The directions to their new accommodations led them away from the main administrative building— and indeed, away from the main part of the campus as a whole, further up and east until they reached a nice little area beside the river. The rest of the university still towered above them in the distance, casting shadows over silver-bright water in its far-off majesty, but the housing development was… quaint, almost. Channels had been carved out of the river and run through the development, lush greenery tastefully overgrowing their beds— vines climbing walls, flowers blossoming, a sweet fragrance on the breeze. The shadows beneath slanted eaves were dark and deep, and peaceful. The place had an almost palpable aura of calm.

Unit 13a. Lily paused on the little gate that led over the stream to their new home, taking in the sight of it. Two stories, wrought of delicate woodwork and painted a rich vermillion… a low wall cut off each property, but even that was a tastefully constructed thing. “I can’t believe this is ours.” Avyr just nodded in agreement, pushing the open the gate and slipping inside.

Lily followed, gaze flicking over all the various flower-bushes and paved patios, and little artifacts of construction as Avyr fished the keys out of a pouch and unlocked the door. A few seconds passed as he fiddled with them, but he was remarkably adroit with the tiny little things.

The door creaked open quietly, and… “it's empty.”

“Houses usually are, when you get them for the first time.”

“I expected…” she just rolled her eyes and trailed off, resisting the urge to bite back at the cat as she shoved her suitcases into some random corner. That’d go nowhere, and still, they still had to actually figure out everything needed to get ready for the upcoming semester.

As it turned out, after a few minutes of poking through the various rooms in the house, it wasn’t actually empty, just… mostly empty. There was a sofa, a long dining table, and a few chairs left scattered around, and a pair of beds in different rooms. The second patio— out the back of the building— had its own wrought-iron table, and Lily had to admit that the view of the river from there was particularly stunning. The way the subtle green made itself apparent beneath the silver blue of sky reflected, waves shifting here and fro and lapping, and ebbing, splashing with a soft sound against the stone-reinforced banks below and the ships sailing in the far distance.

She sighed, collapsing in one of the chairs and allowing herself to feel the creeping exhaustion that had slunk up on her over the course of the day. From the orphanage and now to here… “it's nice, isn’t it?” A good feeling, to be rewarded for good work. Avyr settled beside her, his presence a quiet comfort… for a moment, at least. “Alright, that’s enough slacking. We still have to discuss our classes.”

“And figure out what we’re going to do with this place. And how living together will look like, I guess.”

“I know how you live. I’ve visited you enough times.”

“Kind of,” murmured the big cat. “There are a fair few things you never really interacted with. I prepare my food differently, for one. I have the feeling that were I to eat anything from the cafeteria, it’d as likely poison me as it would fill me. I arranged my place carefully so that I could… I don’t know how exactly to describe it. So I could do everything I needed. Did you ever notice my teacups?”

“What about them?”

“All of them were big enough for me to handle easily, and none of them had a particularly small handle. That sort of minor convenience.”

Lily nodded, understanding. “Of course. I’ll run everything by you before I get it. And I’ll learn how to cook for you too.”

“You don’t need to.”

“I might as well, though, if we’re going to be living together.” That was a weird feeling. It wasn’t like she’d never lived together with someone before— everyone in the orphanage lived together all the time, obviously, but living with her best friend… it was more personal by far. “It’ll be pretty easy, won’t it? All I’ve gotta do is put a slab of meat in front of you.”

Avyr gave her an unimpressed look. “You know it’s not that simple.” She just laughed. “I’ll show you some recipes later. Depending on what we’re allowed to do with the courtyard, I might even be able to show you some recipes from…” his voice trailed off; the sentence didn’t need to be finished.

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Gently, she laced her fingers through the fur on his shoulder, offering what meager reassurance she could. He never talked about his past all that much, and she reckoned the interrogation at the administrative hub had gotten to him a lot more than he revealed. “That sounds fun,” she whispered. “I look forward to that.”

Avyr was silent for a long while. “Also I shed.”

Lily laughed at the sudden incongruity of it all, laughing and wheezing until she was bent over double in her chair from the sheer mirth of the moment. “Who leads a conversation like that?”

“What? We were talking about the unique challenges of living in a human-designed residence as a cat, and it’s a real thing! I’m not dropping hair everywhere I go, but I do shed. You do too— don’t think I haven’t found your stupidly long human hairs on my floor when I clean. I just have more hair, which… it can present a unique challenge. “ He shook his head, huffing out a soft laugh. “I had to spend way too much on drain cleaner.”

“Seriously?”

“And shampoo, too.” He pouted. “Shampoo is way too expensive for how much you need to get properly clean.”

Lily giggled again, barely stopping herself from once more doubling over with laughter. “I’m just, just—” a laugh escaped her, burbled out of her, left her— gasping for air as she tried in vain to calm down— “in the show, looking like a soppy kitten covered in suds. Heavens. Not that I’d ever peek but— heavens.”

“We cats don’t have the same cultural inhibitions towards bathing and nudity as you humans tend to.”

“Still, it’d be weird to see you in the shower.”

Avyr inclined his head in acknowledgement, giving her the point. “That’s true enough.” The two of them didn’t even last a second before they both burst out into laughter again— bright peals, human, the mewling chirp of a cat, together. Still, despite it all— for it all. “Classes, classes, before anything else,” Avyr managed to force out after a long moment. “I’ll start working on furnishing the house tomorrow, but for now— classes. What’s the mandatory list?”

Lily rummaged around in her bag for a moment, pulling out the booklet and flipping it open. “We need to do at least… Contemporaneous Cultivator Politics, Post-Imperial Sect Ideology, History of the Sixty Eight Generations of the Bloody Saffron Sect—” so, a pretentious history course— “an Advanced Mathematics, a Organic Chemistry, an Advanced Physics, an Advanced Qi Theory, and no less than three electives.” She paused, rereading over the list of mandatory classes. “Is it just me or… is this kinda a lot?”

Avyr cocked his head. “Is that just for this semester?” Lily nodded. “You’re right. That is a lot. I’m sure we’ll be able to keep up with it, but…” the University of East Saffron wasn’t pulling any punches when it came to just how much work they were piling up on top of their students. She supposed it made sense, if they were trying to select the absolute best students… though, there was a curious lack of required combat class. She flipped through the book before she found it— “here. Highly recommended— at least one of Tactical Combat, Introductory Cultivator conflict, or The Arts of Blood. Combat classes.”

“You would do best with tactical combat, I think.” Lily instinctually disagreed— she was not the tactical sort of person, far more prone to just hitting a problem over and over again until it went away… “with your formations,” Avyr clarified, and on second thought, Lily understood that. Besides, what was the point of taking a class if not learning? This was merely the first step on a long path into cultivation— she dared not falter now.

“Of course, I’ll be taking their formations class. And you’ll be taking their herbology class?”

“Herbology and Alchemy, which should suffice for my electives.”

“Great.” now she just needed to figure out what she needed for her last elective… “what do you think about this one? Introductory Aura Studies.”

“Sounds interesting.” It was a reminder, again, that she’d be a cultivator soon. In only a few days… she shivered in excitement. “Let’s fill out the paperwork, and then get some rest while we still can.” Right. They’d have to go back to the administrative hub to submit the class selections…

She sighed. That was going to be an utter pain…

Yet, sitting in front of the river, watching the waves lap at the setting sun, over East Saffron so scarlet a bloody light… together with Avyr— she could not have been more ready.