Page 13 of Malcroix Bones Academy

I made up my mind to just do this, whatever it meant.

I passed through the doorway, walking fast now…

…and staggered.

My knees buckled.The floor tiles swam upwards as I struggled to focus my eyes.

I managed to stop myself before I would’ve hit the floor.

Barely.

My hand caught hold of the nearest wall. I tensed my legs, forced my knees and muscles to clench, then to straighten and lock. My free hand stretched out, looking for balance, for something more to hold onto. There was nothing, as I was already inside the door, so I stood as still as I could, swaying, breathing hard, and fighting to stay conscious, because suddenly that was an issue, too.

Meanwhile, my vision had blanked out.

Something swirled around me, tangible as water, or a hot wind.

It grew stronger, more physical.

Soon it felt more like fingers and hammers, claws and pliers.

It grabbed me invisibly by the head, and seemed to be tugging and breaking something that weighed down my entire neck and spine. A helmet? Some kind of cage? Whatever it was, I’d had no idea it existed until I watched it being dismantled. The structure cracked under the strain, bending and breaking from the onslaught from above.

Then, swiftly, it began to break apart. My skull throbbed and ached as it crumbled and fell, but my whole head and body also felt increasingly lighter… and lighter.

And lighter.

I soon felt so light, I felt off-balance.

The ground felt unsafe.

It felt like if I took a step, I might fly up and hit the ceiling.

All of that happened in maybe three seconds. I stood there, gasping, as a feeling of fizzy liquid poured over me?a vibrating, buzzing, shocking,alivefeeling that enveloped me from head to toe, made my ears ring.

Then someone close to me cleared their throat.

Breathing hard, still half-crouched, one hand pressed against the wall, the other out from my body, I raised my eyes. Two people sat there, behind a table covered in purple cloth that stood just inside the door. A tall, beehive-like hairdo rose up from the head of one, dyed a paler shade of purple than the tablecloth. She stared at me through cat-shaped glasses covered in pink rhinestones.

“Name?” the woman inquired.

Her voice sounded bored, strangely bureaucratic.

“L-Leda,” I stammered.

“Fullname?” the man sitting next to the woman enunciated in a nasally voice. He held a dark quill in one hand, and leaned over a piece of paper.

“Leda Rose Shadow,” I recited.

I knew I should let go of the wall, lower my arms and hands. I probably looked crazy standing there, but I waited until the man finished writing before I slowly straightened the rest of the way up, and cautiously lowered both arms.

Like the others I’d seen, the man and woman wore suits and shirts that looked like overly-colorful versions of dated business and formal-wear, with elements thrown in that didn’t match or correspond to any time period I could identify.

The man had a bright blue handkerchief in his pocket, and a monocle in one eye with a blue-tinted lens. His hair was waved in that perfect way I associated with old movies, and looked to be filled with some thick, greasy product.

Both wore double-breasted jackets with large buttons and embroidered edges.

Neither their clothes, the quills, nor their odd hairstyles were what made me stare the most, however. Each of them had strange creatures hanging around them, seemingly made of light. Neither reacted to the creature of the other, nor seemed to pay much mind to the creature that hung around their own person.