The morning sun bathed the Astralis Institute in a golden glow, the usual training grounds now eerily quiet as students streamed toward the main hall, repurposed for the literary exam.
Lyra, in her usual whirlwind energy, bolted down the corridor with a piece of bread sticking out of her mouth and ink stains on her sleeves.
"I'm late!" she mumbled through the bread, her eyes wide. "And I forgot my lucky quill!"
Behind her, Kael and Rhydan walked at a much calmer pace, watching the chaos unfold with identical expressions of amused disbelief.
"She always runs like she's being chased by a demon," Kael muttered, dodging a flying satchel.
"She probably thinks the test is one," Rhydan added dryly.
In the exam hall, the long rows of desks were already being filled by anxious students. Auren entered with his usual confidence, scanning the room until his gaze settled near the back. He frowned.
Where's Celeste?
Lyra, now seated near the front, looked behind her every few seconds, visibly anxious.
Just as the examiner stepped forward to announce the start, the door creaked open.
Celeste entered, quiet as a breeze, slipping into her seat as if she had been there the whole time.
Lyra exhaled in relief, mouthing a dramatic "finally!" to which Celeste only gave a tiny smile in return.
"Begin," the examiner announced.
Pens scratched paper. The room fell into a tense silence.
Most students looked baffled within the first five minutes. Even the noble-borns who often boasted about their intellect began biting their nails or chewing on their quills.
"This… wasn't in any of the books," someone whispered.
Lyra, at first, stared at the questions with wide eyes. "What in the name of the Moon Fox is this?"
She struggled through the first part, but as her nerves settled, her instincts kicked in. Slowly, answers began forming in her mind.
Kael sat in the middle rows, arms crossed, staring at his scroll like it was written in an alien language. "What even is an Arcane Flux Law…"
Next to him, Rhydan whispered under his breath, "Is this even real or are they pranking us?"
Auren, on the other hand, looked calm, flipping through the pages at a steady rhythm. He didn't find it particularly hard—he'd always been the type to absorb knowledge like a sponge, even if it wasn't his favorite thing to do.
But his thoughts occasionally drifted.
To the girl sitting a few rows behind him.
Celeste, meanwhile, was writing at an odd pace—quick and precise on some questions, vague and halfhearted on others. For every five answers she got right, she marked two wrong. She calculated her mistakes, deliberately making just enough to score near the minimum passing mark.
She didn't want to stand out.
Not yet.
When the final bell rang, the room exploded into collective groans and sighs of relief.
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Outside the Hall
The students filed out, some debating answers, others already forgetting the test existed.
"Was question five about elemental resonance or moral philosophy?" someone argued.
Lyra nearly tackled Celeste at the exit. "Where were you?! I thought you'd overslept! Or got lost in a dimension!"
Celeste shrugged. "Just took a quieter route."
"What do you think?" Lyra asked. "Will you pass?"
Celeste gave a vague smile. "Maybe. I might just scrape through."
Lyra stared. "You? Just pass?"
Celeste blinked innocently. "I'm not very smart."
Lyra gave her a long, suspicious look, but didn't push it.
Meanwhile, near the training courtyard—
The boys had gathered under the shade of a tree.
"I hate this place," Rhydan groaned, tossing a crumpled test paper he'd brought with him into the air.
"You hate everything that doesn't involve swords," Auren replied.
Kael leaned against the tree trunk. "Don't worry, Rhy. If we fail together, at least we'll be in remedial classes together. That's a form of brotherhood too."
Auren chuckled. "You both make it sound like you got cursed."
Rhydan stared at him. "Did you even find it hard?"
"I've read worse," Auren said casually, though his mind drifted again. To Celeste's quiet focus, her unreadable eyes. Something was… off.
"She's not just quiet," he thought. "She's hiding something."
Kael noticed his silence. "Thinking about the exam or the strange girl who walks like she's carrying ten secrets?"
Auren didn't answer. He simply looked up at the sky.