The Academy [BOOK ONE COMPLETE]

I had tried to talk Falar out of the idea, but finally he slapped the table and stood up.

“No, it’s decided,” he said. “I will start making the arrangements.”

“What’s in it for me? And what about my studies? You said I need to earn credits and all that!”

“And you’ve done nothing but complain about it. But don’t mistake me, this will be very educational for you. Your connection to the Null threatens your life and soul. You need to learn to use it and not let it use you, and I’m supplying you the chance to do just that.”

I squinted at him. “So if I do, you’ll give me another bonus?”

“The bonus was Jextor’s idea. But fine, I’ll award you a credit.”

“Five credits.”

“I don’t haggle about credits,” he said, wrinkling his nose at me. “You’ll have some days before we leave. I suggest you focus on practicing channeling before we go. Forget about the rest. Channeling is the key to everything else, and it will eventually help you control your connection as well.”

“Four credits.”

“Fine! Three! But only if you earn them. Now, get out of my sight.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” I said, standing up. “Remember to check my exam. I did great.”

“I believe you,” he said. “I’ve already dismissed you. Shoo.”

I chuckled and turned to go. At the door I paused. “Wait, do you mean it?”

“I don’t do idle banter,” he said, picking up a quill and tapping it against the mouth of an inkwell. “I have repeatedly said you have talent. Now that you’ve deigned to start applying it, I expect the results to speak for themselves.” He pulled out a paper and started scribbling, not giving me a second glance.

I stood with my hand on the door handle for a moment. I supposed that had been some kind of compliment.

I turned the words around and around, looking for the angle he was working, but couldn’t find any. Falar was a bastard, and that’s it. I had no option but to believe he was serious.

I scoffed and stepped outside. The pressure greeted me, hint of mold in the air. What did the smell remind me of? I sniffed at the air. The power floating around the Academy, the one keeping people from sleeping and making food stale, was oppressive in an impersonal way. It weighed on me like a blanket, utterly indifferent.

The wind was different. It carried something unpleasant, a familiar promise of sickness or decay. I shivered, not for the first time today. I wondered if I should have tried to arrange for Grit to meet with Falar somehow, but maybe she had come to her senses. How old was he, anyway? He didn’t look that old, but I didn’t know how much it mattered here. Maybe he had pickled himself?

I groaned, pushing my hands into my pockets. Practice channeling, forget about the rest, he said. I’d try to forget about him, that was for sure.

---

“Oi, anyone home?” I called from the door.

“Hi!” Fek said. “Your results didn’t come in yet.”

“Yeah, I guessed. Did yours?”

“Not mine,” Minnelil said. “Interesting exam.”

“You can say that again,” I said, flopping down on my bed. I rested my boots on the floor, not bothering to kick them off yet. “Where’s Grit?”

“Probably running around the Academy. She said she needed to go stress about the results,” Fek said.

“Did she really say that?” Minnelil asked. She was writing another letter home, but looked up at Fek with a frown.

“Well, approximately. Anyway, I passed mine!”

“Nice,” I said. “You did that book about skeleton construction?”

Fek groaned. “It was so boring. But if you need to connect your femur to your coccyx, let me know!”

“Or preferably, don’t,” Minnelil said with a sigh. “How did your meeting with Falar go?”

“Weirdly,” I said, kicking at the boots to get them off my feet. “We only talked about the weather. The wind is eroding the wards, so he wants to go check it out, somehow. And I have to go along, I guess?”

“But the wind blows from the north?” Fek said. “There’s only ice and snow up there.”

“Or so everyone has assumed,” Minnelil said. “If they plan on taking students with them, the competition will be fierce. Field trips are always an amazing opportunity.”

I scoffed, sitting up on the bed. “Opportunity for what? Freezing your toes off on a mountain while Falar tells you it’s your own fault for not being immune to cold?”

“To be fair, he probably is,” she said. “Few get as much attention from the teachers as you do.”

The facade flickered, and for just a moment, I heard the hint of resentment in her voice, saw the tension across her perfect face. What would she give if I promised to get her to participate? Would it be worth it or turn her against… “Stop,” I muttered.

“Sorry?” Minnelil said, brows knitting together.

I didn’t want to be that person. I had never been that person. People working angles, looking to edge out advantages from other people, were exactly the reason I had always relied on myself, never joined any gangs. I held my hand up at Minnelil, gesturing for her to wait as I closed my eyes to think.

I was falling apart.

I could feel the mushroom taste of mold push its way through the gaps between the door and the wall, even if I knew the wind couldn’t get in. “I need help,” I breathed out. “Now, soon.”

“Lina, what is it?” Minnelil asked. She sat down next to me and moved to grab my hands, but I yanked them away, flinching from her touch. “What is it?”

“You said I could control my reaction to magic if I learn channeling? I need to do it.”

“What is going on? You look awful, like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I chuckled out of desperation. “That’s it. I think I am. Or something. The ward around my neck is breaking. The one I told you about. It’s messing me up. It’s messing me…” My voice broke and I pushed my face into my hands. The sobs made my back jerk, the tears wetting my fingers.

“Lina…” Minnelil whispered.

Hurried footsteps approached. “What’s going on? What can we do?” Fek said, standing next to my bed.

I wanted to tell them to piss off, to worry about their own bullshit. To slap away the hand that landed on my shoulder. The impulse felt like home, like death. I would run into the blizzard, escape from this prison with walls warm like flesh and people trying to be even warmer.

I didn’t. I pulled myself together, allowed them to keep sitting next to me. I told myself it was the Null, that I needed this. I didn’t believe it, but I forced myself to obey. How long could I keep doing that?

“How long do you think this will take?” Fek whispered.

Minnelil tensed next to me. Her hand resting on my right shoulder pushed down, fingertips pressing into my tense muscles.

I chuckled and sniffled. I wiped my nose with my left sleeve and reached to pat her hand resting on my back. “Don’t worry about it. But you can still help me throw him off the walkway.”

Fek smiled at me, grinning like only an idiot could. “It seemed like you were about done. Did you know that most people meeting Falar have this kind of reaction afterwards?”

Grit stepped in and slammed the door shut behind her. “You went to see Falar without me again?”

---

It took a moment for things to calm down again. I laughed without being able to hold back. Grit grumbled and paced around the desk, complaining about how slowly they checked the exams and about the Beach that had been full of people partying and how her skin couldn’t take all that sunshine.

When Fek told her that the results had actually come some time ago already, they spent a while chasing each other around the room. Fek claimed he had forgotten where he had placed Grit’s results.

Minnelil stayed sitting next to me, smiling quietly. I could feel the warmth of her body, and it was enough.

“I really need to start learning channeling,” I said quietly. “Do you have time to help me out?”

“Of course. And we can rope in Fek as well even if I’m busy. Despite everything, he’s a natural. His style might even suit you better than the way I do it.”

“That’s what he already said. He says your way is boring.”

Minnelil scoffed. “I was actually being nice,” she said, but smiled as she did.

“You really are nice, are you?” I asked.

She glanced at me, smile still playing on her lips. She frowned, turning to look at me more fully. “That’s a real question, isn’t it?”

I didn’t answer, only kept leaning my elbows on my knees. Grit had Fek in some kind of a head lock, her arm wrapped around his neck.

“I like to think I am,” she said, turning to look at the one-sided wrestling match on the other side of the dorm room. “I try my best,” she said after a moment.

Huh. Seemed she had answered the question honestly as well. I sighed and licked my lips. “So, channeling. Can we start right now?”

“Yes. We have two hours before dinner. I’ll go and untangle those two and we can begin.”

---

Fek and Grit had managed to exhaust each other. Both lay on their beds, Fek reading another book and Grit admiring her exam report. She had sat the same exam as Fek, but without attaching a leg bone to the poor skeleton’s butt.

“Relax,” Minnelil said. “Tensed muscles get in the way and you’re wiry to begin with.”

“You should have seen me two weeks ago,” I muttered, trying not to clench my jaw.

“Shush, try closing your eyes.”

I did. It made it easier to feel the tingling. I could feel the sparkles and the vibration on my outreached hand, almost like I was seeing the conduits of power running under my skin, even with my eyes closed. My hand rested on the tabletop.

“I’m going to touch your face,” Minnelil said. “Don’t get surprised.”

I tensed right up again, taking in a breath. I let it out, even if my face twitched, preparing for the touch.

Her fingertips radiated warmth before they landed on my brow and temples. The touch felt like electricity, so light I didn’t know how I felt it. My jaw loosened as she moved her fingers down my face. “Try it now like Fek does it. Just let it out,” Minnelil said.

Her finger brushed over the tip of my nose. My elbow tingled and my shoulder relaxed. I moved my finger in a spiral, dragging it across the tabletop, feeling the zap and crackle of magic on my fingertip. Minnelil’s finger reached my upper lip and I bit it.

“Ouch!” she said.

“Sorry!” I said. “Um, you distracted me.”

“Seems it worked,” she said, shaking her hand and blowing on her finger. She nodded at the table.

Her cheeks had a slight rosy hue. The corners of her eyes crinkled at me, deep dimples around her wide mouth.

She nodded at the table again.

“Right,” I said, lifting my hand up. Below it was a swirl of mana, a thin line glowing blue on the dark wood. “Ha!” I shouted, pointing at it.

“Ha, indeed,” Minnelil said, smiling widely. “Here it begins.”