. Heart thudding, I realized Burian had dragged me away and was now kneeling beside his mate.

Breathing hard, I noticed Lyosha looking at me in pure shock. Shame washed over me and I sprinted to the nearest window, throwing it open and jumping out.

I shifted before I hit the ground and flew as far away as I could.