“Successful applicants, follow me,” the bearded examiner, Egil, called out, having appeared behind Lira on the dais. “The rest of you, work hard.”

Moving through the crowd, Rowan made his way towards Egil, awkwardly dodging past several crying applicants, clearly unsuccessful in their endeavours. A few wore looks of rage, swearing incredulously as they gritted their teeth. Unfortunately, neither rage nor sorrow would allow them to change the past. The die had been cast, and now they were forced to live with the consequences that their lack of ability had brought them.

Finally making it to Egil, Rowan found himself standing alongside Dugan, the cheerful boy’s beaming face a clear indicator of his success in the exam. Around them, several other applicants also joined up, roughly twenty in all who stood before Egil wearing a mix of expressions. Many, like Rowan and Dugan were thrilled, smiles and cheerful expressions abound. A few were bored, clearly having expected this outcome from the beginning, while one, a tall boy with eastern features, wore a look of disdain, his eyes scanning across the group as he scowled angrily.

“That everyone?” Egil asked, receiving a chorus of nods from the group. “Good, follow me then.”

Setting off, Egil led them out of the great hall, leaving the unsuccessful applicants behind as he took them upwards, climbing stair after stair as they ascended through Faebrook. The stone of the walls and the wood of the stairs seemed to go on forever, with only the occasional landing or hall between stairs providing relief for their tired legs.

Arriving at last in front of a large wooden door, Egil made a series of motions. As he completed the last of them, the door swung open to reveal a circular room. Inside, the decoration was lavish, with tapestries hanging from the walls, a lush carpet, and expensive looking artifacts that gleamed from their places on shelves and desks throughout the room. A golden orb rotated, as around it several rings turned end over end. A stone spire gleamed, reflecting the light from its polished surface, while beside it an obsidian bowl seemed to absorb the light, its surroundings noticeably darker than the rest of the room.

At the back right of the room, a spiral staircase led upwards and out of sight, while the window on the left offered a view of the valley below. Peering outwards, Rowan felt his stomach lurch. They were incredibly high up, several hundred feet above the grounds below, where small figures the size of ants could be seen moving to and fro, doubtless the other applicants, returning to whence they’d come. Rowan gulped. He had never done well with heights, and this tower they were currently inside was far beyond the scale of any building that he had been forced to climb back in Taureen.

Outside, a cloud passed by, obscuring the view as Rowan forced his eyes away, looking instead at the various artifacts that dotted the room. While he had never been able to get his hands on magical objects during his past life, even he could tell that the contents of this room were worth a king’s ransom, possibly more. The room practically seethed with magic, each item promising powers untold to whoever dared to wield it. Even as Rowan’s gaze fell upon one, a new item would catch his eye, pulling his attention in many different directions at once.

At the centre of the room stood a desk, upon which lay a small rectangular object, the nucleus of which was composed of a crystalline substance, not unsimilar to the orb used in the Test of Potential. Unlike the orb, the tablet lay dormant, with no colours swirling within its depths, waiting to devour them.

As Egil closed the door behind the last of the group to enter, the coyote beastman that Rowan had fought during the Test of Skill, Lira Kess appeared from the staircase above, having somehow managed to beat them here despite clearly having remained behind when they had left the great hall. As she swept down the stairs, she offered them a smile.

“Welcome, students, and once more let me congratulate you upon your successful passing of the Faebrook entrance exam. You are part of an elite few who succeed each year, but don’t let that get to your head. Every single person you will meet here at Faebrook has passed the same trials you have, and come out of them stronger for it. Underestimate your fellow students at your peril.”

Pausing, Lira surveyed the group. “Faebrook is a school with rich tradition, and one of those traditions is our house system. There are five houses here at Faebrook, one for each of the five great powers. The Nuxiong Dynasty to the east, the Coalition of Beast Tribes to the south across the Savra Sea, the Kalthiminn Alliance in the north, Tirsiog in the west, and of course, the Valendian Empire which dominates central Medanas. Each of you will be placed in one of the five houses based upon the blood that flows through your veins. Should you believe that you would be better suited to another house, the academy can make an exception, but your reasoning will need to be airtight. Does everyone understand?”

A wave of acknowledgement swept through the room, causing Lira to hum slightly. “Good. One by one, come forward and place your hand against the Eye of Remembrance. It will determine which house you are to be placed in.”

The Eye of Remembrance? That must be the tablet on the desk, Rowan realized, as the students shifted awkwardly, each waiting to see if the others would go first. Before Egil or Lira could prompt them forward, a tall girl with braided hair burst from the crowd, striding up to the desk with a resolved expression.

“Just place your palm against the eye, dear,” Lira told her, her hands folded against the front of her robe as she watched the girl.

With a slight nod, the girl placed her left hand against the tablet. As she did so, the tablet lit up, runes skittering across its crystalline surface as the light intensified. A moment later, the light disappeared, a small transparent screen appearing in front of the girl. From what Rowan could make out, the screen was covered in words, although they were too small for him to make out from his place at the back of the room. Above her, an eagle appeared, its talons outstretched as it descended upon its prey.

Across the desk from the girl, Lira observed the eagle and smiled. “Cassia Laudus from the Valendian Empire, you will be placed in House Turul.”

With a nod of acknowledgement, Cassia returned to the group, passing by the coyote beastman who had lost to Rowan in the Test of Skill. Placing his palm on the tablet, a chimera appeared above his head, snarling silently at the gathered students.

“Karim Kimat from the Coalition of Beast Tribes, you will be placed in house Lykia.”

Pressing his closed fist to his chest, the beastman saluted before returning to the group. One by one, the remaining students filed forward, placing their hands on the tablet and being placed into the houses. For her part, Morgana was placed into the western house, Draigwyn, a pale dragon roaring above to welcome her, while Dugan was sent to the northern house, Hafgufa, represented by an enormous leviathan that looked as if it wanted to swallow him whole.

“Enkhchuluun of the Nuxiong Dynasty, you will be placed in house Jangar,” said Lira Kess, addressing the tall boy with the disdainful look that Rowan had noticed in the Great Hall.

As the image of a fiery-maned horse disappeared, Rowan felt a jolt of recognition at the name Lira Kess had spoken. Enkhchuluun was the one who had taken the top spot on the majority of the tests. Only the Test of Potential had eluded him, thanks to Rowan’s own perfect score.

As Enkhchuluun strode back toward the group, his gait princely, Rowan found himself stepping forward. For Rowan, it was a strange experience, having so many eyes on him at once. In his days on the streets, eyes on him had been a bad thing, meaning that he had been noticed. Now, however, he did his best to welcome them. He was no longer the nameless urchin from the streets of Taureen. Now he was Rowan, a student at Faebrook Academy, and a future adventurer whose name would be heard across the continent. Or at least that was the plan.

Silently reassuring himself that everything was fine, Rowan approached the tablet, the translucent crystal glittering in the light of the tower. Opposite, Lira Kess offered him an encouraging smile, her eyes indicating the tablet as Rowan gulped slightly. This was it. Once his hand touched the crystal, he would become a true member of Faebrook Academy, something that he would not have dared even dream about a mere month ago.

Hand shaking slightly, Rowan placed his palm against the tablet, the crystal cool to his touch. As he did, the tablet lit up, a small screen appearing in front of him as above him, a light glowed. Resisting the urge to look up, Rowan instead stared at the screen in front of him, where lines of text glowed brightly against a light blue background.

Rowan

Health: 137/150

Mana: 32/475

Age: 17

Occupation: Street rat, Adventurer-in-training, Student

Bloodline: Human (Tirsiog), Fae

Blinking rapidly, Rowan stared at the screen. Somehow, the tablet knew who he was as well as his past. Even more surprising, however, was his bloodline. Although he knew himself to be human, he had thought himself Valendian or of southern descent. Not western, and especially not with Fae blood mixed in. Is it broken?

As Rowan stared at the screen in confusion, Lira Kess smiled. “Rowan from Taureen, you shall be placed in House Draigwyn.”

Realizing that he was still standing stupidly in front of the tablet, Rowan mustered a nod before returning to stand with the rest of the students. Although on the outside he managed to appear calm, inside, he was reeling from the information he had just learned. Tirsiog? The western kingdom? But I’m an orphan from Taureen… And I’m only fifteen, not seventeen...

Seemingly oblivious to Rowan’s thoughts, Lira Kess called the last four students forward one at a time, all four of them sorting into Turul. With a dignified look, Lira regarded them, her gaze regal as she beheld the gathered students.

“With this, you are now officially part of Faebrook. As such, allow me to say a few words. Here at Faebrook, we regard one skill above all others, and that is the skill required to take the title of strongest. Magic, intelligence, swordplay, or seduction, we don’t care about your methods so long as you can claim that title.”

Pausing for a moment, her gaze became sharp. “However, do not think that we will regard failures lightly. The academy has rules, and those who are destined to be average would best follow them, lest they suffer the consequences for their hubris.”

With that, the sorting was over. Egil led them out of the tower, not looking back as they returned to the Great Hall. The failed applicants were gone now, leaving the hall feeling much larger than it had previously. To Rowan, however, none of that mattered. A burning question assailed him, burying itself deeply within his mind. Who am I?

Until a month ago, the answer had come easily to him. He was Rowan, the street rat from Taureen who would be lucky to survive past twenty. Then, he had met Darm and Tethis, and the answer had changed slightly. But, although his chances of survival had gone up, he had still been certain in his identity as the urchin from Taureen.

Today’s events had shaken that certainty. Uneducated as he may be, even he knew that street rats were not the types to have magical seals upon them, nor were they part-fae bastards growing up halfway across the world from their homeland. Until today, he had never even laid eyes upon a Fae, the fair folk being rare so far south, and now he was expected to believe that he was one? Well, partly, supposedly.

With a groan, Rowan slapped his cheeks to snap out of it, earning himself a strange look from those nearby. For now, these questions would do him no good. Even if he was now uncertain of his background, there was one thing he was certain of: answers were not given to those without the strength to obtain them.

Rowan gritted his teeth, resolve flashing in his eyes. Strength was something simple. Strength was something he understood. First, he would acquire strength here at Faebrook. Then he would obtain answers.