Someone who didn’t know Eidil very well—or even at all, just the tiniest bit—would know that Eidil loved bats just by walking into her room. The door into her room was covered in paintings of bats made by her mother when she’d been a child. Her bedspread was made of one of those calico fabrics you could only get around Haunted Hallows—it depicted a damask pattern with bats. Her headboard was carevd with a bat, and the posters on her walls depicted the many species of bats that lived throughout Below, and even a couple from Above. The lampshade at her desk was covered in bat stickers, and slung on the back of her desk chair was a sweater covered with bats. She kept her fancy clothing and her costumes inside a wardrobe carved with bats; inside were dresses decorated with bats and even a pair of bat-winged high heeled ankle boots. The jewelry that hung on the door of the wardrobe opposite a mirror included bat earrings and bat necklaces. Hanging from the ceiling were her pet Nezubats, all twelve of them, sleeping off whatever shenanigans they had gotten into last night. She had a pet Dustie, too. He would hop across the floor from time to time from his perch atop her wardrobe. He had a bat symbol on his cheek. He didn’t act much like Eidil, even if he’d absorbed energy from her, but Shuriken had absorbed something from her along with her magic: he’d absorbed her love of bats.Eidil was listening to a podcast (do you really need to know what the subject was? …Okay, it was habitat conservation in Auster. Bats live there) as she browsed the internet. The podcast was briefly interrupted by her mother walking into the room with what smelled like a delicious cup of tea. Eidil paused the podcast and looked up at her mother with a smile. “Thanks for the tea, Mom. It smells delicious.” Ah, cranberry tea, with just a hint of vanilla. Delicious! She took a sip, leaning away from her computer so that moisture didn’t drip onto it.
“You’re welcome,” Mom said. She was looking at Eidil’s screen. “Umm, why are you looking up housing prices in Maiden’s Wreath?”
Eidil looked up from her tea and glanced at the computer screen. “Oh, that!” she said. “Well, Cal and I are graduating in the spring, right?”
Mom quirked an eyebrow. “How can this be?” she said. “You’re too young, freshlings can’t graduate from Academy!”
“Mom!” Eidil laughed. “I’m not a freshling, I’m a senior!”
“Oh, goodness, you’re right.” Mom smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “I just keep losing track of these things—it’s your fault, y’know, you’re growing up too fast.”
Eidil snorted. “If you say so, Mom. Anyway, I sent out my application to Leviathan this morning—”
Mom nodded. “Like I told you to do yesterday?”
Eidil ignored that. “They’re almost guaranteed to accept me. I’ve got good grades, I wrote an awesome essay—that sort of thing. This time next year I’ll be studying zoology at the top school for the sciences in Below. Maybe even in both worlds—I haven’t heard much about Above’s universities.” It seemed like every Daydream at the Academy didn’t want to go to a college in Above—they all wanted to stay in Below. That was their choice, of course, and Eidil felt like it validated her perspective. “I’m excited about going to Leviathan—I’ve wanted to go there my whole life. Biology, well, zoology anyway—”
“Is your lifelong passion,” Mom finished. “Besides bats.”
Eidil giggled. “Well, yeah, duh. But a girl with a zoology degree can study bats to her heart’s delight and no one will think her weird. Anyway. Cal and I don’t want to live on campus, though. We want to live off-campus in an apartment, so I’m looking up the prices of a month’s rent in Maiden’s Wreath.”
Mom nodded. “That’s very sensible of you, Eidil.”
“It would be, if it wasn’t Cal’s idea. After that, I’ll be looking up jobs—we want to pay the rent and utilities, after all.”
“Was that also Cal’s idea?”
Eidil shrugged. “It was more like both our ideas at the same time.”
“Well,” Mom said, “that’s very responsible of both of you, Eidil.” Mom smiled. “I’m so proud of you, Eidil. I’m going to miss you next year—so much. But—” Mom hesitated. “I think…no, I know you’ll do well there.” Mom leaned forward and kissed Eidil on the forehead. “You go get ‘em, Eidil.”
“I will, Mom,” Eidil said, returning the kiss. “You can count on it.”
