"Drinking your blood is friendly?"

He shrugs. "Bugs gotta eat. They're better-behaved than Isaac, at least."

Isaac clutches at his heart.

"If you say so. I'm not sure wizards can have a hive of creatures as a familiar but that seems like a less important difference anyway. Are familiars popular here?"

"Pretty common, yeah," Isaac says. "A little less so among full-time supers; no matter how useful they can be, they introduce a serious point of vulnerability. Ethan mostly bypasses that with his technique of having a bunch of bugs and storing them in his hair, but if you've got a rat or something and somebody gets ahold of it, you're kind of screwed."

"Oh, what happens if it dies?"

Ethan winces. "You lose the bits of your soul that went into the familiar, and there's a lot of mystical and emotional trauma associated with that. But if an enemy mage has access to your familiar it can get a lot worse than that, they can torture you from a distance or drain your essence or all kinds of bad stuff."

"Ick. Pass."

Ethan shrugs again. "I keep my sprites close and I don't plan on having many enemies. Maybe I'm just an optimist that way."

"I wish you luck."

"We appreciate it," he says.

Om nom nom. "The cafeteria food is really good here. Is that more science?"

"That's more about money," Isaac says. "Whateley kind of has more money than they know what to do with and a policy of 'high pay gets better work', so they pay the chefs as if they were a decent-quality restaurant, which means they get really good chefs even though it's line cook work."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Ethan wonders. "I just know the food is good."

"I talk to people, Ethan."

"Huh, I was figuring maybe good food was cheaper here somehow. Anyway, it was nice meeting you - where does this go -"

"Nice meeting you too!" Ethan says. Isaac points her towards where the tray goes.

And she buses the tray, and goes back to the library to pass the time before she thinks she could get to sleep, whereupon she asks if she can checks out some books and brings them back to her room.

Alice is already asleep when she gets back to the room.

Tomorrow dawns bright and early, as it often does. Alice gets up before sunrise and heads towards the showers.

Bella does not get up before sunrise; she gets up a couple hours later, figures out a shower herself, puts on some of her new clothes, and heads to breakfast to be nourished for her powers testing appointment.

Breakfast is available, including Kharoline frybread, which is presumably called something different here but is not labeled.

Nobody she knows seems to be breaking their fast at the moment, though a blonde girl floating several inches off the floor is peering at her thoughtfully.

"...hello," says Bella, loading up her plate with Kharoline frybread.

"Oh! Hi. I was just noting that I haven't seen you around, which is weird because I've seen everybody around and I remember them all perfectly, which would imply that you're new, which is interesting. Sorry for staring. I'm Ariel. Stormhammer."

"Bella Swan. Yes, I'm new. Morty had an interplanar accident."

"Ah, Morty. How're you adjusting?"

"Really well! I like it here and I'm gonna stay, my plane sucks."

"Ooh, that's way better than the alternative! Not better than your plane being cool, I mean, that part sucks, but it makes us kidnapping you a lot less problematic. Wanna sit at my table?"

"Sure, thanks."