Luna woke up on Friday morning drenched in sweat. She’d had another nightmare. It was the third one this week, all revolving around Riga.

It was confusing… Like every other night, it was in third person, disjointed, colorful. She had a vague sense of unease, of wrongness. Everything carried a deep texture of foreboding, of imminent doom.

But this time she could make out the events. The place Riga was running through was a brick house, with warm chestnut floors and plants in every corner. She was checking door after door, looking for something. There was something frantic about her movements, like she was being chased or worried about being caught.

Suddenly she took a door, and Luna realized that they were going down a staircase. Luna felt them getting closer to… something.

The walls transitioned to a darker shade of brick and the windows disappeared. The staircase ended on a small basement landing, with big square stones of matte granite, inlaid in a rough semi-circle. They all had strange markings on them, and some part of Luna knew they were powerful.

It was hard to tell in the dream, but they felt… blue somehow.

Riga carefully stepped between them. As she crossed the stones the dream started to get hazy again, and Luna felt like at any second it might revert to the vague shapes and blurry textures of her last few nights.

They passed through a lounge area with carpets and plush-looking couches, even as things got harder to discern. Riga rushed into a hallway, once again checking door by door. From what little Luna could see they looked like storage rooms. The doors were all on the right side of the basement hallway.

Before she lost the dream entirely, Riga ran into a door on her left and stopped. The sense of foreboding spiked, but mixed with a deep sense of warmth and power and… completeness? coming from the other side of the door. It felt like being on her knees at Miriam’s feet, it felt like a hug from Persephone and Diana, it felt like Arie correcting her posture and telling her she’d done well in the ballet room.

Whatever Riga felt must have been different, since she visibly tensed up before pushing through the door.

By now it had gotten harder to make out what was happening. She felt the vastness of the next room, so huge that a small set of stairs led from the door to the actual floor. The space was also entirely open–no support pillars to speak of–the only thing holding up the rest of the house must have been either dream logic or magic.

It looked like there were more of those gray stones on the ground, though with the way the dream was washing out Luna couldn’t be sure. The only other thing she could see was a huge metal circle, encompassing almost the entire room, and it seemed to glow. The same blue as the stones. The same blue as Miriam at the clothing store. The same blue as Delta Sigma. And somewhere, deep inside, she knew:

This was the source of the warmth she’d been feeling. And if Riga wasn’t stopped she would destroy it.

And then she woke up.

Like after every other dream, Luna had no idea what to do next. The sense of danger was still there, but it was all so ridiculous. “Hey everyone, you glow blue sometimes, and is there a giant metal ring in your basement? I think one of the other new members is trying to destroy it. I think I have prophetic dreams because of that one time I had a dream about running and the next day someone had a sprained shoulder.”

She’d get put in a psych ward or something and promptly lose her spot in the one place she’d ever felt accepted.

Her own subconscious prejudice against the Delta Sigma pledge she’d interacted with the least wasn’t a valid excuse.

No, she couldn’t do it.

She put on an outfit from the shopping trip and got ready for one last rehearsal. Her family wasn’t going to be there tomorrow, of course, but she was going to meet a bunch of the big sisters for the first time. Diana had warned them not to expect to really socialize, but seeing them at all would be special enough. She needed to do her best today, so she could make a good impression tomorrow.

The trip to the Delta Sigma house was short and familiar. One of the campus ponds she walked past shone a strange opalescence, but Luna hadn’t had time to investigate it. Fall was starting to peek its head through the leaves, but in the California’s Mediterranean climate the days would remain pleasant and the trees clothed.

Everything was great, until her phone buzzed in her pocket.

Need 2 have emergency mtg tmrw—funding didn’t come through

Lead filled her stomach. She didn’t have time for this.

Although Neha had graciously allowed her both the time slot for the meetings and the extra slot for her work as treasurer, their last conversation had featured a number of uncomfortable questions—everything from how her work proceeded, to what she enjoyed about it, to when she hung out with members of the club, and why it wasn’t on the time sheet. That last one had been especially scary, and fortunately Luna had been able to honestly answer that she didn’t see any of them outside of her work.

She wouldn’t want to even be accused of breaking the rules her minders’ set for her.

There was no way she’d get permission to take a pause from the tea party for this.

She debated a response for a moment.

I can’t, sry.

Her phone buzzed again a moment later.

It’s important, find a way.

She stared at the phone for a moment, frozen.

I’ll ask.

The message tasted like bile in her throat. It felt like giving in, but lacked the comforting blanket she sunk under when she did it for Miriam or Diana.

The sun didn’t shine as brightly as she walked the rest of the way to the Delta Sigma house.

——

She’d made the mistake of mentioning her situation during their group meeting—a failed attempt at asking Samie for advice. The older servant just looked at her a little sadly. Persephone looked up from where she’d pressed herself boldly against Claire. “I’m sure if it’s really severe they’ll be willing to bend.”

Riga scoffed from across the table. She stopped fiddling with the necklace under her turtleneck and stared between Persephone and Luna. “There’s no way that they’re giving any mercy to hi—her.”

Arie was up from their chair before Luna could blink. Diana was almost as fast, stepping between Arie and Riga moments before Claire’s favorite minder threw an opening punch.

Luna stared as them as the words caught up with her. “The— That’s f— fine! It happens to everybody.”

“Nothing ‘just happens,’” Arie growled. They tried to push Diana away, but the taller girl didn’t budge.

Riga just stared at Arie. “My mistake. I apologize Luna.”

Luna just nodded, uncomfortable with the conflict, uncomfortable with the attention.

“I—” She took a breath. “Look I would prefer we move past this, please? Do y’all think I should message Neha or Miriam?”

Persephone wasn’t snuggled into Claire anymore, but she also hadn’t gotten up. “I think Neha. If she can’t make a decision she’ll escalate to Miriam, but her job is to be responsible for scheduling, so she’ll at the very least not be upset you directed it to her.”

Riga and Arie had sat back down—as distant as possible from each other—and Diana was the only one still standing. She looked around the assembled pledge class, plus the notably silent Isabelle and Samie. “Alright everyone, today we’re going to look at the final map for seating arrangements and divide up who’s working which part of the yard.

——

Luna’s heart pounded in her chest as she stood outside of Neha’s office. The servant-administrator had responded to her text message with a calendar invitation, so while the rest of the class continued Arie’s high pressure memorization game, Luna had excused herself to be here.

She knocked, waited a moment, then entered.

Neha was as prim as ever, sitting behind her desk in her overly formal outfit.

There was a pregnant pause when Luna sat down, but then her sort-of-superior straightened out some papers and spoke.

“We will not be giving you time tomorrow to attend your Mentors in STEM meeting. You may have a half an hour to do remote crisis response tonight, and otherwise you’ll get some time on Monday to attend a meeting, if still necessary.”

Luna felt numb. She began to nod, but then Neha continued. “We’ll also be having a discussion, later next week, about your continued involvement with the organization.”

That shocked Luna enough that it knocked her out of her trance.

“Wha— you…” but of course they could. They could do whatever they wanted. What would she do, leave the closest thing to family and acceptance she’d found in her entire life?

The idea was ridiculous.

Even as the weight of the statement hit her and anxiety bubbled up from deep inside, Luna tried to recall the lessons they’d been learning. In her conversations with the other new servants—well, mostly Perse—there’d been talk of breathing for acceptance.

So Luna took a breath.

And another.

And another.

She found the acceptance within herself, and with that her next words. “Miss, may I ask why?”

Neha smiled ever so slightly. “Good girl, that’s the right question.” She put down her pen. “Our issue is neither the time commitment nor the obligation away from Delta Sigma, though coinciding with the tea party would be a challenge either way. Let me ask you a question: when have you hung out with people from Mentors this year?”

“Well, not really,” Luna said. “I’ve just been so busy…”

“So then why didn’t you request time?” Neha asked.

Luna shrugged. “It seemed less important than everything else.”

“And one more question: Why do you still participate in Mentors?”

Luna had to think for a moment. “It’s a soc… I like the cause— I guess they need my help?”

Neha nodded. “But so does the animal shelter down the street, so does the housing advocacy group, so does every other club on campus.”

Luna nodded.

“We think you’re being taken advantage of, miss,” Neha finished.

Luna blinked. “I don’t… I said yes myself.”

Neha smiled. “I’m aware of the irony, coming from me, but are you aware that you are rather easy to convince, miss?” The honorific sounded almost as ironic as the sentence, and Luna once again marveled at Neha’s unique blend of subservience and control.

But she had to respond anyway. “I… But you all take care of me, is that your point?”

Neha smiled again. “Yes, and if we thought Mentors was as well, we would be more inclined to share.”

The freshman servant took a deep breath. “Alright. I’ll think about this before our conversation next week. Thank you, miss.”

Neha dismissed her and Luna went back to the yard, and sequences of pastries and tea orders.

——

That night Luna slept only fitfully. Visions of blue intermingled with red, Neha sleeping on a picnic table in a big open green space surrounded by other sleeping bodies.

A panicked looking Persephone, holding a tray full of tea.

Arie, face painted with rage.

She finally got some proper rest as the sun began peeking up over the horizon, something she only knew because her alarm slapped her out of it moments later.

Luna groaned and pulled herself out of bed. She stumbled to the bathroom, showered, put on her makeup, her assigned outfit, and rushed out the door.

Today, for the very first time, she walked to Delta Sigma’s hillside mansion instead of the Northside house.

She met up with the rest of the new members at the utility entrance. Miriam stood off to the side, talking to Neha, so they all stood around for a moment taking everything in.

The mansion was high enough that she could see the ocean down the hill and the coastal urban sprawl all around her. Something about it made her feel distinctly connected. It felt human.

Luna did a double take when she crossed the sidewalk. Between the sidewalk and the front lawn of the Delta Sigma house was a long line of one foot by 6 inch stones with strange lettering engraved in them. And somehow they felt blue, just like her dreams.

Maybe… She needed to say something. Miriam and Neha were alone. This was her chance. If she could figure things out, maybe the dreams would make sense.

“What are the stones around the house?” She tried.

Miriam looked at them like she’d forgotten they were there. “Oh, those? I think there was a superstitious alumni at some point in the 70s? They offered to pay for the whole thing and someone in leadership at the time thought it would be quirky.”

Luna couldn’t tell if it was a deflection. “Ahh, so they don’t do anything?”

“No, of course not.” Miriam shook her head.

She opened her mouth again, but for some reason the shutdown had been completely unexpected. Of course the stones did nothing! They were stones. Dreaming about them didn’t make it less so.

Luna slunk back to the other new members. She fidgeted with her skirt until the Becca and Riga arrived. Maybe she had just seen the same old book or movie that inspired the mysterious donor?

It was weak, and Luna knew it was weak, but the alternative was worse.

Miriam took them around to the back, though a small padlocked gate. A collection of tables and chairs was stacked there, ready to be set up by the pledges. The yard itself was a large flattened oval of grass, surrounded by steep hills to bring the yard back in line with the natural slope of the surroundings. The non-flattened area contained natural Californian vegetation, which meant that at this time of year it looked mostly dried out. A steel fence marked out the edge of the property on two sides.

The uphill side contained some plants as markers, but as the last development before the natural wilderness, the sisters at Delta Sigma had elected to leave the ‘nature’ side of their yard open. Maybe they wanted to allow deer and other hill dwelling creatures better access.

Samie and Isabelle were already waiting for them.

They both wore the uniforms they’d been given halfway through the week, except that Samie was still wearing the same baseball cap she always did. Luna briefly looked at Arie and Diana to see if they would do anything about it, but their faces lacked any sign of surprise or annoyance.

“Alright everyone, 15 tables, you remember the shape!”

They began setup, with Riga pointing to different spots on the lawn where they needed a table while the rest of the group carried them from where they’d been left. Afterwards, everyone lugged the requisite 10 chairs per table while Becca and Isabelle took care of the table cloths. Carrying everything out took most of an hour, but afterwards the backyard of Delta Sigma already felt more like it could host a tea party.

Luna had been assigned lunch duty–pretty simple since food from a local sandwich shop had already been delivered–so she made her way to the kitchen to set it up and deliver it to people.

She walked up the back porch and into the kitchen and did a double take.

It was the same kitchen as in her dreams.

Come to think of it, the yard could fit too.

She didn’t have a perfect memory of where individual little details were, but there still wasn’t any doubt. There was absolutely no reason for her to know about this, there was no way she’d ever been here, there were no photos of the main house anywhere in the house on Northside.

She felt like she was going crazy.

But if it was impossible for her to make it up, then she had to consider the possibility that this was real. That she’d actually been dreaming about the Delta Sigma house.

If that was the case, what did she need to do now?

She couldn’t imagine approaching Miriam again–if things were real, then Miriam just lied to her, and she definitely lied for a reason. She didn’t want to overreact either, there was no proof that the dreams real. Being in real places didn’t mean that they portrayed real events, past or future. She’d look crazy.

She’d need to talk to someone about it. Persephone and Diana were out. They’d tell her to talk to Miriam. Arie was too scary. Riga was in her dreams. Becca was too meek. Claire… Claire would actually work.

She just needed to catch her alone.

She finished setting out the sandwiches on a set of trays and began carrying them into the yard. There was a little thrill to it. She knew exactly the right way to carry the tray, the way to hold her body, the way to make herself graceful. It still wasn’t the ease that Samie and Isabelle demonstrated, but that was a matter of practice and time, not a fundamental difference.

She was becoming one of them. And it filled her with joy.

Lunch became a relaxed affair. They’d made good progress setting up the tables, and the tea party wasn’t beginning until four. They could probably have slept in more, but Luna wasn’t resentful. The minders hadn’t organized an event before, and she appreciated the wisdom of planning for plenty of spare time instead of cutting it close.

She tried a few times to catch Claire off to the side, but they were all in one big conversation, enjoying each other’s company. Ironic, given that bringing Claire more into the group had been a multi week project.

Pulling her away would be extremely suspicious.

They set up a bunch of tea stations on the lawn after lunch. There’d been some discussion about baking their own cakes, but given that nobody was a baker, Riga had negotiated with Miriam and had gotten permission to order a variety of cake and pastries from a bakery.

Luna helped Becca set up decorations while Riga and Persephone grabbed the cake deliveries. She glanced over at Claire, but the other servant was putting up decorations in the trees with Samie.

They set up a few by the tea tables to make the serving easier, then moved the rest into the kitchen and began brewing tea.

By the time everything was done, 3pm had rolled around. Luna was grateful that today had been cloudy and a bit chilly. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it meant that their serving uniforms hadn’t gotten too sweaty.

They got to take an afternoon break, and Luna tried again to get Claire alone. First she was hanging out with Arie, and Luna didn’t want to interrupt. Then she stood with Diana as they figured out an issue with one of the brewing machines, and that would have been awkward too. Then Claire helped Perse carry out extra pillows and blankets in case the evening got cold later.

Luna just felt too awkward. She waffled for a moment. She was running out of time. Maybe she should be more aggressive?

After spending an almost-awkward amount of time staring and bouncing on her feet, Luna gave up. As long as she kept an eye on Riga, it should be fine anyway. She didn’t have to stress about working up the courage to do something more drastic.

They spent the last 20 minutes before the event began getting everybody into position. Persephone and Diana had set up a small decorative gate along the path from the front of the house to the garden and put up a small hostess stand to greet the guests and direct them to their assigned seating. Luckily for Luna, Diana had chosen Becca and Persephone to take the first shift, which gave her the chance to watch the guests as they got seated and serve them their first pastries. It was a little less scary then standing at the gate, and as the first guests arrived she realized that had probably been intentional.

When people finally started walking in, she found an additional reason to be grateful: her posture training. Older sisters arrived first, sometimes in pairs and sometimes in throuples. Most wore gowns of one form or another. Styles varied, and Luna didn’t have enough fashion experience to name them. Some wore sundresses, some wore suits. Universally, they carried with them the elegance that Miriam and co were drilling into their bones. It was absolutely mesmerizing.

Thanks to four weeks of drilling, Luna felt like she could almost keep up. More little sister, growing into her role, and less imposter. The immaculate serving uniform certainly helped.

She watched as Becca and Persephone guided the first group to their tables, then glided over from the tea stations to hand out the first snacks. She took each trip with precisely the amount that the table needed, then memorized orders for tea.

Table one: black green oolong. Table two: green green black. Table three: oolong oolong.

She floated back to the tea stations and balanced the cups.

B-g-o, g-g-b, o-o.

B-b-o g-g-b o-o.

She gathered all the grace she could muster and returned to the first table. First table, serve from left, small curtsy. Second table, serve from left again, small curtsy. Third table, repeat, then quickly glide over to the fourth, new order to memorize.

Around her Isabelle, Samie, and Claire were all doing the same thing, and slowly they fell into a rhythm together. Serving turned into flow, and with that Luna got more chances to gawk at the Delta Sigma women surrounding her.

The sheer variety impressed her. She saw a minder ordering for the servant with her–a difficult mental label when the girl with her black collar and floor length dress looked like she could be a princess herself–while the servant girl demurely watched. But she also saw the reverse, with the minder distracted on their phone while a servant at the same table made sure they got their favorite tea. She saw vacant eyes and lively conversation, sometimes in the same group.

She knew she didn’t yet understand everything that was going on, but what she saw was beautiful.

She’d have to ask Perse for her book recommendations later. It was clear there was more variety to this than she had ever imagined.

The exception to her sense of wonder was Riga, looking tense and fidgety. Whatever stressed Riga, Luna mirrored it. Anyone else might have imagined it as stress, but Luna felt more and more concerned with every minute.

The more she sank into serving tea, the more she embraced the rhythms of protocol, the more obvious it felt. It wasn’t on the visible spectrum, but the whole yard felt in harmony somehow. And Luna felt like a wrong note, like a splotch, like something red in a sea of blue.

She had to do something.

Luckily, on her last pass handing out pastries, she coincided with Claire. She worked up her courage and pulled her aside in the kitchen.

“I’m–I’m worried about Riga,” she said firmly..

Claire blinked in surprise. “Why tell me? I’m the last person to be helpful with interpersonal shit here.”

Because Claire was already distrustful. “Because Persephone would just tell a minder, and then Riga might find out, and Becca couldn’t do it. And it’s not quite interpersonal.”

Claire’s response was the obvious one. “Why not Arie?”

Luna tried to find a nice way to say it. “I’m scared of Arie, and I don’t think she’d take me seriously.”

“Why wouldn’t she take you seriously?” Of course Claire didn’t get it.

Luna checked to make sure no one was within hearing distance. “Because I’ve been having dreams. A lot of them are nightmares, but lately they’ve been dreams involving Riga.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Claire said without hesitation. Luna flinched.

But she had to persist. “Last week I dreamt about Isabelle getting into a fight, and then the next day is when she came back with that arm brace. It even matched the shoulder in my dreams.”

Claire groaned but seemed thoughtful. Luna waited with baited breath as her most approachable choice of support coldly evaluated her.

“So it’s ridiculous but spookily on point,” her fellow servant finally offered. “Tell me again why you’re not telling a minder? You’re usually pretty into that.”

“Because it’s ridiculous!” She shout-whispered, “they’ll call me crazy. And… I didn’t want to burden them with it.”

Claire looked like she wanted to roll her eyes.

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye on her—at least until the parents start arriving. But you’re coming clean about this to Miriam tomorrow.” It felt really weird to hear Claire defending the big sisters, but it seemed she’d done some growing yourself. “And in the future you’re going to straight to them–if you’re crazy they’re supposed to help you with your mental health, and if you’re not they basically own us now so nightmares are their problem too.”

Luna breathed a sigh of relief. Now she could go back to serving and hopefully nothing they talked about would be relevant.

Somewhere deep in her gut, Luna knew with an otherworldly certainty that this was not going to be true.