The enrollment ceremony demonstrated a high degree of organization.
In the Great Hall, the 3000 students were organized in a very hierarchical arrangement which could have been undertaken with the aid of a computer programme. The first row was made up of the Seven Houses and their direct sponsors and was occupied by acolytes sitting on chairs that were cushioned. The third row was made up of the nobility and their families, the merchant class who aspired to rise, and those who had transferred from the military academies.
The second row occupied by the merchants and military academy students sat on chairs that did not have cushions. The last row was occupied by the Scholarship winners, and selected competitors from various countries. All of them were on wooden benches that were clearly designed with discomfort in mind.
I occupied a seat in the front row. At the far left end. There was an empty seat separating the Valdrake position from the next nearest House. The empty seat had been deliberately left between the Valdrake position and the House Seraphel delegation. Even the furniture had its own politics.
To my right was Seraphina Seraphel four seats away.
Before I looked at her, I felt her presence. The golden light signature and its warmth was so strong and so present in the room it would be impossible for me to miss it. I felt as if I had been thrust into bright sunshine and I felt a sense of happiness and joy just standing there. The warmth was like a comfortable blanket surrounding me, and it did not need permission to enter my Void Sense.
I allowed myself to look only once.
The game did not do her any justice what-so-ever. Not even close.
She had hair that was shimmering silver-white, braided down one shoulder and falling past her collarbone and it looked somewhat like a rope made of moonlight. She had golden-coloured eyes — actual golden-coloured eyes — that were like liquid gold and she had a face that combined delicacy and strength, by which I mean it was as delicate as porcelain but could withstand being dropped.Seraphina's skin, although pale, didn't convey fragility but instead conveyed refinement as though it had gone through centuries to decide the exact way to reflect certain frequencies of light in her bloodline. She wore white and gold robes; naturally, they suited her perfectly. She looked as if someone had poured a cathedral's stained glass windows into her form and asked her to be a seventeen-year-old girl.
And she was watching me.
Not overtly, though. Seraphina had her body facing forward as headmaster Orvyn addressed the crowd; her body had perfect posture, and the look on her face was calm. However, she was aware of my gaze on her; in fact, her incredible golden eyes moved just slightly enough to track my gaze from beneath the veil of eyelashes.
Since I sat down, she had been observing me.
The game's Seraphina was vigilant; the real Seraphina appeared to operate as an all-seeing eye wrapped in a cloak of Godliness.
Now I returned my gaze to the front of the podium. I was expressionless; there was no sign of interest. My face remained unchanged as I continued to watch the woman who was an all-seeing eye wrapped in a cloak of Godliness.
I took note of what I had seen: Seraphina Seraphel had been watching me before I'd spoken to her. In the game, their initial meeting was unpleasant — Cedric insulted her publicly during the ceremony. I had every intention of not following that course but would have to contend with the situation based upon what Seraphina had already observed. If the Celestial perception she exhibited was similar to how my Void Sense interpreted her — I could be certain she was aware of a problem with my core.
This posed a serious dilemma.*A situation I would face after living through the ceremony without inadvertently violating one of the tenets of canon behaviour that would result in a spike on my NDI.
The podium was taken by Headmaster Orvyn Thales.
He was ancient. Not like mountains that are called "Old Distinguished Gray" but true ancient - as if he were a mountain himself. His body was thin and stooped, covered from top to bottom in the type of deep blue robes that would appear to move individually from any gust of air. His entire face represented a map of wrinkles covering many decades of experience. His eyes remained shut until he reached the podium, and he had never once opened them; yet, he had the ability to locate every last person in the Great Hall with such precision that it was clear he did not need to see to know where they were located.
Transcendent rank. The highest level of cultivation that a living being can attain, and he stood at the podium in a school speaking to children as if standing there with such power would normally reshape continents.
Orvyn's character in the game was little more than a cameo who delivered two audio speeches and once appeared in a cutscene late in the game. His lines were nothing more than the usual headmaster platitudes — "Welcome," "You all have the potential for excellence," and other generic Institutional Rhetoric.
Being there and hearing Orvyn's voice made the very air change.
"Welcome to Astral Zenith Academy."
There were four words. A whisper of a voice — a soft voice that was slightly louder than a regular conversation. Yet, somehow, the air of the Great Hall filled with his presence and was indicative of how Transcendents are capable of touching all areas of existence, just as a magnet creates a field of attraction in the surrounding metal filings. When Transcendent beings speak, the universe listens.
"Some of the children are associated with powerful names."*"Some because of your talent and some because of luck. There was a pause. With his eyes still shut he looked around the large room. I felt him look at me, and as he looked I felt like I was being touched by the Void Sense like being raked by fingers through the water. Light. Purposeful. Disappearing before I could do anything. Every one of you is here because the exterior world is getting more hostile, and the Empire demands that you will be more than this."
The ensuing speech was very clipped; ten minutes long with no filler and written in the form of "what we expect" rather than inspirational messages of congratulations. Orvyn did not say, "You are special." Rather, he said, "You are needed." This statement carries a much colder tone and reflects the truth of the world better, in my opinion.
I was listening to Orvyn's speech with half of my mind; the other half was organising the people and things in the room.
Draven Kaelthar, the boy from the front row, was sitting in a manner that resembled a military man. He was sitting straight, his back straight, and his hands were on his knees. The intensity of his sign was extremely compressed so that it was not visible unless one was looking specifically for it. He was military-trained, tending to treat his own Aether as though it were a military weapon; hence, he had been raised that way.
Lucien Drakeveil was also seated in the front row, in the middle, because that is where the spotlight was shining brightest upon him. His Aether sign was soft and polished, calm, yet alive and warm, as though one were shaking hands with him and he had given them exactly the right grip; in other words, very charismatic at a sensory level. Very, very dangerous as well.
He caught me staring at him and tilted his head slightly to one side in a form of acknowledgement.Acknowledging each other through casual gestures is a cooperative exchange between peers or equals. The expression on his face did not change; however, there was an intensity behind the existence of his eyes, which resembled an intensity of focus that occurred in the eyes of poker players when they are acutely aware of other players.
So, I moved my head downward by a fraction of an inch in response to his head nod and nothing more than a head nod. It was a symbolic gesture that two heir apparent dukes could use as a mutual understanding of sorts. It was neither a greeting nor a farewell. It was a placeholder until the two could further develop their relationship in the future.
Lucien's expression on his face seemed to take on a gleeful tone when he noticed my expression on my face. He knew that I had communicated my understanding to him before he had communicated his understanding to me. We both knew it would be better for both of us to act as though this communication had never occurred until it had been fully acknowledged.
From that point on, Valeria Embercrown was seated three seats to my left in front of me. She was already present when I arrived; I had sensed her Infernal energy from the hallway. It was contained fire, burning at a heat level most people do not sense, burning with coals' heat rather than flames' heat. Valeria did not glance my way once during the event.
Her body language and facial expressions were consistent with the behaviors expected from a noble heiress attending an official event; everything about Valeria was perfect.
The bruise on her wrist that I had seen the last time I saw her was no longer visible; it was hidden by a different bracelet today. It was a different colour than the last bracelet, with sapphires instead of rubies; however, the placement of the bracelets was still exactly the same as before.
I was not going to glance in her direction; like Valeria, I was an example for the public as to how to behave as dukes. If either of us engaged in a behaviour other than that, people would question our behaviours.
The conclusion of the enrolment ceremony was at the moment of Orvyn assigning each of the incoming first-year students to temporary groups to be responsible for assisting first-year students throughout the orientation week. Each group was randomly selected, though I suspect the headmaster's method of choosing random groups was as random as a weighted dice.I was part of an advisory group of twelve people. I glanced at the Aether-crystal screen in the hall to see who else was in my advisory group.
1. Cedric Valdrake Arkhen - me
2. Seraphina Luvel Seraphel - the saintess, and she was already watching me
3. Aiden Crest - the hero chosen to kill me
4. Ren Lockwood - a name I recognized from the enrollment list; a commoner; a scholarship student; I don't remember anything game-related with him.
There were eight other names on the list that I didn't know.
I stared at the list of names, and I could feel the universe's sense of humor pressing against the back of my skull.
Random. Seriously?
The advisory groups were dismissed from the hall and sent to their respective meeting rooms. I rose from my chair, and after adjusting my coat, walked out of the hall at the same slowly controlled speed of a person involved in a shocking, disastrous, and stressful event, with absolutely no emotional reaction to being put into a twelve-person advisory group with both the girl who could see through my mask and the boy who, if they had the opportunity, would try to beat my head in.
---
[SCENARIO ALERT]
Event Name: Advisory Group Assignment
Advisory Group Assignment Note: Your advisory group has Heroine #1 and Protagonist #1. The system would like to make it clear that the advisory group assignments are determined by the academy's administrative protocols, and do not correlate with the World Script.
The system is incorrect. The World Script set this up.
Deviation Risk Level: MODERATE (extended proximity to key characters increases the chances of non-canonical interaction).
Recommendation: Maintain distance, limit conversations, and continue to act as the villain they anticipate.
The system has rated your chances of following this recommendation at approximately 12%.
---
12%.When I entered the second floor conference room (the advisory meeting room), I was reminded of the way my instructor wanted me to function in school. The advisory meeting room was the second floor of the main building and was a typical mid-sized classroom with tiered seating and a few tall windows looking out over the eastern falls. At the front of the classroom was our assigned advisor, who would conduct our orientation.
As the students began to trickle into the advisory meeting room, I selected the highest possible tiered seating position (back row, back corner) from the front of the classroom, as it offered the clearest view of everyone in attendance and maximized my distance from everyone else in the room. It was the "villain's chair," so to speak. There was no one seated within two chairs of me.
Seraphina selected to sit in the middle row, directly in front of me. She did not bother to turn around or glance in my direction.
Aiden, on the other hand, was in the front row and appeared to be visually absorbing the full impact of the experience of being in a classroom for the first time. He walked into the classroom with an excited look on his face, eyes wide open, and walked straight to the crystal windows, looking at the floating islands that were clearly visible from the windows, and the unguarded excitement on his face made it very clear that he had never experienced anything like it before.
Then he saw me, and the wonder disappeared, the jaw clamped tight, and his green eyes turned cold as he walked over to the farthest seat available away from me and sat down. He did his best to conceal the energy that he was containing and which threatened to explode. Fortunately for him, I recognized the same instinct he had to protect himself, and I applauded him for his good instinct and poor poker face. I would have liked to be the one to call out his bluff.Many of those who entered seemed uninteresting. They were uncomfortable, nervous, and excited, attempting to present themselves as most confident but to varying levels of success. However, one of them caught my attention.
Ren Lockwood.
Entering last through the door, he came in like a mouse entering its room with possible cats: his body hunched, his eyes darting about, every step testing the floor underfoot for stability. He appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years old. He was thin, with brown hair that looked like it had been cut with determination rather than skill. He wore clean, pressed clothes that were one economic tier lower than those of everyone else present. He wore commoner clothing (the best commoner clothing he owned), but with the particular self-consciousness of a man who understood that everyone else noticed the socioeconomic disparity.
The aether signature of Ren Lockwood was Initiate Level: F-Rank, the same Initiate Strength that I had been only three weeks earlier.
He checked the available seating for a chair, calculating the social environment in the room at a speed that indicated he had become accustomed to using this skill to navigate areas where he was not welcome. He made his way to a chair located in the middle of the room: far enough from the front of the room to show that he was serious about attending the class, and far enough from the back of the room to avoid any possible negative assumptions made by the nobles regarding the proximity of the chair.
It was only after he sat that he noticed me.
At that moment, all the blood drained from his face, so much so that I thought he was going to pass out. Ren's aether signature flickered like a candle flame caught in a sudden gust of wind. His hands tightened around the edges of his desk.
I had seen this reaction in my time playing the game: not specifically from Ren, but from every commoner NPC interacting with Cedric Valdrake. The name Valdrake evoked fear the same way that a furnace produces heat: automatically and perpetually, and from a distance that made any direct contact with it untenable.
I turned to look at him for precisely one second, before I averted my gaze.
After taking a breath, he was able to compose himself.
Finally, the adviser arrived.
Initially, I had assumed that the adviser would be a nondescript faculty member; the game's academic advising system was effectively a means of allowing the game to establish a character and provide some basic exposition. The person acting as an adviser would likely be someone very unremarkable, possibly a middle-tier faculty member who had little input into anything of significance in the game, making him inconsequential.
The adviser turned out to be none other than Aldric Malcris.
I was instantly chilled.