“Slytherin!” William shouted in a booming impression of Albus Dumbledore.
The freshman, whose name Carol had already forgotten, hurried back to his desk without asking any questions. Wasn’t it a bit rude to sort him into Slytherin, of all houses? Or was it because Rose was a reptile?
“Let’s see, who’s next?”
No time had been wasted. The moment the clock struck 10:00, the Stattons began to call students to the front of the classroom, where Rose awaited perched atop the wooden podium. She wore a black skirt suit, somehow tailored to fit her body shape, this time without any front shoes. On a student’s turn, they were to approach her to be seeded, without further explanation. Good to get it over with early, I suppose.
The Stattons had apparently decided to joke around for the duration of the ‘roll call,’ but their attitude hadn’t really produced the desired effect. Each student had been treated to a unique quip, but that didn’t excuse the fact that the seeding process took a whopping ten seconds per student. Carol almost wished there had been a visual effect to accompany the process, but as far as she could see, nothing was happening. Was that all there was to it?
Most of the students sat frozen, dreading the sound of their names. Carol was glad it wasn’t just her; of the twenty one telepathy students, only a handful looked relaxed. Even the students who had already been seeded looked nervous.
William called the next name: “Gina Carlson?”
Gina stood up, taking a moment to glance at the other four members of the Lair group: Carol, Nic, Hannah, and Sam, with steel in her eyes. A moment later and she was marching to the podium.
Four days earlier:
“I need to do this,” Carol explained to Nic. “I'm studying psychology. It'll be perfect! I could be the first ever telepathic therapist, or I could do research comparing introspective—”
“I'm just saying you're already her neighbor. If you're not ready, you don't need to take the class to get close to her.” Nic had apparently decided against peer pressuring her and was now playing devil's advocate.
Carol, Nic, and Hannah were gathered in a nearby restaurant for lunch. The food at Lincoln College was usually top-notch, but Tuesdays and Thursdays were sandwich days, and the English (or maybe just the college staff) really didn’t know how to make sandwiches.
Escaping campus had been only slightly less annoying than Carol had imagined, thanks to the security people everywhere. She might have been more comfortable around them if it weren't for the assault rifles slung across their backs, an unwanted reminder of the threats Carol was trying not to think about. Although the crowd of tourists at the college’s gate was now permanently bloated, the ban of news crews made it somewhat more tolerable. Carol and Hannah simply had to push through the crowd, avoid eye contact, and repeat “no comment” as soon as the door opened. Carol was surprised to see that people were abiding by the ban on photography, but she wasn't complaining. Still, they had cut through the neighboring market complex before meeting up with Nic, just in case they were followed.
Carol turned “It's not about the professor. Just the subject,” said Carol. It took her a second to figure out how to phrase the sentence without using the words ‘Rose,’ ‘alien,’ or ‘telepathy’. She had almost slipped several times. “Also being their neighbor hasn’t really helped that much so far.”
“I won't judge you for backing out either. It's… big.”
“I said I'll do it; I'll do it.”
It wasn’t just about telepathy. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Actually, it was far rarer than that. How many people had ever seen Rose in person? Despite the fears and reservations Carol assumed everyone else had, the course had filled up in under a minute. One person she knew had practically begged the dean to ask the Stattons to let her in, to no avail (Carol wondered if they knew Nic was enrolled, considering he didn’t even go to Lincoln). There had been no need to ask Hannah or Sam or Gina or Charlotte or Jeff or anyone else why they had signed up. It was obvious: taking Telepathy was something they had to do.
Even on the off chance that Rose was evil. Nothing easy could be done about that, so Carol was making an effort to suppress her mistrust. The dragon had given them a tiny nugget of truth without elaborating, and neither Carol nor Nic had been able to figure out why. What other parts of Rose’s weird abduction story were lies? Unfortunately, just acknowledging that Rose seemed untrustworthy didn’t make her any less untrustworthy.
Nic gave up playing devil's advocate. “Good! Finally, we'll have a class together!”
Carol smirked. “Finally I'll get to see the perverted thoughts in your head.”
“Shut up,” he said, right as Hannah finally joined them at the table, looking like she was about to drop all the food in her hands.
“Isn’t it weird that nobody’s seen them for the past few days?” Hannah asked, sitting down. “Don’t you think they would want to settle for a bit after flying across the ocean?”
“That’s completely normal for them,” Nic responded. “I wish they would have told us.”
He had spent much of the past few days in Carol’s dorm, just in case. Schedule-wise, it wasn’t that different from their regular hangouts and study sessions in the Lair, but Carol’s room was pretty small. Especially with her TV and Nic’s dumb science experiment, which couldn’t even fit under her bed. Even Nic’s online resources didn’t know where the Stattons were; they assumed the duo was still holed up in Lincoln College.
“Do you feel that close to them?” asked Hannah.
Nic looked at Carol. “They’re your neighbors.”
Carol shrugged. “I don’t know, they’re weird. I’ve been watching some videos from her livestreams.”
Nic’s eyes lit up. “You have? Which ones?”
“A bunch of random ones… I mostly tried finding the videos with Will.” She drew in her breath. Had that been too loud?
It was almost funny how little attention anyone gave William Statton. He managed to come across as anxious whenever he was on camera, despite over a year of experience on international news, much of that spent translating for Rose. To Carol, he felt like a key to the puzzle of understanding the dragon, who outshined him in every way. A few videos made one thing clear: he wasn’t just Rose’s translator, they were attached. Did telepathy do that to people, or was it part of being a dragon? The other two Statton children didn’t appear to be so affected.
“We should watch them together tonight in the JCR after dinner!” Hannah suggested. “I can invite Sam and Gina and George and Jeff, and you can invite the new girl in your stairwell! We can buy drinks on the way back.”
Rather than segregating by hallway, most dorms at Lincoln College were identified by their stairwell. A building might have multiple stairwells, but to reach another you would have to walk outside. Another of the four rooms on Carol’s floor was now home to a freshman that she hadn’t yet had the chance to meet. Like the Stattons, she had arrived early in the morning that week, but ordinary humans weren’t worth waking up at 3:00 a.m. to greet. The fourth room remained suspiciously empty.
“I can't stay long, my presentation is tomorrow.” Carol responded, although it was Thursday again, which meant free wine at dinner….
“Oh come on, you said that's basically done,” Nic protested.
“It is, I just need to go over it.”
“If you want to practice, I’m free all day today and tomorrow,” offered Hannah.
“No, it’s fine,” Carol said. “Honestly, I don’t even care that much about the project anymore.”
“The one you worked on all summer?” Nic asked.
“Yeah, that one,” Carol sighed.
“Is that the project where you were asking people about their imaginations?” Hannah asked.
“Kinda, it’s about how children use visual imagery to solve problems.” Carol began the spiel that she’d honed over many iterations of describing her project to her parents, relatives, and friends.
Before Rose had arrived, it was the main focus of Carol’s day-to-day attention. Not even the presence of an alien at Oxford would change the date of presentations, which several professors, potentially including some big names in the field of psychology, would be attending. There were around ten undergraduates presenting the results of their summers spent at school. Honestly, the results of Carol’s surveys had ended up being somewhat trivial, but she had spent weeks learning statistical methods to rigorously prove their significance. Her adviser seemed happy, but Carol wasn’t sure how the other academics would take it. Significant or not, the results weren’t too exciting.
“That sounds really interesting,” Hannah said when she was done. “What time is your presentation? I’d love to get to hear more about it.” Hannah had a way of appearing simultaneously deeply invested in and bored by just about everything, and Carol had yet to discover how to tell which it was.
“At two,” Carol said, “but you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, it’s pretty boring.”
“It’s not boring, I think it’s pretty cool,” Nic encouraged, leaning against her.
“Yeah, I’ll definitely be there,” Hannah said.
“I hope they don’t point out that I’m from Lincoln,” said Carol.
“What if we do the party Sunday, then?” Hannah asked. “We could make it a recurring study group, for Telepathy!”
She gasped and covered her mouth as soon as she said ‘telepathy,’ nervously glancing around, as did Carol and Nic. Nobody seemed to notice.
The event had apparently evolved into a party. Perfect for stalking someone you were trying to befriend.
“I don’t know if this class will even need studying,” said Carol. “What will we do?”
Nic and Hannah looked at each other and shrugged.
“Maybe they’ll teach us everything they know,” Nic suggested.
“Or it could be about opening up or something,” said Hannah. “Or mental combat!”
“So… why make a study group now, when we don’t even know if the class will have outside work?” Carol asked.
“C’mon, Carol!” Nic said. “We need to be the best, whatever they throw at us.”
“Are you still trying to get into Rose’s inner circle?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah,” Nic responded instantly.
Carol shrugged.
“Well, count me in,” said Hannah.
“You know she’ll know exactly what you’re doing,” said Carol.
Nic gave her a look. Was that pinky promise territory? Hannah was enrolled in the class, so she’d have to know anyway. Plus, the world knew Rose was empathetic, they just didn’t know the extent.
“It doesn’t matter if she knows,” said Nic. “Actually, it helps. We just want to be friends with a lonely outcast, right?” he addressed Hannah.
“Right,” Hannah agreed. “I mean, I know this isn’t normal, but I am interested in finding out what she’s like as a person. The least we can do is be honest about it. No harm, no foul?”
“Yeah,” said Carol, but the idea left a sour feeling in her stomach. She picked at her food in thought. “Poor Rose.”
“Hannah Kelly?” the Stattons called.
Hannah glanced back at Carol and gave her a brief, nervous smile before timidly walking up to the podium with a horrifyingly predatory monster perched atop it. Rose placed her hands on Hannah’s head, closing her eyes a moment.
Why did they have to use alphabetical order? Chances were, Carol would be last or near it. She observed the process with everyone else for the sixth or seventh time. The same question was probably on everyone’s minds: was there a difference, before and after?
“Very interesting, very interesting,” Rose said. “You have a bright future ahead of you, miss Kelly.”
Did they seriously have unique bits lined up for all twenty-one students? If so, it would be impressive.
“Thank you,” Hannah said, taking Rose’s hand in hers for a moment.
Like the seeded students before her, Hannah returned to her desk, somewhat more confident than before, but still uncertain.
Nic and Hannah had managed to spin the study group meeting as a “Carol’s Imagery Presentation Celebration Party”. The presentation had been… fine. Before, she might have called it a great success, but it didn’t really matter anymore. After it was done, she could hardly remember the questions she had been asked or which notable professors had asked them. The handful of friends who came with Nic and Hannah had cheered loudly, but the weight on Carol’s shoulders hadn’t been lifted in the slightest.
There were more than ten people in the room, and Carol didn’t know all of them. Normally she wasn’t one for grand gestures, but she felt like she needed this. Telepathy was the next morning. We’re all going to die.
Come to think of it, Carol was pretty sure that a couple of the people present weren’t even in Telepathy. Ever since it became known that she and Nic had hung out with the Stattons, random students had been noticeably friendlier to her. Stalking Rose on the internet was definitely not on the to-do list for the night. She was supposed to be Rose’s friend. Some probably-relevant sci-fi movie was playing on the TV, but it was just background noise to the louder conversations and even louder music being played in the Junior Common Room.
“It’s nice to pretend nothing is wrong for a bit,” said Gina. “Does anyone else think we’re all marching to our deaths?”
“Yes!” Carol agreed. Too many faces looked at her—maybe that was a bit too enthusiastic. As the person with the most one-on-one time with the alien, her opinion had some weight. “I mean, I’m paranoid too. But as far as I can tell, Rose seems nice. I’m still in.”
Faces looked down in worry. Carol winced. Wow, what a great friend I am. Would there be many last minute dropouts?
“We’re all heading towards a big lifestyle change,” Hannah supplied. At least she seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, but with Hannah it could be hard to tell.
“By the way, where are they?” asked some guy.
“I saw William in the entrance earlier today,” said Gina. “Have you heard from them, Carol?”
She hadn’t. What if they had found out about the study group/party? Or worse—What if they were avoiding her on purpose? From her room, it should have been obvious if they were in theirs, but she had heard nothing.
“They’re probably just busy,” said Nic. “We’ll have them all to ourselves soon.”
“What if they left Lincoln for good?” Sam asked.
“They’re definitely going to stay here,” Carol said. “My room was searched thoroughly a couple days ago, which was annoying, and they put these transparent panels over my windows. That was even more annoying.” The security guys had spent some time inspecting Nic’s contraption, but they didn’t seem to care about it once they determined it wasn’t a weapon. That made Carol a little less worried about Nic blowing up the school; if they didn’t think it could be dangerous, maybe it wasn’t.
“They have an office, too,” said somebody else, “between the quads.”
“My apartment could fit both of us if you want to move,” Nic offered Carol.
“Do you think safety is that much of an issue?”
The question left the group silent for a moment. Nobody wanted to be the one to say that yes, safety was obviously an issue. Lincoln may have been a walled fortress with exactly one entrance, but Rose had real enemies out there. Granted, most of her enemies weren’t zealous enough to actually do anything, but Carol had spent some time wondering whether the new security force stationed on campus (and apparently covering the entire city) was enough. Be it due to the security threat or the alien herself, a few students had switched schools already, and the college wasn’t accepting anyone else for the time being. There were talks of a lawsuit, but the College had known the risks and prepared reparations.
Hannah turned to Carol. “Have you told your parents about them yet?”
“Yeah, they called when they found out,” said Carol. “I didn’t tell them most of it though. As far as they know, Rose lives in a different building and I decided to take Spanish Lit.”
“Same,” said Sam.
“I haven’t talked to mine,” said Nic, “but I don’t even go here.”
“I kinda let it slip,” said Hannah. “They already knew my schedule, so it wasn’t really avoidable.”
“And?” asked Sam.
“They’re okay with it. It wouldn’t be the most dangerous place I’ve been.”
The group chuckled nervously. The prestigious Lincoln College, now considered to be more dangerous than many third-world countries.
“What about you, Carol?” Hannah asked in a jovial tone. “If anything happens, well, you’ll be the first to know.”
Carol glanced out the window to the courtyard. With all the security everywhere, about things happening was like saying ‘bomb’ in an airport.
“I, uh,” she faltered. “I think the risk is worth it. I mean, there’s security all over the place….”
Was it worth it?
“You get to live next to an alien,” said Hannah. “Some people would pay millions for that, and you’re paying what, thirty-five hundred quid?”
“Nicolas Poirier?” Rose asked. “Did I pronounce that right? We don’t speak French.” Carol’s body went tense, and Rose glanced at her.
Don’t you make that face, she thought, shaking her head subtly, but the little dragon made it anyway. They both watched Nic walk down to the front of the classroom.
“Kneel,” said Rose, before Nic reached the podium. He looked confused for a moment, but knelt.
Rose read from a sheet of paper, “Sois chevalier, au nom de Dieu,” with abysmal pronunciation. It was nice to see that the alien could be bad at something.
William went through the motions of tapping both of Nic’s shoulders with an imaginary sword. “Rise, sir Poirier of—,” He faltered. “Wait, you’re from Toronto, right?”
“Montreal,” he answered.
“Oh. Huh,” William adopted a formal pose again, and Rose straightened her back. “Rise, sir Nicolas Poirier of Montreal!”
He stood up.
“Closer,” William whispered, Rose motioning with two of her digits.
As Nic stepped closer, she grabbed his shoulder like they were old friends, and then stared deep into his eyes.
“Alright, you’re done,” said William after a moment. “Sam Robinson?”
Nic raised his eyebrows at a nervous Sam as they passed each other, and then he shrugged at Carol. Still the same Nic? Eh, probably.
Monday morning:
“Any sign of the Stattons?” Sam asked Nic as he sat down for breakfast.
It was new for Nic to join the Lair group for breakfast on a school day. Carol smiled. This part of Telepathy was already worth it. Sam and Hannah were already there. Gina was nowhere to be found, but she usually missed breakfast.
“Yep!” Nic responded. He had arrived early to Carol’s room, not that she had planned on sleeping in.
Carol rolled her eyes. “We heard their shower turn on. Am I going to have to text you people every time they flush the toilet?”
“Carol is trying to be a good friend,” said Hannah.
“I am,” Carol said matter-of-factly. “Not everyone is interested in them for their fame.”
“Oh yeah?” Hannah asked. “Why are you trying to be their friend?”
“Why not?”
“You mean as a psychologist, you don’t want to study Rose?” Hannah asked. “You’d be world famous.”
“Obviously, Rose is an interesting case.” Carol responded. “William too. I do want to see what makes them tick, but—”
“Wow,” said Nic, “you managed to sound even more nefarious than Hannah.”
“Hey, at least I’m an honest schmoozer,” said Hannah.
“Are you going to write about them?” Sam asked Carol.
“No,” Carol said. “You know about informed consent, right?”
“Yeah, but couldn’t you just ask first?” asked Sam.
Carol tried putting her thoughts to words. “Imagine opening a biology textbook to find a diagram of your own naked body and descriptions of your habits. That’s Rose’s life. I just want to help them, if possible.”
“Am I the only one here with pure intentions?” asked Nic.
“Says Nic, who’s currently studying hyperphysics,” Hannah scoffed. “I see no possible ulterior motives or conflicts of interest. By the way, how is your teleporter coming along?”
“I already thought Rose was super cool, and Carol can back that up!” protested Nic.
Nobody took Nic up on the challenge, so the table turned to Sam, who hadn’t spoken.
“I don’t know,” he stammered. “She seemed nice at that dinner, and she was funny—”
“Sam just wants to fuck an alien,” Hannah blurted out.
Carol coughed.
“Jesus—” said Nic.
“Um, first of all, she’s a girl,” said Sam.
“Is she?” Hannah asked.
Everyone at the table looked to Nic for confirmation.
“Uh,” he said, “you all know the ninety percent, ten percent thing she said about her species?” Carol did. Apparently most dragons were female, and males weren’t even sapient. “Nobody knows more than that.”
“She calls herself a she,” said Carol.
“Yeah, but what else would she do, go with ‘it’?” asked Nic. “‘They’ might work. Some people use that, don’t they?”
“It’s probably the same reason she wears human clothes,” said Carol. “Only I think the pronoun actually does its job, at least for me. Can you imagine if we called her an ‘it’?”
“Sam’s already imagining her without human clothes!” Hannah laughed.
Sam sighed and gave Carol and Nic a pleading look.
Nic, ever the arbiter of minor disputes within the group, adopted a balanced tone. “Well, I think we can all agree that if anyone has weird taste, it’s probably Sam.”
“What the hell, man? Hannah’s the one that said it!”
By the time William said “Caroline Ward,” the class was starting to get restless.
Carol walked towards Rose, ignoring everyone else. There’s about a five percent chance I die right now. Maybe that was too liberal. Two percent? One?
Instead of simply placing her hands on Carol’s head, Rose bent her head down and pressed her forehead against Carol’s. It took an effort avoid flinching. The pressure increased on her forehead, and Carol briefly wondered what Rose’s core body temperature was. Maybe dragons could breathe fire.
There was nothing to do but stare back into those huge, yellow eyes. Carol had always imagined Rose as having giant pupils to match her giant eyes, but at this distance she could discern the dragon’s dark brown irises. For an alien, Rose’s eyes were pretty similar to a human’s, even though Carol knew other mammals’ eyes looked totally different.
Were you able to read that? she wondered. Probably not, unless Rose was really reading her mind now. Seconds passed as the dragon took slow, rhythmic breaths, unblinking. Carol held her own breath and continued to monitor herself for any changes, but felt completely normal. She watched as Rose’s eyes made tiny movements, a reminder that the thing inside the creature’s head had the spark of intelligence. Am I a telepath?
After what seemed like ages, Rose leaned back and nodded.
“That’s it?” she asked. No weird comedy routine?
Rose nodded.
“You may return to your seat.”
Huh.
Carol walked back to her desk, a bit shocked at Rose’s tone.
“Alright! That’s the last student!” Rose happily exclaimed. “You’re all officially telepaths! Welcome to Spanish Literature!”
Nobody laughed, but Carol cracked a smile.
“I’d like to do one of those dumb stupid icebreakers,” said Rose, “but we will all get to know each other later. In the meantime, we have a lot to discuss, and I’m letting you out early. You’ve earned it.”
William began writing bullet points on the board, beginning with ‘Roll call,’ which he drew a checkmark by, and followed by ‘Syllabus’, ‘Introduction’, and ‘Meditation’.
“First is our one and only class rule: what happens here, stays here. Telepathy can elucidate private issues, and though we will learn to overcome such issues within our class, the outside world has a different outlook. If you learn something about someone in the class, myself included, you are forbidden from sharing it outside without permission. Doing so will result in a failing grade, and trust me, I will know.”
Carol and Nic shared a look. How did grading work in a Telepathy class? What if one didn’t have the knack?
Rose looked at a few people with their notebooks out. “You don’t need to be taking this down. Notes are subject to rule number one, so I would rather if you do not take them unless told otherwise.”
There was a wave of movement in the class as students closed their notebooks. Carol slid her own into her backpack.
“Second, I’m sure you’re all wondering what I just did to you. Each student in this class now has what will become their own telepathic network, and you also have two initial connections each: one shared with William, and one with me. Over the next few days, all of you should gain the ability to feel those connections. Once that happens, I encourage you to seed connections with others in the class. It’s much easier to do so if they already have a telepathic network. At the end of the class I’ll try to describe the seeding process, although it’s pretty intuitive. Please don’t experiment too much with my or William’s connections, since there are twenty one of you. If we happen to be free, you’ll be able to tell.”
What if we don’t want to? Will we get bad grades?
“Next, you all noticed that I mentioned grades. I feel bad about assigning homework, having never suffered through that particular hazing myself, but you will have regular assignments designed to make you think critically about certain topics. Homework will be the only graded work in the class. It shouldn’t take too long, and although I know it’s incredibly annoying when teachers do this, I assume my class is particularly important to you. The reward for regular in-class activities will be a pass to skip homework assignments, if you want. You’ll find I will distribute those fairly liberally. Your first assignment, due Wednesday, is to learn to play Texas Hold’em.”
William wrote ‘Homework: Texas Hold’em’ in large letters on the board behind her.
“Finally, I would like to introduce myself to a room full of strangers who I intend to be fully honest with. My name is Rosé Statton, and this is my brother, William. I am seven years old, have never attended school, let alone received a degree. I do not speak Spanish, and have not read any Spanish literature, but for some reason Lincoln College is letting me teach it here.”
The class chuckled politely.
“I am thrilled to be teaching here and getting to know all of you, as is the highly esteemed professor, William Statton.”
William switched to his own voice, and Rose looked towards him, the entire class following her gaze.
“Thank you for that, Rose. Like she said, I am honored to be here. If anyone doesn’t belong here, it’s me, but I’m excited about teaching you. Rose will do all the heavy lifting, but I’ll always be here to translate and to help later,” he said. He paused and looked around before continuing, “Seriously though, this place is pretty much Hogwarts. And now that we’re teaching an actual magic course, you go to a real school of witchcraft and wizardry. I know how crazy this is, I mean, your telepathy professor is a dragon” — he glanced briefly at Carol, — “who apparently lives in a lair now. How could we teach this anywhere else?”
The three other people in the room who knew about the Lair swiveled around and made eye contact with Carol and Nic, as if to say: they remembered our thing! They’re in!
“Um… Anyway, this is something we’ve both waited a long time for. I… can’t express how happy I am, mainly for Rose. She’s my best friend in the world, and my little sister, and I finally, finally, get to show off how cool she is.”
Carol watched Rose, expecting her to roll her eyes, but instead the dragon regarded William for a second, a peculiar expression on her face. Maybe they were talking. Who knew?
The Statton’s mouth switched back to ventriloquy-mode. “Thank you, Will. Unfortunately, he might be a little bit biased. I firmly believe that connection and mutual understanding are the solution to all problems. I used to think I should try to convince people to like me without resorting to telepathy, but it's hopeless.”
Rose slowly looked around the class, and Carol felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as the gaze slowly made its way to her.
“Carol Ward, you've met me when I was being completely honest, but you were still afraid of me at the time. What is your impression of me now?”
The entire class turned to face Carol. Why single me out?
“What?”
“We haven't spoken in a week, due to extraneous circumstances. What's the most pressing question on your mind? What do you think of me? Don't worry about betraying secrets.”
How vague can I be? “You seem nice. I think you're good.” But you still look evil.
“No! You're still struggling to believe that. Explain that struggle. Where are we now, after an entire week of the deliberations of Carol Ward, professional psychologist from Oxford University?”
“My impression of you is that… you try really hard to be human.”
“That is correct. Go on?”
“It's not hard to imagine. You probably feel like an outsider and want to be accepted. But then, uh, I have no idea what the real you is like. The dragon you. Your real name is Rosé, not Rose, and I think that means something. Does your family call you that?”
“Sometimes. Please continue.”
Continue? “You seem to have emotions, and thoughts, and language, just like a human. But some of your abilities are… scary, and lead me to believe you could be lying just to make people more comfortable. Are your emotions the same as humans’?”
“Perfect!” said Rose. “About ninety percent the same, I think. There are some differences. The attack I suffered in your room was one; it's accompanied with a feeling I frequently experience, but can't describe well. I’m actually feeling it now.”
“Are—”
“It’ll be fine, I’m not due until at least tonight.”
Rose paused, glancing at the rest of the class.
Carol tried to stay on topic. “So, other than that, would you say you're pretty much human on the inside?”
“Not quite. Emotionally, I don't really experience humor, but I can recognize and enjoy it. I do feel the main ‘feelings’: happiness, anger, disgust, sadness, loss… The main difference, as I've mentioned before, is how I perceive things, in the present and immediate future. I can’t really do it justice with words. Despite that, I still enjoy music. There are other things I wonder about, such as romance, but it’s difficult to be sure.”
“It’s the truth that dragons are the most similar species to humans, then?”
“Mentally, yes. And remember, I was born on Earth and raised by humans. I think… there are probably many members of your species that are more alien than I am.”
Carol nodded. Dubious as that last claim was, it made her a bit more comfortable. As before, the easiest option was to trust Rose, and with those questions answered it would be easier to empathize with her.
Rose addressed the class again. “Ignoring the small details of that demonstration, did anyone notice the important thing that happened between Carol and me, just then?”
For several seconds, nobody moved. Carol herself was lost. It was the classic test of figuring out what exactly the teacher was asking for. Ignoring the small details? Details like the claim that Rose was basically human?
Nic’s hand slowly made its way upwards, but it was Hannah whose hand shot into the air and got noticed.
“Yes?”
“Carol was afraid of you, but now she trusts you more,” was Hannah’s answer.
“Yes, but why does she trust me more now?”
“Because she sees that you’re more—no offense—more human now. She can empathize with you.”
Rose tapped her cheek, continuing to look around the class. William looked around too, imitating her. Or maybe he was also searching for raised hands.
“Carol?” Rose asked after a minute, meaning in her gaze.
What does that face mean? Carol thought, and then the answer to the original question made itself obvious:
“I asked a question,” Carol stated. “I wasn’t sure about something, so I asked a question, and you answered it.” Rose kept moving her face, as if to say continue, just like before in the dorm. Was Carol really supposed to play the Rose Translation Game in front of the class? “You would rather us speak up… whenever we feel afraid… or confused.”
“Exactly! Thank you so much for that, and I’m sorry for singling you out. When you’re raised like I was, you truly value honesty and learn to recognize it in others. Excellent job interpreting my face, by the way. That’s one homework pass for you.”
Well, now you’ve just singled me out even more. Could you tell I’ve been stalking you online?
Rose addressed the class again. “We’re short on time, so we will not be going through all your questions, which I’m sure are burning through your throats as we speak. But for now, who am I, as a professor? What am I doing here? What can you expect in this class? To put it simply, my goal is to train all of you to think for yourselves, despite your developing telepathic powers. Will I have you stand on your desks and shout ‘O captain, my captain’? Probably not. It would be nice to have a title, but for now Rosé, or just Rose, is fine. Please refer to me as Rose whenever talking to other people; Miss Ward was correct about that. You may call William William, or Will, whichever you prefer.”
“Will I assign loads of work to teach you to express yourself artistically? Absolutely not. This is going to be a relatively fast-paced course, and we have a lot to cover, but the workload will be relatively small.”
The class let out a collective sigh at that revelation, and Rose looked amused. Carol shared the sentiment. Apparently people weren’t willing to put forth an effort to do a bit of extra work for a god damned telepathy class.
“Dragons are social creatures,” the social creature continued. “Compared to a human, I can be a bit obsessive about other people. I’ve already Googled every person in this class, if some of you were wondering how your roll call was so personalized…. When I was with Amber, she wouldn’t stop making this noise.”
As Will spoke, a fast series of rhythmic clicks emanated from Rose’s throat. The pattern seemed to change at random, and was loud enough that it was hard to listen to Will’s voice. Carol had heard Rose make that sound before on TV describing her brief encounter with a true alien; it was the language of dragons. Or at least, a language of dragons. In person, the reason why Rose almost never made the noise was obvious: it was incredibly obnoxious. Carol suppressed the urge to cover her ears.
Rose stopped making the noise and continued. “I found out later that she was simply talking. Normal female dragons talk non-stop, even when they use telepathy. I don’t feel a strong urge to do the same, so it must be more of a cultural thing, but I do tend to become attached to people. I hope that each of you in this class will become my friend, and I mean that. I know how strange that would sound coming from a human professor, but don’t forget: I’m different.”
Rose glanced at some of the more nervous students and made her ‘smiling’ face, which they probably didn’t understand at all. I’m not sure anyone will be forgetting that one soon, Rose.
“Of course, that’s not the main reason I’m here. There are currently only a couple dozen human telepaths on the planet, and I intend to dedicate much of my life to increasing that number. You are my guinea pigs, my first batch of test subjects. For that I’m truly sorry. But think: together, we have the opportunity to perform real science. There’s a lot that we don’t yet know. I need to figure out how best to teach this, and some of you might go on to teach it yourselves.”
Carol sighed. How did we miss that? Not one person she had spoken to had voiced that they might go on to teach Telepathy on their own. In hindsight, it was an obvious career path that this class would unlock. Devoting time to seriously considering it would have to wait; Rose was still talking.
“So! Our first lesson! Before I let you go we will be going over some basic meditation techniques. Try to get in the habit of meditating at least once a day. I won’t require it of you, but but in my professional opinion, it helps.”
Carol opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by a black void.
Where was I, just now? Something about a class….
She tried turning, but blackness filled her field of vision in every direction. Panic began to set in, and her heart pounded in her chest. She flailed her arms and legs, but there was nothing to grasp.
Something touched her hand. She jerked it back to see that a long legged insect was attached to her wrist.
“Argh!” she heard herself yelling, reflexively trying to rip it off with her other hand.
Its body was soft and covered in slime, but its legs ended in needles that pierced her skin, drawing blood. For a moment it seemed like it wouldn’t budge, but it suddenly came free, and she flung it into the void, the slime sticking to her fingers.
Another one landed on her bare back. She reached back with her left arm to rip it off as soon as she felt it, but a third was on her left hand. She felt its feet puncturing her skin as it climbed up her arm, another taking its place.
She frantically ripped them off of her left arm, her breathing panicked.
They were pouring onto her back now. Tens, and then hundreds, all from behind where she couldn’t see, couldn’t turn. They crawled around her sides, creating pain, real pain, everywhere they went.
Down her legs, past her shoulders, and up her neck, drawing blood with every step.
There were too many. Thousands. She was helpless to stop them. She flailed and flailed, but her body was nearly covered in them, and they didn’t let go. She didn’t dare open her mouth to scream, for they would flood inside it and choke her.
The needles dug into her head, and her vision was obscured by the gray insect bodies. Please don’t stab my eyes, she pleaded, covering her face with her hands.
As the blanket of insects grew thicker and thicker, squeezing her, hurting, the needles on her scalp dug deeper, slid through her skull, cold, penetrating her brain—
Carol awoke with a scream.
Her phone said it was 4:30. Shit. She threw off her sheets to discover that she was drenched in sweat.
She felt a itch on her arm and reflexively slapped it, but it was just an itch.
It was just a dream.
She tried calming herself by taking deep breaths. What if it wasn’t just a dream? Was that related, somehow? Were the needles something that was actually happening to her as the network grew? Rose had never mentioned dreams. Was it possible to have a telepathic network removed?
She tried to feel around her mind as Rose had described in class, to see if anything had changed, but no feeling was more intense than her adrenaline.
Rose heard my scream. Why did Carol have to have a neighbor that had superhuman hearing and didn’t sleep? She wondered if the dragon might knock on her door, to comfort her or something.
More deep breaths, and she remembered the meditation technique from class the day before, adopting the cross-legged pose on her bed.
Some minutes later, she decided it wasn’t working and grabbed a book. She had too much adrenaline coursing through her veins to sleep, or to meditate. Her room was too small; she had to be somewhere else. Somewhere further from her neighbors.
Carol opened her door as slowly as she could, and silently crept down the stairwell. She didn’t know where she was going, but it didn’t matter as long as long as it was away from her dorm. Maybe if the temperature was nice, she could just read outside, by a light.
She slid the door at the base of the stairs open and froze. A dark form sat in the bench across the grove, silhouetted against the glow of a lantern. It turned its head in her direction.
Who else would it be but Rose Statton?
Really enjoying this so far, the unseen background of this world gives the story a nice depth, all the mysteries and situations have me on the edge of my seat, thanks for writing what you have so far
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