Holding his bags close himself, Kessex made his way through the crowded corridors of the dormitory, a wrinkled slip of paper clutched in his sweaty hand as he searched for his dorm room. Someone brushed past him and he shrank away, nearly walking into a couple of faeries loitering around outside their room. Hitching the strap of his duffle bag higher onto his shoulder, he ducked as a large, white hawk flew over his head, the downdraft from its powerful wings blowing his shaggy black hair into his eyes. Blowing it out of his face with a upward puff of air, he hurried down the hall, a great sigh of relief rising in his chest as he found room 12 and ducked inside.

Shutting the door behind him, he leaned against it for a moment, closing his eyes as he waited for his heart rate to return to normal. He wasn't too fond of strangers, and he hated crowds, so a crowd of strangers was almost more than he could handle. He didn't know what the hell he was thinking, coming to Alyrrawood University, the most prestigious and desirable school in the galaxy. Community college would have been fine, and he wouldn't have had to take three world gates to get there. He drew a deep breath and sighed as he stepped away from the door. Too late now.

The room was small, maybe fifteen feet square, with two windows looking out over a rolling field, the overcast sky and drifting tendrils of fog making the long grass appear bleak and gray. Beneath each window was a desk, beside each desk was a bed, and at the foot of each bed was a dresser. That was all. Kessex supposed that since he was the first there, the choice of beds was his. Dropping his duffle bag on the floor and setting his suitcase beside it, he walked over and sat upon each mattress, bouncing a little to test out the springs. They seemed to be the same, so he just picked one, lifting his bags onto the bed on the left-hand side of the room and beginning to put his clothes into the dresser.

He was nearly finished unpacking when the door flew open, making him jump as it banged against the doorstop on the inside wall. Kessex's mouth went dry as a young man strode in, carrying two matching suitcases in deep, red leather, a knotted dragon design coiling around the edge of each one, probably embossed in real gold. He wore knee-high black suede boots over tight white jeans, a bright blue button-down shirt tucked into his pants, and a long, tailored black suede coat, but it wasn't his obvious wealth that made Kessex's heart beat a little faster. Indeed, Kessex cared little for material things. It was the strong line of the young man's jaw, the flawless bronze of his skin, the sparkle in his dark brown eyes, the slight wave in his shoulder-length brown hair, streaked with thin bands of gold and silver--He was beautiful. And from the look of him, a fire mage.

Like most mages, Kessex got along best with his own kind, but fire mages were rare when compared to earth and water mages, who made up more than eighty percent of the mage population. The other twenty percent was divided among fire, metal, and wind mages. Not that Kessex planned on making friends during his stay at the university. He just thought another fire mage would be more likely to respect his privacy.

The stranger stopped in the middle of the room and glanced around, wrinkling his nose at the sparse furnishings, but smiling as his gaze settled upon Kessex. He set his suitcases upon the floor and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, wiping his sweaty hands before extending one of them to Kessex.

"Hello there," he said, his voice deep and rich, with a trace of an accent that Kessex couldn't place, but it gave his words a sultry quality. "I'm Dorrance Shaevelle, your new roommate. You can just call me Dor, if you like--Dorrance is quite a mouthful."

Kessex swallowed hard.

"Kessex Imberrin, pleased to meet you," he mumbled, his gaze fixed on Dorrance's shirt as he shook the young man's hand and quickly let go. He turned away, his head spinning as he fumbled about in his suitcase, pulling out a handful of balled-up socks and stepping over to his dresser--anything to put some distance between them. This was so inconvenient.

"Nice to meet you, too," Dorrance said, and Kessex could hear the confusion in his voice. He didn't know if he was supposed to respond to that, or what he should say if he did, so he just stared into his dresser, moving his socks from one side of the drawer to the other and back again. "I don't think I've seen you around here before," Dorrance said after a moment, and Kessex could hear him moving around the room, the groan of bedsprings, the click of suitcase latches being released. "Is this your first year at Alyrrawood?"

"Yes," Kessex said. Should he ask Dorrance the same? No, clearly this wasn't his first year. Ask him what year he was in, maybe? Silence stretched after his initial response. Had it been too long since he had spoken? Would a question now seem weird? Would it invite more questions, ones Kessex didn't want to answer? He decided not to say anything.

"Well, if you need any help finding your way around the campus, just ask," Dorrance said a little while later. "I remember how big it seemed last year. It took me a week to stop getting lost on my way to class." He chuckled, a warm, rumbling sound that faded away into the silence. Kessex bit the inside of his lip, worrying it between his teeth. Should he have laughed with him? Kessex moved back to his suitcase, zipping it shut and sliding it underneath his bed. With his unpacking done, he suddenly had nothing to do, and found himself staring at his bed, his heart thudding in his ears.

"So you're a metal mage, right?" Dorrance asked, making him jump.

"No," Kessex said, giving his head a small shake as he turned and sat down upon the edge of the bed, folding his hands in his lap as he stared at a dark burn upon the worn wood floor. "Fire."

"Oh, darn," Dorrance said, and Kessex glanced at him before looking away again. "Not that I have anything against fire mages," Dorrance said, "I just thought you were a metal mage like me."

Like me? Kessex's eyes darted to the young man again. But...but his hair was gold, silver, and brown, and his eyes were flecked with gold and copper--Kessex suddenly felt very stupid. It was just wishful thinking, seeing what he wanted to see. Most mages changed their appearance to fit their areas of expertise. Kessex would have liked to--just some simple gold highlights in his black hair, or an orange flicker in his brown eyes--just to fit in better with the other mages, but cosmetic alterations were expensive.

Kessex suddenly realized that he hadn't responded, and that he was still staring at Dorrance. He felt his face color, heat rising up his neck into his cheeks as he rose to his feet and headed for the door.

"'Scuse me, I have to go," he muttered, jerking the door open and escaping into the hall. He stood a moment as a tall guy with dark chocolate skin and a sandy-coated wolf walked past, and then he dashed down the hall, emerging into a courtyard, the air chill and clammy on his bare arms. He should have grabbed a jacket, but he hadn't exactly been thinking clearly. He began walking, glancing into the first building he passed, but it was the cafeteria, and it appeared to be dinnertime, the long trestle tables crowded with students of every size, color, and shape. He kept walking.

The next door he passed led into a quiet, deserted hallway, and he ducked inside, not caring where it went, as long as it was warm and without people. Hands tucked in his jeans pockets, he followed the corridor as it wound through the building, past dark rooms with locked doors--classrooms, he supposed. He passed a stairwell, one side leading up, the other heading down, underground. Must be where the vampires had their classes. He didn't have any vampire studies this term, but he would in the winter. He wasn't looking forward to it.

Reaching the end of the hall, he exited into a short breezeway, the courtyard to the left, a misty, twilit field to the right, and another set of double doors in front of him. Pulling open the doors, he found himself in an official-looking corridor, with administrative offices on either side. He passed a short hallway that led to the professors' living quarters, and the offices of the four advisors--one for mages, one for vampires, one for werefolk, and one for faeries. In a school with such a diverse population, it was only his bad luck to get stuck in a room with a metal mage. And a chatty one at that.

It wasn't like there were feuds between the different factions, or anything. Some types of magic just weren't compatible with others. Fire worked well with both earth and wind, but not with water or metal. It wasn't a big deal, as long as they didn't try to do magic together.

But it wasn't just their powers that were opposites. Kessex had known guys like Dorrance in high school--rich kids with charm and grace, who could have anything they wanted, who looked down upon those who had to work to get where they were, those who hadn't had life handed to them on a silver tray. Kessex hated guys like that.

Turning a corner, Kessex found himself on a wide, marble hallway, with gilded doors on either side. A few people were about, talking quietly, most of them carrying books. Could this be?

Kessex walked closer, pulling open one of the golden doors and breathing deep, the scent of leather and parchment and old dust filling the air. It was. With a smile, he slipped into the library. He was home.