Chapter 57: After The Attack
We didn’t speak much after the attack.
The recruiters moved like a single body—efficient, quiet, and always aware. I followed them through a shifting landscape that refused to make sense. Trees with glass bark. Stones that floated. A sky that changed colour when you blinked too long.
I kept my distance. I wasn’t part of their world, not really. Eventually, the path smoothed. We passed between two towering statues shaped like wolves made of starlight and obsidian. The forest gave way to something grander.
A valley stretched out below us, green, vast, and humming with power. In its centre stood a structure I couldn’t quite process at first.
It was part fortress, part cathedral, part natural phenomenon. Towers of metal and moonstone spiralled toward the sky, connected by thin glowing bridges. Gardens floated mid-air. Water ran uphill. Banners flapped, but there was no wind.
The school.
It was not a building, but a domain.
"Welcome to Thenscvhal," Thalen said beside me. "Where potential becomes power or gets broken trying."
I swallowed a little hard.
Figures walked the grounds....I believe they were students? Some looked human. Others shimmered with magic that coiled off them like steam. A girl with feathers for hair. A boy with skin-like bark. A group of robed figures whose faces flickered between light and dark.
And me.