Morning broke over the North Tower's dorm without ceremony. There were no birds, nor was their any warmth. Just that pale, colorless glow that bled through the mist-hung windows and cast shadows long across the marble.
Piera sat at the edge of his bunk, boots unlaced, Feyla and Veyla on the floor beside him. Looking at his mask, he put it on his face, and it "stuck," the metal cool against his face. Everyone else was still getting dressed, checking weapons, and rewrapping cloth around skin that hadn't even been cut yet.
He exhaled slowly.
The night had been… hollow to say the least. Their new dorms were high-tech, clean, and even comfortable. But sleep hadn't come. Not for him, at least. Not after the way Sil Dwin just stood there, quiet, blindfolded, patient like a blade that didn't need to move to kill you.
"Tomorrow," Croti had whispered to him the night before. "He's not testing if you win. He'll be testing if you break."
Across the room, Auren groaned as he pulled on a vest over a red shirt. "Why do I feel like we're walking into a funeral?"
"Because we are," Syris muttered, tying back her hair. "Ours."
Lex didn't say a word. He was upside-down on his bunk, hair dangling, his cane balanced on his toes like he was practicing circus tricks.
Shiriah sat near the window, staring out. She hadn't spoken much since yesterday, but her eyes weren't afraid. They were focused and distant, like she had already done this a million times.
-- NORTH TOWER - MAIN TRAINING CHAMBER --
The Tower's heart looked practically the same as it did the day before, but instead of seats and an orb, all that was there was training equipment and a teacher. The students walked in, their weapons in hand. Some stood tall, while some fidgeted.
Sil Dwin waited in the center. He hadn't moved since they entered.
"It took 15 minutes for all of you to be here. Do you think this is a joke?" Sil asked, facing the students, "glaring" at them menacingly.
No one answered.
Sil turned slightly, slow enough that its weight made half the room flinch.
"The only team I'll commend is Team Sixteen. All of you managed to arrive ten minutes early. The rest of you…"
His head tilted. He paused and just sighed.
"…I don't know what I'm going to do with you."
Sil let the words hang there, like a blade waiting to fall.
Then he turned, walking toward the center of the platform again.
"Let's begin the class."
He paused again. "What is mana?" he asked. "You can answer however you like. I'll take it and correct it if need be."
Nobody spoke until Lex casually raised his hand while leaning on his cane, posture relaxed.
"It is the lifeblood of existence, is it not?" he said in his usual theatrical drawl. "The weave that ties matter to will and thought to force?"
Sil didn't react.
"Wrong."
Lex blinked. "Ah. Verily. 'Twas what I was taught, though."
Sil's voice resounded louder this time, "Mana is the gift of the entity beings to mortals like us, which enables us to do things that normally wouldn't be doable with just human capabilities and technology." He "looked" around the room, and then continued "Today, I'll teach you to manifest mana and how to use mana."
"Today, you'll learn what flow means. Today, you'll understand the difference between moving with mana, and making mana move for you."
He gestured once, and behind him, two holographic images manifested, one glowing blue and rising upward, the other red and spiraling downward.
"These are the two currents: Lumiero and Lumiera."
The chamber dimmed slightly, as if the room itself listened.
"Lumiero," he said, pointing to the blue symbol," is the forward flow. This is what mages use. You push your mana upward, from your core, to your limbs, into the world. You weave it into spells, commands, and laws."
He turned to the red symbol.
"Lumiera is the reverse. It's for those who move with the world, not against it. Warriors. Gunners. Assassins. You don't command it, you channel it. You apply."
Sil let the images fade.
"There is no better path," he said flatly. "But they are not the same."
He turned, stepping into the center of the training ring.
"Now choose."
Sil didn't give them time to hesitate.
"Step forward if you choose Lumiero. Stay if you choose Lumiera."
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Nick Orvas walked forward, calm, composed, his hands behind his back.
"Lumiero," he said.
Sil nodded once. "You chose Lumiero. That was unexpected, given your stance, but I'll take it."
No one else moved. Shiriah stayed where she was, arms crossed. Lex leaned on his cane, smirking. Auren shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not feeling the spell-slinging life."
Piera touched his mask, then looked up and said "I would like to learn both, if possible."
"It's possible, but can you manage the weight of both reverse and forward currents flowing through your body?" Sil asked, looking at Piera.
"I'll do it as long as it's possible." He responded with a firm look on his face.
And one by one, the rest remained where they stood.
Piera, Auren, Karren, Syris, Lex, Uriah, Elena, Shiriah, Shiro, Thebo, Veara, Zeri, Galiant, Zevra, Kyne, Miel, Jala, Gess, Rin, Taldros, Trey, Mera and Yosi.
Twenty-three stayed. One stepped forward.
Sil stood quiet for a moment.
"Interesting."
Then he turned toward Nick and Piera.
"You'll train under a different structure later, but for now, you'll train with the rest, but we won't be injecting any mana into you."
Nick didn't flinch.
Sil then swept the rest with his blindfolded gaze and took one step closer.
"Motion. Reversal. Lumiera." He said it like a sentence, not a label. "It means you push against the world, not flow with it. You will strike before you intend to. He turned, walking back toward the circle, staff tapping once against the stone.
"Today, you'll bleed."
No one spoke.
"You do not know how to use mana. You can't form spells. You can't shape aura. You barely know how to stand."
He stopped at the edge of the training ring and raised his hand. A faint ripple passed through the air, and the very center of the chamber darkened.
"But you will fight."
Piera's mask was cool against his skin, but under it, his jaw clenched.
Across from him, Shiriah closed her eyes once, opened them, and whispered to herself.
{Are you watching?} she asked in her head.
{Always,} Fu whispered back. {Don't hold back. You never did with him before, and you still lost, so you'll have to go all out.}
Lex stepped forward, spinning his cane once, as if they weren't about to be thrown into a pit.
"Let me guess," he said, casually, "thou wilt pit us against each other like rabid dogs?"
Sil didn't answer. Instead, he raised one finger.
And everything shifted.
The floor beneath them rearranged. A huge ring emerged, carved into the stone by light itself. Team Seventeen, Team Sixteen, Team Fourteen — each one held together.
"Fight as teams," Sil said, "against me."
A cold silence followed.
"I will not use my affinity. I will not use lethal strikes. I will move at ten percent of my capacity."
Then, without warning, he vanished.