The man’s boots thumped their way across the hallway.

  After spending his entire day grading what was—in sum—mediocre efforts at best, his mood was not great. He was annoyed, tired, and had a headache he couldn’t get rid of since that morning. Still, for all the things and names others called him, Belenus Kairon was diligent when it came to his work.

  Which was why he was knocking on that door, so late at night.

  “Come in, Mr. Kairon.”

  A shiver ran down his spine, his hand hesitant to turn the handle as he mumbled under his breath.

  “…that creepy sixth sense of his…”

  As Belenus closed the door behind him, the air became still. Stifling, almost.

  Director Heimdal von Tosell was sitting in his tall chair, with only one weak candlelight illuminating his features. Yet that small flame was more than enough to highlight the man’s gaze—all the things that crawled within, each carrying their own shadows and whispers.

  “You wish to discuss your students’ evaluation.”

  Belenus clenched his jaw for a second before walking closer, his steps heavier. “Yeah. I brought the grades.”

  Heimdal did not raise his gaze, continuing to write in the open scroll in front of him. His hand moved with poise, each movement controlled and composed.

  “How many?”

  Belenus spared a quick look at the scores.

  “Two.”

  Two students who had scored below the acceptable margin on both exams. Students who failed worse than others.

  Director von Tosell smiled.

  “Splendid. This means the class is now down to seven, correct?”

  “…yes, that’s right.”

  “Good. You can leave the assessments at the table, I will look at them once I have some time.”

  Even after Belenus did so, he did not leave. And while he was still formulating the sentences in his head, figuring out what he wanted to say, he met the director’s eyes.

  And felt a chill.

  “There is more you wish to say. So out with it.”

  Professor Kairon shifted in his spot, uncomfortable, the words still twirling and clashing in his head.

  “…I’m just trying to understand what Ergos wants to accomplish. With this year’s reinforcement class.”

  The older man raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Could you please elaborate?”

  Belenus scratched his head with a curse, averting his gaze.

  “You know how good my eye is. After the first week, I could already tell the few who would be able to take the final exam. Yet you won’t let me expel them without ‘properly evaluating them’.”

  “That is a given—we are a respectable academy, after all.”

  Without being able to hold back his temper, Belenus banged his hand on the hardwood table, making the ink pot shake slightly.

  “But when I follow your instructions, you keep changing the dates of the exams and messing with the schedules.” The former rider could not hide the frustration in his voice, much less the anger that slowly rose in his words. “You demand I teach them properly to give them a chance, but then proceed in messing up my classes. I can’t have that, director. Either let me kick them all out, or let me teach this class my way.”

  Heimdal let out a long sigh, putting down his quill.

  “It seems there was some poor communication made from our side, Mr. Kairon. Apologies.”

  Before the professor could inquire further, Director von Tosell stood up from his chair. As he walked, the air got chillier.

  Heavier.

  “Can you tell me, Mr. Kairon, what you and I have in common?”

  Belenus frowned, utterly confused.

  Von Tosell and I?

  They had the same organ between their legs—that was as ‘common’ as they could get.

  Heimdal chuckled as an amused smile spread across his lips, almost as if he had heard the other man’s thoughts.

  “I can see how this question would puzzle you, yes. Yet the answer lies in something far more elementary, my good friend.”

  As the director suddenly threw something his way, Belenus caught it in the air by pure reflex, before his mind had even processed what happened. Once he opened his hand, he saw a brooch pin.

  One engraved with Ergos’ emblem.

  “We both keep Ergos’ Academy close to our hearts—wishing to protect its integrity and values. And this is not something attainable by being negligent in our duties. We, more than any other institution, do not have the luxury to be lax.”

  As the director spoke, Belenus felt something stirring within him. Old emotions that kept circling his heart and mind, clinging to old memories

  Professor Kairon stared at the academy’s emblem for a long time before closing his fist again, feeling the metal brooch almost pierce his skin.

  “If that is so, why even bother with a waiting list?! If Ergos doesn’t deserve this kind of trash, don’t waste our time trying to teach them!”

  Heimdal von Tosell did not react to the frustration in Belenus’ voice. He simply stepped closer, until he was standing right in front of the raging professor.

  “You see, Mr. Kairon, reinforcement class or not, every student under our wings deserves a chance to prove themselves—to prove they deserve the opportunity they were given.”

  Belenus Kairon was a tall man. And though he would never gloat about being unmatched in this category, he was confident enough to know he would be, most of the time, one of the tallest in a room.

  Yet in that moment, even when they were practically seeing eye-to-eye, Belenus Kairon felt small. As if even if he were to stand on his tiptoes and jump as high as he could, he would not be able to be at the same level as that man.

  Not with Heimdal’s shadow towering over him.

  The director touched Belenus’ hand, making him open his palm in a mere heartbeat.

  “Ergos cannot be lax, much less with the ones willing to be fed on our scraps just so they can bask in our shade. Which is why we must show them exactly what Ergos Academy demands.” Heimdal took the brooch into his hands, carefully placing it on the professor’s coat as he spoke. “Those who were never brave enough, and spent their time gazing at the sun, it is our duty to blind them. To break them and push them far beyond their limits. For only them will they realize how bright Ergos’ light truly is, and what it takes to be among the ones who pass down its torch.”

  Once Heimdal adjusted the brooch and brushed off the dust on Belenus’ clothes, the older man smiled. A smile that was as warm as the single candlelight burning on top of his desk.

  “This is your duty toward those students, Mr. Kairon. Break them, blind them, burn them—until only the ones who can be reborn from their own ashes remain.”

  Professor Belenus Kairon said nothing else. He just thanked the director and left.

  And throughout his walk back, all Belenus could think of was the director’s words to him. What was being demanded of him—his role. Not one to teach, but one to explore. Discover.

  Gamble.

  To throw the students in the dark and take all the shots he could. And from what he had observed so far, he kept wondering if any of those students were capable of that. Of taking so many shots without collapsing—without failing to escape those shadows.

  There were only a few faces that crossed his mind.

  But names? He only bothered to remember one.

  One he was still unsure if it was worth the bet, or not.

  THREE MONTHS LATER

  First, it was no louder than a fading echo. A sound being lost into oblivion.

  Yet bit by bit, the repeating sound pulled my conscience awake, gaining more strength.

  More presence.

  However, my mind was far too tired to acknowledge it—to process its significance and purpose. So the moment my eyes truly opened, the moment I became wide awake, was when something else came into play.

  Something heavier, winier, and more annoying.

  “…get off.”

  There was no change.

  “I said, get off.” My voice was raspy, lower.

  When there was no reply from the person falling on top of me, I pushed them. And as Elowen fell off his chair, Ceres woke up with a jump—some drool running down her mouth.

  “Why did you do that…? You could’ve asked me nicely,” Elowen mumbled as he stood up, his eyes half-open.

  “I did—didn’t work.”

  I rubbed my eyes a few times, blinking until my blurred vision went back to normal. For a split second, I feared looking at the time, since it wouldn’t be the first time we all slept through the alarms. Yet this time, be it due to luck or a memorized routine, we were on time.

  “You both can make something to eat if you want,” I mumbled as I stumbled my way to the bathroom, navigating through countless books and scrolls spread across my living room.

  Before long, we were making our way to Ergos. Three students who appeared to be half-dead, the few hours of sleep we managed to get the previous night far too lacking. In fact, the more I tried recalling the last time I had slept for more than four hours, the more my head hurt.

  To say the past months had been difficult would be the understatement of the century.

  If Ergos ever wanted to hide the fact they were desperate to fail the reinforcement class, they had done the most atrocious job. The margin to remain in the course got only stricter over time, as they both increased the number of evaluations and subjects we had to go over.

  And when there was nothing more to teach in the program they had prepared before the term began, Ergos informed us we would be given the opportunity to join this year’s new class if we passed the final exams. So for the past month, Professor Bel had been grinding us down more than he ever did.

  Between visiting Elowen’s and Cere’s homes—to take advantage of their families’ resources—and inviting them over to the estate whenever we wanted to train with the dragons, the concept of “free time” had been completely lost to me. At times, I even wondered if I was actually still alive.

  Seeing how my entire body aches, I guess my heart is still beating…

  For now.

  “I can’t believe it’s already tomorrow…if I weren’t so tired, my hands would be shaking right now.”

  “Your hands are shaking, Ceres.”

  The girl blinked a few times.

  “No, those are your hands, Wen-Wen.”

  Elowen had both hands around Ceres’ in a firm grasp, as if the ground would collapse beneath him the moment he let go.

  “Oh. Those are my hands.”

  Ceres turned around, her gaze fixating on mine.

  “Should we meet at the library after class, Vex?”

  “Can’t—I have T.E.A.R.S today. Just tell me where I should meet you once I’m done.”

  She yawned, her eyes going out of focus for a second.

  “I’m still trying to understand why you didn’t take the break from the electives when Professor Kairon offered…It’s not like they would drop you out.”

  Because I can’t afford to slow down.

  Not when there are so many people ahead of me.

  I knew the moment the man walked into the room, not by the sound of the door closing or by hearing his heavy boots walking closer to us.

  The air changed.

  And once we were facing our dear professor, I could only wonder what the man was thinking. After his class of unworthy students got this far.

  “Hah. I must say… I really thought this class would be empty by now. Honestly, I still can’t believe how some of you lot pulled it through. Especially considering how much you stank before.”

  Four students.

  Out of the twenty-three that got accepted into the waiting list, only four survived until the end.

  Only four would take the final exams.

  “Well, you better pay attention now, because I’m only explaining this once. The final written exam will be tomorrow morning—please feel free to arrive after me. This way, I don’t have to bother grading you,” Belenus grinned, pure amusement in his eye.

  “If you can’t even find enough strength in you to grade four students, how do you even teach the bigger classes? Or do you pay someone else to do it?”

  Though my colleagues did flinch at my words, there was no surprise in his gaze as the man heard my voice.

  “The real problem is me, you see. I have a very high intolerance to trash, so even the sight of your sorry asses causes me indigestion.”

  I grinned, leaning back in my chair. “Didn’t you just say we improved a lot?”

  “A recyclable trash is still trash.”

  To my surprise, there was no mockery in the man’s voice. Only amusement, the same one I could see reflected in his eye. However, I had spent a lot of time with Belenus Kairon in the past months. Not only in the classroom, but on his electives as well.

  Enough to speak my mind around him, without a care. Enough to know some of the man’s bad habits and disclosed private affairs.

  Which is why, to me, it was almost too obvious.

  The looming shadows his smile was trying to conceal.

  “…they changed the race, didn’t they?”

  Belenus Kairon met my gaze, a shimmer crossing his eye before his grin widened.

  “These sharp senses of yours can be uncanny at times, you know.”

  And as Professor Bel turned his back on us and started to write on the board, I felt shivers running down my spine. Like spiders racing in my spinal bones, trying to see which one could make me sick first.

  “Your final race will be at the end of the week. And you won’t be racing just among yourselves anymore.”

  When he stepped out of the way, I laughed. Because what else could I do?

  “They are joking, right…? Where does this make any sense?” This time, it wasn’t only Elowen’s hands that were shaking, but his voice. His entire body.

  “You will race against ten more students,” Belenus spoke, still looking at me.

  But the problem wasn’t racing against other students. The issue was that those students—

  They were all sophomores.

  And if we placed sixth or lower, we were out.