I smile to myself. I've already come to understand that Typhon is uptight and a little grumpy at the best of times. But he knows he's going to have to take one of his lesser forms soon, and he is clearly upset about it. He wants to spread his wings and maybe 'roast a student or two' to assert our dominance. I told him that wasn't going to happen.

"Now," Voss says, "as is custom, newly tethered first-years will approach the selectors and present your elementals for categorization. You will be required to share your elemental's name and age. And…" Voss hesitates, smiling slightly. "In the highly unlikely case any of you have bonded an elemental old enough, you will present any other forms it's capable of assuming."

A few older students chuckle, as if the suggestion is ridiculous.

"So we need to lie about your age. Do we need to make up a name for you, too?" My throat tightens at the thought of revealing even a fraction of what Typhon truly is.

"The indignity doesn't cease…" His mental voice reverberates with disdain.

"Please, Typhon. Raith was right. If we come out and show how powerful you are, I'll probably be dead by the end of the week. I don't care if the Rector is trying to say we're safer now than we were before. I'll believe it when I see it." I remember Malakai's cold eyes watching me, calculating.

"They would have to get through me first, angry human."

"And I'd still rather avoid that. So can we please just be discreet, even if it's apparently against your nature?"

"You may claim my name is… Typhonus."

I blink, then slowly drag my eyes to where he's sitting straight-backed and proud in front of the students.

"Typhonus? So subtlety and deception aren't in your nature either, are they? What other forms can you take? Maybe I can try to think of a name that seems like it fits your shape."

"I can take many forms, angry human. My earliest was a type of flying fish known as a kuratokken. They are native to⁠—"

"Flying fish. Good. That sounds really unimpressive. We'll call you Pondus. Flying fish. Aged… thirty? Is that too young?"

Typhon turns his dragon-like head toward me in outrage as the first students begin approaching and presenting their elementals to the selectors.