Many different students from different backgrounds attend the fantastical institution of higher learning known as "The College." They are the nameless, faceless strangers sitting in the next seat, or living in the next dorm room. As Chise begins to come out of her shell and interact with her classmates, she overhears a certain rumor about her roommate, Lucy...

Her name is Chise Hatori, a penniless orphan troubled by visions. Sold as a slave to an inhuman mage, she is about to begin a strange new life, filled with magic, fairies, and other beings of a fantastical nature.

KEEPING SECRETS Many different students from different backgrounds attend the fantastical institution of higher learning known as “The College.” They are the nameless, faceless strangers sitting in the next seat, or living in the next dorm room. As Chise begins to come out of her shell and interact with her classmates, she overhears a certain rumor about her roommate, Lucy...

Chise and her classmates at the College are forging new bonds and friendships, but while they look to the future, the past still has a powerful grip on the older generation--and the futures some of those elder alchemists are working toward aren't bright ones. Oblivious to the things taking place in the shadows, Chise and her friends head for the Scottish highlands on a training trip...only to find that many of the ancient neighbors who still walk the night there are less than welcoming.

As Chise and Elias settle into their new roles at the College, old and new allies alike have lessons to teach them both inside and outside the school's walls. The Church, the Seven Shields, and a motley array of students... Each has mysteries to uncover.

Chise is gradually learning how to understand both human nature and the whims of the fae, as well as how to balance them and walk her own path. Suddenly, she receives a mysterious letter from bustling London. What could an alchemist's apprentice want from her...? Find out in this long-awaited sixth volume, in a dark fairy tale romance between the human and the inhuman!

Now that Cartaphilus has chosen to enter a long slumber, peace has finally returned to the little cottage west of London. But it's not long before a message arrives for Chise: an invitation to join the college, a society of alchemists. Deep beneath the British Library, the curtain rises on a new story set on a new stage. There, human children learn, think, and grow...but what of those who are inhuman?