I must’ve crawled my way out of the bathroom at some point, because I woke up on the bed. I wasn’t entirely sure how I got there, but I figured I must’ve just walked in my sleep and somehow stumbled into my bed. Yawning, I scratched at my eyes and pushed myself up onto a seated position. The sheets beneath me were soft and plush, and the foam underneath all of that was even softer. I felt… rested, strangely enough. All the aches and sores I’d felt a few days ago were gone now; in fact, I felt better than rested.

I stood up and walked towards the cabinet and opened its doors. I was naked, so donning on some clothes might be a good idea. There was, quite literally, only a single choice of clothing, however, which came in the form of hooded black robes that were long enough to cover me from head to toe. Underneath the robes was a set of black boots that seemed to be made entirely of some padded material; the toe area was covered in what appeared to be a dull metal of some kind. There was also a stack of boxers off to the side – also black.

Eh, I shrugged and put one on.

It was… weirdly comfortable.

Huh, why did everything come in black?

Whatever the case, I took one of the robes and put it on. The cloth was soft and smooth and strangely light, despite how thick it looked. The sleeves were long and went all the way to my wrists, just as the entirety of the robe itself was long enough to reach the middle of my shins. I closed off the middle part with a zipper that ran from my stomach up to my neck, leaving only half of said neck exposed as the robe did have a small collar that went up about an inch. There were no decorations or anything that might be considered as such; everything was plain black.

After that, I tested the robe’s flexibility by… running and jumping around my room, doing stretches and kicking the air, which led to me falling onto the floor a few times. Once I was satisfied with the robe’s flexibility, I took the boots and tried them on. Like the robe, they were a perfect fit and hugged my feet and my shins in such a way that was neither too loose nor too tight; it was just perfect. I expected the metal part on the toes would make the boots heavier, but I barely even felt their presence on my feet. It was like they weren’t there at all.

Huh, I paused; I… don’t recall the last time I’ve ever worn anything on my feet.

With that done and with nothing else to do, I walked out of my room. The hallway was empty and quiet; it was as though I was the only person here. The other kids must still be in their rooms, hiding or resting – or both. Most of them still hadn’t understood the magnitude of their situation and the magnitude of the opportunity that was presented before them. I hoped, however, that they would come around, like Olga and I; they had to.

I didn’t want any of them to die.

I glanced left and right, but found nothing of note. Everything was as I remembered it… though, I could’ve sworn the flower pot was a little bit more to the left when I saw it last. Eyes narrowed and with nothing else to do for the moment, I walked towards the far end of the hallway. I can’t imagine any of my fellow Neophytes would actively push the pot several inches away from where it was. One, because doing so made no sense and two, because they would all be too afraid to even bother walking anywhere else, but their rooms. In fact, I was willing to bet some of them decided to bunk together.

I reached the potted plant and stopped a foot or so away from the table that held it aloft. I wasn’t sure what kind of plant it was. It actually kind of looked like an actual tree, only shrunk down to the size of a houseplant. Its general shape reminded me of a Nara Tree, with its thick trunk and large looming branches that provided great amounts of shade whenever it rained. I could scarcely imagine this tiny plant providing anyone any sort of shade, but it did kind of look alike. I looked closer and found a small square imprint on the table, where the pot stood.

The square imprint was exactly the same shape and size as the base of the pot that held the small tree.

So, it was moved, but I still can’t figure out why anyone would bother moving it just a few inches?

I glanced around, but found nothing of note. To my right was a door that led to an empty room and to my left was the same thing. Ahead of me, on the opposite side of the pot, was a solid wall.

Why was this plant moved?

I leaned in and peered closer. And something caught my eye.

What’s that?

There was something sticking out from under the pot itself. It seemed to be a piece of paper or some other thin, off-white material. I grabbed the pot on one side with my left hand and tilted it so as to lift its base just high enough for me to grab whatever was under it. Turns out, it was a small piece of paper with a strange, glowing circular symbol etched upon it in purple ink; I didn’t understand what the symbol meant, though it did seem somewhat familiar – a serpent, biting its own tail, which, in itself, formed the circle.

My eyes narrowed in confusion.

“What does this even mean?” I thought out loud; as I did, the paper trembled. The purple glows on the symbol intensified and, try as I might, I found it was suddenly impossible to let go of the little piece of paper. My fingers were stuck to it. And then, the symbol began to move. The snake, which was biting its own tail, slithered and coiled and wormed its way into my right hand, before disappearing underneath the folds of my sleeve. I felt it moving across the surface of my skin.

“Aghh!” I lurched back, dropping the empty piece of paper on the floor. I pulled back on my right sleeve and found the purple glowing snake having coiled itself around the center of my forearm. It slithered for a moment, circling my forearm, before suddenly biting down upon its tail. And then, the purple glow disappeared, leaving only a purplish imprint of the snake on my skin, like a tattoo.

My eyes widened. “What the heck?!”

I reached for it and ended up pinching my own skin. I slapped, bit, and rubbed the snake imprint, until my skin turned red and raw; still, it lingered on, unmoved by my efforts. Sighing, I stopped and stared. If it wasn’t going to crawl out of me, I may as well figure out what just what it was.

My eyes narrowed.

Yep, I definitely had no idea what it was.

What is this? What does it mean?

Obviously, it was some magical thing, which did not narrow things down at all - not even by a little bit.

But what was it for?

I glanced down and found the piece of paper, where it was from. And a sudden thought occurred to me. I bent down and picked it off the floor, before rubbing it on the snake. Of course, doing so did nothing. The purple snake was there to stay and I couldn’t do anything about it.

I sighed and shook my head. “Tsk, you better be useful.”

As I turned away from the potted plant, one of the doors near me suddenly opened.

Time seemed to grind to a halt as a familiar figure walked out, shimmering in and out of reality as though he was and wasn’t there at the same time, merely looking at him for more than a single second hurt. Blazing crimson eyes locked onto mine, amused. I averted my gaze and gritted my teeth at the throbbing pain in my head. And then, I fell to my knees and lowered my head. “Lord Kyroth… I didn’t know you were here.”

“You’re one of the very few people who can perceive me when I’m passively trying to stay hidden,” Lord Kyroth seemed to hover towards me. His feet never touched the ground as he moved a few inches or so above the floor, like a ghost, flickering in and out of the air. Huh, weird, looking at him no longer hurt as much as it did; now, it only felt like a minor headache that could easily be ignored. “I should congratulate you for that, but that’s not why I’m here, Neophyte. Now, stand and listen to me, because I am not a patient person.”

I did as told and stood up to face him, but kept my head low, just in case he was the prideful sort. Lady Victoria didn’t care about such things, but I’ve always had a terrible experience with older people whenever I didn’t keep my head low around them; it was their pride, I wager, that made them angry at me for daring to raise my head or something. Lord Kyroth didn’t seem to care about it, but it I’ve learned to err on the side of caution. “What is it, my lord?”

“I am known to the academy as the Keeper of Seals and Mysteries,” Lord Kyroth began. “One of those mysteries is the Puzzle of Jormungandr, the World Serpent; it’s an overgrown lawn snake that coils around Agartha and looks exactly like the new tattoo you just got, only a lot fatter.”

My eyes widened as I felt my right forearm rising outside my volition. The sleeve fell down, revealing the purple shape of the snake that was biting its own tail. Lord Kyroth chuckled, “Ah, there it is; you just had to be the one to find the first clue, huh? You’re either the luckiest or the unluckiest kid I’ve ever met.”

“Whatever the case, you have set into a motion a series of events that can no longer be stopped,” He gestured at the purple snake on my forearm. “That thing has marked you and you must now complete the puzzle. The pieces are scattered across the academy, across the realms actually, and it’s your job to find them, wherever they may be; if you succeed, then you’ll get a reward from Jormungandr.”

"A reward?" My eyes widened ever so slightly. "What sort of reward will I receive if I succeed, my lord?"

"The old snake's got a collection of odd trinkets and artifacts," Lord Kyroth said nonchalantly. "Some are useful, others are useless; the snake doesn't know which is which. You'll get to choose one after completing the puzzle."

“And if I fail?” I asked.

Lord Kyroth shrugged. “The only way you’d fail is if you died. I’ve solved the puzzle once before; it took me five years, because I didn’t pay much attention to it. There is no timer and there are no conditions; all you have to do is to gather the pieces of the puzzle. Now, the real problem starts in actually gathering those pieces, because the damn snake likes to make it a challenge. I remembered one of the puzzle pieces I had to find was located in the Ivory Tower, in the Land of the Dead.”

I nodded. It sounded… simple enough, I suppose. And I was definitely glad to hear that it wasn’t some life or death thing that I had to solve immediately. In fact, this puzzle actually seemed like a very fun opportunity, despite everything else that was going on in my life and the things that I might be forced to do in the future. “How will I know what the puzzle pieces are?”

Whatever force had held up my right forearm disappeared and I felt my limb swing down. Lord Kyroth pointed at the tattoo. “That will start glowing if you’re close to one; I think the puzzle pieces themselves will look rather obvious. It'll be hard to miss them. Good luck.”

I blinked and frowned, “Wait, you came all the way here just to tell me that?”

He chuckled and ruffled my hair. “It’s my job, kid; I’m the one who manages and monitors all the puzzles and games going in and around the Shadow Academy, including this one. All things considered, I think I actually have the most fun job in this dour place. Everyone else is busy plotting and backstabbing and killing each other, and all I do is organize games.”

Lord Kyroth took a step back and slowly turned transparent. He grinned, revealing pearly white teeth that seemed to glow in the darkness. “Good luck with the puzzle, kid; and watch out for the other games. I’ve made sure there’s plenty for everyone to enjoy….”

“Don’t lose your head,” He disappeared and I wheezed and fell to my knees as a great weight was suddenly lifted from my shoulders. I stayed on the ground for what might’ve been a few minutes, starting at nothing in particular. My head spun. I wasn’t entirely sure if that actually happened or I just hallucinated the whole thing. Then again, a quick glance at the purple tattoo on my forearm confirmed the fact that I did not, in fact, hallucinate the events that happened a few moments ago.

“What the heck just happened?” I breathed in and out and forced myself to stand. My eyes narrowed. To summarize, I had somehow blundered my way into a puzzle game that, knowing well enough how this academy operated, would result in numerous deaths and no small amount of pain and misery. Still, the promise of a reward at the end of it was enough of a boon to keep my head in the game, so to speak. The best part about it, I suppose, was that I wasn’t forced to finish it immediately; I had time.

And I definitely wasn’t going to try and look for the puzzle pieces as I was.

Shaking my head, I walked towards the stairs and went down to the common room, where I found Olga. She was sitting alone on the couch, blank eyes staring at nothing in particular, until she heard my footsteps and turned to glance at me. Her face softened. “Good morning, Uriel… or, at least, I think it’s morning. It is difficult to tell when I don’t know where the sun is. Did you sleep well?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I did – for once.”

“That is good.”