"I feel like that might have been a stupid question," Erik added, staring down at the pile of sick Caeden had just made.

"You think?" Caeden huffed, breathing heavily. "What were you doing anyway? I was kinda being murdered!"

"Hey, man." Erik raised his hands defensively, "I was trying to get through his shroud too. His was way heavier than anything I've seen before. I couldn't get through."

"Oh," Caeden felt like an ass. "Sorry, I didn't notice."

Erik shrugged. "Pretty sure you were busy, no biggie."

"Ahh," A soft voice spoke up.

Caeden looked up, seeing the girl he had defended. He hadn't been paying much attention to her beyond recognizing that she was being attacked. What he saw surprised him. She was small and skinny, almost skeletal. Thin to an unhealthy degree. She was also pale, in a way that led Caeden to believe she didn't go outside often. That paleness contrasted sharply against her pitch-black, long hair.

Altogether, it created a startling image. But that wasn't what surprised him. What had truly captured his attention were her eyes. They were a stormy grey and held a deep pain, covered by an unwavering resolve. Caeden was enraptured. He couldn't look away from those intense, stormy eyes.

Their little staring match was thrown off when Caeden, who was attempting to stand, wobbled, his legs not responding well after his impromptu shock therapy. Immediately, the girl went to support him, preventing Caeden from falling over. However, when Caeden went to put a hand on her shoulder to stop himself from falling onto her, his hand went through her, and she bolted away from him at an unnatural speed. Her lower body turned cloudy, like a thick fog that carried her much faster than a regular run.

After hardly a second, though, she stopped and whipped around, heading back over toward Caeden and Erik, looking deeply embarrassed. "Sorry, force of habit."

Caeden wasn't really sure how to respond to that, so he decided it was best to gloss over it. "All good. I'm Caeden; this is Erik." Hopefully, some formal introduction would break the ice.

"Oh!" She looked surprised, her embarrassment disappearing. "I'm Lily Meteoris. Nice to meet you. And, thank you for helping, though I fear you've made yourselves an unfortunate enemy."

"Ehh," Caeden shrugged. "I doubt we were going to get along anyway. What was that all about? Also," Caeden studied her for a second. Lily seemed a little stiff. "You can relax a bit."

She hesitated. "I'm…not used to speaking with others."

"Oh, that's fine; we don't offend easy, do we, Cae?" Erik smiled disarmingly. He threw an arm around Caeden's shoulders, leaning into him.

"Dude, you're going to knock me over." Caeden rolled his back, throwing Erik's arm off.

"Oh, don't be like that!" He turned to Lily, leaning in close and whispering conspiratorially. "We're real good friends, promise." He winked.

Caeden snorted. "You're so full of crap."

"Aw, don't you love me?" Erik pouted.

"I'm going to hit you." Caeden raised a fist, coated in Physical Enhancement.

Erik laughed, and Caeden cracked a smile. He reached over and flicked Erik in the head.

"Be serious for once, or she's going to think we're weird."

"But we're totally weird."

"You're weird. I'm just weird by association." Caeden shot back.

Before Erik could respond, the two of them were interrupted by laughter coming from Lily, who was covering her mouth to try and hide it.

"See, now you've got her laughing at us." Caeden accused.

"How is that my fault?"

"It's," Caeden vaguely gestured to Erik's whole body. "Y'know. Your whole vibe."

"I find that offensive."

"So do I!"

"Stop, stop!" Lily was gripping her sides, gasping for air. "I'm gonna pee! What is wrong with you two?"

"Everything."

"Nothing."

They both spoke at once before glaring at each other.

"Ok, you guys need to stop." Lily waved her hands. Caeden noticed she seemed much more relaxed. "We need to go to the entrance hall before orientation starts."

"Oh, I forgot about that." Erik tapped his head.

"You didn't even know that was happening." Caeden corrected.

"What's your point?"

"You know."

"I find that offensive." Erik crossed his arms.

"So do I!!"

{}

The three of them made their way to the entrance hall, which was in the big middle building, which Lily informed them was called the Academy proper, or more informally, the Mess. It turned out that Lily was an islander, which Caeden was expecting since the lightning-throwing guy from earlier expressed some familiarity with her, and he was obviously an islander. Her next revelation was much more surprising.

"He's your brother?!" Caeden couldn't contain his disbelief.

"Yeah," Lily confirmed uncomfortably. "The Meteoris family is kinda a big deal, and my brother is the prodigy of our generation. Meanwhile, I'm the disappointment. He lets it go to his head."

"Yeah, I'll say!" Caeden exclaimed in disgust. What kind of brother electrocutes their sister?

Erik's takeaway was different. "Wow, we both have shitty brothers then! What a coincidence!"

"You have a bad brother?"

"Yep!" Erik proceeded to regale them with stories of Travis's various exploits and narrow escapes from the consequences. This inevitably led to a discussion of Erik's insane luck.

"Sorry, I just find it hard to believe that that level of bad luck is a thing. Are you sure you aren't just cursed or something?" Lily asked.

Caeden laid a hand on her shoulder, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. "Finally, a fellow believer."

"I'm telling you, curses aren't real! This is all perfectly normal!" Erik protested.

His two companions stared back at him incredulously.

"Well, maybe not normal, but it's not a curse!"

"Erik doesn't believe in curses," Caeden informed Lily.

"You are aware of what shrouds can do, right?" She asked the protesting Erik.

"That's what I said!"

Erik and Caeden explained to Lily how they had met and the events that followed. Caeden showed her Forged Infinity. While they talked, they went down an elevator in the bronze tower and walked along a wide, paved, and lit pathway leading toward the Mess with hundreds, maybe even thousands of others. The lights weren't on, with it still being morning, but the fixtures were there to make this walkway well-lit even in the middle of the night.

By the time Caeden and Erik had finished explaining some of the details of their time in the structure, the three of them had made it to the area directly around the Mess. They had walked by a variety of environments, which Caeden hadn't noticed from the air. There were well-manicured gardens, wild woods, barren stretches of dirt, fields set up for several varieties of sports, and even a lava pit. The last one they didn't actually see, but Lily mentioned it when she gave a brief explanation of the various environments. They were set up to be training grounds for different kinds of shrouds, and there were even more by the paths to the three other outer buildings.

Lily also mentioned that all the outer buildings were set up by a member of the Central Council and bore their names. They were also specially created training grounds. Most classes took place in the Mess, but physical training was done either in one of the environments or in one of the outer buildings, collectively called the Exterior Training Sites. Alumni called them the Council Seats if they were feeling respectful. If they weren't, they called them the Egos.

"Since the only reason the Council added them was to look like they were involved in the school," Lily explained. "They wanted their names on some of the infrastructure, so the buildings are literal ego-trips."

"It's nice having someone around who actually knows important things," Caeden commented. "Neither of us had a general education. Erik was raised to be a doctor by his parents, and my uncle taught me to be an ethersmith."

"Right!" Erik jumped in. "So if you want to know the names of all your toe bones or how to hit metal correctly, we got you."

"There's a lot more to ethersmithing than just hitting metal. It's a delicate process that involves proper timing and precise amounts of ether added in the correct fashion. It's a deeply complex profession, and I'm just realizing that was supposed to be a joke." Caeden finished lamely. He rubbed the back of his head. "My bad."

"I think it's nice to love your work," Lily added helpfully, trying to spare Caeden some embarrassment.

"It's been a big part of my life for a long time. I take it seriously." Caeden agreed, taking the out.

"Hey, I take being a doctor seriously!" Erik protested.

"Erik, that is literally the only thing you take seriously."

"Fair point."

"New Students!" A voice blared out over the courtyard in front of the Mess, loud enough to be heard across the vast space. "Proceed into the Academy proper for orientation. Orientation will begin in thirty minutes. All not present without satisfactory notation will be punished."

Caeden noticed a woman floating in the air that looked like she could be one of the students; she was so young. It was hard to tell with her flying, but she also looked to be on the shorter side. Like, a lot shorter. She also had antlers. Caeden had no idea why or how, but she had antlers.

Before he could observe any further, the antlered lady flew back into the Mess through a balcony door over the main entrance. The main entrance itself was actually reasonably sized, only a mere ten feet tall. In fact, despite the hodgepodge nature of the design, the Mess as a whole appeared to be well made, with an eye for function over fancy accents. It was a jarring difference after leaving the bronze tower, which had been lavishly decorated.

"Who was that?" Caeden turned to Lily.

"Who?" Apparently, she hadn't noticed the flying antlered woman.

"Up there. Flying short lady with antlers. What even is that sentence?" Caeden mumbled the last bit, it suddenly hitting him how absurd his life had become in a short period of a few weeks.

"Oh, she must have been a nascent shroud, maybe even a true shroud! I heard all the teachers are true shrouds." Lily clapped her hands and looked around wildly as if expecting the horned woman to magically appear out of nowhere. Which she might, for all Caeden knew.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Nascent shroud? True shroud? What does that mean?"

"No time! We have to get seated!" Lily grabbed his arm and bolted for the door. "Weren't you listening? If we're late, we'll get punished. The punishments here are legendary. I don't want to find out what that's like on the first day."

They rush into the building, finding an entrance hall filled with thousands of chairs all facing a front stage with a podium. There were several people up on the stage already, and over half of the chairs were filled. It appeared that the orientation was indeed about to begin. The three of them all quickly shuffled into chairs of their own and waited.

The antlered lady must have been lying, because hardly ten minutes passed before a man appeared at the podium. He didn't fly in or show up in a flash of color or burst of sound. He simply appeared. If Caeden hadn't already been watching the stage, he never would have noticed. A good amount of the crowd hadn't, if their continued conversations were anything to go by.

What happened next made sure everyone noticed.

The man clapped his hands, and all sound in the entire room vanished. It was utterly and completely silent. Caeden couldn't even hear his own heartbeat. That was how quiet it was. The unnatural silence only lasted a moment, but that was more than long enough to draw everyone's focus to the man who had caused it.

Standing well over six feet tall and completely hairless, the pale man cut a striking figure in the dark robes of the Academy. He was so pale that Caeden almost felt like he could see through the man. Actually… he was fading in and out of view, ever so slightly, just to the point that Caeden could see through him a little bit. It was more like looking through frosted glass than a window, but it was there.

"Welcome, students, to Central Academy." His voice projected out, "I am your Heastmaster, Damon Vestigious. Behind me are the members of the staff. Over the millennia of its existence, every single shrouded in the Central Authority's territory has passed through these halls, much the same as you will. Take a moment to acknowledge the great heroes and brilliant minds who number among our alumni." He paused for a long moment.

"I will be honest with you. This is a military facility above all else. The classes will be unforgiving; the standards may seem unattainable. Many of you will not reach graduation, unable to meet the requirements laid upon you. Some of you will die. We, as your teachers, are not here to coddle you. We are here to train you into proper soldiers and officers to defend the Central Authority from foreign forces and to protect its citizenry from the monstrous Forsaken." His words were harsh, but he delivered them in such a neutral, matter-of-fact tone that Caeden couldn't help but respect it.

"You may think me unfair or callous; that's not inaccurate. Understand, I do not care if you fear and hate me, but I expect each and every one of you to give all the effort you can muster. In return, I promise that you will be provided the tools and knowledge to succeed to the limits of your potential. I do this so that when all of you leave here to complete your military service, you are prepared for the harsh and unforgiving nature of the enemies you will face. This world is not kind, so I will not be kind. This world will not protect you, so I will not protect you. What I will do is prepare you." He glared out over the audience, his look peering into the soul of every single person present.

"The Shroud covers us all, and we are bound by its nature. Power will come to you if you are willing to work for it. Do not disappoint me." Then Damon Vestigious, Headmaster of the Central Academy, took a step back from the podium and raised his hand.

The scenery of the Mess, with its mishmash construction and the entire hall full of people, faded away. Caeden was left floating in a black abyss with nothing around him. Even his chair was gone, though he could still feel it under him. Some kind of illusion?

"See the works of your predecessors. Understand the power and potential within you, and strive for that which you believe to be impossible." The Headmaster's voice rang out through the empty void, signaling a change in scenery.

What followed were some of the most fantastical sights Caeden could have ever imagined. He saw a woman make an army of living glass men march against a swarm of millions of insectile monsters. A man swung his hand, causing an entire landmass to flip over like a pancake. Other images depicted shrouded turning into monsters themselves or summoning living incarnations of the elements, giant tree creatures, massive edifices of rock come to life to fight on their behalf. One man walked through a storm of razor-sharp metal shards conjured by his opponent completely unharmed, and a woman created a lake of boiling acid to rain down over a massive giant seemingly made of light. A man and woman worked in tandem to make a city of clay and wood spring up from the ground in moments. Every unbelievable sight was accompanied by a name and the year of their graduation.

The barrage of incredible feats ended with another message. "You are a child among ancients here. Listen to your instructors, and achieve greatness. Ignore them at your own peril."