Styx Oathmaker

Styx was dimunitive. Small and thin, she didn't seem like anyone who mattered. She seemed like those sort of people around the class that everyone knew but hardly ever registered the presence of. She knew that for a fact. She knew that solidly ever since eight months ago, in the early times of the year and guessed it prior. And she ignored the stares that came with being new and headed straight for where she knew she would belong. Right behind Kestrel and in front of Lethe. Thus she greeted them.
"Hello, Kestrel. My name is Styx Oathmaker."
"Wait, how did you know my name?" Kestrel turned, curiosity evident.
"Ways and means. And I also know that your boyfriend here is called Cocytus Greywing and the two people behind me are Lethe Glimmergaunt and Lacier Eves." She said, a smile on her face.
Cocytus had turned around and was listening intently. "Styx, huh. I don't suppose that you know what everybody here is thinking." He uttered, sarcastically and staring at her with intense eyes.
"Actually, as a matter of fact, I do. And I came here to sit because I know that you four would accept a fellow freak." she replied, still maintaining that maddeningly mysterious smile on her face. Oh, she would tell them, but the fun was in making people squirm, wasn't it?

Lacier called up from behind, having heard her words. "Although we do have magic and stuff and I've read about those technology that's still struggling to read minds, you can't be telepathic."
"Why not?"
"Well, I don't.. It's just..Ugh, since you're telepathic, tell me in the exact words what I want to say then!"
"You wanted to say 'She's just acting cool, she can't read my mind' and now you're being very annoyed and very surprised that I got it right down to the last words. Ok, I'll stop that. Hard to be friends if you're gonna be a bitch to them, aye?" Styx said it matter-of-factly, and tried to put a sincere tone into her words.
And if you didn't believe me, this is proof, she thought out to them.

"So you are telepathic. That's... cool? I suppose. Born with it?" Cocytus said uncertainly, still caught flat-footed by this turn of events. He certainly didn't expect her to really be telepathic.
"Nope. Got it on my 17th birthday. That would be about eight months ago, I think." Styx said, not without a tone of smugness in her gift. "Just woke up hearing people's thoughts all of a sudden. But, before you ask, it's not active all the time. I can just sort of shut it down as and when I want it so it's not like those books where the telepath needs some crazy amount of self-control. Utter rubbish."
"Cool, but can you not read our minds without our permission? It's.... intrusive. And can you create a passive mind link between all of us? Like those fiction where the link sends general emotions and locations and whether the others are in danger and such stuff." Kestrel spoke as if Styx was already in their group. Which was probably true.
"Perhaps. At any rate, I promise not to read your minds without prior permission." Styx said, although she sounded slightly unwilling. She had had too much freedom in people's minds and was not used to blocking herself off intentionally.
Lacier spoke up suddenly, to the quiet girl by his side. "Lethe? You've been really quiet today. Is anything wrong?" All of a sudden, the group's attention shifted to her.

Lethe was dressed oddly. She usually wore her knee-length pants and typically opted for shirts with sleeves that ended a space before the elbow and with the shirt leaving her belly exposed. However, she was wearing long jeans that obscured every part of her lower body, even her ankles regardless of how she moved her legs. Her shirt's sleeves were longer, ending about a finger's length in front of the elbow. Her shirt was longer and reached down to her jeans, a notable difference. Not just that, but she eschewed her jacket which was similar to a vest and wore a hoodie with sleeves that covered practically everything but her hands. But you couldn't see her hands. She wore gloves over them, basically obscuring as much of her skin as possible. Her mismatched eyes were deep in thought, and she shook herself out of her reverie.

Ignoring Lacier's question, Lethe asked Styx urgently. "On your 17th birthday? It occurred exactly on that day, yes?"
"Uh, yeah, why? Is there something wrong?" Styx said, unaccustomed to not knowing people's thoughts and troubles.
"I..." She took a deep breath, "Today's my 17th birthday." Nobody interrupted, sensing more to come. "I.. Every morning you all know the alarm and all, right? When I went to the common bathroom, I brushed past someone accidently as I walked past. I... You're not going to believe this." Lethe exhaled.
"We will, who says we won't?" Lacier said, deeply concerned.
"My skin touched hers, and at that moment I knew her. I mean, I knew her memory. I'm not putting this properly. I.. All her memory of everything she ever knew or did or said or heard was all given to me. In that moment. I know all of her secrets. I know that she locked up a rabbit once in a cupboard and only opened it after three days when the whining from the inside stopped." Lethe continued, in a monotonous, yet urgent voice which caused them to worry for her. She sounded ever more desperate. "She took it out when it was dead and threw it into the bin. At the age of ten, she lied and got her friend to be arrested for breaking something which she broke. She pickpocketed an old woman's money, money that was all of her life's savings and just spent it on a game. She burnt alive a dog, just for being so dirty. She sold drugs to children who don't know better. She drags people she knows into smoking and narcotics. She did such terrible things. She still does them. And she knows what she's done. I know her inside out. Every single thought, action and whatever she saw and knew. Everything. Her whole life was laid bare to me in that moment." Lethe shivered, face as pale as a sheet. Cold sweat started to flow. "In one moment, I knew her from egg to now. Every damn bit of her, every bad thing she did. I can't take this, I just can't. It's too much to absorb in one moment. Seventeen years of life shown in one moment. Maybe I'll get used to it, but right now I can't take it." By then Lethe was sobbing, emotionally wrecked and ruined. For once, her discordant eyes were the same colour, not just the iris, or the whites, but the whole orb, a same bright, bloody red.