The morning of our departure dawned with a grey-tinged sky and a cold wind blowing down from the northern mountains. The Varkas carriage stood ready in the courtyard, but this time the atmosphere was different. My father was tense and silent; Elric kept nervously adjusting his third-circle mage's robe, and Margery watched me with a mixture of sadness and determination.
"Don't stray from me when we get to the Academy, Cassian," she whispered to me before climbing aboard.
I gave her a vague smile. Although I loved her concern, at times it seemed a bit over the top. The reality was that, once we reached the capital, she would have her own section of the Academy to attend; a higher level reserved for the true geniuses of the Empire.
The journey to the capital took three days. Throughout the trip, Adela remained a silent shadow at my right hand. On the third day, the white walls of the Capital of Demor rose on the horizon; it was a city built on opulence and contempt for the weak.
As soon as we passed through the imperial gates and headed towards the Academy district, I noticed how eyes were fixed on our carriage. The Varkas coat of arms was well known, but the gossip about the engagement to the Windsteels' "Ice Queen" had already leaked out, and that certainly gave people something to talk about here.
"Look at that…" muttered Elric, pointing out of the window. "It's the Sterling family's carriage."
Sure enough, a carriage adorned with crimson flame emblems was moving alongside us. The air outside seemed to heat up suddenly. A young man with reddish hair and a haughty gaze poked his head out, looking specifically for our coat of arms. When his gaze met mine, he looked at me with contempt, as if he were looking at an ant that would soon cease to exist.
To be honest, in my previous life I'd seen my fair share of arrogant "young masters" who thought they were the centre of the universe; but even those sect saints or geniuses tended to carry themselves with a little more grace.
"That was Julius Sterling," said Margery, her face pale. "He's a fifth-circle magician and one of Cassane's most aggressive suitors. Cassian, this is worse than I thought."
"On the contrary, Margery," I replied, leaning back in my seat with complete calm. "This will make things less boring… as long as they don't go too far."
We finally arrived at the main entrance of the Imperial Academy. There, amongst the crowd of nobles and students, I spotted two figures who seemed genuinely out of place: my old friends.
Klaus Traff, from a vassal house of the Astafords, was tall and quite muscular for a teenager; he had brown hair and eyes of the same shade. He was a Level Three Aura warrior. Those who used Aura followed a ranking system similar to that of mages: from one to nine, the latter being the highest level attainable, or at least according to common knowledge.
Standing beside her was a girl who was much shorter; the difference in height between them was almost comical. She had hair as red as fire and crimson eyes that drew you in like jewels: Seraphine Sterling, "Sera" to her friends. And if you were wondering who the Mrs Sterling I mentioned earlier was, it was her. Despite bearing the surname of a duchy, she wasn't exactly welcome there, which was probably why she was hanging out with us.
Klaus and Sera were stunned to see the Varkas carriage escorted by the retinue of the Marquisate of Windsteel. Their gazes shifted from the lavish escort to my face, searching for the friend who used to hide in the shadows to avoid trouble.
"Cassian?" Klaus blurted out, his deep voice echoing in the entrance. "Tell me the rumours are just a bad joke. Have you really become engaged to a marquis's daughter?"
Sera said nothing at first, but her crimson eyes shone with a different intensity. She knew better than anyone the poison that ran through the Sterling bloodline and knew that this engagement was no gift, but a social death sentence… or something worse.
"Julius won't let this slide, Cass," murmured Sera, ignoring the commotion around us. "That wretch Cassane knows that all too well."
Sera was clenching her fists; she knew her brother's obsession with power and how he saw the Windsteel heiress as the ultimate trophy to cement his house's dominance. I gave her a relaxed smile, one that left them even more baffled.
"Don't be so alarmed, Sera; it's just an engagement," I replied with a calmness that bordered on the absurd. "Your brother should know what she's planning. But he won't do anything because, quite simply, he won't be able to."
They both looked at me in disbelief, as if I'd finally gone mad. I suppose, to them, that's how it looked; I'd never bothered to prove I could even handle a first-circle mage, so facing a fifth-circle one was unimaginable.
"What do you mean he won't be able to?" asked Klaus, lowering his voice. "Julius is a hound, Cass. The moment you set foot in the Academy's training grounds, he'll be looking for a duel to 'prove' your worth to the Marquis. Make no mistake, he won't give a damn about anything you depend on."
"Let him try," I said, glancing sideways as the Windsteel carriage finally opened.
At that moment, the door of Cassane's carriage swung open. The atmosphere at the Academy entrance suddenly grew several degrees colder, silencing even the noisiest of the students. The "Ice Queen" had arrived.