Night time in the Gold Dorm was a new experience for Lancet.

He lay back on his new bed, and for a moment he simply let himself sink into it. The mattress was wonderful, giving in soft and welcoming, making his bones feel like they were resting on clouds.

Lancet wondered how he had ever managed to sleep on the piece of rock that was his former bed. There was room to roll onto his side without his shoulder brushing against a rough wall. Room to breathe.

It felt absurdly good.

The sheets were clean and smooth. The pillow held its shape properly instead of flattening out like a tired rag. The blanket... gosh... the blanket felt like angel wings wrapped around him.

The room itself only made the experience better.

The air conditioning hummed softly above, and the heater kicked in to balance the chill, creating a perfect kind of atmosphere. It seemed that Awakener Supreme had decided that students of higher rank deserved the luxury of not being miserable while they slept.

Lancet stared up at the ceiling for a while, appreciating all of it with a strange sense of detachment.

But he still couldn’t enjoy all of it without guilt creeping into his mind constantly. He wondered what Luke and Kasto were doing right now.

Lancet pushed the question away and sighed, trying not to think about his former roommates.

He turned his head slightly and looked toward the other beds. Amira was still awake and so were the others.

Soren sat propped against his pillows with a book in hand, turning pages lazily in the glow of his small bedside lamp.

Min Tu was curled on her side, her dark hair spilling against the sheets as she stared at something in the dimness with her usual gloomy calm.

Amira herself was sitting near her bed with her posture relaxed and elegant, one leg folded beneath her, her attention resting on a small object in her hands.

Even at rest, she had that ethereal poise about her, making her look as though she belonged in a quieter, more refined world than the one Lancet usually occupied.

He glanced between them and asked, "Do you guys always stay up this late?"

Amira looked up first and answered in her smooth, calm voice, "Late? It’s only nine."

Lancet raised a brow. Nine?

Yeah, Nine wasn’t late at all. But the Bronze Dorm had completely distorted his sense of time.

Lights out had been so early there, and the nights so tightly controlled, that his body now associated anything after a certain point with the need to settle down.

The Gold Dorm’s freedom made him feel almost embarrassed by how quickly his instincts had adapted to deprivation.

He let out a quiet breath and looked at them again. "You all still seem pretty awake."

Soren gave a small shrug from his bed. "We usually are." He glanced over the top of his book and tilted his head. "You going to sleep that early?"

Lancet was about to say yes when Amira spoke again.

"You could play board games with us," she said. "Or check out what’s showing in the movie room."

Lancet paused. He lifted his head a little and looked at her. "There’s a movie room in this dorm?"

Soren looked surprised as if that was the most ridiculous question. "Of course."

Lancet looked flabbergasted.

A movie room for students.

’Damn,’ Lancet thought. ’This school’s budgeting is really just all over the place.’

He let himself sink a little deeper into the mattress, then shook his head. "Not tonight. I need to sleep early."

Soren accepted that with an easy nod. "Fair enough."

Min Tu simply hummed and turned back toward her own side of the room. Amira, however, kept looking at him for a moment longer than the others did.

She watched him relax in his bed, stretching his longer legs and gaze into the ceiling above. Then, she decided she was sleeping early too.

The room dimmed naturally as the night deepened, but no one seemed in a hurry to sleep. The Gold Dorm moved at its own pace. No one was struggling to get the most out of a few hours before lights out. No one was rushing or hiding their movements under exhaustion.

It was a different kind of life.

Lancet stared at the ceiling for a while longer, letting his thoughts drift.

They did not drift far.

They went straight to the Serpent Society. Then Spectra. Then the Headmistress.

The day had been too full, too loaded with pressure and hidden implications, and the momentum of everything ahead of him made sleep feel like he had to be aware at all moments. To be prepared for anything.

Things were about to become more complicated and tense. The most obvious reason for this was the Serpent Society.

Lancet sighed heavily.

He had a plan for them. Not a perfect one yet, but enough to begin with.

He knew their structure, their tendencies, and the general shape of the people at the top. He knew how they operated and how they likely thought. But defeating them outright would take more than knowledge.

What Lancet needed was boots on the ground, a foothold inside their walls. Someone close enough to watch, report, and mislead.

A spy or a double agent.

Someone who could feed him information without making the Society clamp down the moment they caught wind of his interest.

But that was easier imagined than arranged.

Lancet did not have anyone waiting in reserve for that role. And the people he did know inside the Society were too dangerous to approach carelessly.

If he went to the wrong person, they could expose him instantly. Then the Serpent Society would close ranks, shut every door, bury their trails, and make the entire organization harder to touch than it already was.

He would need someone who would with absolute certainty agree to what he was offering.

Lancet’s eyes narrowed slightly in the dark.

But Lancet couldn’t just find that kind of compliance. No. The only way to be certain of a person like that was to create them himself.

A slow smile formed on his face.

It was time to create another Heroine.

...or Villainess.