LUMM 1: Die a Horrid Death, Arlo Crowhaven

7 | guns & kittens

The door rocked under the force of my yank when I entered. The glass panes were loose, and one wrong move, they could splatter all over someone. Not that I cared. While prestigious, Lyllan University failed in keeping up with the times in the smallest ways.

Ethan told me nothing but good things about Alexi Jansen. He was a direct Conservation Credence, so it was natural for him to hang out in the glass house...well, conserving plants. There would be some joint lectures that direct Herbology Credence students were required to take, but with the discipline being only my minor, I wouldn't think twice about crossing paths with a junior with his name.

Upon asking around, all they could tell me was that Alexi was a model student—punctual, elegant, excellent, and responsible. In short, he was perfect. Basically a Hylsa higher than the current Lochrame. He was Lyllan University's representative in the Conservation Exchange Summit that was attended by every institution in the consortium for his monograph about dillybears or something as ridiculous. He had been the undefeatable first rank in his batch since he was a new slate. He knew everyone by name, even those he hadn't talked to. Even the new slates in the Humanities Cluster heard about him and had only good things to say. Alexi Jansen was everybody's friend, which made him no one's.

The glasshouse—a fancy term the juniors called the plant garden—stood behind the Conservatory of Music. A little closer, and they would have traded names. What separated the former from the latter were the apparent lack of opaque walls and the endless rows of upturned nurseries, hanging pots, irrigation mechanisms, weeding and gardening implements, and indoor sprinkler systems. All shades of green existed in splotches and swatches, muddling into a lazy mural in my periphery as I passed. Some of these plants I recognized, but most of their names sat at the farthest reach of my mind. These were the things Herbology and Conservation majors have to deal with? I'd ace those Credences for sure.

While the air outside was closer to the scratchy spring feeling, the glasshouse boasted a cooler atmosphere, as if the winter chill decided to spend the holidays here. The mix of exotic flower scents, processed compost, and tilled mulch made up for an unsettling but welcome condition. It was easy to get used to.

A series of loud mewls ripped from the folds of vegetation at the very end of the glasshouse. The nook was overshadowed by racks of potted shrubs and flowering, dwarf trees, but from the spaces between objects, I spotted a dark blue coat with golden epaulets shifting on the ground. A gentle, almost feminine voice laced around the ringing yowls. "I know, Rosie. Yes, I am hungry too, but we have to wait until lunch time, or you'll overload again."

I rounded the tree, noting the gnarly surface of the dark maroon trunk. A junior had one knee to the ground in front of a gray tabby kitten with strikingly blue eyes like a knight in its service. Dark hair sat on his head, tousled to the right degree. The kitten wailed again, begging for food, but the boy shook his head.

"Alexi Jansen?" I interjected, shattering whatever illusion existed between boy and cat.

The boy turned, sending the kitten scampering into the line of axallora shrubs. When he stood up, an entire litter of wildly-colored kittens scattered from his feet. "That's me," he said, giving me a warm smile. I had to fight my eyes to keep them from squinting and my face from showing my suspicion. This sod...he couldn't be this sunny. Not always. Or not at all. "Anything I can help you with?"