"How long has it been since Aurora blacked out?" I ask Orchid. The famed healer looks down at her talons and shakes her head.

"Two days now. And I already told you, she's awake, but she hasn't been talking to anyone or even getting out of bed. We've been packing her bed with snow and ice, but it's not helping," she explains, her voice bordering on impatient.

I sigh. "Can I at least see her, though? I'm kind of lonely without a roommate."

"Yes," Orchid says, "but you're not staying in there for more than twenty minutes!"

I push aside the curtain separating Orchid's office from the place with all the beds—what was it called? Anyway, Aurora is in there. She sits up in bed and glares at me. I can see dark circles beneath her eyes.

"Hi," I say. "Are you recovering okay?"

She points a claw towards the door.

She says out.

"Okay, I'll go. But I did bring a jar of candy."

I reach for my bag and pull out some candy. Aurora takes the jar from my claws with shaking arms and tries to open it. She fails miserably.

"Here," I volunteer, "I'll get that for you."

Aurora hands me the candy and I remove the top of the jar. I stick my claw in and pull out a caramel, giving it to her. She smiles as she bites into it.

"How is it?" I ask.

She thinks it's good.

"Good. Can I stay?"

Aurora leans in. Then, in a whisper, she says:

"No. Now shoo!"

I leave the bunk room. Orchid is waiting at her desk.

"How'd it go?" she asks. "I told you Aurora wasn't talking."

"She whispered, 'get out'," I argue. "She's talking."

"Huh," Orchid wonders, "that doesn't normally happen."

"Whatever," I mutter as I leave the room. I'm going to inevitably be late for my first science lesson, and Mastermind has this bad history of abusing his test subjects. I race-walk down to the labs. Though I'm going faster than most teachers would allow, the gong rings when I'm right outside the science room. Inside, Mastermind shoots me an annoyed look.

"Miss Rhodium," Mastermind says grumpily, "you're late."

"I was checking up on my clawmate in the healer's room," I complain. "Aurora hasn't been talking to anyone or even been out of bed for two days."

I add, "Though she did talk to me after I gave her a caramel."

"That's funny," Mastermind says. "That hasn't happened in all of recorded medical history. Did you put anything in the candy?"

"Nothing," I deny, "those things already have so much artificial coloring that IrisWings think they look too bright. I didn't tell her that, though. She didn't need to know."

"Well, I think we've chatted long enough. Go to your desk, please. It's the third one in the second row."

I sling my bag over the back of the chair, then sit down. Mastermind starts up his class. Turns out he's going to give us a pop quiz—on the very first day.

"Okay, I'm going to give you guys a very hard quiz. You will have two minutes to finish, and you must follow the instructions exactly. Does anyone have any questions?"

I feel a sheet of papyrus between my talons. I unfurl the scroll and peer down at the sheet below.

Following Directions

This is a timed test—you only have 2 minutes to complete.

I can live with that. I can do things pretty quickly when I want to.

I look up at the board. Mastermind is holding a sundial up to the light. He gives us the countdown, then lets us start.

The test looks pretty easy:

1-Read the whole test before you start filling it out.

It seems like I can ignore that. Next question, please!

2-Using a graphite stylus, put your full name at the top of the paper.

Yep. Who doesn't do that?

3-Draw a square around the title of the test.

I swear I saw this in an issue of Wired… but I draw the square anyway.

4-Stand up and say, "This test is easy!"

5-Horozantally down the left, write, "That's what you think."

6-Draw the Pyrrhian insignia in the bottom right-hand corner.

7-Fold the paper in half lengthwise, then unfold.

8-Stand up and twirl.

9-Border the page with a squiggly line.

All goes smoothly until I see the last question.

10-Now, if you have been following the directions, you will have only followed directions 1, 2, and 10. Good work. Pretend to keep working on the test. See how many of your classmates really know how to follow directions.

"UGH!" I rage through clenched teeth. I try to erase as much as I can of my answers, but ten seconds in, the dreaded sound booms through the room-"Time's up!"

Mastermind strolls down the room. "You failed, you failed, Rhodi, you realized what I did with the test but you still failed. All of you. Does nobody follow directions anymore?"

"Sorry," I mumble. Mastermind squints at me just as the gong rings.

"Go," he says as I pick up my shoulder bag. "All of you."

Not that I want to stay. I would fly, but I kind of have a giant hole in my wing right now from that CrystalWing attack, so I can't, so I walk down to the dorm room. A familiar icy voice greets me.

"Cadmus Rhodium," Aurora says, "what did you put in those caramels?"

"Nothing," I deny. "Why are you awake?"

"Something to do with the caramel," she explains. "It's, like, magic or something. Candy saves lives. I'll remember that."

"Okay. Next time someone gets knocked out, I should give them candy," I say. "I didn't know they had medicinal properties."

A fiery streak crosses the sky above the skylight. I frown.

"Look at that," I say. "That looks like a BlazeWing trying to attack me. Did you pack a weapon?"

Aurora shakes her head.

"Well, get one from the combat room, Aurora!" I order. "They're attacking!"

She obeys. I wave to her and then face my greater issue.

My wing needs to be patched up. I pull out a sheet of nylon and a needle from my suitcase- Hey, I sew sometimes, okay? - And start to stitch the nylon to the hole in my wing. As I complete the task, my face scrunches up in concentration. The buzz of the conversations going on outside seems to fade away as the world dissolves into complete misery from the quick fix.

I pull out my dagger and fly out the skylight. The new patch stings like Thanatos, but I try to ignore it. Behind me, Aurora bursts out of the combat room with a bow and arrows.

My weapon plunges into the wing of the BlazeWing. I notice that her scales don't burn like those of most members of her tribe. I also notice that they have treasure on their backs and a line of BlazeWings on their trail.

The dragon faces me with abnormally huge eyes. "Get off of me! I have a home I need to get back to!"

"And why are you flying away from the BlazeWing kingdom?" I snarl, clenching my teeth. "Wait… You aren't a BlazeWing, are you?"

"What's a BlazeWing?" she asks. "And let go of my wing."

I don't let go, even though we're nowhere near the academy right now and I'm being tossed around like crazy from this dragon's frantic flapping. "You… What?"

"BlazeWings," she asks. What are they?"

"The dragons you stole the treasure from, idiot." I dig my claws deeper into the membrane to stay on. "Were you born under a rock?"

"Uh… No."

"You're acting like it! What are you, anyway?"

Her face falls. "Mother told me the legends… But we're the only beings in creation, aren't we? I mean… No… you aren't…

A silver arrow pierces the dragon's wing a few inches away from me. She glares in the direction it came from, and then shakes me off as she cries in agony, dropping me into the rainforest below.

I plummet helplessly through the air. I don't have my wings… No, I do. I patched them up. It hurts, but I can open my hurt wing.

I spread my wings when I'm a few feet above the forest floor. I don't have time to bend my knees, though, so the impact still hurts and a few parrots squawk and fly away. I curse and move forwards slowly.

I'm under a huge cliff, and there are huge trees and flowers everywhere. The soil is the exact same consistency as clay and looks like it too. Birdsong rings through the air.

"Is that Queen Glory's palace?" an icy voice says in awe. "I've never been here before."

I look up at the canopy. On top of the cliff, there is a huge treehouse with bamboo supports and very thin leaves over the windows. Flowers are strung over the whole complex, and there is an air of importance surrounding it. A RainWing stands on the balcony, clutching a locket in her hands.

"Should we go?" I ask. "I'm not sure Queen Glory is happy."

"Well, I don't think we really have a choice," Aurora says. "I'm not sure that any other RainWings know how to get back to the academy."

She promptly flies up to Queen Glory. Meanwhile, I have to climb all the way up the cliff because I don't want to put any strain on my wing. It's hard, but I've climbed before, so I think I can manage.

"Go away, you," I mutter, flicking away a tree frog that has adhered to the side of the cliff. It lands on the leaf of a tree nearby, sticking there. I groan and start to climb.

The climb is long and exhausting, and I have to stop several times to catch my breath. But I make it up there, and Queen Glory is not pleased that I came. She glares at me as I step onto the balcony.

"Don't invade my privacy, please," Glory says, closing a locket hastily. "I hate you SkyWings."

"What's in the locket that you don't want me seeing?" I probe. "Why did you close it when you came out here, even though you just showed it to Aurora?"

"Nothing that you'd be interested in, whomever-you-are," Glory snaps crankily. "I don't trust you; Scarlet may be dead, but she's still a major figure in religion."

I point to my horns, my normal-sized wings, the golden patterns on my wings. "So… All RainWings are gullible, then. I'm not from any tribe you've heard of."

Aurora nods. "It's true, she's not kidding. Do I have to call you Your Majesty?"

Glory's scales briefly shift to purple, then back to the shade of black they were before. "No, Aurora. And I suppose I can tell you what happened, um… SkyWing?"

"My name is Rhodi," I say. And I'm a TechWing."

"My boyfriend died." Glory glances to the other side of the balcony. At first, I think she's just staring off into space, but then my eyes catch the NightWing statue there. "Deathbringer loved me, and I tried so hard to hide that the feeling was mutual, but just recently, about six months ago… My secret slipped, and we started dating. Those few months… Like Elysium, but so short."

She sniffs. "Then, Deathbringer was killed by who-knows-what, and we never found the corpse. We'd only been dating for less than half a year."

Glory's face hardens. "You know enough about my love life now," she says sternly. "Now OUT!"

I race out of the palace, followed by Aurora. Wow, this hole in my wing is taxing. Aurora's graceful aerial loops don't help.

"Stop flying," I complain. "I have this annoying hole in my wing now."

"Sorry," Aurora says. "Force of habit. Doesn't it seem sad that Deathbringer died?"

I feel no emotion for the RainWing queen, but I lie and say what Aurora wants to hear. "Yes. The worst part is, well… I'm a bit of a scrollworm, so don't judge if what I say sounds crazy.

"Something's telling me that Deathbringer… He's still alive."