Lyra woke to the sound of her own breathing. The room was cold, the stone floor beneath her rough and unfamiliar. She pushed herself up and saw tall black walls outside the window, towers stretching endlessly toward the sky. Runes flickered faintly along their edges.
She wasn't in her village anymore. She was inside Ebonveil Academy.
Other students crowded the hallways — their eyes cautious, some curious, some cruel. Whispers followed her: The girl with the forbidden bloodline…
"Stay alert," said a voice beside her. Lyra turned. A girl with silver hair and bright blue eyes smiled nervously. "I'm Mira. You'll want to stick close to me if you don't want to die in your first week."
Lyra swallowed. Death already felt close — the chains from before were gone, but the fear remained.
The head instructor appeared. He was tall, imposing, and surrounded by a low, humming energy. "Welcome to Ebonveil," he said. "Here, you will learn to survive. The weak… will not make it."
He gestured to a courtyard, where magical monsters and traps littered the field. "Your entrance trial begins now. Those who fail… will not return."
Lyra's stomach twisted. She wasn't trained. She had survived monsters before, but this… this was different. This was designed to kill.