Sunlight slanted through the spire windows, catching on swirling dust motes and the catastrophe that was Headmaster Lysandra's desk.
Papers, tea mugs, rune stamps, and half-finished reports lay in chaotic stacks, threatening to avalanche at any moment.
She flipped a folder open with all the energy of someone who had read far too many of these.
"Average… average… perfectly average."
She dropped it onto the floor. "Do I really have to personally go through all of these?"
She reached for the next file—
Then stopped.
A folder slid into view, as if the Academy itself had decided to scold her. She sighed dramatically.
"Alright. Let's see the watchlist this time."
"Let's see… Theo Finn."
She tapped the page. "Fast, talented, loud. Predictable."
Next file.
"May Arctis. Quiet, sharp, apologizes for apologizing. Also predictable."
Another page.
"Sera Taylor."
She paused, exhaling. "Stage Three at her age. And a duke's daughter. Wonderful. Another wildfire."
She flipped again.
"Ryn Eden… still classified?"
She frowned. "The Guild really expects me to supervise a student they won't even describe? Fabulous."
Then two handwritten names appeared at the bottom of the stack.
"Aston… and Vale…" She read the note.
"Flagged by Ceres? Now that's interesting, the man barely even goes out of his own home.
Lysandra sat back, finally interested.
"Well. There's my six," she murmured. "At least this year won't be boring."
She stood, brushing off her coat.
"Time to meet the new disasters."
***
"Ouch."
Alain jerked his hand back, shaking his fingers. A tiny spark of ether still danced at his knuckles, fading with a hiss.
Lia leaned back, head tilted. "You okay?"
Alain nodded. "...Yeah, just got this weird feeling."
He flexed his hand once more, but the warmth beneath his skin had already faded. The rune on his palm lay still, faint lines dim under the light. Whatever it was, it's familiar.
He shook the thought away
"Good luck, you two." Ceres said, before rolling the windows back up and driving away.
They both looked at each other and nodded. This was the start.
The gates of the Academy loomed ahead. Not just tall, but impossibly vast. Two marble statues flanked the entrance, one of an old man with an eyepatch and the other of a plated warrior carrying a huge hammer.
Wait, these are…Odin and Thor. Was this…?
Alain shuddered and decided to stop thinking about it.
The gates themselves shimmered, engraved with living script that rearranged with every breath of wind. Towers blooming from the mountainside like frozen spires of light.
Bridges of crystal arched between the higher platforms, each one humming with ether currents that painted the air in faint trails of color, almost like an artificial aurora.
Lia slowed beside him, her voice barely a whisper. "It's… unreal."
Alain could only nod. The Academy felt less like a school and more like a cathedral built to worship the idea of knowledge itself.
Ahead stood hundreds, if not thousands of applicants filled the grand plaza. However, the main attraction was the large marble steps that led up to a wooden grand entrance door.
"... Let's head inside. Oh, remember to put your glove on." Alain pointed.
"Right, Ceres did say we should stay low-key for now," Lia replied.
They hadn't even taken ten steps before the whispers started, not about them, but about the people standing near the front.
A small circle of students occupied the top of those marble stairs. The distance between them and the rest of the crowd was massive, as though distance itself was respect.
No one stepped closer. The open space between the nobles and everyone else looked like a border drawn in light. Invisible, yet absolute.
"...You've got to be kidding," Alain muttered.
They tried to move with the crowd, but the current stopped dead at that invisible line. Every applicant pressed forward just enough to see but not enough to offend.
The chatter dimmed to whispers, a collective hesitation thickening the air.
At the top stood a group of six; nobles, unmistakably. Their robes shimmered with inlaid ether-thread, each crest brighter than the next. Even from below, Alain could see the faint glimmer of runes.
They looked like they'd been carved from marble to match the Academy's façade.
Lia squinted. "Why's everyone just standing here?"
"Because apparently, gravity reverses for nobles," Alain hissed.
She looked at him, then at the open steps.
"...So if we just go up—"
"Don't even think about it."
But she was already thinking about it. He could see it in her smile.
"Lia."
"Alain."
"Don't."
She took a step forward.
"Lia!"
Before he could stop her, she slipped through the crowd, polite, calm, and utterly unconcerned with the stares that immediately followed.
Her braid brushed her back as she stepped across that invisible boundary, her boots clicking against the marble like a stone thrown into still water.
The murmuring started instantly.
Alain froze. From the back, her swaying white hair, along with her calm expression, did somehow match the others.
Every instinct screamed at him to disappear, but instead, he found himself chasing after her.
Alain whispered through clenched teeth, "Do you want to get vaporized?"
The nobles turned toward them as they ascended. Six sets of eyes: sharp, distant, unreadable. None of them spoke, but the silence carried its own pressure.
Lia smiled politely as if she were passing through a marketplace instead of trespassing into divine territory.
"Excuse us," she said, slipping between two of them with disarming grace.
Alain followed half a step behind, bowing awkwardly to no one in particular. "Do you guys…uhhh, know where we can register?"
For a heartbeat, silence hung heavy.
Then one of the nobles, tall, blonde, deep-blue eyes, and extremely good-looking, burst out laughing.
He laughed hard enough that a few of his companions shot him questioning looks, but he didn't care. "
"You two—" he said between chuckles, "just walked through everyone like that was normal."
Lia blinked innocently. "Was it not?"
That sent him into another small fit of laughter. "Oh, that's perfect," he said, shaking his head.
The noble finished laughing, to the relief of everyone at the scene.
"Theo," he said easily, closing the distance in two steps. Before Alain could react, the boy had slung an arm over his shoulder with the casual confidence of someone who'd decided they were already friends.
Theo didn't seem to notice the sudden silence that fell across the plaza, or the dozens of stares drilling into them. If he did, he clearly didn't care.
"Good timing," he said easily, steering Alain toward the open space atop the stairs.
"They'll start the registration call soon. Best spot's up here, you'll see everything before the mob floods in."
"Wait, up here?" Alain hissed. "Isn't this—"
"Reserved for people with good taste in company?" Theo grinned. "Exactly. You're fine."
Lia blinked as he waved her up, then shrugged and followed without hesitation. "Thanks," she said simply.
Theo gave her an approving nod. "See? She gets it."
Below them, the murmurs had begun in earnest. Whispers rippled through the crowd as the nobles who had been standing around Theo exchanged bewildered glances, but said nothing.
Lia slipped to a nearby open space, next to a girl carrying a large stack of books.
Lia noticed her almost immediately. "Oh! You're carrying so much. Do you need help?"
The girl startled, nearly dropping her scrolls. "N-no, thank you! I've got it—"
Lia was already reaching out, steadying the top of the pile before it tipped over. "There, see? Crisis averted."
The noble girl blinked, her composure briefly scrambled. "I… wasn't expecting anyone to—uh—help."
"Why not?" Lia asked, smiling.
"Most people don't speak to me unless they need references or family citations."
"Family citations?" Alain muttered. "That's a thing?"
The girl looked between them, flustered. "It's… a recordkeeping thing. My family maintains the Academy's Library."
Lia's eyes lit up. "So you're basically the reason the Academy runs! That's amazing."
The noble's face went pink almost instantly. "I—I wouldn't say that. The Archivist does most of the work."
"What's your name?" Lia asked, tilting her head.
"May," she said quietly. "May Arctis."
"Nice to meet you, May." Lia's grin softened into something warm and genuine.
May blinked, "You…you're very strange."
Lia laughed. "I get that a lot."
The two girls started chatting back and forth, unaware of the stares coming from below.
Theo looked at Alain, who only replied with a shrug.
Before either could say more, a low rumble rolled through the plaza, silencing the crowd. The great wooden doors began to stir, mechanisms grinding as the door opened slowly.
The inside glow washed over them. The gates of Aesir Academy were finally open.