The first thing that Wren noticed as the second years piled off the Ark was that they all had bags with them.

“Hey, how come they’ve got all that stuff with them? I swear we weren’t allowed to bring anything when we arrived on Ventus?”

When Wren had been picked up from the orphanage and taken to the awakening centre in City 8, he’d been told that he wasn’t allowed to bring anything with him. He didn’t have all that many belongings anyway but still he would of liked to at least bring a few of his own clothes to change into every now and again. When he’d got to the awakening centre he’d noticed that none of the other recruits in his year had any of their belongings with them so he just accepted it. But seeing the second years, some with a backpack or two, others with whole suitcases, it made Wren question the methods of the elementals. Was leaving all their belongings behind a weird indoctrination method to make sure that they were all committed to the factions they were joining?

“Do you know how portal travel works?” Carlos asked him.

“Well duh, it portals you from one place to another?” Wren replied back sarcastically.

“Portals consume an incredible amount of energy to operate, and the more matter that goes through a portal at once, the more energy is used. So when you’ve got fifty kids travelling through a portal, to make sure it keeps working they limit what you can take with you.” Carlos explained patiently.

“That’s all well and good, but that doesn’t answer my question. How come they’ve got stuff and we don’t?”

“They went through the same thing as us.” Liam chimed in. “In their first year they abandoned all their belongings on Earth, it’s just that they didn’t go back to Earth after their first year. They moved to the main city on Ventus for the summer and got brought back here on an Ark, no portal travel involved.”

“There’s a city here?!” Wren said surprised.

“Of course there is. Do you not know anything about elementals?” Carlos asked him.

“Where do you think the rest of the wind elementals live? Or the surveying council? We’re on a whole ass planet, did you think this was it, that there was the academy and nothing else? Come on Wren.” Liam said.

“Alright, alright, I got it.” Wren blushed, a little embarrassed about his clear lack of knowledge. “Unfortunately I didn’t have anyone to teach me about this stuff.”

“Right, yeah, sorry that’s my bad.” Liam apologised awkwardly.

“So have you two ever been there?” Wren asked the pair.

“My dad took me and my mum once when I was really young, I don’t remember much about the place, but it seemed really really old, if that makes sense.” Liam said.

“My family has a residence there, but they spend most of their time on Earth these days, its mainly full of power-hungry politicians or meat head military people, it’s not exactly the nicest place to be.” Carlos told him.

“Completely fair.” Wren mused.

The second year recruits had all finished disembarking the Ark and were making their way towards central campus. Wren reminded himself that Chadwick’s older brother was among the throng of recruits, but he couldn’t spot him. The second years all kind of blended in together. They were already dressed in their academy robes, the same grey that the first years had but with a slight difference. The green trim around the collar and sleeves was a lot larger and thicker. Perhaps representing how they were more advanced in their wind elemental abilities.

They were also built a lot different than the first year recruits. They were much taller and broader than their younger counterparts and walked with an ease of confidence that told a story of experience. Even the daintiest of recruits was packed with muscle and looked like a deadly weapon. Wren kind of expected this when he learned they were coming though. They’d had a whole year of elemental and martial arts training so it was natural that they’d be in much better shape. But as much as he’d prepared himself for his arrival, he couldn’t help but feel slightly intimidated in their presence.

They carried an air of power with them that permeated the surrounding meadow. He’d felt something similar from the instructors upon meeting them, but where theirs had been measured and controlled, this atmosphere was wild and feral, like a wild beast let loose from its cage.

“You feel that?” Wren asked his friends.

“Yep.” Liam replied.

“Impressive.” Carlos commented.

The second years didn’t even acknowledge the presence of the first years and simply strode past them all with focus and purpose. Wren would have been insulted if he still wasn’t trying to ground himself from the overwhelming power that the second years brought. He knew that he would have been fine one on one with his seniors, but the fact that he was in the presence of two hundred of them played a huge factor in his nausea.

It was then that he noticed a shock of white hair that could only come from one person. He hadn’t noticed when she’d appeared but she was stood a few yards in front of Wren’s small group. Anastasia had clearly been waiting for someone. He was one of the last to disembark the Ark and as soon as he saw Anastasia, he grasped her in a tight embrace. He was a lot taller than her, which to be fair didn’t take much, but as soon as he entered her arms she seemed to just disappear. He had close cropped brown hair and was handsome, Wren instantly hated him.

“Oh Annie I missed you.” Wren overheard, trying not to throw up.

“Come on, let’s get to class.” Wren said.

Both Carlos and Liam clocked the dark look on Wren’s face but chose not to question it. They’d both seen Anastasia hug the second year boy and could make an educated guess on what had Wren so annoyed. They shared a little smirk with each other and turned back to Wren.

“Yes, lets.”