— Aster —

I stared in awe as Noame was now holding his beard in his hand. What was even more amazing was it was in one solid piece, styled and everything. Noame's smile never faltered as the entire room was shocked into silence.

That was until a woman’s voice spoke, “Sir! That was amazing, but what was the point?”

Looking towards the voice I saw Violet, one of my friends who was supposed to meet me earlier. When the bloody rot did she get her? She was the one I was most surprised she didn’t show up. She was always on time and usually made a priority for our plans. I could only wonder if she forgot. We could see her standing tall with her long black hair tied back. Giving Noame a hard stare with her bright green almond-shaped eyes. Normally her hard stare could make even Noame wilt, but right now her eyes were telling a different story. She looked scared, she was masking it well, but I’ve known her too long not to see her fear. She was never afraid.

Noames smile faltered realizing he had been doing this for a little too long, and coughed embarrassed, “Yes miss Violet. There was indeed a point that, and I will get to it.”

“Can we just start?” Violet pleaded. She wasn't the only one who was antsy. We had all been preparing for this day for what felt like forever. But I couldn’t understand her fear until I caught her eyes going back and forth from Noame to the door, and I thought I was beginning to understand.

Noame sighed, fixing the beard back on his face. I couldn’t see him do anything special to do this. He just waved his hand over his face and the beard was back like it never left. I was still distracted by the whole thing when Noame started “Alright so first off. CONGRATULATIONS!!!” At that moment, confetti and a banner fell from the ceiling with the words ‘WELCOME ADVENTURERS’. “You have entered the final stretch of your learning!”

After making his grand gesture Noame returned to the podium, and reached behind it, only to pull out a small cloth sack, holding it high, “In this last stretch you will learn the basics of magic, receive your SEED, allowing you to unlock your potential.” Everyone's gazes were fixed on the bag. We had all heard of the SEED, it would allow us to tap into the world, and do amazing things.

Noame waved the bag around in the air, everyone's heads bounced following the item like it contained the answer to everything. Noame caught himself and stopped before continuing, “Now everyone please grab the satchel from under your chair.”

Everyone reached under their chair, some couldn't move fast enough as they fell over themselves to grab the bag. I calmly reached under the chair only to find nothing. Panic gripped my heart until I looked up to see James holding two bags with a huge grin on his face. "Heart stopped didn't it?"

"Only for a second." James immediately tossed me the bag. Honestly, I was surprised he gave it back so quick. I narrowed my eyes at him.

I looked away to watch Noame, and find out what was next. When I looked up I saw him pull out a small silver ball that was about the size of a small coin, “You all have your standard Status Element Evaluating Device or SEED for short. Every SEED is the same.”

I, like the rest of the crowd, was confused. We had all grown up being told that every SEED was different. Why would he be contradicting this now?

Noame’s smile only grew wider at our confusion, “Yes they are all the same. That is to say, they are all the same until you eat them.” Noame mimed throwing the seed into his mouth. “Yes, you eat them. They grow with you. Hence the acronym that someone tried really hard to spell SEED.”

My mind was racing at the implications. Is that how you level up? I was distracted by my own thoughts I almost missed the next thing Noame said, “I need a volunteer. Aster! Why don’t you come down?”

Without waiting for a response or anyone to raise their hands I was singled out. I knew I should have kept my mouth shut. I gave him my best please don’t make me look, and he just kept gesturing for me to come on up. I let out a long sigh excepting my fate and stood. I could feel everyone’s gazes on me as I slowly walked forward, my stomach was in complete knots.

When I reached the stage he turned me around, “Please take out your SEED and the marker.” I opened the bag to see a silver ball and a black marker in the bag. I pulled them out and stared up at Noame. Seeing this he continued, “Once you eat the seed. Aster eats the SEED.” I shrugged and tossed the silver ball in my mouth and choked it down. I felt tears in my eyes from the effort of swallowing. He could have given us water.

Noame thankfully waited before continuing, “Once you eat the SEED please open your tunic, and make a circle in the center of your chest with a line through the top.”

This was such a strange request I had to turn to Noame, “Really?"

"Yes really. I know it’s odd, but it will make sense soon."

“Ok,” It was a strange request but I loosened the ties on my tunic and pulled it down to draw the circle. It was at an odd angle so my circle turned into more of an egg with the line through it. I finished and asked, “Is this why we wore tunics?”

“Yes, this is why we had you all wear tunics instead of your normal clothes, also it's tradition!” Noame turned to me and pointed towards my egg circle, “Now press the circle and say ‘Today begins my next big adventure’.”

I had no idea where he was going with this, and still half expected this was one of Noames pranks, but I had already come this far. I put my finger on the circle, “Today be..begins my next big adventure!” I only stuttered a little, as I felt something click with my body. I looked down at the drawing only to find little tendrils slowly crawling over my skin, forming what looked like a root system. This was starting to freak me out as could feel the tendrils as they spread. I let out an uneasy laugh trying to distract myself, “That tickles.” That elicited a little chuckle from the crowd.

“Thank you Aster, you can take your seat.” Noame addressed the rest of the people, “Everyone, grab your sack, and do just as Aster demonstrated.” Everyone chuckled slightly at his words as I made my way back to my seat. James gave me a thumbs-up as I took my seat and he began to draw a circle. His looked a lot more like a circle than mine.

Soon a chorus of “Today begins my next big adventure” began. Despite the morning I had I couldn’t help but think this really would be the start of a wondrous adventure. When everyone had said the words Noame announce, “Now the other important part…magic.”

My heart fluttered in excitement, finally, I would learn magic.

“Yes magic! But only the basics.” Noame gestured to the bag in his hand, "Now we are going to do a quick exercise to teach you how to move energy. Everyone pulls out the last item in the bag."

Last item? There were only the marker and SEED inside the bad, did I miss it? I reached into the bag, “Ouch!” Only to be cut by a small sharp knife. That was not there before. Actually, when did they have time to put the bags under the chairs. I was starting to realize that magic might have been used since the beginning.

I didn’t have time to dwell on it as I pulled the now bloody knife out Noame shouted, "Ah Aster, I see you're ahead of everyone."

I looked up at the man annoyed. Why was he singling me out today? I don’t think I did anything to him, and how did I get ahead? I just cut myself. That's when it dawned on me, and I gave Noame a horrified look.

"Like Aster everyone please make a small cut somewhere on your body." Noame held his own knife on his palm and sliced it drawing a few gasps from the crowd, "If you can't do it yourself please ask me or someone around." I looked around to watch as student after student cut their palm or forearm. There were a few who held the knife over the skin trying to psyche themselves up and some who just couldn’t bring themselves to do it. But that didn’t matter as suddenly everyone who couldn’t do it let out a surprised yell as a small gash appeared on their arms. They looked up in shock and even I felt a little fear at how casually it had been done.

Noame only smiled "Now that everyone has a slice.” Noame chuckled at his own joke, while we just looked at him in horror, “Sit down and close your eyes." Some of us followed his directions just wanting to get it over with, but when he repeated, “Everyone, sit down and close your eyes.” This time his words held command. "Good. Everyone breathe, and focus on the mark you just created.” I listened to his voice and imagined the spot of ink on my chest.

Noame’s voice became hypnotic “ Take your time until you feel the mark tingle. Once you feel it, focus on slowly moving that small spark of energy through your body toward the cut."

I found myself following his instructions, easily finding the magic. It felt warm. Reaching out with my will I began to coax and guide it through my chest and into my hand. I felt elated that I was able to move the energy, a small part of my mind was afraid I would somehow not be able to do it. With the power now literally in my hand, I pushed it into the cut and screamed, “AH!” It felt like fire burning into my hand.

Looking down at my hand I was expecting to see burns, only to find nothing, not even the, but from earlier just some dried blood. I hadn't noticed it earlier but now that I was no longer focusing on myself, I could hear scattered yells from all around me. What is going on?

Looking around I could see people were now shaking and eying the exit. Some were yelling at Noame, he gestured for everyone to calm and spoke above everyone, "Yes that was magic. Yes, that was healing, and yes healing is quite painful. This was the purpose of this lesson. One must know how to heal themselves. Now magic has many names, mana, energy, ether, but most just refer to it as energy. Every school or guild will teach you their way of moving energy.” The room quieted as people started to understand what had happened. With the room now quiet again, “This is where our instruction ends, and where you’re guilds will pick up." The rest of the speech was a speech about where everyone could go and how proud they were of us. Generic stuff. The whole address only took a few short minutes. “This marks the end of the first day.” Despite all that happened, the students slowly stood and seeing that the worst was over began to cheer. It built slowly until the entire room was a roar. Even James got into it jumping on my back giving a big fist pump.

“QUIET!!!” a visible wave of sound came from Noame. I curled over covering my ears.

I looked up fearfully, “What now?”

“Now, for one last thing. It’s a bit of ceremony but there's one last thing you all need to do.” Noame’s smile which was always a little uncomfortable now just appeared ominous.

I felt a chill down my spine when he spoke again, “This is a secret we keep from you till the ceremony.”

We watched Noame move toward the red door, standing tall and ominous behind the podium. My eyes locked onto the door. I felt it hard to tear my eyes away, but the sudden look on Noame's face made me focus on him. This time when he spoke it sounded like he was forcing himself to smile, “It is something that will reveal who you are to yourself.” He pointed towards the door, and for the first time, I noticed an inscription above the door. It read ‘While I may weigh your soul only you can know its truth.’

What did that even mean?

Looking over to Noame, he pulled out a big ornate key the size of my forearm and unlocked the door.

I was afraid. Honestly, I thought I was being afraid for no reason, but…so was everyone else. I could see it in their faces. This just made me even more scared. I turned to James for some type of reassurance but he seemed oblivious to the atmosphere as he asked, "So what do you think is going to happen?"

"Personally, I think we are going to go through the d..oor." I was trying for cool but my voice stuttered slightly. Something in the way Noame was acting was making me nervous.

James seemed excited despite everything, "Well that’s a given. But I bet we'll learn our first skill."

I was skeptical "Doubt it. I mean nothing has gone the way we've expected today. But we'll know once we go through that giant, ominous creepy door."

James's ears seemed to perk up, "Are you afraid of a door?"

I stare at James incredulously. "That’s what you got out of that?"

"Who's afraid of a door?" Coming in at five-ten a teen with short brown hair and dark eyes asked. This was Rowan one of our group who was supposed to meet up this morning. James pointed toward me. "Aster."

"Well more like I don’t trust it." I defended myself.

Rowan stopped to look toward the door contemplating, "Well there is something off about the door." All the pretending nothing was wrong was gone with Rowan one sentence.

I glanced at James and saw his smile falter, that's when I knew he could feel it too and was just avoiding it like me. The only thing we could do now was to wait and hope nothing bad would happen.

Noame addressed the crowd, “Now everyone please line up in front of the door. We will be going in one at a time.”

Hesitantly the entire hall began lining up, there were even a few brave souls who moved to the front. I saw a few people who almost didn’t get in line, but everyone eventually did. I looked through the queue and found Violet near the front stubbornly standing straight, with a small bead of sweat falling across her face. She was just as scared as us in the back.

And right behind Violet was the last member of our group. She stood almost as tall as me, I'm just a bit taller. Drives her crazy, especially since I like to rub it in that I'm taller. Bay stood with her long dark auburn hair pulled back in a ponytail, glaring at the door. Bay had intense gold eyes with a dark ring of green in the center. I always thought her face kind of looked like a heart, right now she looked to be in intense thought. I think it was her way of fortifying her resolve. Bay always did things her own way, she was my other best friend. Don't know what I'd do without her.

Despite what was going on Seeing Bay made me smile. Then the door opened into an inky blackness tearing the smile from my face. There was nothing beyond the door, only darkness. By now I was a little numb to the fear, I just knew I didn’t want to go through. The first person stepped forward entering into the darkness, the door closing behind them, only to open showing no trace of the one who stepped through. This pattern continued with each and every person. To say it was unsettling would be an understatement.

All too soon it was my turn, trying to stall for time, I turned to Noame, “So is there a door on the other side? It looks really dark.”

“You could say that,” Noame said solemnly.

I did not feel assured.

Staring at the inscription one last time. ‘While I may weigh your soul only you can know its truth.’ with the last of my courage slowly fading I hesitantly stepped inside.