The chatter of excitement filled the air as the students talked to each other waiting for their first class to begin. They were waiting for Professor Cecilia to enter and take the podium. Students had already started making friends with each other and small groups had already begun forming. They sat with others of the same status and the bond naturally bloomed. However, one group was sitting in the back with quite skewed societal status, and yet no one batted an eye to that. Everyone entering the classroom would politely pay respects to the group, ignoring one odd thorn that stuck out. It was, of course, Mehr and the rest.

Mehr was sitting among the High Nobles with his familiar annoyed expression. Even though he wasn’t really irritated at anything, his expression would always come off as quite irate. His eyes slowly scrutinised the room and picked off certain people.

“And him?” Mehr gestured towards a boy sitting a few feet away from the group. He had been asking Nora about other students he found interesting.

“I have no idea. He must be from some minor house.” Nora shook her head.

“What about him?” Mehr asked again while pointing to a thin guy sitting towards the left wall. His body was scrawny and his back seemed to bend a little. It was a wonder how a weak and malnourished person could make it here. Mehr also felt that the boy was somewhat familiar but couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“That's Daniel, from the Great House Goodstay. His father is the current Royal Advisor to His Majesty.” Nora answered as soon she saw Daniel’s face.

Mehr looked closely as he felt that the name Goodstay was struggling to ring some bells in his head. And sure enough, Daniel Goodstay’s face overlapped with the crying child he had seen in Nora’s birthday celebration all those years ago.

“I see. And what about….” Mehr continued asking questions when a little girl entered the room. Everyone remembered her clearly. She might have even shown up in many people’s nightmares. She always wore very shabby clothes that were ripped and tattered in places, but now she was wearing a proper uniform that represented the Academy.

The chatter stopped abruptly as soon as people noticed her. The people who had been sitting comfortably sat up straight and tucked in their legs under the table to make way for the girl to pass. The girl simply went to the first vacant seat she found and sat there.

“Adhara.” Sirius waved at her and called her to sit with them. He smiled cheerfully at her as he acknowledged her as a respectable person. Sirius acknowledged that Adhara was strong and morally wealthy. However, Adhara shook her head gently.

“Thank you for inviting me, Sirius, but I’m fine.”

Sirius shrugged and leaned back in his chair. He truly enjoyed talking to everyone around him. He would smile and wave at any person who was looking at him, and other students also respected and liked him. They had heard from the fellow students how Sirius had helped injured people in the trial. A Frye talking to them was a mark of honour for many students from the Minor Houses. However, there was one caveat and that was Mehr.

Anyone who approached Sirius was closely scrutinized by Mehr. Mehr knew Sirius had a habit of only looking at people’s positive aspects. He realised that even when Sirius knew that the other person was simply a sycophant, Sirius wouldn’t cut them off. Even though Mehr had told him not to trust other people so much, Sirius never listened.

He would always say, “If I can’t even trust other humans, then who am I supposed to trust?”

And so Mehr stopped trying. Now, he just sat back and glared at the people who tried to cosy up with Sirius, and people were genuinely scared of him. Even If Mehr’s expressions weren’t as threatening as they usually were, what he had done in the trial created apprehension in people’s hearts.

So now, Mehr was glaring at Adhara. Adhara noticed Mehr’s eyes on her but simply ignored them.

The clamouring chatter that had begun again quieted down when Professor Cecilia entered the room. Her light blue eyes scoured the classroom and settled on Adhara in the front and then Mehr and Sirius in the back. She slowly tucked her dark green hair behind her ear as she took the podium.

“Welcome to the first class of Mana Application.” She said, “All of you have already shown a basic understanding of how to utilise mana efficiently. Some of you are better than others but don’t worry. In the upcoming years of your time, you will become someone capable of handling the reins of the future.”

“I’ll teach you how to use mana in several different ways. I’ll teach you all to control your Heavens’ Gifts properly if you have them. And if you don’t, I’ll teach you how to contest against Heavens’ Gifts. Remember, nothing is absolute.”

The faces of students without Heavens’ Gifts lit up. They were being given an opportunity to level the playing field and they wouldn’t let go of such a chance.

The mention of Heavens’ Gift made Mehr look at Sirius. He had still not talked to Sirius about appeasement of mana. Mehr wanted to discuss what Sirius had gone through when he was comprehending mana, and if he ever had to ask its permission. However, he couldn’t find the right time. Or maybe, he just didn’t want to know. Strange and unexplainable matters regarding your loved ones, tend to make the heart uncomfortable. Ignorance was sometimes the best answer to questions such as these. Mehr hadn’t yet decided what to do.

He just kept looking ahead absent-mindedly as these thoughts roamed free in his mind.

*****

Headmaster Judas Serapio opened the door to his cabin and closed it behind him. His mood was still sour and it reflected in the force he applied to close the door. His cabin was unexpectedly minimalistic for a man of his stature. A simple table and chair with a few chairs to the side. That was all the furniture in the room.

Judas moved to the centre of the room and raised his hands high. The mana around him whirled in a monstrous fashion as he cut off his room from the outside world. He closed his eyes and started reciting a long incantation. The space in front of him vibrated violently as a Gate manifested out of thin air. He gradually lowered his hands while ending his incantations and entered the Gate.

As soon as he stepped into the Gate, the scenery changed completely. He was within a narrow cave, whose walls contained small crystal-like stones that gave off an eerie glow. Judas, without putting any thought to his surroundings, kept walking forward with his limp. The cave got wider and wider and soon, it reached an opening into a giant cavern much larger than even the halls in the Academy. In the middle of the cavern, an enormous skeleton was present with a giant sword running through it. It was the same giant sword on which the Academy’s castle existed. The skeleton’s body was twisted in unnatural ways but it could be made clear that it was once a mighty dragon. The bones were made up of similar crystals that were present everywhere in the cave. After all, they were not naturally formed crystals, but the bones of the dragons who once existed.

Judas was currently directly below the biggest of the swords in Baelor, that was stabbed half into the earth.

Judas walked up to the skeleton and kneeled. He bowed and touched his head to the ground as he said, “I apologise Your Reverence.”

From the heart of the skeleton, a blurry image of a human slowly took shape. He gradually turned clearer and clearer and his features became visible. His sharp, bright green eyes looked down at Judas and his long silver hair flowed behind him.

“This one deserves to die a hundred deaths.” Judas hit his head on the ground.

“Stand up, Judas. It is not your fault.” The young man with sharp eyes said in a gravelly voice, “Someone is deliberately messing with the natural order of the world.”

Judas gradually stood up but still kept his back bent in subservience, “I couldn’t understand when I found out that there were two children. It didn’t make any sense.”

“Not two. Three. One of them is using a method to alter his mana signature. I can point out my successor if I see them in front of me, but there is no need to hasten it. My successor will sooner or later come to find me anyway. Every Star has to meet their predecessors, after all.” The young man said.

Judas hesitated for a moment before asking a question that was in his mind, “Your Reverence, who do you think is causing such chaos?”

The young man took a drifting moment before he said, “It could be anyone. It could be the Cult. They have been silent for too long now. I wonder what those degenerate spawns are planning. It could also be Little Fourth. She had become too greedy when she was alive and it looks like it hasn’t changed much even now. She has her hands everywhere in the world. Looks like being called the Goddess of Knowledge has gone to her head.”

Judas trembled listening to the words of the young man. If it was anyone else saying those words, Judas would have to kill them himself to wash off the sin of even listening to such heretical speech. However, the young man in front of him was the Vestige of Osborn Ormar, The Sword God.

“....Or it could simply be Heavens. However, I don’t think so. These underhanded methods are beneath Heavens. What I do know is that there are certain powers at play that are disturbing the order, and I don’t like it. Leave the issue of my successor and try to find out more about the powers involved.”

Osborn Ormar flicked his wrist lightly and Judas simply disappeared. The space had folded upon itself without a need for any Gate, and mana around the space trembled slightly before coming to rest. Serene silence returned to the cavern as The Sword God’s Vestigial body disappeared into the eerily glowing skeleton.

He knew there would come a storm very soon; a storm that would engulf not only the mainland but the entire world within it.