Chapter 11 CHAPTER ELEVEN
AERIS
“Aeris, get up. Get up..get UP!”
Rhea yanked the blankets off me with the determination of someone peeling bark off a tree.
I groaned into my pillow. “What..why did something explode?”
“Yes,” she said in a grave voice. “Your schedule.”
I cracked one eye open. Rhea stood over me, fully dressed in her uniform, belt tightened, hair braided neatly down her back. She looked disgustingly awake.
“How are you alive right now?” I muttered.
“Because I slept like a responsible adult”
I pushed myself upright, hair a wild, tangled mess. My entire body felt like it had been borrowed from someone else and didn’t fit properly.
“What time is it?” I croaked.
“Almost six.” Rhea tossed my uniform onto the bed. “And assembly starts in thirty minutes. All squads. All instructors. All first-years. If we walk in late, everyone will stare. I refuse to be stared at.”
“That’s dramatic.”
“It’s accurate.”
I dragged myself to the washroom, rubbing sleep from my eyes. The floor was cold, the air colder, and the mirror absolutely ruthless.
I looked like a woodland gremlin.
The wash basin’s enchanted water warmed as I splashed my face, chasing away the last of sleep. I brushed my teeth, smoothed my hair into something less chaotic, and scrubbed my skin until it felt awake.
“Aeris, we’re going to be late!” Rhea called as she paced outside the door.
“I’m moving,” I said around a mouthful of mint.
“Move faster!”
By the time I stepped out, she fixed a wrinkle in my uniform, brushed dust off my sleeve, and shoved my boots into my arms.
We grabbed our satchels and stepped into the hallway where cadets were rushing out of every room, boots thumping, tunics swishing, voices echoing in sleepy clusters.
Some stretched. Some yawned. Some were practicing tiny spells in their palms even as they walked.
The air buzzed with nervous excitement.
First official day.
Real classes.
Real instructors.
Real training.
My stomach fluttered.
We followed the river of students down the corridor, across the courtyard where morning fog still clung to the stone paths like restless spirits, and into the vast atrium that served as the Academy’s central gathering hall.
Every squad was already assembled.
The Silver Hounds.
The Iron Fangs.
The Shadow Foxes.
Even the Golden Lynx, their silver-and-gold uniforms gleaming unnaturally in the lantern glow, stood in perfect formation. My gaze swept over them, searching instinctively—
There.
Kaelia.
Front row, chin high, every inch the prodigy the world worshipped her to be.
Our eyes met.
Her mouth twitched…half a smirk, half a silent taunt and she looked away as if the sight of me bored her.
Typical.
Beside me, Rhea exhaled shakily. “Gods… this is a lot.”
I nodded, clutching my satchel closer to my chest.
We wove through cadets until we found our squad gathered near the left wall. Some looked tense, others wide-eyed, and a few were whispering nervously to one another. I recognized several from the forest trial,faces marked with exhaustion, determination, or quiet fear.
Before anyone could speak, a sharp voice cut through the air.
“Attention!”
The entire hall fell silent.
A tall woman in dark, rune-stitched robes stepped onto the raised platform. When she spoke, her voice flowed effortlessly across the atrium, steady and commanding.
“Welcome, first-year cadets. Today marks the beginning of your foundational training. You will attend courses in elemental basics, magical theory, physical conditioning, and battlefield awareness.”
Rhea leaned toward me. “Battlefield? Already?”
I elbowed her before she could continue.
The woman’s expression remained unreadable as she went on:
“Your instructors will teach you theory, structure, and control. Your captains will handle your practical training and combat readiness. Both are essential.” She lifted one hand, and the floor beneath us glowed with shifting lines of light.
“Your schedules have been assigned. Your classes will take place in the main academic wing. Follow your designated path. Disperse.”
Just like that, the crowd broke apart…organized chaos, each squad following the glowing trails beneath their feet.
Ours pulsed a deep blue.
“Elemental Basics first,” Rhea murmured, excitement crackling at the edges of her voice.
We followed the trail through arched corridors until we reached a tall wooden door marked with swirling glyphs. The moment we stepped inside, the smell of parchment, herbs, and faint smoke filled my senses.
The room was circular, lined with shelves of crystal vials, jars of dried leaves, glowing stones, and spell-scrolls wound too tightly to be harmless.
Cadets filtered in, finding seats at long, rune-carved desks.
A moment later, the instructor entered.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, with streaks of silver in his dark hair and eyes the color of polished steel. A subtle aura crackled around him—controlled, sharp, undeniable power.
He set a stack of tomes on the front desk and regarded us with a measured, almost amused expression.
“Good morning, first-years,” he said. “My name is Vale Ardyn, and I will be teaching Elemental Basics and Magical Theory.”
His gaze swept the room, lingering on each of us just long enough to make nerves prickle.
“You are not here to unleash your magic,” he said. “You are here to understand it. To shape it. To command it without losing yourselves.”
He tapped a finger against one of the tomes.
“In this room, you will learn the principles of elemental balance, the laws that govern power, and the dangers of magic without discipline.”
Rhea straightened beside me like a student desperate to impress.
Vale’s voice softened but only slightly.
“Power is not earned through force. It is earned through knowledge. By the time I am finished with you, you will either understand that…”
He paused, his eyes narrowing with a hint of challenge.
“…or you will break trying.”
Excitement and fear tangled in my chest.
Rhea mouthed, oh great, which almost made me snort.
Vale opened the first tome.
“Now let us begin.”
Vale placed his palm flat against the surface of the desk.
“Before we begin theory,” he said, “you must understand one truth.”
He lifted his hand.
At first, nothing happened.
Then…crack.
A thin line of lightning danced across his knuckles, curling upward like a living thing. Gasps rippled through the room. The air hummed, warm and sharp, prickling across my skin.
Rhea’s fingers dug into the edge of her desk.
Vale didn’t seem bothered by the raw energy sizzling in his hand.
“Magic is alive. It breathes with you. It listens. And it punishes carelessness.”
The lightning snapped into a coil above his palm,then shifted.
The glow dimmed, softened, turning from harsh white to a warm ember-orange. Fire swirled, condensing into a floating sphere of flame. He closed his fingers around it, and the flame shifted again deepening into a droplet of churning water.
The class collectively leaned forward.
Vale’s tone remained calm, almost bored.
“The four elemental states are connected…fluid. A mage with control can move between them. A mage without control…”
The water suddenly sharpened into a shard of ice—thin, glinting, deadly.
“…freezes their own arm off.”
Vale flicked his wrist.
The shard shattered into dust and dissolved into the air.
Silence throbbed through the classroom.
“Your goal,” he said, “is not to recreate what I just showed. None of you have the stability for that. Your goal is to understand the principle behind it.”
He drew a simple circle on the board with a piece of enchanted chalk.
“Elemental behavior depends on intent, emotional clarity, and energy distribution. Think of your magic as a limb..if you swing wildly, you hit nothing. If you move with precision, you strike exactly as intended.”
He turned back to us.
“For today, we start small.”
On each desk, a tiny glass orb materialized,clear, faintly warm, shimmering with potential.
Vale gestured to them.
“These are focus orbs. They respond to your magic once you connect with them. Your task is simple: warm the orb.”
Simple.
Right.
On each desk, crystalline orbs pulsed faintly. Students pressed their palms to them one by one, and magic responded almost instantly. Flames flickered, water rippled, wind spiraled. Light and color bloomed across the room. Everyone moved with ease, sparks flying from their fingertips.
I pressed my palms to my orb. Nothing. I tried again. Still nothing. My fingers tingled with tension, the orb lying inert. I glanced around.
Panic edged my thoughts. Heat flared in my chest. The orb remained stubbornly dark. I could feel Vale’s eyes scanning the room, precise, sharp, and terrifying. I needed a miracle, or at least a distraction, before he noticed.
Heat prickled my skin, frustration coiling like a snake in my chest….i did and did again but the orb stayed dark.
I glanced around. Everyone else’s orbs glowed brilliantly. My heartbeat accelerated. Vale’s sharp eyes scanned the room, precise, calculating. I needed…something. Anything.
Before I could panic, I felt a subtle shift beside me. Rhea’s hand was on mine, steady and sure. In a heartbeat, the orb flared to life…soft, golden light blooming across its surface. I barely had time to register what had happened before Vale’s gaze passed us by.
The room buzzed with murmurs and flickers of magic.
My fingers trembled around the orb.
I swallowed hard, forcing my breath to slow.
Relief washed over me…sharp, dizzying, almost painful.
For now, at least…
I wasn’t exposed.
And that would have to be enough.