Valar snapped out of his brooding as Mary came over, tablet in hand. She was smiling politely, her shoulder-length black hair and uniform giving the young woman a professional look. The tablet itself was glowing light blue with text written all over.

  “Thank you for your patience, Valar and Viktor. I have good and bad news, so I’ll start with the good ones,” Mary chuckled nervously. “I’ve managed to get you an interview slot in 10 minutes.”

  “That’s excellent!” Viktor smiled. “Where is it?”

  “That’s the bad news I was getting to… The location is the central tower, 27th floor.”

  “Oh, we’re in a hurry then.”

  “yes...”

  Viktor practically ripped Valar from his seat, and the pair started to speed walk to one of the doors, thanking the blushing Mary as they left the hall. The woman was left standing alone, eventually letting out a sigh and walking back to her desk.

  Viktor rushed ahead, Valar just trying to keep up with the man’s furious pace. As Viktor explained it, anything higher than floor 20 in the central tower was pretty hard to reach, as the skybridges only took one so far. Ascending upwards from there meant lots and lots of stairs instead…

  Valar didn’t have the chance to laze around as they went through one of the skybridges towards the central tower. He would have liked to sightsee a bit, but guessed that the time wasn’t right. They were in a hurry, and nobody wanted to be late for their own interview. That apparently gave a bad first impression, or so Viktor said..

  Something Valar hadn’t internalized was that he would be alone in the interview room, and would have to deal with the discussion entirely without Viktor’s help. The onyx rank adventurer could sponsor him if he got in, and that was all well and good, but Valar needed to actually get in. Now, was this an impossible task? No, it wasn’t. Even without Valar’s peculiar fire, he was a 13-year-old life mage. It wasn’t unheard of, but still something that only happened once in decades, maybe even centuries. Unless his introduction was absolutely horrendous, Valar’s place in the academy was all but confirmed. The only thing that could prevent him from getting a spot was his status as a commoner, but Viktor’s backing would probably help with that.

  Besides, he wouldn’t be the first commoner getting into the royal academy, far from it.

  When they reached the end of the skybridge, Viktor led him to a circular staircase flowing along a pillar in the tower’s center. At the pace they were moving, ascending the stairs was exhausting. Valar didn’t even have time to sightsee in the central tower, a true shame.

  After furious minutes of ‘walking’ up the stairs, Valar was absolutely exhausted. He had considered just stopping many times already, but had decided to tough it out until the end. If getting to a prestigious academy like this required him to just exercise a bit, he couldn’t really complain. He shouldn’t even be in the capital, but here he was. If all things went this well, his life would be pretty unproblematic and carefree!

  As they rose the final staircase, Valar was just about to drop from exhaustion. The orphanage-raised boy hadn’t really ever exercised, and living in the walled off compound hadn’t given much of a chance to do so anyway. Luckily for him, the academy didn’t have physical tests. Valar would have failed them spectacularly, especially considering his younger age compared to the average student.

  Considering the merit that could get him in the academy was clear to see when inspected—that being his young age of awakening—the interview shouldn’t be much of an issue. The fact that he had a rarer affinity and that healers were always needed helped his already high chances too.

  Viktor led Valar to a large door made of dark wood and knocked politely. Then they waited. And waited. And waited. Evidently, the interviewer wasn’t in as much of a rush as the interviewee. Not in a rush at all…

  After waiting for around 10 minutes outside the door, occasionally knocking again to test the waters, Viktor sighed. “I kind of expected this to happen.”

  “Why did we rush so much then? We could have avoided the whole running part!”

  “That’s the thing,” Viktor’s eye twitched as he spoke. “If the interviewer is late, no one really cares. But you can’t be late, as that would be seen in a negative light…”

  Blessedly, they didn’t have to wait for much longer. As Viktor knocked for the umpteenth time, the door actually opened. A pale thirty-something woman with braided chestnut brown hair and matching eyes stood in the doorway, her expression calm as she first looked at Viktor, then Valar. Her gaze returned to Viktor, and she smiled politely.

  “Good day to you, Viktor. I was surprised to see your name as a sponsor for a prospective student, but here you are.”

  “It’s good to see you too, Elaine. I think I’ve found a good life magic student for you, but I guess that’s for you to decide.”

  “That it is. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait, as sponsors are not allowed to come in for interviews.,” the woman turned her gaze towards Valar. “It’s nice to meet you, Valar. Do come in, please.”

  Elaine closed the door as Valar followed her into the room. As the woman dressed in mage's robes with symbols of the life affinity walked past him and to her desk, Valar had a chance to look around the office. As expected, the room wasn’t especially spacious. The tower was big, but it had been built up, not to the sides. The interior was inviting, dark wood furniture and bookcases lit by the natural sunlight coming from behind the desk at the room’s back wall. The office had loads of books, most arranged in the numerous bookcases lining the room’s walls.

  Valar’s interviewer sat down, gesturing for Valar to sit down too. A chair was set up for him in front of the desk, opposite of the kind-faced woman. He sat down, just fidgeting in the cushioned stair for a short while. The ensuing silence was broken by Elaine.

  “As I said earlier, my name is Elaine, and I’m the professor of life magic in the royal academy.”

  After a bit of a wait, Valar decided that he was supposed to say something back to the woman. “I… I’m Valar. I awakened to my life affinity just about a week ago.”

  He hated his own nervousness but couldn’t get rid of it. It wasn’t something that he could just will away. Valar wasn’t used to pressure like this, so he felt suppressed. This woman had undeniable authority over him and his future. It felt disgusting.

  “Just under a week ago… That’s truly impressive. Could you tell me your age, young man?”

  Valar visibly cringed. “I can only estimate, but my best guess is thirteen… You see I’m an orphan and nobody really knows my exact age, but the orphanage guessed that I was brought in at the age of three-”

  Valar knew he was rambling, but his nervous mind prevented him from actually stopping. Elaine listened patiently, nodding along as he just vented out his life story up until his escape from the orphanage. The interview was turning into more of a therapy session, but the woman finally stopped him when he got to the iron rank rat he encountered.

  “Is that the beast that led to your awakening?” her tone was curious. “An iron rank beast shouldn’t be enough of a surge of energy for a thirteen-year-old awakening. I can change your age to be fifteen or so in the documents-”

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  “No, that wasn’t the kill that resulted in my awakening!” Valar interrupted. “Just an hour or two after that encounter, I killed a bronze rank umbral terror that hunted me through the nearby forest.”

  “Oh… Please continue then. I’d like to hear this story to its end.”

  “Yes… Of course. The rat attacked me when I slipped, got on top of me and started clawing and biting me. I… Uhh… Killed it.”

  “You killed it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How?” Elaine asked flatly.

  That’s when the discussion turned truly difficult. Valar wasn’t sure on how to proceed, and if he should use the alchemical fire lie that Viktor had made up for him. He knew that if the woman questioned him further on the topic, she would probably figure out that he was lying easily. She was at gold rank, as were some of the other professors at the academy. They were all experienced mages, and simple lies about alchemical fire wouldn’t hold under scrutiny. What choice do I have though?

  “I used alchemical fire to kill the beast. I had two bottles with me.”

  Elaine stared at Valar for a while, almost started to say something, shook her head, and waved Valar to continue. She clearly hadn’t bought the lie, but wasn’t pushing for some reason.

  “After a bit of a rest, I got out of the sewer and into the forest bordering the city… It was my first time seeing the forest, so I wandered there for a while…”

  “You went to the forest for the first time a week ago?” Elaine seemed shocked.

  “I can’t remember the time before the orphanage, but we weren’t ever let out since we could try to escape.”

  “Like you eventually did?”

  Valar just nodded and continued his story, telling the professor about his forest exploration. That part of the story wasn’t long, and evolved into the nightmare the umbral terror had brought. The boy had issues trying to describe the following chase, the traumatic event having gone by too fast in his mind. The nerve-inducing interview didn’t help, causing him to ramble again. As he mentioned the imaginary alchemical fire again at the end of his story, Elaine interrupted him.

  “Could you show me your hand? And I mean the scarred one.”

  Valar tentatively reached from his seat and put his hand on the desk, anxiousness gnawing him from the inside. Elaine pulled his sleeve up to his elbow and raised her eyebrows in seeming disbelief. The scarring hadn’t changed, lines in different shades of red snaking through his arm, converging at his palm. It looked brutal, painful and most importantly, magical.

  “You do know that this doesn’t resemble alchemical fire scarring in the least?” Elaine asked. “I’m a gold rank healer, Valar. I’ve healed wounds related to alchemical fire countless times, and these scars do not originate from that…”

  Valar froze, Elaine still holding him by his hand. As ridiculous as it sounded, Valar didn’t have anything to say. He had neglected to plan ahead, his childish thoughts leading him to an untenable situation. The professor was questioning him, and he didn’t know the answer. He didn’t even know if there was a ‘right’ answer.

  They just sat there for a while, Valar trying to somehow claw himself out of the discussion. As much as he thought, he couldn’t find a way out, and that made him increasingly anxious. As a young child he had always defaulted to just running away from his problems. In the orphanage, he had always found some place to hide, even if it was the smallest cupboard or darkest corner. Every time he had been forced to stay, he had exploded instead.

  In this situation, he couldn’t escape. He couldn’t leave the room, as he would probably be denied entry to the academy. He couldn’t talk himself out, as he didn’t know what to say. Valar was stuck, and his anxiety peaked.

  Every single time he had exploded in the past, Valar had not had any real recourse. He had just curled up, shook and cried. This time, the situation seemed to be relatively similar, but with one key difference. Valar did not have time to curl up, but he started shaking, moisture beginning to form in his eyes. If this was the only thing that happened, he would have been in an embarrassing situation, but the professor opposite him would have probably understood. She was dealing with a thirteen-year-old orphan kid that had awakened a week ago; She didn’t expect emotional maturity, and only wanted to know the truth. Her gaze reflected her concern, the woman preparing to calm the child whose hand she was holding.

  However, one thing changed the situation drastically. Deep inside, Valar’s soul reacted to his distress. It didn’t require runes or complicated commands to act, understanding Valar’s need for an escape through his will itself. It responded with enthusiasm.

  Elaine’s eyes widened as Valar’s anxious expression twisted to a pained one, red lines of fire flashing beneath his skin. Despite her shock, the professor was an experienced gold ranker, and she reacted with extreme swiftness.

  Bright green runes flashed into existence across her visible skin, the woman’s right hand and neck lighting up with magic symbols.

  "Firmament Restoration!"

  Valar burst out with red hot fire, burning everything around himself without exception. The fire would have reached the professor, but her strange spell stopped Valar’s fire in its tracks. The easiest way to describe the phenomenon would have been that while Valar’s fire burned everything around him, Elaine’s dome of life magic healed the very air itself, keeping the explosion of fire contained. She had even pulled her hand away, the ball of fire completely contained within the ball of life magic.

  Valar himself wasn’t so fortunate. He was the eye of the storm, avoiding the brunt of the damage but still sustaining major burns everywhere where the fire flowed. Quite like his initial burst of fire against the iron rank rat, the fire left his body relatively quickly. That proved to be his saving grace. It was damn painful, leaving him curled up on the ground, but the burns left in its wake weren't life-threatening ones.

  Valar lay there in the ashes of the comfortable chair he had just sat in, still enveloped in the bubble of life magic Elaine had cast over him. Laying there, curled up as a ball, Valar knew he had fucked up big time. In addition to losing control during the interview and lying to the professor, he had revealed the one thing he shouldn’t have. Viktor had expressly told him that revealing his fire could lead to dire consequences, ranging from forcible experimentation to being taken to the church.

  But what could he have done? This time, the draw hadn’t been intentional, his soul responding to his need instinctually. Valar had not intended to explode with fire, but that had happened anyway. That meant he didn’t have as much control as he thought... I ruined everything once again, didn’t I?

  Elaine was looking at Valar’s form—some burns visible on his body—with both concern and confusion. The gold ranker had seen what happened with her own eyes, but that made her even more confused. The boy curled up in front of her had exploded with fire, but she was positive that there had been no runes on his body. In addition to that, his aura hadn’t fluctuated in the least. That would have at least signified spellcasting, even if she didn’t see it.

  The only warning sign she had gotten was his eyes turning a reddish orange, followed by orange lines appearing beneath his skin. Everything had happened so fast that she had been forced to cast a powerful spell, the runes required to cast it hidden in the academy library’s lower floors. This iron rank had forced her hand, and the feedback she had gotten from her spell told Elaine a confusing story.

  The door burst open, Viktor emerging from the hallway with a woosh. He held his weapon, a thin spear made of metal that seemed to suck in the light, and scanned the office with thin eyes. His gaze finally fixated on Valar’s prone form, lying in ash and covered by the dome of life magic Elaine had cast.

  “So… Did he get in?”

  The ensuing staredown made even the onyx rank mage cringe, Elaine’s furious gaze reflecting her aura. She was not hiding her displeasure, just the opposite.

  “Explain yourself, Viktor.”

  The wind mage sighed, rolling his eyes as he pulled a comfortable chair and set it beside Valar’s prone form. He put the spear away, sliding the long object into the pocket of his coat.

  “Could you please dispel that spell of yours,” he said. “We all need to talk, and I need Valar to be healed and calm before that discussion.

  Elaine looked down at the boy, moving her eyes back to Viktor. “That shield is preventing sound from entering or escaping. Can you answer a couple questions before I dismiss it?”

  Viktor nodded, so she continued. “Did you know that this would happen, and do you know where the fire comes from?”

  “To be honest, I regarded it as a possibility. I specifically ordered Valar to not showcase the fire to anyone, but this doesn’t look like he did it intentionally. I bet on the fact that he believed himself able to control his… ‘ability’, but that doesn’t seem to be true,” after looking at Elaine for confirmation, he continued. “As for where the fire comes from, it comes from his soul like all magic does. You’ll have to ask him for more yourself.”

  Elaine was left both frustrated and concerned. Most of her frustration was pointed at Viktor. He had purposefully led a ticking time bomb to her office, and only her own swiftness had saved that office from being completely decimated. Still, concern overpowered the frustration, healing more important than needless interrogation.

  The last thought she had before she dismissed her spell was a strange one.

  Good that the spell was a gold rank one… A silver rank spell might’ve not been enough.