Chapter 25: The Gates of Erylwood Academy
They crested the last rise just as the fog finally gave up.
It didn't vanish all at once. It retreated in thin, reluctant veils, peeling back layer after layer until the world ahead stood clear.
Stone.
Steel.
And a wall that looked like it had been there long before any of them were born.
Erylwood Academy rose out of the ridge like a fortress carved from the mountain itself. The outer walls were pale granite streaked green with age, stitched with iron bands that glittered faintly with protective runes. Towers crowned the perimeter at even intervals, their roofs steep and dark, lanterns already burning under the gray morning sky.
Behind the wall, the campus stretched upward in terraces: arched statues, sloped rooftops, training courts, and the unmistakable shape of a central spire that caught the weak sunlight and threw it back like a blade.
Aiden slowed without meaning to.
So did everyone else.
Even the battered caravan—muddy, bandaged, shaken to their cores—fell into a hush that felt like reverence and disbelief in equal measure.
"We're here," Nellie whispered.
Her voice was tiny, but the words hit Aiden like a weight leaving his shoulders.
Myra stared openly, jaw slightly slack. "It's… bigger than I thought."
Runa, walking a step ahead, snorted. "That's what everyone says the first time. Then you get inside and realize half of it is stairs and rules."
Rhosyn lifted a hand to his riders, and the escort tightened around the caravan as they approached the gates.
The gates themselves were something else.
Two slabs of black iron taller than any beast Aiden had ever seen, engraved with looping sigils that crawled faintly with green light. The Academy crest sat above them: a stylized beast core split by a vertical blade, framed by a wreath of thorns.
The doors were closed.
But not locked.
Every step closer made the air feel denser, like the wards were tasting them.
Aiden felt the storm in his bones stir, not flaring, just curious. The lightning pup pressed against his calf with a low whine, ears flattened, as if it could feel the same pressure.
"Easy," Aiden murmured, scratching behind its ear. "We're not in trouble. I hope."
Runa's head tipped sideways. "That thing's not gonna like the wards. They bite lightning wrong."
Aiden blinked at her. "Bite?"
She shrugged. "You'll see."
They reached the final stretch of road.
A line of Academy staff waited at the gate: instructors in steel-green coats, clerks with ledger boards, healers with herb satchels, and a handful of older students standing at attention like they'd been ordered to play guard for the day.
One of the clerks stepped forward, a thin man with ink-stained fingers and a face built for rule-following.
"Captain Rhosyn Vale," he said, voice crisp as paper. "We received your tremor-sign. Is this the affected caravan?"
"Yes," Rhosyn replied. "They're shaken and wounded. The Hollow breached. Aberration incident. Survivors only by intervention."
The clerk's eyes widened slightly. He signaled to two healers.
"Begin medical triage. Anyone seriously injured goes to the infirmary immediately. Anyone stable goes to Holding Hall."
He turned his gaze to the three of them.
Aiden felt it like a spotlight.
"You." The clerk's eyes flicked to Myra, then Nellie, then Aiden. "Names?"
"Aiden Raikos," Aiden said.
"Myra Lynell."
"Nellie Tinkwhistle," Nellie squeaked.
The clerk scribbled quickly, then paused as his eyes dropped to Nellie's height.
"…Gnome?"
Nellie stiffened.
Aiden opened his mouth.
But Nellie lifted her chin first, voice wobbling but firm. "Yes. Exchange placement under the Northroot Accord. Healing track."
The clerk blinked, then nodded briskly. "Very well. Your placement is recognized."
Nellie's shoulders loosened by a fraction.
Runa muttered under her breath, "See? Told you they don't care if you earned it."
Nellie shot her a grateful look that might've lit a lantern if the fog wasn't already gone.
A healer approached the trio, her expression kind but businesslike. "Any immediate injuries I should know?"
Aiden almost said no.
Then he remembered his arm numbness, his cracked ribs that weren't cracked but felt like it, the sandpaper scrape down his throat, the lingering tremor in his vision.
"My head's been ringing," he admitted. "And… I used something. Lightning. I don't know how much."
The healer's eyes narrowed with a healer's kind of alarm. She lifted two fingers and pressed them softly at his neck.
"Your pulse is steady. But you're running resonance shock." She looked at the pup and flinched faintly when a spark crawled along its fur. "And that beast is bound to you?"
Aiden hesitated, glancing around.
There were too many eyes.
Too many ears.
Rhosyn's voice cut in before he could answer. "Private matter. The boy saved the caravan. The beast chose him during the incident."
The healer studied Rhosyn, then Aiden, then the pup again.
She didn't argue.
"Fine. But you will be evaluated before trials. Understood?"
Trials.
The word hit like a small stone dropped into still water.
Myra's mouth opened. "Trials start tomorrow, don't they?"
"They start when the Academy says they start," the healer replied bluntly. "And yes. For you? Tomorrow."
Myra looked like she wanted to groan and cry at the same time.
Nellie whispered, "We haven't even slept."
Runa snorted. "Welcome to Erylwood."
The clerk lifted his ledger again. "Aiden Raikos. Myra Lynell. Nellie Tinkwhistle. Because of the Aberration incident, you three are placed under special holding until your assessment. You will be housed in the Arrival Wing tonight."
"Special holding?" Myra repeated, bristling.
"It's not punishment," Rhosyn said quietly behind her. "It means you're under observation instead of tossed into the regular dorm line. For your safety."
"And their curiosity," Runa muttered.
Aiden didn't miss that.
Neither did Myra.
They were led forward.
The gates parted.
Not with a creak.
With a low, deep hum—like stone breathing.
Sigils flared softly along the doors as they opened, green light running up the iron in a ripple that felt almost alive.
Aiden stepped through.
The pressure hit him the moment he crossed the threshold.
Not painful.
Not hostile.
But dense, like walking into a storm that hadn't decided whether it liked you yet.
His skin prickled.
The lightning pup stiffened, sparks crawling up its spine in a nervous scatter. It made a tiny unhappy sound and pressed against Aiden's shin.
Aiden felt the wards brush him like a hand testing for blades.
The System did not flare.
Whatever it was in him, it stayed quiet.
That alone made him breathe easier.
Then the wards brushed the pup.
A sharp crackle snapped through the air.
The pup yelped and recoiled, fur puffing in a bright halo.
Aiden's heart jerked. "Hey—!"
Runa was already kneeling.
She pressed a gloved hand gently over the pup's head and murmured something in a low language Aiden didn't recognize. Her tone was rough but soothing, like a mountain woman talking a frightened goat off a cliff.
The pup flinched once more.
Then settled against her hand.
The sparks dulled.
Aiden stared.
"Wards don't hurt," Runa said quietly without looking up. "They just… don't like lightning beasts. It's like two storms meeting and deciding who owns the sky."
She glanced at Aiden then, eyes sharp. "Keep it close. If it runs, the wards might push back harder."
Aiden nodded, throat tight. "Thanks."
Runa stood, dusting her knees. "Don't thank me. It's small."
Then she paused, gaze flicking to Nellie.
"…You okay?"
Nellie blinked rapidly. "Y-yes. I'm okay. I'm just—this is a lot."
Runa nodded once. "Academy's always a lot."
Something in her voice was gentle, even when her face wasn't.
Nellie's ears—just slightly pointed under her curls, something most people missed unless they were looking—pinked faintly.
Myra noticed.
Aiden noticed Myra noticing.
He almost laughed.
They followed the staff deeper into the grounds.
Inside the walls, Erylwood felt like a city.
Stone walkways arched across terraced gardens. Statues of ancient beastbinders stood at intersections, each one holding a different weapon, each one carved with the same calm expression like they'd already survived everything waiting for these students.
Students moved through the halls in small clusters, some in uniform already, some still in travel gear. Heads turned.
Eyes followed.
Whispers spilled like wind through reeds.
Aiden felt them before he heard them.
"That's him."
"The Aberration survivors."
"Is that a lightning cub?"
"Who bonds a storm beast on the road?"
Myra stiffened beside him.
Nellie shrank half a step closer to Aiden.
The pup growled softly.
Rhosyn didn't look back. "Ignore them. Curiosity burns out fast when the next rumor arrives."
"That doesn't make it feel better," Myra muttered.
"It will," Runa said flatly. "Or you'll learn to stand with it on your shoulders."
Myra shot her a look. "Got any other cheerful advice?"
Runa kept walking. "Not really."
They reached the Arrival Wing by late morning.
It was a wide stone building tucked against the inner wall—older than most of the campus, built more like a barracks than a dormitory. Lanterns burned along its eaves. The inside smelled like old wood, clean sheets, and faint incense.
Clerks handed them wooden tokens for temporary rooms.
"Three beds each. Separate from the main dorms." The clerk paused, then added, "No leaving after curfew. Not until your assessment."
Myra narrowed her eyes again. "Observation."
"Safety," the clerk repeated.
Nellie whispered, "Let's just sleep."
Aiden agreed.
They were guided to a small room on the second floor.
It wasn't fancy.
But it was solid.
A narrow window. Three cots with wool blankets. A washbasin. A closet. A table already set with travel rations and a small kettle.
Aiden stepped inside and felt something in his chest unclench so hard it almost hurt.
Walls.
A roof.
No fog crawling like a living thing.
Myra dropped her pack and collapsed onto the nearest cot.
"I'm not moving until someone physically drags me," she declared into the blanket.
Nellie sat on the edge of her cot, legs dangling because she was too short to touch the floor comfortably. She swung them once, twice, then let out a breath that looked like it carried half the road with it.
"We're really here," she murmured.
"We're really here," Aiden echoed.
The pup paced twice, sniffed each cot, then hopped onto the floor beside Aiden's bed and flopped down like it had run out of options and decided this was home now.
Aiden knelt and scratched behind its ear.
Its eyes fluttered.
It fell asleep almost instantly.
Myra watched, softened by exhaustion. "It trusts you."
Aiden swallowed. "Yeah."
Nellie hesitated, then scooted closer on her cot. "It's… not scary anymore."
"It's still scary," Myra said dryly. "Just less so now that it's not trying to electrocute the world."
Nellie giggled quietly.
Aiden leaned against the wall.
For the first time in what felt like weeks, silence felt safe.
They washed up. Ate in slow, tired bites. Rations never tasted as good as they did when you weren't sure you'd live to chew them.
The afternoon drifted by in a haze. A rider came once to check on their condition. A healer came twice, prodding Aiden's pulse and checking Myra's bruises and Nellie's shaking hands.
By evening, the Academy bell tolled—a deep, low sound that rolled through the campus like a heartbeat.
Curfew.
Lights dimmed in the corridor.
The world outside their window turned the color of ash.
And the quiet thickened.
Myra lay on her cot, staring at the ceiling. "So tomorrow is trials."
Nellie swallowed. "I thought we already proved ourselves by not dying."
"They like formal suffering," Myra muttered.
Aiden let out a tired breath. "We'll get through it."
"Confident," Myra said.
"Not confident. Just…" He searched for the word. "Still moving."
Nellie nodded slowly. "I like that."
A knock came at the door.
All three of them went still.
Myra reached for the short training knife she kept in her boot. Old habit.
Aiden rose quietly, careful not to wake the pup.
He opened the door a crack.
A young Academy attendant stood there holding a sealed envelope and a lantern.
"Message for Aiden Raikos," she said softly. "From Headmistress Selvara."
Aiden's heart stuttered.
"Headmistress?" Myra whispered from behind him.
The attendant didn't look at her. She only held out the envelope.
Aiden took it.
The wax seal was deep green, stamped with the Academy crest.
"You are requested at the Spire Hall at dawn," the attendant said. Her voice was neutral, but her eyes were not.
They held a flicker of curiosity.
And something like warning.
Aiden swallowed. "Why?"
"I don't ask," she replied. "I deliver."
Then she turned and walked away, lantern bobbing down the corridor until darkness swallowed her whole.
Aiden shut the door slowly.
Myra sat up. "What did she want with you?"
He stared at the envelope.
"I don't know," he admitted.
Nellie slid off her cot, bare feet whispering on stone. "Dawn… that's before trials."
Myra's eyes narrowed. "That's not normal."
Runa's voice drifted faintly from the corridor outside—she was somewhere down the hall, speaking to staff. Her tone was low and annoyed:
"…so you want the survivors assessed early. Fine. But don't make it a spectacle."
Aiden met Myra's gaze.
Something in his ribs tightened again.
The calm of the Arrival Wing didn't feel as safe anymore.
Not with that seal in his hand.
Not with the warded walls humming faintly beneath the floor.
Not with the storm in him stirring like it recognized a name it hadn't heard in years.
Myra's voice dropped to a whisper. "Aiden… what if they know?"
"Know what?" Nellie asked, alarmed.
Aiden didn't answer.
Because he didn't know what "they" meant.
The System.
The pup.
The fog-entity.
The Aberration.
His storm.
Everything.
He looked down at the sealed envelope again.
The wax glinted in the lantern light like a green eye opening.
And somewhere beyond the Academy walls—
far past the ridge, beyond the marsh, behind stone and fog—
something old rumbled in its sleep, as if it had heard his name spoken in a place it could not reach.
Aiden exhaled slowly.
"Get some sleep," he said finally, voice calm even when he didn't feel it. "We need it."
Myra studied him for a long beat, then lay back down.
Nellie hesitated, then climbed onto her cot again.
Aiden set the envelope on the table.
The pup sighed in its sleep.
The Academy bells faded into silence.
And the night held its breath.
Because dawn was coming.
And the Headmistress wanted to see him first.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Alright, real talk for a second.
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