Focus Character: Ravi
The fog didn't just obscure the world. It erased it.
Ravi stood at the rusted railing of the transport ferry, his knuckles red from the cold where he gripped the freezing metal. He couldn't see the water below them, only the swirling dark blue almost grey nothingness that swallowed the sound of the engine.
It felt less like they were traveling to an island and more like they were being ferried across to hell gates.
You have to smile, he told himself, a desperate mental excuise that felt ridiculous in the freezing cold.
His body reacted automatically, a reflex honed over eighteen years of peacemaking in a violent home. Shoulders back. Open posture. Look approachable. It was the armor he wore when he didn't have any real protection the 'nice guy' camouflage that had gotten him through high school without ever being punched.
He adjusted his tie. It was a standard issue Vara Rose uniform tie, charcoal gray with subtle crimson rose threading on the right. But his already felt bare compared to the students around him.
They wore the same uniform, but theirs seemed tailored, woven from deeper colors and richer blood. They smelled like expensive wool and confidence. Ravi smelled like the pumpkin spice and peppermint his mother had bought it in bulk last Christmas.
Ravi shivered. It wasn't just the damp cold seeping through his thin blazer. It was the silence.
Fifty freshman students were on the deck, and not one of them was speaking. They stood like statues wrapped in expensive wool coats, staring dead ahead into the mist straight zombies.
They were predators waiting for the door to open. They didn't need friends; they needed prey.
Ravi couldn't take it. The silence felt like too much pressure, pressing against his lungs like deep water. He needed to make a connection. A friend. An ally.
Survival for Dummies 101: Find a group before the group finds you.
He turned to the guy standing next to him. He was tall, looked expensive, with platinum blonde hair that didn't move in the wind. He stood with a terrifying, relaxed stillness that spoke of someone who had never once been afraid of walking into a room.
"Crazy weather, right?" Ravi offered, flashing his best, warmest, most non-threatening smile. "I heard the micro climate around the institute is artificially maintained, but this seems excessive, don't you think?"
The blonde guy slowly turned his head.
His eyes were gray, almost lifeless. He looked at Ravi not with hostility, but with the bored indifference of someone spotting a smudge on a pristine window.
He didn't say a word. He didn't even blink. He just turned back to the fog, effectively erasing Ravi from his existence.
Ravi's smile twitched, threatening to crumble under the crushing weight of the embarrassment, but he held it. He had to hold it. If he stopped smiling, he might start hyperventilating, and then he'd be the weak link before they even docked.
He thought of his little sister, Priya. How she'd looked when he left, eyes wide, thin arms wrapped around his waist, trusting him to send back the credits that would keep them fed. His acceptance letter to Vara Rose hadn't just been an honor; it had been a lifeline.
Failure is not an option. Just try again. Find someone softer.
He scanned the deck, looking for someone, anyone, who looked a little less like a sociopath in training.
There was a girl near the stern, huddled into an oversized black hoodie that broke uniform protocol. She was staring at the dark water with an intensity that suggested she wasn't looking at the waves; she was looking at a way out. (Sia).
Too risky, Ravi's internal threat-sense flagged. High maintenance friendship. She looks like she might jump before we dock.
Further down the rail, a guy with messy black hair and a bruised jaw was leaning casually against a crate. He wasn't wearing a heavy coat like the others; he was just in his blazer, shivering slightly but refusing to show it. He looked bored, but his pale blue eyes were darting everywhere, cataloging exits, measuring distances. (Ren).
Dangerous. Avoid. That one bites.
Suddenly, a low, mechanical thrum vibrated through the deck plates, deeper than the ferry's engine. It was a sound felt in the bones rather than heard by the ears.
The fog ahead began to glow, almost blindingly bright.
It wasn't sunlight. It was a cold, electric blue light that cut through the gray haze in sharp, aggressive beams.
"Approaching Vara Rose airspace. You have five minutes," a synthesized voice announced over the ferry's loudspeakers. It was calm, genderless, and utterly devoid of welcome. "Prepare for biometric verification and initial Horacatein Assessment at the dock."
Assessment already? Ravi's stomach dropped. He thought they'd at least get to unpack first.
The fog parted like curtains being ripped open.
Ravi's breath caught in his throat. He had seen pictures in the brochures, of course the sanitized, sunny photos meant for naive parents and wealthy donors.
The reality was a nightmare carved from stone and light.
Vara Rose Institute loomed out of the ocean like an enormous prison of ancient towers braced with modern titanium that almost touched the sky. It was a fortress island, jagged and hostile.
But violently grafted onto the old stone were sleek, brutalist structures of glass and steel, glowing with harsh, vibrant red holographic roses that crawled all over the building like ivy made of laser light. They were beautiful, but they looked poisonous.
Massive gargoyles of weathered granite sat next to whirring, chrome security drone hubs. The old world met the new, and neither looked friendly.
It was beautiful, and it looked absolutely lethal.
The ferry slammed into the dock with a jarring thud that nearly knocked Ravi off balance. He grabbed the rail, his heart hammering.
The other students didn't even sway. They just adjusted their expensive bags and started walking toward the gangplank, a silent, unified wave of ambition.
Ravi hurried to catch up, terrified of being left behind. Terrified of arriving.
The docks were chaos disguised as order.
Mist swirled around their ankles, cold and clinging. The air here smelled different—less like the clean ocean and more like a slightly acidic scent, pine sol, burnt Kerosene, and industrial grade disinfectant.
They were herded toward a massive black gate emblazoned with the school crest: a rose wrapped not in thorns, but in razor wire.
Beneath the gate was the "Ascension Arch"—a freestanding frame of matte black metal filled with a shimmering field of blue light.
"Single file," a drone hovered at eye level, its red optical sensor scanning them. "Present your wrist for initial tagging. Do not speak unless spoken to. Your baseline value is being calculated."
Baseline value. Not their names. Their value.
Ravi stood in line, his hands sweating. He watched the blonde guy from the ferry step up to the Arch.
The guy didn't hesitate. He walked straight into the blue light.
The machine hummed. A holographic display above the Arch flared to life.
NAME: DAMIAN VARNLEGACY STATUS: ALPHAINITIAL RANK: 001
A gasp went through the line. Rank 001. On day one.
Damian Varn didn't even look at his score. He just walked through the gate, bored, as if he had expected nothing less. A drone immediately drifted over to him, projecting a golden navigational arrow on the ground.
"Tier 1," the drone synthesized warmly. "Welcome, Mr. Varn. Please proceed to Aurore Hall transport."
Ravi swallowed hard. The bar had just been set impossibly high.
Next was a girl with hair so blonde it was almost white, cut in a razor sharp bob. She stepped through.
NAME: Phina KroyxINITIAL RANK: 004
Another Tier 1. She smirked, joining Damian by the golden transport.
The line moved quickly. It was brutal in its efficiency.
A girl with terrifying makeup (Zara) stepped through. She held her head high, looking like she owned the place, but Ravi noticed the slight tremor in her hands.
RANK: 430
Zara's perfect composure cracked for just a second. She looked furious. She stalked through the gate, ignoring the drone that tried to direct her toward a rusted metal staircase leading down to the cliffs.
Then it was the turn of the guy with the bruised jaw (Ren).
He didn't walk through immediately. He stopped in front of the Arch, staring at it like it was a trap. He looked at the sensors, the emitters, cataloging them.
"Move along, candidate," the security drone buzzed impatiently.
Ren stepped through. The light flickered, turning a sickly yellow for a second before resolving.
RANK: 498
Oh god, Ravi thought. That's low. That's really low.
Ren didn't look upset. He looked... vindicated. As if he had expected the machine to hate him. He walked through, heading straight for the rusted staircase without waiting for instructions.
It was Ravi's turn.
He stepped up to the Arch. The blue light felt cold on his skin. It hummed, a vibration that seemed to go right through his skull, reading him.
He thought about his scholarship application. The essays he had spent weeks writing, trying to sound smarter, tougher, richer than he was. He thought about his parents, who had thrown a party when he got the acceptance letter, thinking their money troubles were over.
The machine judged him.
NAME: RAVI DASAFINANCIAL STATUS: PROBATIONARY SCHOLARSHIPINITIAL RANK: 455
Rank 455.
Out of 500 students.
Ravi felt his knees buckle slightly. He wasn't just in the bottom half. He was in the bottom ten percent.
The drone didn't offer him a green arrow. It flashed a jagged, red line pointing toward the rusted staircase Ren had taken.
"Tier 4 designated," the drone droned, its voice devoid of the warmth it had shown Damian. "Proceed to Deathpigs Hall for induction. Failure to report within thirty minutes constitutes a forfeiture of placement."
Deathpigs Hall. It sounded like a fairy tale villain's lair.
Ravi stumbled through the gate. He felt branded. Everyone could see his number. It was glowing faintly on the black wristband the machine had automatically clasped onto his arm while he was distracted by the hologram.
455.
He looked around for the other Tier 4s. The "Pigs," he heard someone whisper as he passed.
He saw the girl in the hoodie (Sia) walk through.
RANK: 485
She didn't even look up. She just kept walking toward the cliffs, like she was already daed.
Then a small girl, impeccable and neat, with terrifyingly intelligent eyes (Mina).
RANK: 500
Dead last. The girl stopped, staring at her wristband as if it had just bitten her. She looked like she was going to be sick right there on the dock.
Ravi wanted to help her. He wanted to go over and tell her it was okay, it was just a computer error.
But he couldn't move. The weight of his own failure pinned him to the spot.
He was supposed to be the smart one. The hope of the family. And he hadn't even lasted five minutes before the school labeled him a loser.
"Move it, traffic cone."
Someone shoved past him. It was the girl with the buzzcut (Nyx), looking furious. Her wristband glowed 495.
Ravi shook himself. He couldn't freeze now. Thirty minutes to report, or forfeiture.
He started walking toward the rusted staircase. It didn't lead up to the gleaming towers. It led down, into the fog, toward the jagged cliffs where the waves crashed loud enough to drown out a scream.
As he descended into the mist, leaving the light of the docks behind, Ravi realized the brochure had lied about one more thing.
Vara Rose wasn't a school. It was a sorting mechanism. And he had just been sorted into the trash.