Sunny and Aelon were standing in front of the massive, seemingly indestructible red gates of the Awakened Academy. The Academy was, in fact, a city within the city. It was built like a fortress, with a high wall made of hard alloy, deep moat and numerous large-caliber turrets which were placed in certain positions to create a deadly air-suppression dome.
The snow was slowly falling to the ground. It was cold and silent in front of the Academy gates. Except for Sunny and Aelon, there was only one other person — another new Sleeper, if he had to guess.
It was a tall, slender girl of around Sunny's age, with clear grey eyes and a detached look on her face. She had strange, silver-white hair that was cut short and neatly parted to the side. Just like them, she was dressed in a police-issued tracksuit and had no personal belongings with her. On her head, there was a pair of old-fashioned headphones. She was calmly listening to music while they waited.
Immediately Sunny could feel Aelon shifting behind him, getting out of her sight.
'It seems like my flaw lessens the more I know a person... like exposure therapy.'
For the past few hours, Aelon had constantly been next to Sunny, and slowly he had gotten used to his presence, the anxiety and panic even reducing, but when he saw the grey eyed beauty, they lit up once again.
Sunny looked down at Aelon, who had an uncomfortable grim expression on his face, and then chuckled.
"You know, I defeated an Awakened Tyrant in my first nightmare, but girls never seem to stop being scary. Especially the beautiful ones."
Aelon could practically see how Sunny thought of Jet.
"A-an awakened tyrant?!" Aelon stared at him in disbelief, and then looked down. "Then you must've achieved a lot in your first nightmare, right?"
"Yes! I even made a dead god help me."
'Did he hallucinate? Or... the poor guy must've gone insane during his first nightmare. I can't blame him though...'
Seeing that the thirteen year old looked at him pitifully, Sunny got irritated, brows furrowing.
***
The Sleeper part of the compound was relatively small and situated in the southern part of the Academy, surrounded on all sides by training fields and parks.
It was a low, modern building constructed with reinforced materials. Like the majority of buildings in the Academy, most of it was hidden below the ground, leaving only a couple of floors above it. With its white, pristine alloy walls and wide windows, it must have looked beautiful in the summer, contrasted against all the greenery around.
Inside, the building was spacious and well-lit. Sunny, Aelon and the silver-haired girl were taken to a large hall where a hundred or so of young men and women — Sleepers of the same unfortunate timing as the two of them — were already waiting for the beginning of the induction ceremony. Most of them were nervous, tense and excited.
Logistics of the Academy were a constant headache for the administrators since the rate at which the Spell infected people was always chaotic. There was no way to orderly structure for batches of Sleepers to undergo any type of standardized education on a shared schedule: some of them had a full year to prepare for the Dream Realm, some only months, some even mere days.
That's why these induction ceremonies were held each month at the beginning of the year and then every week once the winter solstice began to loom near. Some of the Sleepers in the hall had to wait days to be inducted, while Sunny had lucked out and was delivered to the Academy just hours before the scheduled event.
Once inside the hall, he understood two things.
Firstly, everyone was well-dressed and in possession of a suitcase, a duffel bag, or at least a backpack carrying their personal belongings. They were obviously coming prepared, most likely from home, sent off by their families.
So Sunny, Aelon and the silver-haired girl, who came empty-handed and wearing simple police-issued clothes, were not a norm like he had assumed, but actually an eye-catching anomaly.
'Right. That makes sense.'
Secondly, Master Jet was not being overly humble when she called herself below average by Awakened standards. Even though these young people were just starting their paths as Awakened, their looks were dazzling. Everyone was handsome, beautiful and radiated health.
He swallowed.
'Still, I feel like none of them compare. She might not be as perfectly shaped, but… I don't know… she has a presence. It's like shadows become deeper and the temperature drops by a couple of degrees when she's in a room.'
When Sunny looked down at Aelon, he saw that the boy was trembling–– much like when he first awoke in the police station.
'Aelon is similar to Jet in looks as a sleeper, obviously a class above even those here. Looks like there are levels to this. I'm probably on the lowest.'
Sunny wondered how the thirteen year old would look if he was a master like Jet, if he was on her level as a sleeper, he couldn't even imagine how he'd look at the same rank as her.
But all of these thoughts were just him trying to postpone the inevitable. Sunny already knew that he was in for a wild ride.
Because he could not lie, and all of these excited youths, regardless of their clothes, gender and looks, wanted to do one thing.
Talk.
Every one of them wanted to talk with fellow Sleepers. They wanted to discuss their Nightmares, their future journey into the Dream Realm, and everything in between. They wanted to ask questions. They wanted to be asked questions. They wanted to discuss something important or just chit-chat about stupid things.
Everyone wanted to share.
'It's a nightmare!' Sunny moaned, disturbed and fearful.
***
'It's a nightmare!'
Aelon's flaw was doing numbers on him when they arrived in the building filled by sleepers. His gaze was fixed to the ground, and the number of voices was just too much to handle
'Please let my attribute work.'
The moment Sunny didn't notice, he slipped away, and sat in a quiet corner of the room, breathing ragged. He could feel it speed up with his pulse, and the world around him grew hazy.
The black haired boy could hear his own heartbeat, and own heart throbbing. After a while cold sweat ran down his back, and he could feel himself getting dizzy.
'Why can't I breathe? I need air. Give me air...'
Completely augmented from his innate ability due to the crowd, he felt incredibly strong, but it didn't stop his legs from trembling when he stood up.
When he tried walking, Aelon felt the dizziness get to him. He stumbled.
Normally his attribute did his work, unless he got in physical touch with someone, spoke or generally took initiative by himself.
When he stumbled, he hit someone though. Someone familiar, with a police issued tracksuit, and silver-white hair. Due to the height disparity, between the tall girl, and him, his face simply crashed into her back.
'No. No. No. I messed up. I'm an idiot. Stupid. Why did I do that?'
"I-" his ragged breathing interrupted him. "I-I'm s-so sorry!"
A cold stare weighed down on him, so Aelon didn't dare to look up, but he bowed his head.
The girl studied him quietly.
"You're not well."
"I-I'm sorry m-my flaw."
To her misfortune Aelon couldn't bring himself to stay any longer, and already continued onwards, outside.
When he finally reached the door, he pulled it open, and the cold winter air made him freeze, and he lost the augmentation from his innate.
Now outside, he felt his flaw calm down... but he was freezing. Aelon had left his jacket inside.
His breathing calmed, and heartbeat slowed. What didn't slow was his trembling though, this time due to being cold, not his panic.
'Did I just have a panic attack?'
Now that his mind calmed down, and he finally managed to form rational thought,
'I totally embarrassed myself with that girl!'
Now feeling a flush creep up his face, both due to the cold, and embarrassment, he trembled silently outside.
When he looked back inside though, he saw that familiar aloof gray eyes were staring at him.
A shiver ran down his back, and he averted his gaze.
'She surely isn't mad right? I heard that legacies get aggravated easily due to their pride... and she certainly looks like one. Oh... if I get a cold I won't be able to prepare.'
Looking back inside, he felt his stomach churn, and eventually his eyes met the one of the tall girl.
They were similar, too similar to be exact, as if they were the same. Only difference that Aelon's had a small purple tint. The eye shape was exactly the same though and the only disparity was that his eyelashes seemed longer, due to his smaller face, and were black, unlike her silver ones.
'Why is she staring like that?'
Although she was pretty, Aelon still felt a creeped out.
'I guess I need to force myself to go back in... see this as practice Aelon come on!'
After remaining out for a while, Aelon forced himself back inside, and vanished inside the crowd. As he was walking though, he heard Sunny talk to a tall green eyed guy, who was surrounded by other sleepers.
"Ascended, excellent? That's it? What's the big deal?"
After a few seconds, one of the young man's companions finally blinked and said:
"Uh… friend, you must not know a lot about the Spell. Caster's results are truly remarkable."
Then, with a furtive glance at the remarkable Caster, he added:
"He is a Legacy, after all."
'That's a legacy huh... tall, broad shouldered and good looking. Just like I imagined them.'
Aelon felt a little bad for Sunny, since he looked like a kid next to the Legacy.
"Are you trying to pull a prank on me? You call this remarkable?!"
The bewilderment in the eyes of these Sleepers was slowly being replaced by hostility.
"Listen, friend. If you don't think that an Ascended Aspect is remarkable, then please share with us your own amazing results! What, pray tell, was your Appraisal?"
That was when Sunny noticed Aelon walking by, and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him to his side.
"I would let you know… my Appraisal was, uh, it was "glorious"! Yes, glorious. And the Aspect I acquired was of the Divine rank. My little friend here is thirteen, and has beat his first nightmare, even I'd bet he has a better appraisal than Caster!"
At first the surrounding Sleepers looked at Sunny as if he was crazy, then their gazes turned towards Aelon.
"Glorious? Would you mind telling us about your achievements in the nightmare? And I'd be curious to hear about your friends appraisal too."
Aelon forced himself to stay calm, here it wasn't as cramped.
"Sure, no problem! First of all, I killed an… uh… an awakened tyrant."
The mere mention of a tyrant, let alone an awakened one, made a couple of Sleepers smile with ridicule.
"Oh, really? How did you kill it?"
An arrogant look appeared on Sunny's face.
"How? Let me tell you, I didn't even have to lift a finger. I just spat, and it was torn to pieces!"
Someone openly laughed.
"This guy is either insane or purposefully messing with us. Listen here, shorty. Have some decency, okay? Who would believe such a lie?"
"Guys calm down. Regardless if what the young man said is true, I'm curious to know about this one's accomplishments. After all, he truly does look young." Caster said.
Aelon flinched.
"So what's your appraisal, and the rank of your Aspect?"
"...Wonderful, and S-sacred."
Everyone stayed silent, then laughed.
"You two are quite the couple of comedians. The shorty said he's got a divine aspect, and the shorter one says he's got a sacred one! The story of the short one was already crazy, so tell me what did you do to survive?"
That was when Aelon's gaze turned icy, and he stared Caster right into the eye.
"I was thrown into a colosseum, and killed men who were twice your size. Thirty two of them, and one Awakened."
Everyone grew silent.
Something about Aelon's voice told them that he was dead serious.
"Well... if you truly did that , that surely is enough to warrant receiving a sacred aspect."
Aelon nodded, and just departed.
Sunny looked at the couple of sleepers, and then nodded towards the departing Aelon. "How come you believe him and not me?"
Caster looked at him for a few seconds, and then simply answered in two words.
"His eyes."
***
Nephis watched the small figure disappear into the crowd.
There was something strange about him.
Not his appearance, although it certainly was breathtaking.
Not even the fact that he had survived a Nightmare at such an age.
It was his eyes.