Something was off.
It wasn't the taste of the cafeteria's soup although that, too, was a crime against humanity. It wasn't the flickering enchantments overhead, which kept blinking out with a little musical "plunk" every three minutes. And it definitely wasn't the way Riven was currently trying to sneak an entire wheel of cheese into her sleeve while Aria looked on, faintly appalled.
No, what was off was a particular absence. Or, more accurately, two of them.
I stabbed a suspiciously gelatinous dumpling with my fork and tried to focus, but the sense of unease wouldn't let go. Mara and Elira had vanished. Not in the metaphorical, "off on some errand for the queen" way, but in the actual, physical, "have not laid eyes on them since sunrise, and now it's dusk" way.
