Kaitlyn Walsh, or ‘Katie’ as she’d prefer, was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her father was not just a self-made billionaire, but he was in-line to be one of the most powerful law-enforcement officials in the country.

It would be expected for her to turn into a common story of affluenza, but she choose the difficult path and studied relentlessly.

And in her mind, how could she not? Her father was a multi-faceted genius, so how could she accept being seen as anything less. By ten years old she had finished her high school diploma and was receiving enticing invitations to colleges around the country. But that obviously wouldn’t be enough so she continued her studies on her own until the invitation she was waiting finally arrived.

On her nineteenth birthday her work finally paid off. The letter arrived unaddressed and blank. Carter knew what it was, but he also knew better than to ruin the process.

She’d received the invitation but that was only the beginning. There was still twelve month until class began and unless she could decipher a blank invitation before then, she might as well give up on attending her dream.

The Invitation, and its way of resolution is different depending on the recipient. It might seem like a cruel prank, but in reality, the first class had already begun. Each invitation is solved by harnessing the strength of the student.

As the daughter of a Walsh, obviously Katie’s revolved around the interpretation of complex magic inscriptions. It was imperceptible to most, but Carter had felt it as he handed the envelop off to his daughter.

Inside the paper itself a complex array of runes and shapes were arranged within the thin grains of pulp. It would be so easy if that were all, Katie found the structure within an afternoon but then came the true task; Reassembling the array into a working shape.

Most would call the task impossible. Its at the same level of difficulty as designing an entire working array without any knowledge of its purpose.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

But this was exactly the type of puzzle she’d been playing with her father since she was a toddler. All it took was a little trial and error, mixed with intuition.

She started with the widest shapes. A pentagon and circle, her intuition told her to layer the circle first, as an array built on non-concentric shapes is rare especially in arrays that use the Phoenician script.

Once the script was arranged on the outer loop, she layered the pentagon after debating on its rotation. Although there was no way they would know even if she did, Katie was stubborn about failure so although she had more than enough time, she still wanted to solve the puzzle on her first try.

With each and every shape, before ink ever went to vellum she studied them, comparing each to the thousands of reference materials stored in their library. Array crafting was no simple business, and she treated it as such. Every movement of her quill was methodical once she confirmed her decisions.

She would slave over the array until even she failed, it wouldn’t. Even if the result isn’t the intended one, there would still be a result.

Of course, her worry was unfounded. As her father easily predicted, Katie was able to decode the mystery hidden within the invitation in less than twenty days.

The invitation contained a simple set of instructions.

[On a certain time and day, assemble with the other students of your class.]

This wasn’t what Katie had expected to see when she’d finally activated the array. Carter was equally as stumped when he heard the contents. Nothing of the sort had happened during his year so he couldn’t make sense of the vague instructions.

There was no other information in the letter, only those words. Just as soon as she’d begun to relax about attending the Academy, a brand new point of stress was introduced.

Still, in the end, now four years later she was anxiously awaiting her opportunity to demonstrate her worth to the various prospectors who were waiting with nearly equal anxiety.

Carter Walsh, who also waited while clutching his numbered plague, had never actually heard how Katie ended up solving the odd instructions she’d received from her invitation exam. It’d been bothering him ever since he first received word that she’d safely arrived.

How had all the students coordinated with each other, when none of them would even know who the others were? The mystery would last in his mind far longer than it needed as he’d eventually come face to face with the answer, but unaware, he’d never bother to ask.