The mana-lift that connected Argentum City to the floating island of Zenith did not move like a machine. It moved with the smooth, arrogant inevitability of a raindrop falling upward.
Vane stood near the glass wall of the transport cabin. He watched the city of Argentum shrink until the white marble buildings looked like spilled salt on a tablecloth. The clouds rushed past, wet and grey, before breaking apart to reveal the destination.
Zenith Academy.
It was not a school. It was a geography lesson in humility.
The island was a continent of rock torn from the earth by ancient magic. Waterfalls cascaded off the jagged edges, turning into mist long before they hit the ocean miles below. Spires of white gold pierced the sky, connected by bridges of solid light. Dragons circled the highest peaks like pigeons looking for a statue to defile.
Vane gripped the railing. His knuckles were white.
'Frog in a well,' he thought. 'Mom wasn't kidding. I thought I was a big deal because I owned a block of rotting wood in a swamp. This place has weather control.'
The lift docked with a soft chime that sounded expensive. The doors slid open.
Vane stepped out onto the concourse. The air here was thin and cold, but rich with mana. It tasted like ozone and mint. He adjusted the collar of his new uniform. It was stiff, scratchy, and cost more than the tavern he used to own.
He followed the stream of students toward the Grand Auditorium. There were about a thousand of them, the elite harvest of the continent.
Vane tapped his temple, scanning the crowd as he walked.
[Target Analysis]
Name: Jace of House Kael
Rank: 2 (Adept)
Danger: Low
[Target Analysis]
Name: Lyra Redfield
Rank: 2 (Adept)
Danger: Low
Rank 2. Rank 2. Rank 2.
Vane relaxed slightly. 'Okay, so most of these kids are just Adepts. I have spent the last few years fighting for my life in the mud while they were probably playing with practice wands. I can handle this.'
The destination was the Grand Auditorium. It was a coliseum of floating stone and glass, large enough to house a small army. Vane entered through the massive archway. The noise hit him first. A thousand conversations bouncing off acoustically perfect walls. Then the mana hit him. The ambient energy radiating from the student body was enough to make the air shimmer.
There were no assigned seats.
The front rows were already claimed by the golden children. Vane stopped in the shadow of a pillar near the back, observing. He needed to know who the real threats were.
In the center of the front row sat a boy with white hair. He was isolated by a circle of empty chairs. Frost creeped up the legs of the furniture around him, turning the wood brittle. He was not reading. He was correcting. With a quill seemingly made of condensed frost, he was aggressively crossing out entire paragraphs of a thick leather-bound tome.
The boy scribbled 'Incorrect' in the margins and turned the page with a snap that sounded like a breaking bone.
'He is literally editing the textbook,' Vane noted. He focused his gaze.
[Target Analysis]
Name: Isaac Glacium
Rank: 3 (Elite)
Danger: High
Authority: Pale Eternity (SSS)
Vane felt a cold knot form in his stomach. It wasn't just the SSS-Rank Authority. He knew Authorities were fundamental laws, not just skills you could learn, but that didn't usually scare him. What scared him was the 'High Danger' tag. Isaac was just sitting there, not even looking at him, and the system was screaming at Vane to run.
To the right of Isaac sat a girl who did not just reflect the auditorium lights; she seemed to be the source of them. Her hair was a waist-length cascade of liquid gold that shimmered even in the shadow of the balcony. She sat with the rigid, perfect posture of someone who had balanced a crown on her head since birth.
She was surrounded by a phalanx of admirers holding gifts, but none dared to get within arm's reach. One boy, the son of a wealthy Count, was kneeling. He held up a bouquet of crystal lilies with trembling hands.
"Please, Anastasia," the boy stammered. "I thought you might like these. They're from my family's private garden."
Anastasia did not look flattered. She looked exhausted. She turned her gaze toward him, revealing eyes of molten amber with a ring of brighter gold around the pupil.
The air around her rippled with a visible heat haze. The crystal lilies in the boy's grip turned grey, then brown, wilting instantly into dry husks.
"Julian, stop it," she said, her voice sounding like a silver bell. "I've told you three times this week. Take the mess away before I lose my temper."
The boy scrambled back, dropping the dead flowers. Anastasia sighed and adjusted her cuffs, looking bored by her own lethality.
Vane analyzed her.
[Target Analysis]
Name: Anastasia Aurelia
Rank: 3 (Elite)
Danger: High
Authority: Blessed by Mana (SSS)
Another 'High Danger' rating.
'This is insane,' Vane thought. 'They're just sitting in chairs. My Target Analysis has never flagged an Elite as a high threat while they were resting. If this is what they look like when they're bored, I don't want to see them when they're actually trying.'
Vane found a seat near the back, away from the noble posturing. He sat down. He didn't need to be in the front row to see what was going on. In fact, being in the back was better because he could see everyone's reactions.
The lights dimmed. The dais at the front of the room lit up. A procession of figures walked onto the stage. They wore robes of deep crimson and gold. They did not walk with the strut of the students. They moved with the heavy, terrifying gravity of neutron stars.
The Faculty.
Vane felt a cold sweat break on his neck. He had thought Gareth was a monster. Gareth was a Rank 4 Sentinel. He was a sledgehammer. But looking at the men and women on that stage, Vane realized Gareth was just a child with a toy sword.
He focused on a man with a beard made of actual, flickering fire who was lighting a pipe with his thumb.
[Target Analysis]
Name: Ignis
Rank: 7 (Master)
Danger: Fatal
Rank 7. Vane swallowed dryly.
'A Master,' he thought. 'That guy could probably wipe Oakhaven off the map with a sneeze. And my skill says he's a fatal threat even while he's just smoking a pipe.'
He looked at the woman next to him, a severe elf cleaning her glasses with a cloth that seemed to be made of shadow.
[Target Analysis]
Name: Vyla
Rank: 6 (Expert)
Danger: Fatal
Rank 6. An Expert. Two full ranks above Gareth. Vane sank lower in his seat.
'I'm a speck,' he thought. 'Everything I've done, everything I've learned: it's all just basic math compared to this.'
He checked his status screen, just to ground himself.
[Status: Vane]
Rank: 3 (Elite)
Skill Library: 43
Forty-three skills. It looked small now. Like bringing a toothpick to a dragon fight. He clenched his fist under the table.
'Well, if the ceiling is this high, it just means I've got more room to climb. I'm going to take whatever I can find.'
The room went silent. The air pressure dropped. A woman walked to the center of the stage. She did not look like a warrior. She looked like a librarian who had just realized someone dog-eared a page. She wore a simple black dress.
Headmistress Evangeline.
She tapped the microphone. The sound echoed like a thunderclap, silencing a thousand heartbeats.
[Target Analysis]
Name: Evangeline
Rank: 9 (Transcendent)
Danger: [Error]
Authority: Heaven's Fall (SSS)
She smiled. It was not a nice smile.
"Welcome to Zenith," she said. Her voice was soft, but it carried to the back of the room without magic. "I want you to look at the person sitting to your left. Now look at the one on your right."
The students obeyed.
"By the time the year ends," Evangeline continued pleasantly, "one of you will be dead. One of you will be kicked out. And the third will probably wish they had stayed at home."
Vane leaned back in his seat.
'Okay,' he thought. 'Finally, someone is being honest with me.'