The Serpent House is the third on our lane, and the first half-decent one. It’s, in a way, the house of aspiration. Some of the members aren’t all that rich, or influential, or with the right last name. But they have the skills and willingness to become someone one day. Wannabe lawyers, business owners, even some of my fellow med students are in that house. But it’s a hungry vibe, meant for go-getters who don’t truly have anything yet.

Then, there’s the Web. In a perfect twist of universal sarcasm, it’s the IT guys, tech geniuses, math freaks, and all that. They’re intelligent enough, I suppose, but I understand about one word out of ten from them; their skills are definitely not social.

The last two houses could have been one, if there wasn’t a risk of us killing each other in our sleep. The wyverns and the vespers.

Those houses are not all that different from the serpents—meant for those willing to rise above all—except, we aren’t aspiring. We have it. The name, the money, the fame. I’d say the main difference between the wyverns and the vespers is that the wyverns are direct, all for a show of force, punching their way through life to get their way—metaphorically speaking, of course. They have people they pay for the actual punches. We vespers are less obvious. Yes, we’ll get our way, and yes, someone might get threatened, or perhaps disappear, but no one would ever suspect us. We’d lead the charge on the search for the body, and cry into our monogram handkerchief at the funeral. Unsurprisingly, almost all our alumni go into politics.

I truly could have been a wyvern. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty if there’s a need. The thing is, I joined Rothford the same year as Markus Goltz, my cousin, and we genuinely would have murdered each other. Aware of that, the legacy council sat us down our freshman year and asked how we’d dispose of each other’s body. I guess my answer earned me a place in the tower. Besides, my other cousin, Sebastian, was a vesper, and likely wouldn’t have survived years under the same roof as Markus.

I’m not complaining about the outcome.