After supper, the fairies whisked Arthur back to Good and dumped him in the foyer, leaving him to find his own way back to his room. The light from the sky was gone, replaced with a blanket of inky black and twinkling stars through the glass domed ceiling, the foyer now bathed in a warm golden glow from lit sconces on the walls. As girls and boys split apart, Arthur remembered Honour stamped on his schedule and, slouching, followed blue-robed students up the matching blue glass stairs. Much like he had with the girls, Arthur noticed some of the boys throwing him odd looks and whispering amongst themselves, but by this point he had too much on his mind to care. It was too late to meet with Vivi now; but if he made it through the first four classes tomorrow they would all go to Lunch and then he could meet and talk with her—maybe, he thought hopefully, after four hours of grinding through Evil classes, she'd be open to finding a way home. The only thing to do now was try and sleep through the night.
Tromping through the crowded sea-green hall he found the door stamped 51 and flung it open, stepping hurriedly inside and out of sight of the other whispering princes. He closed the door behind him and turned back into the room, taking a step towards his bed—
There was a shadow reclined behind curtains on the other bed. He froze.
Holding his breath, Arthur tiptoed forward quietly, just far enough into the room to be able to peer through the gap in the drapes. Two glimmering eyes stared back at him. Arthur lurched back.
There was a soft chuckle and the figure sat up to push the drapes back, revealing himself. A student around Arthur's age sat cross-legged on the plush duvet, yellow eyeglasses perched on his nose, dark hair upswept and streaked through with red.
The student seemed completely unbothered as he examined Arthur from behind his spectacles. Then, lips quirking, he spoke. "How was the Welcoming?"
Arthur blinked, and then swallowed. "Fine. It was fine." He nervously padded forward and sat on the edge of his bed.
Another chuckle. "Sounds eventful." The student sat up straighter and stretched his arms. "Well, I suppose that's par for the course."
Not knowing how to answer, Arthur turned and grabbed his basket of books, setting them gingerly on the nightstand instead. He caught sight of his name on the parchment sticking out, and the name he'd seen printed on the other schedule drifted back to him. "So you're . . . Eugene?"
"Matoko," the boy said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, and shot him a grin. Arthur could have sworn he saw a flash of fang. "There was initially a mix-up with the baskets, but the nymphs fixed it while everyone was out."
There was something off about his new roommate, but Arthur couldn't quite put a finger on it. He remembered his strange answer about the Welcoming. "How did you find it? The Welcoming?"
"I didn't go," Matoko replied, unfazed.
Arthur blinked. "What? I thought it was compulsory."
"Compulsory for new students," his roommate replied.
Arthur's eyes bulged. "New—? How long have you been here?"
"Oh, in and out for years," Matoko replied, seemingly disinterested. "Never as a student, of course, until today."
Arthur frowned. He spoke as though it was completely normal, and honestly, it could very well have been—Arthur didn't know the first thing about this place. Perhaps all the other students had been introduced this way, too. There was a loud jingling outside and Arthur jumped.
"That's curfew," Matoko said, closing the book on his lap and setting it on his nightstand. He pushed himself off the bed, stretched, and padded across the room to the ensuite door, slipping inside, presumably to change.
Arthur remained sitting for a moment, dumbly staring at where his roommate had been before disappearing from view, before realising he should probably change too and turning to dig through his basket (surely, if they provided them with underwear, they'd pack some pyjamas too).
By the time Matoko emerged from the ensuite, Arthur was changed and still sitting on the edge of his bed, now staring out the window. He heard the bathroom door creak and turned, remembering his confusion from earlier in the foyer. "It's dark outside."
His roommate gave a soft chuckle. "Yes, well the sun does go down at night."
"No, I mean—it was light outside only an hour ago," Arthur tried again. "But—it's still the middle of the night. Does time work differently here?"
Matoko shook his head, padding forward in a white cotton shirt and long black pyjama pants, in stark contrast to Arthur's blue, crest-dotted, school-provided pyjama shorts. "No, just an inverted Lights-Out Jinx for the Welcoming." He looked at Arthur's bruised eyes and his lip curled in a small smirk. "You won't have to worry about losing too much sleep here."
Arthur bristled and opened his mouth to shoot back, but when he looked into his roommate's bespectacled eyes, he could see there was no malice in them. The smirk, as aloof and cocksure as it was, almost seemed friendly.
Arthur exhaled and looked away.
Matoko sat on the bed across from him, removing and folding his spectacles, placing them delicately on the book on his nightstand, switching the bedside lamp off and pulling his legs up onto the bed before pulling a silken rope and drawing the bed curtains. Arthur watched as his silhouette lay down on the bed, and a shadowed arm lifted to turn off the last light, plunging his side of the room into darkness.
Arthur sat for a moment, feeling oddly smited, mind drifting back to his smirk and his strange comment on his eye bags. He thought for a beat and then drew a breath, calling across the void.
"Goodnight."
Silence.
Arthur sighed, lifting his own covers and settling beneath them, turning away—
"Sleep well."
He threw a look over his shoulder. Everything was still. No more sounds came from Matoko's side of the room.
He lay his head down and immediately found himself suffocating, swallowed by a lavish pillow. He threw the pillow to the floor and sat up, searching through the half dozen for a flatter one, but they were each just as plush and deep. Annoyed, he selected one and pushed the rest to the carpet, settling down again and immediately finding himself sinking into a foot of satin and goosefeathers.
He sighed. This was going to be a long night.
༻·𖥸·༺
A few hours later, Arthur blinked awake to rich sunlight streaming in the window, and for a moment, he wondered if he'd forgotten to close the raggedy curtains last night. Then he felt silk against his skin and bolted up, suddenly wide awake.
He wasn't at home anymore; he was trapped in a faraway fairy tale school, his only friend stuck across the moat, his only company a strange boy who seemed to lack any emotional intelligence or regard for the rules. He glanced across the room—the bed across from his was empty, curtains drawn and sheets perfectly made. The spectacles and book were gone from the nightstand, too. He frowned.
He heard chatter outside and slipped out from under the covers, preparing himself for the shock of cold wood beneath his feet like usual, and blinked in surprise when he felt instead plush carpet on his toes. He felt a pang of homesickness and swallowed it down, padding across the room and cracking open the door.
Dozens of boys stood in the hall, milling and chatting, ducking in and out of rooms, some dressed in pressed white breeches and jackets with gold brocade, others slugging around in crested boxers and white singlets. He saw heads begin to turn and quickly shut the door, leaning against it as he willed his breathing to even out.
They were all getting ready to go to class. He was a student here now, too. He had to go to class. He had to go to magical class for fairy tale princes.
Swallowing his nausea down, he tried to reason with himself. Just make it through the first four classes and he could see Vivi at lunch. There they could talk and maybe he could convince her to come home with him. Because, he realised with a pang of anxiety, if she wouldn't go with him, he wasn't sure he'd have the courage to go on his own.
Fifteen minutes later he emerged from his room to an empty hallway. There was no sound from the other rooms, and with a sigh he realised everyone must have already left for breakfast. And damn, he was hungry, but he couldn't remember where to find the supper hall; he had been hoping to follow everyone else around until he got his bearings. Why didn't they give students maps?
Arthur sighed and turned down the hall. He'd look like an idiot creeping through the foyer alone. Perhaps he could just take this time to explore the castle himself. And if he ran into a teacher who knew their way around, he wouldn't be any worse off than he already was.
༻·𖥸·༺
Across the moat, Vivi had woken bright and early (much to the chagrin of her sleepy roommates) and immediately gone about brushing the ash from her long hair and washing her face the best she could before dumping herself back on her bed and skimming through her textbooks. She wondered if she could steal them back to Good once she transferred; they were Evil books, after all. If not, she supposed she could make do with borrowing them and copying out the important bits by hand.
"Why's the princess up so early," Chloe grumbled, finally sitting up with mussed hair.
"Maybe it says something about your level of motivation," Vivi replied, not breaking away from her book. "That a Good student is more excited to go to Evil classes than you are."
She could feel Chloe glaring daggers at her from across the room.
Rooster stirred in his own filthy bed. "I think she's refreshing," he said, groggily. "Not every villain needs to look and smell bad."
"She's not a villain," Chloe and Duet groaned in unison.
Rooster rolled lazily out of bed and pulled on his smock, his one act of preparation before he bounced back onto his bed, cross-legged, and pulled out a piece of strangely-shaped crispy chicken. He held it out in offering to the two Nevers on the far side of the room, and when he found no takers, turned to Vivi, chicken outstretched.
She finally looked up. "Don't we have breakfast in ten?"
"No," he said, and leaned over to give it to her. "Villains don't get breakfast. They think it makes us reliant."
She uncertainly took the chicken, grease smearing on her fingers, and watched as he whipped out another piece, like some frumpy magician. She giggled despite herself. "Where does all the chicken come from?"
"Secret," he said, shooting her a grin, before taking a bite. She followed his example, taking a small nibble, and her eyes blew wide as the flavour hit her tongue.
"Oh . . . wow," she said, taking a proper bite. "Thish ish sho good!"
"Princesses don't talk with their mouths full," Chloe sneered from across the room, grabbing her uniform.
Vivi ignored her, stuffing the rest into her mouth. Damn, she was hungry. "There'sh nofing like thish in Tempo! Oh my god."
"Good, right?" Rooster agreed, and smiled as he watched her lick her fingers. He pulled another piece out, the size of a fist this time and shaped like a lumpy ball, and handed it to her. She broke into a fit of giddy giggles.
"Oh my god yesh," she said, stuffing as much as she could into her mouth. She could see Chloe gaping at her from her spot on her bed.
Duet leaned over. "Maybe she is a Never," they whispered, and Chloe gave them a shove.
So all in all, among Evil textbooks and a mouth-watering breakfast, Vivi had a pretty decent morning, and followed her roommates contented and with a full stomach to her first class.
She was so food-drunk she completely forgot to pull the teacher aside and ask about transferring before he was standing at the front of the class, dark hair messily slicked back, sideburns slipping into stubble, dressed in baggy clothes and a sad cloak, eyeing the students down with sharp emerald eyes.
"We can skip the introductions. My name's on your schedule," he snapped, leaning against the teacher's desk. "And I don't care about yours, so don't bother. Dunno why I even try anymore. Like after two hundred years you sorry lot are gonna be the future of Evil."
A couple of desks away, Chloe regarded him appreciatively. Meanwhile, Vivi stared at him from her own decrepit desk. He would have been vaguely attractive had his attitude not been so foul. His eyes were bloodshot and the space beneath them bruised. Do villains ever get any sleep? she wondered, and checked her schedule. Professor Skandar Mépris. Looks like a Skandar.
Their first lesson was a simple pox potion made up of mashed tadpoles. While her classmates bashed away eagerly at their metal bowls in front of rusted mirrors, Vivi's only solace was that she may be saving them from an uglier fate as she squashed them as quickly as possible, only to look around her and find students drinking the still-moving mush and sprouting angry red shingles. She gagged.
"I'm not an interactive teacher so you better listen if you don't wanna fail," the "professor" drawled from the front of the classroom. It was possible he couldn't look any less interested as he slumped against the desk. "Villains uglify because giving up your physical appearance means you can more easily focus on what's underneath. That's why so many of the Evergirls you meet are prissy lipstick-bearing airheads."
Vivi saw a couple of the students smirking. She frowned, and then noticed Mépris' eyes on her.
"Truth hurts, does it, sweetheart?" he sneered.
Meeting his gaze, Vivi steeled herself and lifted the bowl to her lips, drinking the foul stuff in one gulp. She clapped a hand over her mouth, nausea swimming, and then felt her skin blistering beneath her fingers. She set the bowl down and glared at him defiantly.
He looked vaguely impressed. Vivi immediately regretted it when she saw herself in the mirror, spotted all over. She gingerly poked one of the pimples. Will it wear off?
"If you're intelligent enough, you don't have to rely on what you look like. And intelligence will save you much faster than looks in the Woods," Mépris said at the front of the classroom, lazily flicking at a strand of hair fallen over his face. "If you're not finished by now, you're getting a rank to match." He raised his finger, tip glowing green. Vivi watched as smoky green ranks exploded over students' heads, some she recognised from the portraits in the anteroom—"1" over Chloe, "2" over Duet, "3" over oily, brown-skinned Ravan, "4" over blonde, pointy-eared Vex—and, to her surprise, a toxic-green "5" over her own head.
"Not bad," Mépris mused, looking right at her. "Maybe our little princess has a chance after all."
༻·𖥸·༺
As it turned out, Arthur did manage breakfast after all. Wandering up through Honour Tower he found his way to a wing of first-floor classrooms made completely out of candy, labelled Hansel's Haven by a golden plaque on the corridor wall. As he crept through, cracking open doors, he came upon a room of sparkled blue swizzles and rock sugar, glittering like a salt mine. There was a marshmallow room with white fudge chairs and gingerbread desks. There was even a room made of lollipops, blanketing the walls in rainbow colours. Back in Tempo, rooms like this would have been decimated in a day. Arthur was beginning to wonder just how they managed to stay intact when he saw an inscription of cherry gumdrops sweeping the corridor wall:
TEMPTATION IS THE PATH TO EVIL
Arthur ate the first half of it and kept going, stealing a caramel doorknob and a butterscotch welcome mat as well to complete his heavenly breakfast, leaving the hall behind him emblazoned PATH TO EVIL.
Still licking his fingers, Arthur heard chatter up the stairwell and climbed to the next floor to find the boys had returned from their own breakfast, slipping into classrooms in groups. Remembering the classes on his own schedule, Arthur scurried forward and spoke to a blonde-haired boy with blue eyes.
"Uh, excuse me, is this . . . Grooming with Pollux?" he asked nervously, and the boy gave him a friendly smile.
"Yeah, this is it. Forgot your schedule?"
Arthur flushed. "I was in a hurry this morning."
"That's all good," the student said, and stepped back so he could enter first. Arthur scooted inside and quickly found a desk, right at the back of the classroom, whose left wall was almost entirely taken up by sparkling glass panes, allowing for a generous view over the grounds and bathing the room in warm sunshine. The boy from the door found a seat at the ivory desk next to him, and Arthur shrunk into himself a little, nervous.
The boy fidgeted a little, head ducked, before he leaned a little closer. "What's your name?" he asked quietly.
Arthur quickly scanned the classroom. There were no other students near them yet. It was obvious the boy was talking to him.
". . . Arthur," he whispered back.
"Nice to meet you, Arthur," the student said, and smiled. "My name's Gene."
"That's a nice name," Arthur mumbled, eyes fixed on his desk. There was a thin stack of parchment and a quill and inkpot placed neatly in front of him, as with the rest of the desks.
Gene noticed his silence and leaned a little closer. "I get it. I didn't settle in so smooth either."
"What happened?" Arthur asked, more out of politeness than genuine interest.
"I was kicked out of my room," the student said, chuckling lightly. "I found it after the Welcoming and when I opened the door this guy with glasses and red and black hair told me there'd been a mistake, gave me my basket and shut the door on me."
Arthur was suddenly extremely interested. "Red and black—? What colour were his glasses?"
"Yellow."
"Sharp teeth?"
"Yeah." Gene grimaced. "You . . . know him?"
"He's my roommate," Arthur said quietly, eyeing the other students still milling around. "And you're Eugene?"
Gene gave him a surprised look, and Arthur explained. "I arrived early and found your basket on the bed. When I got back from the Welcoming the guy with glasses was there. He said there'd been a mistake and the nymphs moved your basket."
"No . . . it was definitely him," Gene said. "He sent me across the hall."
Arthur opened his mouth to speak again when a skinny goat carcass wobbled into the room, baring the head of the nicer dog from the Welcoming. Arthur forgot what he was going to say but his mouth remained open.
"Before any of you ask," the dog sniffed, teetering precariously on bony legs, "Castor has the body this week. I'd appreciate it if none of you mentioned the obvious."
The students still stared at him.
"It's not like I chose this body," Pollux snapped. "There's a shortage. Now I hope you all have a generous teacher next lesson because I'd fail you all for Chivalry in a second."
The boys closed their mouths and stopped staring.
"Now, a must-have for any self-respecting prince is facial grooming. Today we will start simple with clean-shaving and aftercare. The rest of the week we will move onto styling. Now will everyone please come to the front and pick up a hamper."
Arthur's eyes bulged when he sat down and opened his. It was full to the brim with shiny metal tools and tubes of creams and moisturisers. He leaned over to check Gene's basket, thinking there must have been a mistake, but it was exactly the same. Gene shot him a look, equally perplexed.
"Now, I'm sure some of you may be confused," Pollux said at the front of the classroom, trying and failing to sit his goat's body on the desk. "You may be used to using a simple cream-and-razor duo, or, heaven forbid, a razor alone. Not here! I will teach you how to use each and every product in your hampers, and by the time I'm finished with you, students, you will be irresistible. There's nothing like proper skincare to make one's face glow!"
The class passed by in a confusing blur. To Arthur's shock, Pollux waved a cloven hoof and all of the boys sprouted short, fuzzy beards, and then they were all instructed by Pollux how to properly shave and moisturise, but without a demonstration and through Pollux's mangled orders everyone ended up looking different. Gene ended up half clean shaven, perfectly cut down the middle with a fuzzy beard on the right. Arthur ended up shaved but nicked all over and dabbed with globules of cream.
At the end of class, Pollux stared from his wobbling goat's body at twenty shaving disasters, struggling to decide on ranks. Eventually he gave up and sighed, waving a hoof and restoring the boys' faces. "You're all equally as terrible so I'm just going to give you all a '15'."
Most of the boys groaned in disappointment, but Arthur sighed with relief, counting it a miracle he'd passed his first class without a "20". He just had to hold on for three more and then he could see Vivi. But how could he convince her to go home? She still wanted to cross to Good, but didn't Pollux say at the Welcoming that the schools needed to stay balanced—
Then he looked up to see Pollux bumbling hurriedly out of the room with a squawked "class dismissed!" and Arthur yelped, bolting up from his desk and after the mismatched dog.
By the time he weaved through the desks and stumbled out the door, the dog was already halfway down the hall. "Pollux!" he yelled, running after him, and the dog stopped and peered around.
"What?"
Arthur pulled up in front of him, hands on knees, panting. "You said—last night—at the Welcoming—schools—need to stay—balanced—"
"I know what I said," Pollux scoffed, turning to leave. "I told you all you needed to listen and now you're chasing me after class for rules? Tough luck!"
"No no no no Pollux please," he begged, following him. "I just need to know—the schools need to stay balanced. So it's not possible for one student to switch to a different school, is it? They'd need to swap places with someone."
Pollux stared at him as if he'd lost his head, which was ironic. "No one has ever switched schools and no one ever will. Didn't you listen? I made it very clear that souls are either Good or Evil and nothing can change that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a class to get to and so do you." He turned and bumbled away again, surprisingly quickly, mumbling about "ignorant students" and "think they know everything".
Arthur was left standing in the hall, torn. He didn't understand that Vivi was Good. She belonged here. But if someone found out, and she made it here, she'd never want to go home. He'd have to stick it out here as a student so even if someone did let Vivi switch, they wouldn't be able to find anyone to swap her with. And Vivi wouldn't want to stay in Evil forever. If she refused to go home at lunch, he just had to hold his place here, and after a few more days in Evil she'd beg to go back to Tempo.
Just find a way to last at this school. And then Vivi would get sick of it and come home with him.
Cautiously, his heart opened to hope.
He arrived at Chivalry in the Valour Commons five minutes later and dumped himself in a seat to see a flash of purple in his peripheral. He turned around and froze.
The purple-haired boy from the Welcoming—the one who had bewitched Vivi—was sitting at the desk right next to him. And he was staring right at him.
Arthur stood up so fast his chair fell over and he powered to the back of the room, sliding into a corner desk. He looked back at the mysterious student and found him turned in his seat, still staring. The stranger straightened and whipped back around.
As boys settled down around them, Arthur examined the stranger from across the room; his tan skin, rippling muscles beneath his shirt, his plush lips, and his soulful eyes. Hope died. There was no way he could win Vivi over when this guy was still in the picture.
A bestubbled man with pale cyan hair glided into the room and went straight to stand beside the teacher's desk at the front, turning to face the class. His alert eyes scanned the room and he cleared his throat.
"Welcome, new students, to Chivalry. You may call me Professor Corvus. Now, a show of hands; how many of you have heard of the Princely Code?"
The second class went much the same as the first, leaving Arthur dubious and confused at the quiz sheets foisted at the students. He didn't need the rusted "20" hovering over his head at the end of the lesson to tell him he was hopeless.
He glared from his seat at the handsome stranger from the Welcoming, a golden "1" shining over his head. He scoffed audibly. And of course he's a goody-two-shoes.
The stranger turned at Arthur's scoff and he flushed, immediately standing, screwing his paper up and tossing it in the bin on his way out. As soon as he was far enough down the corridor, he stopped and took a breath to steady himself. Two classes down, two to go. Swordplay was next, then History of Heroism. Surely they couldn't be that bad, he thought. Surely.
He thought wrong.
༻·𖥸·༺
Henchmen Training took place on the Belfry, an open-air cloister on Malice tower, accessible only by a thirty-flight staircase so narrow all the students were squeezed into single file. Climbing the stairs, surrounded by 19 other sweating, heaving students, Vivi suddenly felt grateful for her many trips up and down the slope to Arthur's house back in Tempo and how they had built up her fitness.
"So . . . nauseous . . . ," Rooster wheezed behind her.
"Wondered if that chicken had any side effects," came Duet's voice, further down.
Craning up, Vivi could see the top, and shoved her way forward until they broke out onto the Belfry, and she sighed with relief.
"'COURSE I GET THE READER IN MY GROUP."
She whipped her head up to meet Castor's frowning gaze, head off-centre on his massive dog's body, a space where Pollux's head should have been. Castor caught her staring and growled. "Pollux is taking classes in Good."
Vivi opened her mouth to pry when someone burst out into cackles. She turned to see a red-skinned, horned dwarf in the corner, pointing at the villains emerging behind her and chortling. "Ugly witches!"
Castor wasn't as amused. "You're all revolting enough as is," he said, and sent the dwarf, "Beezle", to fetch honeysuckle which cured the pox. Villains around her groaned in disappointment, but Vivi sighed in relief.
"Now, whether you win or lose your battles depends on the competence and loyalty of your henchmen!" Castor said. "Of course some of you will end up henchmen yourselves, with your own lives depending on the strength of your Leader. Better pay attention then, if you want to stay alive!"
Vivi wondered what Arthur was doing over in Good. Practicing ballroom dancing, probably. She snickered fondly. He probably hated it.
"And now for your first challenge. How to train . . ." Castor stepped aside. "A Golden Goose."
Vivi's eyes sparkled as they settled on a graceful, long-necked bird, feathers lined with gold.
"But Golden Geese hate villains," Duet frowned.
"Which means if you can train one, then taming a mountain troll will be easy," Castor said.
The Goose opened pearly blue eyes, examined the students before it, and smiled.
"Why is it smiling?" Rooster said.
"Because it knows we're wasting our time," Chloe huffed. "Golden Geese only listen to Evers."
"Excuses, excuses," Castor yawned. "Your job is to make that pathetic creature lay one of its prized eggs. The bigger the egg, the higher your rank."
Vivi began to buzz. If Golden Geese only listened to Evers, then she had this in the bag! All she had to do was convince the bird to lay the biggest egg, and she'd be back to Good in no time!
Castor turned to the Belfry wall and, with a claw, began carving the five strategies for training henchmen:
1. COMMAND
2. TAUNT
3. TRICK
4. BRIBE
5. BULLY
"Now don't go bullying the blasted bird unless you've gone through the other four," he warned. "Ain't nothin' stopping a henchman from bullying back."
Vivi made sure she was last in line to think over her strategies and watched the first five kids have zero luck in taunting and yelling at the bird. She rolled her eyes. No wonder.
She watched as pointy-eared Vex stepped up, expecting another failure, until he grabbed the Golden Goose's throat and in a flash it whipped free and yanked his tunic over his head. Vex flailed around, banging into walls, before he tripped over a low wall and toppled over the edge. Vivi gasped—and then Castor threw his paw out, grabbed the boy by the ankle and yanked him back onto the platform. The Golden Goose was delighted. It flapped its wings and sniggered and squawked so raucously that it lost control and excreted a golden egg the size of a coin.
Vex scrambled forward and held it up in stunned triumph. "I won!"
"Right, because in the heat of battle, you'll have time to run around naked and make your Goose crap," Castor snarled.
Still, the dog had said whoever made the biggest egg won, so the other Nevers mimicked Vex's tactic. Rooster made faces, Ravan made shadow puppets, Mona tickled it with a feather, and bald, doughy Brone sat on Beezle, much to the bird's delight. ("Smelly witch!" the dwarf howled.)
Chloe frowned at all this from a corner. When her turn came, she walked up silently and punched the Golden Goose in the stomach, and it dropped an egg the size of a fist. Chloe took it without saying a word and walked back to her corner.
Next up was Duet. They strode up to the Goose and did the same, but Vivi noticed their swing, though firm, was lighter, and sure enough, the Goose dropped a smaller egg. Vivi frowned. Duet was built heavier than Chloe; they could have gotten a bigger egg if they wanted to.
But then it was Vivi's turn, and all thoughts of the pair left her mind as she stepped up to the elegant creature. It seemed exhausted from laughing and laying, but when the Golden Goose met Vivi's gaze, it stopped blinking and sat still as marble, seemingly examining her. For a moment, Vivi felt an eerie chill float through her body, as if she'd let something that didn't belong into her soul. But then she looked into the bird's warm, wise eyes and felt her chest swell with hope. Surely, it could help her. Surely, it saw she was different from the others.
Yes, you certainly are different.
Vivi backpedalled in shock. She glanced around to see if anyone else had reacted, but her classmates just glowered impatiently, willing her to finish so they could get their ranks. One even booed.
Shaking her head, Vivi turned back to the Goose and leaned closer. You . . . can hear my thoughts?
They're quite loud, replied the Goose.
What about them? she asked, eyes flicking pointedly to the villains standing around her.
No. Just you.
Because I don't belong here? Vivi smiled. Because I'm Good?
I can give you what you want, said the Goose. I can make them see you're a princess. One perfect egg and they'll put you in your school.
Vivi gasped, covering her mouth with tentative fingers. Yes! Please! I'll do whatever you want if you can help me!
The bird smiled. Close your eyes and make a wish.
Flooding with relief, Vivi closed her eyes. Beaming with hope, she wished for her school, she wished for Good, and maybe she even wished for that beautiful boy from the Welcoming. . . .
Suddenly, she washed cold with realisation, Pollux's words from the Welcoming echoing around her head. "All of you are chosen to protect the balance between Good and Evil. For once that balance is compromised . . . our world will perish."
There were 120 students in each school in order to keep that balance. If she transferred to Good, another student would have to be sent back to Evil in her place. She remembered the dozens of kind and beautiful faces on the opposite side of the Theatre, each as pure and devoted to Good as the other . . . until Arthur's face flashed into her mind, and she scrunched her nose in determination. It doesn't matter what I have to do to get there. This has been my dream for as long as I can remember. Her face darkened. And no one is going to take it away from me.
Gasps flew around her. Vivi opened her eyes just in time to see the Goose's gold feathers finish turning grey. Its eyes darkened from blue to hollow black. Its warm smile went dead, its face expressionless and empty.
And there was definitely no egg.
"What happened?!" Vivi cried, whipping around in desperation. "What's that mean?"
Castor looked petrified. "It means she'd rather give up her power than help you."
A "1" exploded in red flames over Vivi's head like a diabolical crown.
"It's the most evil thing I've seen," Castor said softly.
Stunned, heart pounding in her chest, Vivi watched her classmates shrink back, huddling like scared minnows—until her eyes found Chloe, standing in place, green eyes flashing in fury, as if amongst these useless Nevers, she'd found a real threat. Behind her, Beezle huddled shivering in a dark corner.
"Grand Witch!" he squeaked.
"No no no!" Vivi cried, horrified. "There's been a mistake! I'm not a witch!"
But Beezle nodded with certainty, eyes wide with fear. "Grand High Witch Ultimate!"
Vivi whipped back to the Goose in desperation. What did I do?!
But the Goose, eyes empty and feathers grey as the fog that hung over the bay, looked at her as if it had never seen her in its life and let out the most ordinary of squawks.
༻·𖥸·༺
The squawk echoed across the moat and into the high window of the silver tower that split the two sides of the bay. A crooked shadow approached the ledge in response, green eyes glinting from behind a silver mask, and watched as smoky ranks floated towards them from the two schools—bright from Good, dark and gloomy from Evil.
When the ranks reached the window, the figure lifted their hand, trailing their fingers through the smoke, which gave them the power to see who won each rank and why. They sifted through numbers until they found the one they sought—a flaming red "1", and dipped their fingers in, events replaying in their mind.
A Golden Goose giving up its powers . . . for a student? Only one could be so powerful. Only one could be so pure.
The one who would tip the balance.
With an anticipating chill, the figure retreated into their chamber, waiting for her arrival.
༻·𖥸·༺
Curses & Death Traps took place in a bone-numbing chamber, with the walls, floors, desks and chairs all made of carved ice. As she blew clouds of mist with her breath, Vivi thought she could see bodies entombed far below in the ice.
"Ittt'ss ffrrreeez-zinngg in heerree," Rooster chattered from the desk beside her, arms wrapped around himself.
"It's warmer in the Doom Room," Professor Eliades replied, sounding utterly disinterested.
Screams echoed from the torture chamber below.
"Acct-tuuallyy, yyou kn-knooww wwhatt itt'ss nnott that b-badd," Rooster gritted, lips blue.
"Thought not," their red-gowned teacher replied, ruby eyes drifting over her students, and, landing on Vivi, she suddenly straightened. "Is this the Reader topping our challenges?"
Vivi remained silent, trying to hide her shivers.
"Mmm," the professor mulled, examining her. "Maybe it is time for a change." Tucking a strand of bloodred hair behind her ear, she started forward, prowling through the rows of students. "Now, I feel obliged to tell you that I will not be giving you any challenges until you prove yourselves worthy. Unlike your other teachers, I don't enjoy watching my students flounder and fail, because ineptitude in your students tells you something about their teacher, doesn't it?"
Vivi tensed as the teacher strode past her, heels clacking sharply on ice. Another scream echoed from the Doom Room and, feeling the students hold their breath, their teacher stopped and turned. "This is not a school for unwarranted cruelty. Hurt without purpose, and you're not a villain, but a beast. Impulsivity will not help you win your fairytale. You need to be cold and calculated if you want to kill your Nemesis."
She started forward again, gliding between desks, away from Vivi. She let out a relieved breath. "Only remarkable villains have Nemeses," Eliades continued, "and here, I will teach you how to find them, if you have one. Your Nemesis will make your heart cold and your blood boil. They will plague your dreams until you gnash your teeth and tear your hair out. Only once your Nemesis is dead will you find peace, and only then will you be granted access to Nevermore. Because we are cursed to suffer."
She slammed her hand down on Ravan's desk, making him jump, and then dragged her nails across it, eliciting an ear-splitting screech. "We are damned to insanity until our Nemesis, the one that stands in the way of our paths and our goals, is gone. Which is why we need to win." Her eyes flashed, her lip twitched. "The real world as we see it isn't about fairness and love and happy endings. The real world is about pain and suffering and war. We villains drew the short straw and so we must kill for our freedom, for our peace. It is not enough to exist. We need to survive."
Vivi slowly looked up at her teacher, staring right at her, as if she could see something Vivi couldn't. Eliades slowly straightened, and, with narrowed eyes, surveyed her class. "And survive we will."
Terrified to her core, Vivi fled the chamber as soon as the wolf howls signalled end of class. Without any idea of where she was going, she shot down the hall, bolted up a flight of stairs and when she found herself on a quiet, open-air balcony, she let herself lean against the wall, sink to the floor and tremble. She was stuck in a school of soon-to-be murderers and her chances of escape were dwindling rapidly.
Heaving for breath, she raised her head to see the spires of Good shining in sunlight across the bay, and remembered something. Lunch.
There, she would be safe among her Good classmates. There, she could find a teacher who could help her. Surely they couldn't leave her here.
Holding onto hope, she pushed herself to her feet, wiped her eyes, took a steadying breath and stepped back into the castle. Just make it to lunch, she thought, descending the staircase to the main level. One more class and then this nightmare will be over.
When she finally made it through twisting corridors to Evil Hall, however, she found her History of Villainy class crowded outside. Rooster saw her and grabbed her arm. "They cancelled classes!"
"Why?" Vivi asked, alarmed.
"Lunch will be sent to your rooms!" a tall, white wolf boomed from the doors. Fellow wolves cracked whips and herded students to their towers.
Vivi deflated. "What? What happe—"
Smoke curled into her nose and she turned, drawn to the open window at the end of the corridor. Looking out, she gasped. Villains crowded behind her.
Across the bay, a Good tower was on fire.
"Oh my god," Vivi breathed in horror.
"Oh no!" Rooster gasped beside her.
"Brilliant," Chloe breathed from behind, full of adoration.
"Who would do such a thing?" Vivi cried, wheeling around. She flung an accusatory finger at Chloe. "Was it you?!"
Chloe raised her hands. "I wish."
"Then who did?"
None of the villains had an answer for her.
If only Lunch hadn't been cancelled, Arthur could have filled her in on the details.
Skandar is a BASTARD
P.S. I loved Agatha eating all of Hansel's Haven so I couldn't NOT put that in~
P.P.S. Pollux is an icon and literally never cares about the rules so leave him be.
All direct similarities between this AU and the original books, including excerpts and characters, have been included as artistic choice.