This is set around the same time as the Apollo/Cya/Leo/etc stories, when Leo takes Apollo & Olindo to visit their crewmate Adeen at Addergoole.

“It still doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well, you see…”

“Uncle Leo!” Felicite jumped up from the table. “Sorry, Snorri. I’ll be right back.” She darted off across the lunch room, leaving Snorri staring.

She was adorable, a first-year student with chestnut hair and a scattering of freckles, and she liked to dress in kilts with sweaters. She hadn’t Changed yet, she hadn’t been Kept yet, and Snorri was planning on following her around until he could change both of those things.

And now she was darting between the tables, moving at a speed he hadn’t known she reached, shouting “Uncle Professor Leo Inazuma!”

Professor? Snorri followed her, albeit at a much more sedate pace. Two kids from last year – Apollo, wearing a collar like the dumbass he was, and Olindo, looking way too pleased with himself – were flanking a tall blonde man with a full rack of antlers.

He caught up just as the blonde man was setting Felicite down from a tight hug. “How’s it going, Lita? Doing well in your classes?”

“They’re okay. Nothing too hard,” she shrugged, “not after Doomsday. I’ve met some nice people here, but I still miss home.”

Snorri didn’t miss that there was something funny in the way she said nice. It looked like the blond man noticed, too. His eyes scanned the dining hall. Snorri did his best to look innocuous and uninvolved.

“Home home, or Cloverleaf home?” he asked, as if he wasn’t looking for threats.

Cloverleaf. Doomsday. No wonder she was so far ahead in classes. And the blond man, then, Uncle Leo…

He didn’t really need a Kept this year. But someone had to keep Felicite safe, or the school was going to be a sinking crater.

More: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1070253.html

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