He still hadn’t woken up. The dim green light of Verda’s half-moon was barely enough to make out the boy’s dark violet hair. Vampa’s pinkish red had remained hidden behind the clouds.

Sarva guessed that the boy was Human since he was quite a bit shorter despite being barely two years younger than himself. A tan on his skin pointed to him being from somewhere a lot farther away, making the guess of him being High Human even less likely. No one could accurately tell which of the three human races someone belonged to until adolescence since they all looked more or less the same until then. Maybe he’s a late bloomer.

“AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—”

The abrupt scream was muffled with Sarva’s gloved hand. Now that the boy’s eyes were finally open, he could see them being an almost lifeless blue. Another hand slapped Sarva’s away, after which the boy started gasping for air. Only then did Sarva realise he was choking the boy.

“Ah, my bad… Are you feeling alright?” he asked the boy.

Triss was suffering from a painful headache. He had woken up feeling the brunt of it and had let out a yelp involuntarily. The source of said headache was rather clear with the partly-bloodied bandage wrapped around his head.

At that point he could barely take notice of any visual input just as Sarva’s hand had covered his mouth. He had struggled to breathe and just managed to stare at the crescent of the moon. Triss didn’t even register Sarva’s question from earlier as he struggled to deal with the ache.

“Ueya, please pass the waterskin,” Sarva said to his older brother.

Ueya took out the waterskin from underneath his cloak and handed it over to his younger brother. Sarva lifted Triss’ head and poured a little water for him to drink. Triss gulped it down and grabbed the waterskin right before getting himself upright and finishing half of its contents.

Triss finally got a chance to get a read on his surroundings. He noticed two strangers who looked quite alike to each other. Both of them were at least a good half-metre taller than him. Definitely High Humans. They both had features typical of their race. High cheekbones, a sharp jawline, and slanted eyes.

Their height had already given it away, though, as Triss inwardly cursed having to look up even when one of them was sitting right next to him. The one standing on the opposite side sported a minor stubble, but otherwise looked almost identical. They both had wavy chestnut hair and brown eyes.

Another thing that had come to his attention was a putrid smell and what felt like mud under the bandage on his head. He tried to remove it but was stopped the next moment.

“There’s healing paste under that. It takes a while to get used to the smell. Just, uh, deal with it for a bit longer, the pain will get better,” Sarva explained.

“Wh-what? Forget that, what’s going on? This isn’t the healer’s clinic.” Triss confusedly asked with a stammer.

Ueya interjected to answer him. “Sarva here thought you could use some fresh air. As to what’s going on, you’ve been expelled from the Lightguard Academy. Boss man said you’re coming with us, so here you are.”

It took Triss a few minutes to process that. He’d been expelled. Is this a kidnapping? No, no one is that stupid inside the walls. He did a quick pass to confirm that he could actually see two walls, but the scenery of the city itself was different from what he remembered his old residence to be.

“Where are we?” He asked.

“Middle rung. This is the rooftop of our residence,” Sarva answered.

“Our?” Middle rung?

“Yes, our residence. We work for the Scholars, and now that includes you as well.”

“Wait, the Bastards of Taffelberg?” Triss was extremely confused now.

“Ahem. Maybe a bit more respect for your new employers. Scholars of Trauerburg, yes.”

Triss balled his fists. He was getting annoyed. Not that it was difficult to piss him off. He decided to ask just one all-encompassing question to fill in the gaps.

“Just what the fuck happened?”

Sarva spent the next half-hour recounting the events of the past day. The Scholars had come to the academy for some supplies and information. The group that the Scholars represent apparently had had a tacit understanding with the Lightguard that they wouldn’t inspect the doghouse and only stuck to the central and middle rungs of the city.

Sarva’s so-called ‘boss man’ had wanted to skip a few steps and blackmail the Lightguard to speed up the requisition, so he took a quick detour to Triss’ academy. And they had gotten what they wanted by exploiting what happened to Triss.

“Is it alright to tell me all that so openly?” Triss couldn’t help but feel that Sarva was being a bit of an idiot by revealing everything so easily.

“It’s fine, you’re one of us now, anyway. Everyone knows all that, anyway, it’s not much of a big secret.”

Sarva continued recounting the tale with a chipper voice. Triss was a bit confused as to why he was so excited about whatever it was that had happened to him. He chalked it up to Sarva being an energetic guy in general.

According to Sarva, the ‘old sleazebag’ was a retired professor from the Sveril Republic who had somehow gotten an assistantship in the middle rung. He had served for a decade or two before he got a bit violent with a big shot’s child who had been studying at the Lightguard Academy proper. Then came the demotion.

“Of course he was involved with a sponsor.” Triss was a bit peeved.

Triss seethed thinking about it. The rich and powerful of the world would fund the Lightguard and their crusade against the Threat in return for training one of their young. Those graduates never fought in causes as noble as that, though, they just returned home and used their strength to protect their own interests.

Triss didn’t know it when he had entered the academy as a little kid, but his older sister was a sponsored student. Having been so young, it took him a few years to see that he was more or less abandoned by his family and he could only see his inability to use magic as a reason for it. He had no memories of even talking to his sister after entering the academy, nor had he seen her since she had left it in over five years. Recalling his sorry situation had stung.

“It gets better than that. The guy had a bet going on with the other teachers. Haha, the old twat actually put money on how soon you’d act up in his class. And more money on how well he handles you. You’ve got quite the reputation, yea?” Sarva said with a chuckle.

“By the way, is ‘Triss’ really your name?” he asked.

“Ugh, that doesn’t explain how I got expelled. And who are you again?”

“Ahah, um, right. I forgot about all that, I’m Sarva. I’m also the Heart mage who healed you. And your colleague, from today! The handsome guy brooding in the moonlight is my older brother, Ueya. You answer my question first and then I’ll explain the rest.” Sarva was clearly having a bit of fun with all of this.

Triss clenched his teeth. If he had the strength, he would have considered punching the guy.

“‘Triss’ is what I thought my name was. I didn’t get too much time with my family before coming here. It took me a few years of being laughed at to get that it was just a stupid nickname. And a girl’s name.”

His temper wouldn’t last a second longer recounting all that, and he made that clear to Sarva with an aggressive voice. Ueya, meanwhile, had walked away from the two sometime during that exchange and was leaning on the roof’s railing.

“Sorry, sorry, I was just really curious,” Sarva tried to appease Triss a little.

“What’s the deal with your names, though? They’re even weirder than mine. They’re very… not Elven.”

“We’re from a fringe settlement on North Deas. Never really interacted much with the rest of our stuck up relatives on Himmiord before our generation,” Sarva said without his usual cheery tone.

“You don’t look like you’re from Himmiord, either,” he added a short moment later. “Human?”

“Not Human. Horns haven’t grown out yet,” Triss said defensively. “Can we get back to the topic?”

Sarva groaned. “That’s not as interesting. So, the ‘requisition’, right. Boss man wanted some clay to play with. He wanted to experiment with a new Class that he’d ‘designed’. Not sure what and what put together, but I guess we’ll find out soon. The gold-pants hated the idea of giving up one of their Luminary prospects to the Scholars, but since you are—were—a mutt, they gave you up. No love lost, yea? It’s difficult to find people who haven’t ever used magic before, you know. Well, people who aren’t toddlers…

“Also, I didn’t think you were Khea, you look way too meek for that. Are you sure you’re not Human?” Sarva asked.

“A Class? Me? That’s impossible. I can’t use mana,” Triss said dejectedly.

Sarva responded immediately. “Hah. Everyone can use mana, stupid. Seriously, can’t believe they call this place an academy, right? You know, most kids get a Class before they get to be as old as you. Usually it’s the parents or teachers who help out with that.

“Didn’t you go through the forced awakening process? Well, you did fail it apparently, haha. They don’t really recognise magic that isn’t theirs, so you can’t get a personal Class here. And it’s not like the Lightguard’s method is the only way, even I could help with you getting a personal one. Boss man would kill me if I did, but I could, you know. Be a bit more excited about this, yea?”

“Huh? No, what? How?” Triss asked, having completely forgotten how punchable Sarva’s face was to him a few moments earlier.

“You’re asking how to be excited?” Sarva laughed. “It’s gonna be a bit painful for you, but it’s not impossible. There’s just different ways to get there. You’re just not suited to an order-based Class like the Luminary one. Makes you perfect for a chaos Class, actually.”

“What the fuck?” Triss asked and covered his head with his hands. It was still too painful for him to keep up with Sarva’s verbal assault but the few things that he processed were still unbelievable for him. Sarva was refuting whatever the doghouse had drilled into him.

“Hey, hey. I don’t make the labels. It’s some philosophical bullcrap that people only pretend to understand, don’t sweat it much. Although, I gotta say, it’s gonna hurt when they force a Class on you. Broody over there went through the same thing. Just try not to end up as cranky, yea?”

Triss barely registered those trailing words. He wanted to be excited but it hurt to think there was a chance that he’d never use magic without an extremely rare opportunity that he seemed to have gotten through dumb luck. Could he really use magic, though? He didn’t want to hope, but he wasn’t sure of what to do except taking everything at face value. He decided to give up on that and ask about something a bit more urgent.

“How much longer should I keep this healing paste on me?”

“I told you, you just get used to the smell!”

“Sarva, please, just take it off. It stinks,” Ueya added from the side.

Sarva grunted and started untying the bandage. He cleaned up the mud-like paste with water after having wrestled a little with Triss since he didn’t react so well to how much it had still hurt.

“Thanks and everything, but why can’t you just heal without that disgusting slime, anyway?” Triss asked. He felt like he’d gag on the smell alone.

Sarva crossed his arms. “Are you stupid? Healing without it would just exhaust your body needlessly. You’d have to eat a mountain otherwise to make up for the nutrition.”

Triss didn’t know how to respond to that. The healer at the doghouse never cared about those details. Just how much did everyone shit on me?

He couldn’t do anything about it now. He ended up collapsing a few moments later, after which Sarva draped his cloak on him and went downstairs. Ueya, on the other hand, ended up sleeping on the rooftop as well.

The Arbreth was the only tree in the entire Lightguard Academy. It was around 7 metres tall and 2 metres wide. The top half was charred with most of the branches and all leaves missing. It was definitely dead, but it still stood in the very centre of the city.

The bark was dark and its hardness resembled that of stone. The tree grew right through what looked like a humanoid abomination. The corpse had the visage of a gigantic troll and it appeared to be made of volcanic rock.

Surrounding the tree was an array of pillars arranged concentrically around it. They supported a circular balcony that had the view of the tree itself. Torches that burned yellow flames were lit all around and Verda’s green moonlight shone directly on the tree. The balcony in turn was surrounded by a massive castle-like structure that was a gigantic library. This was the inner sanctuary.

The Arbreth had usually enjoyed the company of a tranquil silence but on that night it was broken by the bickering of a few high-profile individuals.

“In front of the sacrifice of our Elven forefathers! Veles, you are insufferable. How do you have the gall to mock all the blood that we have shed just to satisfy your pointless whims?!”

The High Human who was just screaming managed to do so with his teeth clenched. He wore a much bulkier variant of the regular Luminary armour set apart from the helmet. He had the bearing of an old man and sported long and wavy white hair alongside numerous wrinkles on his face, but anyone would still describe him as ‘radiant’ even under the darkness of night. His eyes were a muddled green, however, they still managed to make a deathly stare at Veles through the eye-slits on the Scholar’s mask.

Veles retorted. “Here lies the work of a mage who impaled his foes with trees sprouted from nothing but molten earth. All I see is a relic that proves someone that absurd managed to exist. A race, a civilisation, whatever you want to call it—the Elves of Himmiord could produce warriors that ridiculous, and yet, nothing of them remains on the continent but the caves that they lived in.

“Our society speaks their language, practices their culture, and claims to be their legacy. What sort of pride do you find in such a pointless heritage? Does playing with someone else’s toys make them yours? Stand up on your own two feet or just throw yourself into one of their tombs already, brat.”

The Luminary—someone with the rank of Lightbringer—was fuming. “Of course it instills me with pride! It is thanks to our Elven heritage that we—”

Veles interrupted. “The question was rhetorical. Do you fancy a coffin next to the Firebrood corpse over there? It’s clear your body has already outlived your mind. I’d appreciate your noble sacrifice.”

“How dare you?!”

During the debate, Tala and Shaw were sitting on the railing of the same balcony a few paces away.

“Do you think they’re going to go at it the whole night?” Shaw asked.

“Maybe? Get back to what you were saying about the boy, I don’t want to deal with their nonsense,” Tala replied.

“Think age really got to Daxton, he was nowhere near as bad as Veles when we were kids,” Shaw mused.

Daxton’s been the fucking same for decades! Tala thought. “The boy,” she steered the topic back.

“Right, so I was going through his records, first thing, they don’t store names for anyone in the doghouse. Just numbers. But the professors seem to be sure that Triss really is his name. And he’s not from Himmiord at all. Quite far from it, actually.”

“Figured, he’s too short. So there really is a place where Triss is a boy’s name, then?” Tala asked excitedly.

“What’s so interesting about that, anyway? It’s just a name. Why bother making them gender exclusive?” Shaw asked.

“Have you met a boy named ‘Triss’ before?” Tala responded with a question.

“I have not. Just because there’s a sizeable number of women with that name—”

Tala cut him off and repeated her question. “For fuck’s sake, Shaw, is the name something common for boys where he’s from?”

Shaw shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ve never been to South Deas. It could be a thing there, we should consider visiting with him after this business is done.”

“Quite far? That’s the other side of the fucking world, moron. Daxton could be a girl’s name there for all we know!” Tala yelled at Shaw.

Both Veles and Daxton focused their attention on Tala for a quick second following the comment. They resumed their own ‘conversation’ immediately after.

She quickly whispered to Shaw. “So, uh, how did he get here?”

Shaw shook his head. “Could it kill you to have a bit more tact? The instructors who knew him by name mentioned that he was a sponsored student. He got thrown away by both the Lightguard and his sponsor when they found out that he didn’t show the aptitude for the Luminary Class. Or at least, that’s the gossip.”

“I don’t get why these old men always have such a hard-on for almost anything Elven. It’s creepy,” Tala said with a tinge of disgust.

“Well, I do think the pecking order should be similar to their current implementation. The Lightguard, however, doesn’t seem to be able to quantify the structure very well,” Shaw said with no intention of stopping. That comment had burst open the dam.

“Their total disregard for other schools of magic is just such a terrible waste. They wouldn’t even need to employ the Umbra’s mercenaries if they just focused on training their grunts better. And they find that too embarrassing to admit publicly! Of course it is. Honestly, Veles’ points make a lot of sense. I just wish he weren’t so obstinate about everything. I do also think that High Humans have indeed inherited multiple useful traits, but Daxton keeps focusing on all of the wrong parts…”

Tala had already left the inner sanctuary halfway through the boring analysis without her disappearance coming to anyone’s attention—Shaw included. She was off to see whether Triss had woken up.