Adrian woke to cold light slipping through the window.
He lay still for a moment, staring at the cracked ceiling above him.
The examination was today. He turned to the side and found Lilith standing.
She was already dressed, standing by the window with her ash-blonde hair pinned back. She wore a simple pale blouse and a dark skirt, nothing that would draw attention. In the grey morning light, she looked like any other spirit bonder's partner waiting for her human to start the day.
Adrian wondered where she'd gotten the clothes but didn't ask.
He sat up and reached for his coat where it hung on the bedpost.
The leather was worn but clean. He had brushed the Scar dust off it the night before, working it with his fingers until the grey film lifted. It would do for now.
But the shirt underneath had patches on the elbows, and his trousers had been mended so many times the original fabric was almost gone.
They were border work clothes. Good enough for the road, but not for walking into an academy where the kids cared more about your background and attire than who you really are.
He pulled out the coin purse Sebastian had given him and weighed it in his palm. The triple pay from the Scar sat beside the coins from Rivergate. It was enough for a month, if managed properly.
He pulled on his coat and tucked the coin purse into his pocket. "I need to find a tailor."
"There is one two streets south," she said. "I saw it yesterday."
Adrian picked up his pack and followed her out the door.
---
The streets of Aurelis were already waking up. Shopkeepers were pulling shutters open, and the smell of bread drifted from a bakery on the corner. A cart rattled past loaded with barrels, and somewhere in the distance, a bell was ringing.
The tailor's shop was small, tucked between a baker and a boarding house, with a wooden sign above the door that had faded to the color of old tea. Adrian pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The old man behind the counter had thick fingers and quick eyes. They seemed to study Adrian as he walked in.
"I need something for the academy examination," Adrian said. "A shirt. Trousers. Whatever else you think I need."
The tailor took his measurements without a word, moving quickly with a worn strip of leather marked with numbers.
He slipped into the back and returned with a dark jacket, plain grey shirt, sturdy trousers that fit well enough, and a length of dark cloth Adrian realized was meant to be a belt.
Adrian tried the shirt on in the back room, and when he came out, the tailor nodded once. "That will do."
He paid the man, folded his old clothes into his pack, and stepped back out into the street.
Lilith waited by the door, her eyes moving from his jacket to his face.
"Much better," she said.
"It was that bad before?"
She did not answer and was already walking toward the academy gates.
---
The gates were wide open when they arrived.
The academy sat at the heart of Aurelis, its walls were as old as the city around them. The stone was pale grey, like the walls at the city's edge, but here the age was different. It was worn smooth by generations of students, by hands that had touched it on the way to classes and feet that had worn shallow grooves into the threshold.
Students moved through the courtyard in small groups, their coats marked with the academy crest. Most of them looked like they had been here for years. They walked with confidence as they strolled by.
Adrian followed the stream of candidates toward a side entrance. A wooden sign had been propped against the door, the words Examination Candidates — Report Here painted in neat black letters.
The room was long and narrow, with benches along the walls and a high ceiling that made every sound carry.
About twenty candidates sat waiting, their faces a mix of nerves and composure. A few glanced at Adrian when he entered, sizing him up with their eyes the same way the tailor had.
He took a seat near the back. Lilith sat beside him, folding her hands in her lap.
A door opened at the front of the room, and a woman stepped out. Her grey hair was pulled back tight, and her coat was immaculate, the academy crest stitched into the collar in silver thread.
"You will be called one at a time," she said. "When your name is called, you will enter the examination chamber with your bond partner. Do not speak unless spoken to. Do not touch anything unless instructed."
She looked down at the paper in her hand. "Eric Thorn."
A boy near the front stood up with a pale face and followed her through the door. It closed behind him with a soft click.
The minutes passed. Candidates whispered around him, checking their clothes, adjusting their hair. Adrian sat with his hands on his knees and waited.
The door opened again and Eric emerged, his face carefully blank. He walked past the waiting candidates without looking at any of them.
The woman appeared in the doorway. "Brenna Hale."
Another candidate stood up, and the door closed again.
A few minutes later, the candidate walked out and another name was called.
"Cassius Vorne."
A tall, broad-shouldered boy rose from the front row, his dark hair neatly combed and his flashy coat marking his status as a noble. He walked toward the door with a casual stride, boots clicking against the stone.
He didn't spare anyone a glance and the door closed behind him.
Lilith leaned in, her voice barely above a whisper. "Fire-aligned. He's been trained well."
Adrian glanced at her. "You can tell?"
"I can feel it," she said. "Yes and he's the kind that notices things. He won't like you."
Adrian looked back to the front. "That sounds like his problem."
The door opened, and Cassius emerged with his face calm and his posture unchanged. He walked past the waiting candidates without looking at any of them, but his eyes paused on Adrian for a fraction of a second. Then he was gone.
The woman appeared again. She looked down at her paper.
"Dorian."
Adrian stood. Lilith rose beside him. The other candidates watched silently as he walked to the door, something unfamiliar in their eyes.
He ignored them and walked through the door.
---
The examination chamber was a wide circular room with a ceiling that rose high above them. The walls were lined with instruments Adrian did not recognize. Beautiful glass panels, Metal spheres suspended in wire frames. Crystals arranged in patterns he could not decipher, their surfaces glinting under the light.
In the center of the room stood a pedestal of dark stone, and on it rested a sphere that glowed with a soft pale blue light.
Three people sat at a table against the far wall. The grey-haired woman had taken her place beside them. The other two were a man with a trimmed beard and a woman with a blank expression on her face.
The man spoke first. "Dorian. No surname. Frontier. Scar border. F-rank." He looked up from his papers. "Is that correct?"
"Yes."
He gestured to the pedestal. "Place your hand on the resonance orb. Your bond partner will stand beside you. The assessment will measure your soul frequency, bond depth, and potential ceiling. Do not resist the reading. It will not hurt."
Adrian stepped forward and Lilith moved with him, her footsteps silent on the stone floor.
He placed his hand on the sphere.
For a moment, nothing happened. The light did not change. The instruments did not move. Adrian felt the familiar spike of fear, the same fear he had felt in Rivergate when the orb showed nothing and the silence stretched on too long.
Then the light began to shift.
It deepened from pale blue to violet, the color spreading through the sphere like ink in water. Violet bled into a deep crimson that pulsed once, twice, three times, each pulse matching the beat of his heart.
The crystals along the walls started to hum, a low sound that vibrated in his chest. The glass panels flickered with symbols he did not recognize, lines of light that appeared and vanished too fast to follow.
The man with the beard leaned forward. The woman beside him went very still.
Adrian rested his hand on the sphere. He could feel the connection with Lilith, not faint at the edge of his awareness, but active, measured by the orb and visible to everyone in the room.
The light pulsed again. Violet to crimson. Crimson to something that was not quite light at all. A darkness that swallowed the color, that pulled at something deep in Adrian's chest, that made the crystals hum louder and the glass panels flicker faster.
The woman spoke. "That is enough."
Adrian withdrew his hand. The light dimmed, the hum ceased, and silence filled the room.
The three examiners exchanged glances. The man with the beard was writing something down, his hand moving quickly across the page. The grey-haired woman had her eyes fixed on Lilith. While the woman in the center was staring at Adrian with an expression he could not name.
"You may go," she said.
Adrian did not move. "What was my result?"
Her eyes did not leave his face. "Results will be posted this evening. If you are accepted, you will receive instructions for the combat and written assessments."
"If I am accepted?"
She looked at Lilith for a moment. Something crossed her face. Recognition, perhaps. Or wariness. "The academy does not accept every candidate who applies, Mister Dorian. Some are not suited. Some are not compatible."
She turned back to her papers. "You will be notified. That is all."
Adrian walked out of the examination chamber with Lilith beside him.
The candidates in the waiting room had thinned out. A few looked up when he passed, but he did not meet their eyes.
He walked through the waiting room toward the front door. He was reaching for the handle when the clerk's voice stopped him.
"Candidate."
Adrian turned. The woman from yesterday was sitting at the long wooden counter, her spectacles perched on her nose, a stack of papers before her.
"Results will be posted this evening at the main hall entrance," she said without looking up. "Candidates are expected to check after sundown."
Adrian nodded. "Thank you."
She did not respond. Her pen was already moving across the next form.
He stepped out into the street, the door closing behind him.
He stopped at a corner with his hands in his pockets. His breath came faster than it should.
"What was that?" he asked. "The light. The colors. What do you think they saw?"
Lilith stood beside him with her face calm. "They saw what you are."
He turned to face her. "Which is what?"
She held his gaze. "Something they do not understand."
"I'm guessing they couldn't place it in any category," Lilith said softly. "The academy has rules for everything. You exist outside of them."
Adrian frowned. "So… will they accept me?"
Lilith was silent for a moment. "First, they'll try to understand you. Combat, tests, how you move, how you fight, how you speak. Only then will they decide if you're useful."
Adrian looked up at the sky. The sun had climbed higher, and the morning was burning off into something brighter.
"And if I am not useful?"
Lilith touched his arm, a dangerous smile forming on her lips.
"Then you will have to make them see differently."