The living quarters for the Novices were not the grand, gilded chambers Dax had imagined. Instead of silk canopies and enchanted fireplaces, they were led deep into the western wing of the Spire, where the walls were made of cold, unpolished basalt. The air here was damp and smelled of ancient rain. There were no windows, only narrow slits in the stone that looked out over the sheer drop of the mountain.
"This isn't a school," Dax muttered, his voice echoing flatly against the dark stone. "It is a barracks."
Zane ran a hand along the wall, feeling the faint, rhythmic pulse of the mountain beneath his fingertips. "It is a fortress, Dax. They didn't bring us here to be comfortable. They brought us here to be useful."
They were assigned to a room barely larger than a prison cell, containing two narrow cots and a single stone basin for water. Across the hall, the girls were being ushered into similar quarters. Zane caught a glimpse of Mira as she stood before her own door. She looked small against the towering basalt, her fine silk dress now smudged with ash and dust. She looked at him for a brief second, a flicker of something like gratitude in her eyes, before her door slid shut with a heavy, final thud.
"At least we have a roof," Zane said, tossing his pack onto the thin mattress. "Better than the alleyways behind the smithy."
Dax didn't respond immediately. He was staring at the copper coin in his hand, the blue sparks dim and sluggish. "The magic is different here, Zane. It's heavy. When I try to call the spark, it feels like I'm trying to lift a bucket of lead. Did you feel it in the Hall? The way the glass pushed back?"
Zane sat on the edge of his cot, his iron staff leaning against the wall. "I felt it. But that is the point. If we can learn to move in this weight, imagine how fast we will be when we are back on the ground."
A sharp, metallic chime rang through the corridor, vibrating in their teeth. A voice, magically amplified and devoid of emotion, filled the room.
"Curfew is in effect. All Novices will remain in their quarters until the second bell of dawn. Any student found in the corridors will be stripped of their rank and cast from the Spire. Your first trial begins at sunrise. Dress in the provided tunics. Bring nothing but your spirit."
Dax threw himself onto his cot, staring at the ceiling. "No food? They really want us to starve."
"We've gone longer without eating," Zane reminded him. "Sleep, Dax. Tomorrow won't be easy."
But sleep didn't come easily to Zane. He lay in the dark, listening to the hum of the Spire. Every few minutes, he could hear a low, distant boom the sound of the Great Barrier far above them, warding off the creatures that prowled the clouds. He thought about his father, his hands scarred from the forge, and the way he had looked when he handed Zane the iron staff.
Do not let them turn you into a tool, his father had whispered. Be the hand that holds the tool.
In the room across the hall, Mira was also awake. She had discarded her ruined dress, replacing it with the coarse, grey linen tunic provided by the school. The fabric scratched her skin, but she welcomed the sensation. It felt honest. She sat on the floor, her legs crossed, practicing her Echoing.
She reached out with her mind, letting her senses bleed through the stone walls. She could hear the frantic heartbeat of a girl in the next room, crying silently into her pillow. She could hear the rhythmic, deep breathing of Zane, and the erratic, buzzing energy of Dax.
Suddenly, she felt a different vibration. It wasn't human. It was a cold, sharp resonance moving through the floorboards, coming from the direction of the High Proctor's tower. It felt like a needle of ice sliding through her consciousness. It was a dark magic, something far more ancient and predatory than the lessons they had been promised.
Mira pulled her senses back, her heart racing. The Spire was hiding something. The city below looked up at this tower as a beacon of safety, but inside these walls, the air tasted of secrets and blood.
She walked to her door and pressed her ear against the cool basalt. For a moment, she considered opening it, of finding Zane and telling him what she had felt. But the memory of the Proctor's cold eyes stopped her. She was a Novice now. A single mistake could send her back to the life she had fought so hard to escape.
She went back to her cot and closed her eyes, but her dreams were filled with visions of shattering glass and a silver carriage falling into an endless abyss.
At the second bell of dawn, the doors to the dormitories slid open simultaneously. Zane was already standing, his staff in hand, his face set in a mask of grim determination. Dax was slower to rise, his hair a mess of static, but his eyes were bright with a restless hunger.
As they stepped into the hall, they found Mira waiting. She looked tired, but there was a new sharpness to her gaze.
"You felt it too, didn't you?" she asked quietly as they began the long walk toward the training grounds.
Zane looked at her, his brow furrowing. "The weight? Yes."
"No," Mira said, her voice a mere whisper. "The hunger. This tower isn't just a school, Zane. It's eating."
Before he could ask what she meant, they reached the end of the corridor. The walls opened up into a massive, open air arena that hung off the side of the mountain. The floor was a single slab of grey stone, scarred by burns and deep gouges.
Standing in the center of the arena was a man with a scarred face and a prosthetic arm made of shimmering brass. In his good hand, he held a massive wooden practice blade.
"Line up!" he roared, the sound echoing off the cliffs. "I am Master Krell. I don't care who your father is. I don't care how much gold is in your vaults. In this arena, you are all nothing but meat. Today, we see which of you can be turned into steel."
Dax grinned, the blue sparks finally returning to his fingertips. "Finally," he whispered. "Something I can actually hit."
Zane gripped his staff tighter. He looked at Mira, then at Dax. The peace of the night was over. The war for their futures had officially begun.