The announcement came without ceremony.
No trumpet. No assembly. No warning.
Every identifier at the Academy pulsed at once — not with light alone, but with intent. A synchronized awakening, as if the entire institution had taken a single breath.
A low hum spread through the grounds. It wasn't sound — not exactly — but pressure. A subtle vibration that settled into bone and thought alike, making the dimension itself feel alert.
Doors across the Academy lit up. Systems long dormant awakened in cascading sequences. Mechanisms unfolded, simple in visible design yet overwhelming in implication — like standing inside an engine that had finally decided to turn.
The group had planned to wait.
Days, at least. Time to recover. Time to think. Time to pretend the Academy would remain predictable if they respected it enough, they had been wrong.
Amos had dismissed the idea with a single sentence.
"An advantage delayed," he had said calmly, "is an advantage lost."
The identifiers refreshed.
Three lines appeared, identical across every student interface, every wrist, every embedded system:
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT STATUS: UNLOCKED
ZONE ACCESS: AUTHORIZED
SURVIVAL RESPONSIBILITY: INDIVIDUAL
Somewhere deep within the Academy, a bell rang once.
Not loud. Not commanding.
Final.
And then the Academy moved.
---
Eghosa felt it before she understood it.
Not guidance being added — but protection being removed.
Something unseen had stepped back.
The invisible constraints she hadn't known she relied on were gone. The quiet certainty that someone, somewhere, was watching — correcting — intervening if things went too far.
No instructors. No overseers. No additional information.
No reassurance.
This wasn't permission.
It was abandonment by design.
Students filled the open space ahead, scattered and restless. Conversations overlapped — fragments of strategy, rumor, speculation. Zone 3 dominated everything. It was spoken with excitement, fear, reverence.
Not everyone had come.
She noticed the absences immediately. Many humans were missing — likely already aligned with Varius, already moving under the banner of the Knights of Alexandria, some other races weren't even here at all.
Prepared. Organized. Ahead.
She felt the absence sharply.
She wished she had exchanged identifier numbers. Wished she could see Trisha's face in this moment — hear her voice cut through the uncertainty, but she was more inclined to go with Amos disapproval, even she this she couldn't say the exact reason she had an idea.
Movement drew every eye forward.
Someone stepped toward the Zone entrance.
Eghosa recognized the species instantly.
An Anterrocon.
Massive, eight-legged, humanoid above and arachnid below. Its lower body was encased in silvery chitin, layered like forged armor. The upper torso bore similar plating, molded into its frame as if grown rather than built. Its forehead rose into a natural crown — a cultural marker Rek'thar had once mentioned. Warriors. Frontline species.
The creature entered the threshold.
Nothing happened.
No alarms. No resistance. No screams.
A breath passed. Then another.
When reality failed to punish the attempt, hesitation broke.
Students surged forward — urgency replacing caution, instinct overriding patience.
When the rush thinned, Eghosa's group moved together, Amos unconsciously taking the lead.
Inside, space folded.
Portals hovered in midair — refracting light, shifting orientation, never settling into the same configuration twice. Tears in reality, stabilized and refined to a degree that still felt impossible to her.
Above each portal, glowing text anchored the chaos:
Gravity Chamber
Monster Grounds
Weapon Simulation
Elemental Chamber
Psyche Tempering
Mixed Combat Arena
The last pulsed brighter.
More inviting. More dangerous.
No one entered it.
The Anterrocon chose first.
As the creature stepped into the Elemental Chamber, a massive holoscreen ignited overhead, casting sharp light across the room.
An automated voice rang out, perfectly neutral.
"Student Verran has entered the Elemental Chamber."
A name appeared.
Then another screen unfolded beside it.
Rankings.
Active engagements. Scheduled combat. Projected outcomes.
Eghosa understood immediately.
This wasn't training alone.
This was comparison.
This was hierarchy being built in real time.
She could imagine a future where students fought more and engaged in duels, it sounded catastrophic
Students moved faster now, that safety was clear. Purpose sharpened. One by one, they vanished into portals of their choosing until only a few remained.
Melissa broke the silence.
"So," she said lightly, though her posture said otherwise, "what next?"
"I don't know," Olenna admitted. "I haven't seen any Jada. I hoped to regroup with some of my people."
Sol-Vaar opened his mouth probably to say something hurtful— then stopped when he saw her solemn expression.
Eghosa glanced at Amos.
He remained silent.
So she spoke.
"I think we should separate."
Every head turned.
When Eghosa noticed the misunderstood expressions
She raised her hands quickly. "Not abandon each other. I mean… if we all choose one path, we limit what we learn. If we split up and regroup later, we gain more information. Faster."
The idea hung there.
For a while the was silence.Pondering
Melissa smiled first. "Sounds solid."
Olenna nodded. Sol-Vaar followed. Rek'thar gave a short grunt.
Amos inclined his head once.
Decision made.
Melissa was the first to chose as she entered the Weapon Simulation.
Olenna followed suite as choosing the Psyche Tempering.
Rek'thar headed straight for the Monster Grounds without hesitation, hunt...hunt...hunt.
Cairn lingered, watching the portals rearrange endlessly — patterns forming, collapsing, reforming — before stepping into the Mirror Domain.
Sol-Vaar exhaled slowly, steadying himself, then lifted into the air entering the Elemental Chamber.
Only Eghosa remained.
She didn't move.
Amos looked back, questioning.
"I want to know what you'd choose," she said.
For a moment, he smiled.
Faint. Rare. Real.
He tucked his children's book into his robe and stepped forward.
Reality Simulation.
Eghosa laughed quietly.
Figures.
She had never seen Amos fight.
Except once and to her that wasn't much of a fight.
Shaking her head, she turned toward her own choice.
Gravity Chamber.
---
The portals pulsed.
Not outward.
But inward.
And for the first time since arriving at the Academy, the question was no longer who they were they had to answer another—
—and that was, what would they would choose to become when no one was watching.
Worms or dragons.
Birds or phoenix.