The princess's expression shifted. The ice-queen facade melted just enough to reveal a very warm expression that was almost chummy.
"First," she said, her voice gentler now, "let me apologize. You've been brought here against your will, torn from your world, and your arrival has been... traumatic." Her eyes flicked to the bodies, and something painful crossed her face. "For all of this, I am deeply sorry."
The sincerity in her voice caught me off guard. I'd expected royal arrogance, maybe some cryptic destiny speech. Not an actual apology.
Sakura bowed again, though less deeply this time. "Thank you. We... appreciate that."
The princess straightened, clasping her hands in front of her. "My name is Princess Elara Ashford of the Kingdom of Dranait. And you are no longer on Earth."
There it was. Confirmation of what we'd all been thinking but were too terrified to fully accept.
Someone behind me whimpered. I didn't blame them.
"You are in Ferelden," Elara continued. "A world that is, I'm afraid, dying."
Well, that's cheerful.
"For the past decade, our continent has been consumed by what we call the Void Plague." She gestured to one of the stained-glass windows. Now that I looked closer, I could see what it depicted—darkness swallowing cities, tendrils of black eating through reality itself. "It's not a disease in the traditional sense. It's a corruption of reality itself, caused by demons breaking through the barriers we created to keep them out."
I felt my mouth go dry. Demons. She said demons like it was a weather report.
"Entire kingdoms have fallen," Elara said quietly. "Cities have been erased from existence. The plague spreads slowly but inevitably, and everything it touches simply... ceases to be. We've been fighting back for years, but we're losing."
The silence in the temple was absolute. Even the priests had stopped glaring at us, their faces grim.
"We were desperate," Elara continued. "Which is why, three months ago, our kingdom's greatest mage—the head of our Mage Council—received a prophecy."
She paused, her composure wavering for just a moment.
"Her name was Calliope."
Was. Past tense.
I looked at the bodies on the floor again. Ten mages, she'd said. The top ten mages in the kingdom.
Oh.
"Calliope was brilliant," Elara said, and now there was no hiding the emotion in her voice. "The most powerful mage our kingdom had seen in generations. She was also..." She swallowed. "She was my friend. My best friend."
The warmth in her voice when she said that name made something in my chest tighten. This wasn't just a princess delivering bad news. This was someone talking about a person they'd lost.
"Her prophecy spoke of heroes from another world," Elara continued, recovering her composure with visible effort. "Five champions who would possess the power to combat the Void Plague. The prophecy was specific—five from Earth, summoned through a ritual that would require immense magical power."
Heroes? I almost chuckled but stifled it just in time. I wasn't so sure anyone in our class qualified for that term.
She gestured to the bodies around us.
"These ten mages—the most powerful in our kingdom, led by Calliope—they attempted the summoning ritual today. They were supposed to bring only five of you." Her eyes swept across our group of twenty. "She was so sure it will work but something went very wrong."
"Yeah, no kidding," I muttered. Several people shot me looks. What? Someone had to say it.
Elara's lips twitched in what might have been the ghost of a smile. "The ritual succeeded in bringing you here, but the parameters were exceeded. Instead of five heroes, twenty students were transported. And the magical backlash..." She looked at the bodies, and her voice cracked slightly. "It killed them all instantly."
Yuki was crying silently, tears streaming down her face. A few others had joined her though theirs was more dramatic. Seriously, I didn't know what was wrong with these priests. Several of them were still shooting dirty looks at us. We were stuck in another world because of a magic spell gone wrong, none of which was our fault.
If anything, we should be the ones doing all this. I looked over at Yuki to see if she also found it silly but to my surprise, she looked sober as if she also wanted to cry.
Men, I could never understand women.
"I'm so sorry," Sakura said softly and some other girls chorused behind her. "About Calliope. About all of them."
Elara nodded then wiped her face with the back of her hand. When she did, her voice was steady again, that royal composure sliding back into place like armor.
"The summoning cannot be reversed," she said. "At least, not with our current knowledge since all our top mages are dead. You are here, in Ferelden, and I'm afraid you're going to have to stay." She held up a hand before the panic could start. "But you are not prisoners. You are guests of the kingdom, and you will be treated as such while you learn and train. We will provide you with everything you need—shelter, food, education about our world."
"And in exchange?" Daichi couldn't help himself. "You want us to fight your demon plague?"
"Well, you're here now, a lot of people died for you to come here," Elara said firmly looking him squarely in the eyes.
There was an uncomfortable silence in the hall and I observed everyone else in the hall staring at Daichi with open hostility.
It seems it was strange for anyone to openly challenge the princess which was what he was doing.
"However," she continued, "the prophecy did specify that the summoned heroes would have the ability to fight the Void. Which the mages that died imbued in the spell that was used to summon you here."
Magic. She was talking about magic.
My exhausted, overwhelmed brain latched onto that with desperate interest. Everything still seemed like a dream to me. I felt like a character in one of the animes I watched.
Elara turned to the priests. "High Priest Aldric, please fetch the Awakening Orb."
The old priest's eyebrows shot up. "Your Highness, what do we do if they don't—"
"Let's take it gradually," Elara said, cutting him off.
Aldric looked like he wanted to argue, but he bowed, and shuffled off toward a side door, muttering under his breath.
"What's an Awakening Orb?" Sakura asked which made me grit my teeth.
I mean, how naive could she be. Didn't she read or watch fantasy.
"A tool for measuring magical potential," Elara explained. "It will assess each of you and determine if you possess the ability to use magic, and if so, what your affinity might be."
A ripple of whispers spread through our class. I caught fragments:
"—magic? Actual magic?"
"—like a video game—"
"—this is insane—"
I felt it too. That little spike of excitement cutting through the fear and confusion. Because yeah, we were stuck in another world. Yeah, ten people were dead. Yeah, everything was terrifying.
But magic.
We might be able to use actual magic.
Even Daichi looked interested, his earlier belligerence forgotten.
Yuki wiped her eyes, curiosity replacing some of the fear on her face. Around the altar, my classmates were straightening up, leaning forward slightly.
Princess Elara watched us with something that might have been sympathy.
High Priest Aldric returned, carrying a pulsing blue shimmering crystal sphere about the size of a basketball.
My heart was hammering.
This was really happening.
Magic was really happening.
"Who wants to go first?" Elara asked.