A Sinner’s Chance

The girl looked about my age, though as her pointed ears indicated she was an Elf, one I didn't recall being from the group of new students. She was quite different from the other Elvish students I'd passed by as I'd come to my room. Where the others had single shade bright hair colors and short pointed ears not that different from humans, this girl had hair that was both silver and blonde, depending on how the light hit it. Her ears were also much longer than the others I'd seen, though I didn't know enough about Elves to know what this could possibly mean. 

I wouldn't quite call the look she gave me as she entered disdain, but it was clear she was not pleased to see me. "So you're the roommate they assigned?" Her eyes focused on me as if she was sizing me up. "You're not even an Elf and yet they assigned you here. How pretentious. Did they think just because you had pointed ears you had Elvish blood? With ears like that you're probably closer to a goblin than an Elf."

I could only blink slowly as I tried to process what was happening, she'd clearly been in this room prior to today as her belonging were already unpacked when I'd entered, and I doubted she had gotten to the room, unpacked and left before I even made it here, so she was surely an upperclassman, I simply couldn't understand where her dislike of me came from. While it was true I wasn't an Elf, nor was I related to one, she was the only one in the dorm so far that treated me this way, the others I'd run into had all been kind and welcoming.

Since I didn't know how strong she was or the what position she held I decided it be safest to be polite and ignore her abrasive attitude. "Greetings, I am Vellithra Eldur, third daughter of the Duke Eldur."

The Elven girl crossed her arms, though her expression did relax slightly. "At least you're polite. I am Arya Soluna, daughter of Kavir Soluna, Head Chief of the Yin-Yang High Elven Clan. If you keep to yourself and stay out of my way, then we won't have any problems."

True to Arya's word we didn't have any problems, though rather than staying out of her way it felt more like she was avoiding me. She went to bed before I did and woke up far earlier than I did as well so I actually didn't see her that often. One night while bathing in the open air hot spring with the other dorm members I asked about her. The common consensus was that she was simply didn't like to be around other people and that since her position was essentially that of a princess from her clan it was alright for her to be eccentric. There was also a rumor that she had some kind of rare condition that she didn't want others to know about, as she always bathed when no one else was around.

By nature Elves were communal and very open with each other, it was almost like they were all sisters despite coming from a myriad of different clans from all across the continent. It was thanks to this that I easily integrated into the dorm and the routine of school life. However I often found myself in a variety of strange and awkward situations because of this as well. Elves matured about half as quick as a human, as such they also stayed about twice as long in the academy depending on a variety of other factors. There wasn't an easy way to tell how old a Elf was, but based on the appearance of their ears you could get an approximation of how much pure Elven blood they had and therefore how quickly they will age.

As not only the youngest member of the dorm but, also since I was a unique specimen according to the others, I was treated somewhere between the youngest child and a mascot. Since my ears were somewhat long, but pointed out somewhat horizontally I drew plenty of attention from that alone, if you added my black sclera with violet irises and dark hair I easily stood out. I first thought that bathing with all the others would be my biggest obstacle, as despite my current gender I couldn't get myself to find men attractive, and being surrounded by naked Elven woman was not helping in the slightest.

However, I soon found out that modesty was not something important in Elvish culture, and that same-sex relationships were also completely normal, or rather it seemed that hetero relationships were actually rare, and public displays of affection were not unusual, from normal things like kissing to getting frisky in the tub, despite being around the other dorm members.

There were of course exceptions, such as the Yin-Yang Clan that Arya was from. Her clan was somewhat mysterious, but the fact that it was a clan of High Elves, Elves that were pure-blooded, made them special anyway so no one paid any particular attention to it.