Learning to listen, and listen well, was a skill I honed while I was kept under lock in key Altressor— ostensibly for my own protection. Eavesdropping was considered a bad habit by the Matriarch, and her wardens were most vigilant in enforcing her whims. I was caught a few times overhearing conversations not meant for the ears of men. Each time the punishment was more severe, so I was very motivated to learn how to listen to people that didn’t wish to be overheard.

For starters, I knew the ranking matches were one of the means by which the Academy decided which academs remained. Overall the seniors kept to themselves, but one time I overheard a group of academs discussing their rankings with trepidation… and I was the first to hear the ranking matches were to be rescheduled— moved up a week due to unforeseen circumstances, whatever that meant.

The Academy and its many professors had no standardized curriculum or training to adhere to. In point of fact, there didn’t seem to be a curriculum at all. I’d heard it told that most professors kept their charges to a regimen similar to the one we underwent prior to being named academs. I understood the concept of training the body to strengthen the mind, but the Academy’s strict adherence bordered on insanity— were they training mages or laborers?

Merlin took great joy in running us ragged, but his methods were not without merit. He drilled us to the point of exhaustion at the same time that he taught us how to control our power. We spent weeks manifesting anima to bolster our aura— the conditions and response times varied, but not much else. Merlin was adamant that we repeat the process ad nauseam till the act became second nature.

Frank Stein, who more often than not could be found goofing off, became an object lesson. “You don’t have to think about how to twiddle your thumbs or pick your nose, you just do it— isn’t that right, Frank?”

In theory I understood what he had meant, but it took two weeks of exhausting repetition for the process to become truly ingrained. One day it clicked. That day stood out from the rest because Merlin passed me over and delivered his rebukes to the rest of the group. The power flowing through me was an extension of my will, and the same way my fist clenched when I wanted it to, I could summon anima without conscious thought. My control was sloppy and I wasn’t going to be shooting fireballs out of my fingers anytime soon, but it was a start.

My feeling of accomplishment didn’t last, especially with Nyx deflating my sense of self worth at every juncture. “You think you’re a mage now? Hah! Don’t make me laugh. Watching you flail around is like watching a baby learn how to walk.”

Rogue, Rathlin, and Nadia joined me, and we took our first steps towards becoming a mage. Merlin beat himself up over the fact that Rocket and Frank clung to their ignorance to the bitter end. It wasn’t his fault, not really, but I wondered if there was more to his concern than the disappointment of an educator that had failed a student.

—

—

—

The stadium was as full as I’d ever seen it. Besides the emergency assembly after the blackout, I’d never seen the place more packed. Like it had then, the crowd exuded an air of uncertainty edged in fear. Were the ranking matches that much of a cause for alarm? Don’t get me wrong, I thought a little nervous tension was to be expected, especially coming from the junior academs, but I felt like I’d joined a funeral procession.

My shoulders itched and I was sweating— who was watching me? At the first chance I got, I turned nonchalantly and saw more a cluster of academs staring hard in our direction. But it wasn’t me they were interested in. With a self-depreciating laugh, I realized not everything in the world revolved around me. With his easy grin and carefree attitude, Rathlin stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Something the matter?”

“No, nothing like that. It looks like rain, and I was thinking it would be just my luck for it to start pouring right when it’s my turn.”

Rathlin screwed up his eyes to better look at the overcast sky. “Huh. You’re right, it does look like rain… but I can’t imagine Magisterium’s weather control would allow us to get washed out.”

High above our heads, above the reflective barrier that dissuaded natural weather patterns from affecting the City of Wonders, was a massive storm. Dark thunderclouds bit and clawed at Magisterium’s weather-working with impotent rage. A subset of clouds that sat at a lower altitude roiled as they were denied their due and split to either side of the city.

I swallowed. “Alectos must be furious.” More quietly, I said “I can’t help but think the gods have it out for me.”

We pushed our way through the loiterers at the top and descended to the strip of no man’s land between the stadium and the stands.

“Seems no one wants to stand too close to the edge,” Merlin said.

“Their loss. Best seats in the house if you ask me,” Rocket said.

My mind shot questions and thoughts at me rapid-fire, so fast that it made me dizzy. I needed space. After Merlin and company seated themselves, I trekked down the last few rows to the lowest point in the stands— twenty feet above the ground below— and leaned up against a quartz column.

“Shiro, wait up!” Rathlin called after me.

“Leave him be. He’s probably trying not to wet himself,” Rocket said.

The moment I stopped moving, my unquiet mind reared its head. How was this supposed to work? Were we called down one at a time or in groups? Was our opponent decided by lottery or by some other means? Why hadn’t anyone told us these things? Mages surrounded themselves in secrets like it was an essential accruement of any practicing magician. Aggravating, was what it was. I bet they just didn’t like explaining their magic tricks, because how many people would think they were all that magical after the trick had been revealed?

My scars ached and the cool granite bedrock of the stadium was overlaid with blood-soaked sands. I blinked and I was in another place. Hundreds of voices cried out in concert, becoming an incoherent jumble of sound. Nevertheless, it was clear the onlookers wanted the night’s combatants to sate their appetite for blood. I blinked and the returned to the present, but the blood-soaked memory of Manzant lingered.

“You come down with something, Shiro? You don’t seem well,” Rathlin said.

“I’m good. Needed some air is all.”

“Look, about what I said the other day…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks.”

Uncomfortable, I let my eyes roam. It was inevitable that they’d be drawn to the tumultuous sea of gray-cloaked academs. There were so many people gathered in one place that it made me dizzy to look at them all at once.

“Crazy, isn’t it? Who would’ve guessed the Academy had been training thousands to become academs? All this time we’d been surrounded by so many of our peers— and we didn’t notice.”

“How could we not have noticed?” I echoed his unvoiced thought.

In the center of the field, a ten-meter tall projection of Headmaster Alfarian appeared. Blown up as he was, the craggy lines of his face seemed to stand out all the more. I’d never mistaken him fir a young man, but he looked positively ancient and frail, very frail.

The headmaster raised his liver-spotted hands. “Silence!” he drew out the word. “Silence!”

A hush came over the crowd.

“We should head back and join the others.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

We took our place beside the others. In order to escape my thoughts, I gave my full attention to the spectral image of the headmaster as he began to speak. Like water through a sieve his words escaped me, but I didn’t think think they were so important that I would regret missing them.

I caught Merlin muttering to himself throughout the opening ceremony, but he was far more boisterous after the headmaster was through. “Unheard of… moving up the ranking matches without notice… outrage! Hall of Lords getting too big for their britches…”

“I’m not too concerned,” Rathlin said.

“Easy for you to say. If he wasn’t such a lousy professor, Rocket and me could’ve been as prepared as the rest of the class.” Frank said.

Rocket had cast aside all pretense and was tearing out his hair in worry. “They’re going wipe the floor with us!”

“That isn’t going to happen,” I said,

“When do we start?” Rogue said, her expression one of extreme boredom.

Merlin appeared at my shoulder and took me aside. “Allow nothing of what happens today to get the better of you.

Frank pitched his voice so Merlin could hear him. “Come on, teach— aren’t you supposed to be some kind of genius mage? We’re going to get slaughtered! You’ve got to have a bit of choice advice that can get us through.”

Frank was first up, and he shed his usual lethargy. Nadia soon followed. I waited, and waited some more.

—

—

—

Rogue, Rathlin and I gripped each others forearms tight.

“See you on the other side.”

“Count on it,” I said.

Then I threw myself over the railing and fell to the bedrock. The action caused the hood of my cloak to fall back, revealing my shock of silver hair, pale skin, and blood-red eyes. Stepping purposefully, I crossed most of the intervening distance between myself and the circle that had been identified as the one where my ranking match would take place.

My hands shook as I removed the Outsider’s compass from its pouch in my cloak. I flipped it right-side up and tilted its face to better see the needle. It pointed straight at the stocky academ I was matched with. Biting the inside of my lip, I stuffed the compass into its pouch and tied the strings as tight as they would go.

“Stay course. Steady as she goes. Anyways, it’s too late to turn back now.”

I grinned my most monstrous grin and stepped into the circle of power. The barrier felt gelatinous as I entered it, but once I was through to the other side and I slammed my fist against, I found it had become rock solid. Upon catching sight of me, the academ slated to be my opponent shrank away.

I wasn't feeling talkative; I had to force the words to form. “Your name?”

“Titus Maximillion…” after a pause, he said, “… and yours?”

“Shiro.”

“Shiro…?”

“Just Shiro.”

Titus rolled his shoulders and stretched out each of his arms in turn. “Suit yourself. You ever participated in one of these ranking matches, Shiro?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t.”

Tsskkk. “We begin when the barrier enclosing us flashes. Shouldn’t be long now.”

I wavered, looked beyond the barrier to the foreboding sky above.

Titus was reassured by my reaction. “Any and all energies released within the circle will be contained. That’s not all. The two of us entered the circle, but neither academ one of us can leave until one renders the other unconscious.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

I let the stocky man talk while I gauged his strength. It only took a moment for me to discover that Titus was weak, much weaker than me. That said, I sensed there was a gap in our experience that might well make up the difference.

“Don’t blame me, but I can’t go easy on you. I can’t lose, not again.”

“Sorry to say this, but I have to win here to keep moving forward— and I won’t let you stop me.”

Titus dropped his hands to his side and unfocused his eyes. “There’s nothing more to say then, is there?”

Nyx chuckled. “Feeling motivated today, are we?”

“Shut up.”

“You don’t have to bite my head off. By the gods, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Nyx exclaimed in mock-indignation.

I bolstered my aura, taking extra care to pack it extra tight. Whatever was thrown at me, I wanted my defenses to be in top form. Titus might have had the advantage in experience, but I wasn’t going to cede the right of way to him for that. I readied myself to attack.

The barrier that enclosed us flashed.

Titus came in hard and fast with everything he had. He cast a bolt of orange energy at me that screamed danger. I threw myself to the ground and rolled, narrowly avoiding being struck. While Titus narrowed his eyes and readied another attack, I thought furiously for the best way to put my talents to use.

“You may have been born to power…”

There was no arguing that I was at a disadvantage in ranged combat. I didn’t have any skills to speak of that could enable me to attack from a distance, so my only option was to rely on my experience with close quarters combat. My shielding would hold up. Probably.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it would have to do. I sprinted around the interior of the containment barrier, contorting my body to make the smallest target possible. I kept my head low but my eyes on the prize.

Titus flung a ball of orange power at me, expressing either expert aim or incredible luck. The second attack was stronger and faster and the first. I figured the disparity could be explained by how much charge time Titus had. If that was true, I couldn’t let up. Unless I managed some feat of acrobatics that I knew was beyond me, I would have to retreat… or else risk colliding head-on with the power.

“Afobos be damned!” I screamed.

Crying out in defiance, I deflected the anima with the back of my hand and it crashed into the containment field in a shower of sparks. During the brief period of contact, my shielding dissipated into a cloud of steaming vapor and my left arm went numb up to the elbow. Rather than lament the loss of the use of my arm, I held it tight to my body, hunched over, and kept on running.

Titus narrowed his eyes and readied another one of his attacks. “So you’ve learned to manipulate your aura. Impressive. But you’ll need more than parlor tricks to defeat me!” When he launched his next volley, I was already within striking range.

“You’ll have to be faster than that.”

I dropped below the small orange globe of anima and then exploded upwards with an uppercut to the jaw. By shifting his weight to his hand leg and retreating a half-step, Titus avoided getting his lights knocked out.

I knew I couldn’t let up. I’d lose my advantage the moment I did. Considering a glancing blow had rendered my left arm useless, I didn’t think my odds of coming out on top were very good if I took a direct hit.

I came out swinging from a half-crouch and the onslaught of uncoordinated blows forced Titus to retreat all the way to the edge of the ring. But with one arm out of commission, I felt awkward and unbalanced. It was only a matter of time before I lost my momentum, and then the flow of the match would be in Titus’s favor.

Nyx reinforced my thoughts on the matter. “It’s now or never, kid.”

“I know that!”

I bled off my aural shielding and refocused the anima in the palm of my right hand. “Take… this!” My attack collided with a hastily constructed shield— and shattered it to pieces. Its unrelenting force threw Titus against the barrier. The collision was accompanied by a sickening crack. Titus’s eyes went wide and spittle flew from his mouth when he slammed against the barrier. Then he fell over, limp. I waited a moment to be sure, but there was no movement.

“Is it over?”

Another moment more and the barrier flashed, then receded. I stood there dumbly while an official dragged Titus Maximillion away to a waiting physician. Not much later, the same official returned. Absorbed as he was in his records book, I didn’t think he even saw me.

“Congratulations on your success, academ… Shiro, is it?” He nodded to himself. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll see you to the physician… then I’ll have you join the others advancing to the colorless sector.”

Something wet, and cold— a water droplet— landed on my head. I eyed the foreboding sky. “The colorless sector…?” I echoed. “What’s— where’s that?”

The official smiled cheerfully. “Worry not, for Magisterium has recognized your contributions to society. All will be explained in due time.”

But I was worried. How could I not have been, what with the Academy’s apparent inability to explain anything of true import?

That’s when it started to rain.