Professor Tomas led them through the various rooms, allowing Pale to get a better look at where they'd ended up. It was clearly still underground, that much was certain; the walls were carved out of stone, as if they'd been cut into the inside of a mountain. Bright yellow crystals were embedded into the rock, casting light over each of the rooms, and what little bits of shadow they couldn't reach were instead illuminated by torchlight. Even just looking around, Pale could tell that nothing about this place was intended to be livable long-term. This made sense to her; in all likelihood, this was little more than a spot for successful initiates to rest and recover after their ordeal.

Of course, that only reinforced the question at the forefront of her mind – where was she going to go when it came time for her and Kayla to separate?

Pale held that thought as Professor Tomas led them to a door. He threw it open, revealing a medium-sized room with a table and some chairs in it. He beckoned the two of them inside.

"Sit, please," he said. "The others will be joining us shortly."

"Others?" Pale couldn't help but ask.

Tomas nodded. "I've asked some of the other professors to join us."

Immediately, alarm bells began to go off in Pale's head. "What is this about?"

"Nothing bad, I assure you. We simply wish to discuss a few things regarding what happened during initiation. Believe me, neither of you are in any trouble in the slightest."

Pale and Kayla exchanged a glance with each other, but eventually they turned back to Tomas and reluctantly nodded. At least in Pale's case, they hadn't seen fit to take her weapons from her yet, so she still had that line of defense.

Of course, she doubted it would do much against a well-trained mage, but it was reassuring nonetheless.

The two of them sat down, and Professor Tomas left the room, though he didn't bother to close the door behind him as he went. Once he was gone, Pale turned to Kayla.

"What do you think this is about?" she asked. "Because something tells me this isn't just regarding what happened in initiation."

"Honestly, I have no idea," Kayla admitted. "But I can tell that everything about this is unprecedented…"

"Probably a safe bet." Pale shifted, making sure her rifle was within easy reach, just in case. "I doubt they intend to do us harm; if they did, they wouldn't bother with a pretense like this. Whatever's going on, it must be pretty big."

Kayla didn't respond. A few seconds later, the two of them heard a series of footsteps echoing through the halls. Pale tensed as several people came into view, only two of whom she recognized – there was Professor Tomas, as well as the scarred man from earlier, but the others were new to her. Of the three new people, one was a giant dark-skinned man who stood about seven feet tall, one was a woman who looked to be in her forties who had a sword on her hip, and the final one was a man in robes who looked like a bipedal dragon. Pale blinked, taken aback by the sudden appearance of these people, but she recovered quickly as they all sat down across from the two of them.

"Alright," Professor Tomas announced as he settled into his seat. "Let's begin. First, I believe a round of introductions are in order. You already know me, but the others must be strangers to you."

"I recognize him as well, of course," Pale replied, motioning to the scarred man. "Even if I can't place a name to his face yet."

The man let a grunt. "I make it a point not to let initiates know who I am until after they've passed. But considering the extenuating circumstances surrounding initiation, as well as the fact that one of you has already passed… I am Professor Marick."

That was all he told her. Pale nodded, then turned to the others, listening to them in turn.

The woman spoke first, pulling the hood of her cloak down, revealing her face to them. She had bright green eyes and red hair tied back in a ponytail, and nodded towards Pale and Kayla.

"Professor Kara," she replied.

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The black-scaled dragon-man spoke next, clearing his throat to get their attention. He stared at the two of them with his piercing red eyes, never taking his gaze away from them for a moment as he spoke.

"Professor Virux," he told them with a deep, reverberating hiss that seemed to rumble from his throat, betraying his reptilian heritage. "And I am glad to see that you both made it through."

The tall man next to him rolled his eyes. "Spare them the ceremony, Virux; we have important matters to attend to." He looked over to Pale and Kayla, giving them both a nod. "Professor Glisos."

"Pleased to meet you all," Pale replied once they had finished their introductions. She motioned to herself and then to Kayla. "You may call me Pale. This is my friend, Kayla. Now, if you would be so kind… what is this about?"

"Pale," Kayla gently chastised. "What my friend means to say is… we can tell that we're here for a reason. If you would be so kind as to tell us-"

"Skip the pleasantries," Marick said gruffly. "Tomas has already assured you that you are not in trouble, yes? He was right. All we want is to learn more about what happened during initiation. Several of the students said they were attacked by a large creature of some kind, and that it was responsible for most of the deaths this time around."

Pale raised an eyebrow at that. "You make it sound as though you expected some of us to die."

"Unfortunately, that's usually what happens," Kara explained. "We usually lose around ten initiates a year. It's always a shame, of course, but it is also unavoidable whenever the ceremony involves some form of combat or wilderness survival. Everyone is warned of the potential consequences beforehand, of course, as I'm sure you recall, but unfortunately, some of them who are not qualified still believe they are capable of pushing past their own boundaries."

"And yet, this year was an anomaly even beyond that," Virux noted. "And it mostly revolves around that creature you two fought."

"You make it sound as though you don't know what it was," Pale realized.

"Because we don't," Marick admitted, taking her by surprise. "The other students have described it to us, and it doesn't match any of the creatures native to this area. We don't know what to make of that, and were hoping that you could enlighten us a bit."

"There isn't much to tell, Professor. It was a large creature made up of some combination of a big cat, a bear, and a lamprey. Vicious, deadly, smart, and highly predatory. It hunted people for sport."

"For sport?" Virux asked. "That doesn't sound like any kind of animal I've ever heard of before."

"Believe me, we were just as surprised as you were," Kayla offered.

Pale nodded in agreement. "And like I said, it was smart. It knew how to set traps and ambush us, as well as when it had bitten off more than it could chew and needed to pull back."

The professors exchanged a glance with each other before turning back to her.

"Some of the other initiates said you two were the ones who killed it," Tomas noted. "Mind explaining how you did it?"

Pale's face darkened. "It wasn't easy," she said. "It had some kind of natural armor under its skin that kept my weapons from working on it." She tapped the receiver of her rifle for emphasis. "For a quick explanation – my weapon operates by propelling small bits of metal forward at incredibly high speeds. But that monster – we took to calling it the Amalgamation – was unaffected by anything I was throwing at it. Kayla was the one to really bring it down; we managed to get it under the rain, then she hit it with enough lightning to tear a hole in its armor, and I pumped it full of lead to put it down."

Kara nodded in understanding. "So you used the water to amplify the lightning in order to debilitate it, and then finished it off. Good thinking."

Pale nodded, then turned back to Tomas. "Unfortunately, it was too little, too late; that thing had already hunted and killed over thirty other initiates, and those are just the ones we found. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than that and we simply didn't find them during our time in the forest."

Tomas' face darkened. "Then it's a good thing you took it out. You have our thanks for doing so."

Pale waved him off. "We were simply trying to save ourselves. That thing was hunting us, too."

"Still, the fact that you stopped it is worthy of praise. Were it not for your intervention, it would have surely killed even more."

Pale said nothing in response. Instead, she watched as Professor Kara suddenly rolled her eyes.

"Oh, just tell her, already," Kara said. "We now know for sure that they're the ones who stopped it. Stop dragging things out."

"I was getting to that," Tomas emphasized. He turned back to Pale, clearing his throat as he did so. "Anyway. We understand that these are strange circumstances you've found yourselves in, and you have our sympathy, as do the other prospective students."

"We understand that you both entered initiation together, as a pair," Virux added. "And, to be honest, it would be a shame to split you up, especially when one of you only missed the cutoff by a single tome."

Pale sat up straighter in her chair. "Not to be presumptive, but is this an offer for me to join the Luminarium?"

"It only seems appropriate," Tomas said. "After all, you saved countless other initiates by killing that creature, and you only just barely missed the cutoff in the end. It would be remiss of us not to at least offer you a chance to join afterwards."

"Say no more; I accept."

The professors looked to each other and nodded, then turned back to her. "Very well, then," Glisos said. "Welcome to the Luminarium, both of you."

"Thank you," Pale replied. "Believe me, I intend to make the most of it."

XXX

The professors left the two of them a moment after, leaving them alone in the room. The moment they were gone, Kayla threw herself at Pale, wrapping her arms around her as she laughed.

"You're in!" she exclaimed. "This is great, Pale!"

This time, Pale didn't hesitate to reciprocate Kayla's hug. And somehow, despite everything that had happened, she couldn't hold back the small grin that had crossed her face.

Somehow, someway, she had made it in to the Luminarium.

Now, all she had to do was see what awaited her inside.