I scoop another bite of the mush and swallow it in one lump, trying to avoid really tasting it. The room is packed with people snaking in line to get their food from a buffet-style setup where a lady with pink coiled hair scoops one lump after the other.

The way the line works around the room means every person has to pass by my corner and linger a second before stepping forward to get their tray. Was that intentional? Am I on display? I shove a few leaves in my mouth, and eyes stick to me like sweat. The cafeteria is so silent, I can hear ole dude a few tables away chewing. I don’t know if it’s my presence making it this quiet or this is just how they normally eat.

Everyone has the same scar over where their onyx should have gone. Several older ones look forlorn.

“Children… you need to… agh… get over here,” a man with high-waters and full cheeks shouts. He skirts around my table, chasing kids, and cuts the corner a little too close, bumping into it. My watery mash spills onto my lap.

“Oh, sorry! I didn’t see you there,” he says to me, but his gaze is glued to my arms. “M-my apologies.” He breaks his hypnotic stare in time to grab the collar of a kid darting by. “I should be going, then. Willa, good to see you and, erhm, you too, Maim.”

I shove the tray aside. My stomach isn’t churning anymore so that’s good enough. Willa tosses me a towel and there’s a basin of used trays across the room. I clean myself off and head over. Willa rises from the table too, like my shadow.

“I really can walk over there by myself.”

She nods but doesn’t sit. Something tells me she’ll be following me regardless of what I say. Across the room there are whispers as I pass. So maybe it is me causing so much silence. I hop in line and someone taps my shoulder.

“Hi, there,” he says. “You must not be from around here.” He smiles like his teeth are too big for his mouth. His bushy eyebrows, brown unlike his turquoise hair, slant upward, and his expression is kind. “Joshi.” He sticks out a hand and I eye it.

“Rue.”

“You here to see the witch or something? We don’t really get many magic types here.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Witch? Taavi said they didn’t have—how did she word it?—traditional magic here…. I shuffle on my feet. I took this lady at her word. She’s hiding shit? I catch Willa eyeing me from afar. I wonder if I can squeeze some truth out of her.

“You said a witch?”