"There you are!" Kayla exclaimed as Pale entered the mess hall. "We've been waiting for you… well, mostly."

Pale stopped at their table and stared at Kayla and Cynthia's plates of uneaten food. Naturally, Cal was already finished, and was leaned back in his chair with a satisfied look on his face. Pale frowned as she took a seat next to Kayla, noting that Kayla had already fixed her a plate of what appeared to be some kind of herb roasted pork. If nothing else, it certainly looked and smelled more appetizing than the military rations they'd been eating during initiation, though something told her that was going to be a theme with the Luminarium. Nothing here came cheaply, it seemed.

"You didn't have to wait for me," she said, settling in next to Kayla.

"It was the polite thing to do," Cynthia explained. "Well, for most of us, anyway."

Cal let out a small, content sigh. "Do what you want with me; I've already won."

Cynthia simply let out a small, annoyed grunt and shook her head. "Ignore him; he has bad manners even back home."

"I've been meaning to ask about that," Kayla interjected. "You two seem to have known each other for a while."

"We have," Cal explained. "Cynthia and I come from neighboring friendly kingdoms to the west. We're both… not quite high-tier nobles, but sort of in the middle, if that makes sense? Like, we're not royalty, but we come from money. I think you'll find most of the people in our year fit that description. Anyway, the two of us have been friends since childhood."

"And believe me, he was like this back then, too," Cynthia said, crossing her arms. "I was hoping the Luminarium would emphasize etiquette to at least some degree, given that most of its students are nobility, but I suppose they take their mission statement of primarily teaching us magic very seriously."

"Maybe they intend to introduce things like that later on?" Kayla asked.

"I'm right here, you know," Cal said. "You can stop talking like I need to be straightened out."

"We will once you've actually been straightened out," Cynthia retorted.

A vein pulsed in Cal's forehead. "What are you, my father? You sound just like him."

The two of them started to bicker back-and-forth. Pale watched, confused. She leaned over to whisper to Kayla.

"Is this what good friends do?"

"Yes, Pale," Kayla said, giving her a small, amused giggle. "It is."

"Hm. By the way, I suppose you're curious about what happened with Professor Tomas. Let's just say… he knows."

Immediately, Kayla froze, her eyes going wide. "Really? You told him about how you-"

"Yes," Pale interrupted, "I did. He knew something was out of the ordinary already; it didn't make sense to try and lie my way out of it when he was just going to grow even more suspicious about it. And I made him swear a blood oath to keep it secret, too."

Kayla breathed a sigh of relief. "Good… at least you had him take an oath. And who knows, maybe he'll be able to help you out in some way."

Pale's only response was to nod. Cal and Cynthia continued their small argument as she started to eat her dinner.

The peace only lasted for a moment before Pale suddenly tensed, her eyes widening as she sensed something going wrong with her ship.

"Pale?" Kayla asked under her breath, quietly enough that Cal and Cynthia couldn't hear her. "Is everything alright?"

"Something has happened," Pale informed her. "Sorry, I need a minute in private."

With that, she abruptly stood up and hurried off, Kayla following after her.

XXX

Pale didn't even try to make it back to their room, instead stopping in some kind of supply closet. Kayla came in after her, and the two of them did their best to settle into the closet while Pale tried to diagnose her issue.

"What's going on?" Kayla asked, worried. "Something with your sky-thingy?"

Pale didn't answer immediately, trying to focus on diagnosing the issue. She frowned when it wasn't immediately evident to her; normally, she was able to have a rough overview of the ship's condition just in the back of her mind without having to do anything further. That had been good enough so far, especially given that they'd both been so busy focusing on other matters and she hadn't really had the time or presence of mind to run a full-on, in-depth diagnostic scan.

But now they were at the Luminarium, and she had both the time and the necessity to do so.

"Watch that door," Pale ordered. "I'm going to have to run a full scan of my systems. It shouldn't take long, but I'll be preoccupied while I do it."

Kayla nodded. "Okay."

Pale sucked in a breath, then began to focus her mind. Immediately, panels started to pop up in her vision – data readouts, telling her everything there was to know in-depth about the ship and its various systems. She read through them all at a lightning-fast pace, cataloging anything that had changed.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Navigation Systems: Offline; Heavily Damaged.

Engines: Offline; Heavily Damaged.

Primary Weapon Systems: Offline; Heavily Damaged.

Secondary Weapon Systems: Online

Cryostasis Pods: Online.

Life Support Systems: Online.

Radio Buoys: Online; Actively Broadcasting.

Pod Delivery System: Online

Pale took note of all of those warnings, but it was the final one which popped up that was most concerning to her.

WARNING: HULL AND ARMOR INTEGRITY SEVERELY COMPROMISED. SHIP INTERNALS ACTIVELY EXPOSED TO VACUUM OF SPACE. EMERGENCY BULKHEADS HAVE BEEN DEPLOYED TO SEAL BREACH. PLEASE SEEK EMERGENCY REPAIRS IMMEDIATELY.

"Pale?" Kayla asked. "What's going on?"

Pale blinked, and the panels full of information suddenly cleared from her vision. She shook her head, then turned back to Kayla, a deep scowl on her face.

"A damaged piece of the ship must have finally broken off," she growled. "It's not surprising; I was in pretty bad shape when I arrived here. But for it to happen now… it's not convenient."

"What does that mean?"

"It means…" Pale paused, struggling to find a way to explain it that would make sense to her friend. "...It means I'm suddenly much worse off than I expected. I'm going to have to make additional repairs now."

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"Don't be; on a certain level, this was expected. Can't have damaged pieces of the ship exposed to space and not expect them to get even more damaged than they already are." Pale sighed tiredly, running a hand through her hair. "All the more reason to focus on the mission at hand. Not like I can do anything about it right now, anyway."

Kayla nodded in understanding. "If there's anything I can do-"

"Thanks, but there isn't. At least, not yet. For now, let's focus on what we can actually accomplish here."

Kayla nodded, and the two of them stepped back out into the hallway and began to head back to the mess hall.

XXX

The rest of their first day passed by uneventfully. Pale didn't see any sign of Sven anywhere, though curiously, she didn't see any sign of Joel, either. Sven had mentioned having a ward of some kind at the Luminarium; perhaps he was spending his time looking over them instead of spying on her. Whatever the case was, she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If Sven opted to leave them alone for now, then she would accept it.

The next morning started the same as the first – they woke up, got ready, and headed for their first class of the day after breakfast, which turned out to be Weapon Handling.

"I'm curious about this class…" Pale muttered as the two of them stepped through the doors to the classroom.

"Why is that?" Kayla asked.

"Because, on its face, it makes no sense for us to be learning it. The Luminarium is a magic academy, yes? So then why would they see fit to teach us about martial weapons?"

As she said this, Pale looked around, frowning as she did so. The classroom turned out to look nothing like the two she'd been in earlier. Rather, it was set up as more of a training room than anything, and was quite large compared to the other classrooms. Wooden practice dummies were set up throughout it, already scored with marks from bladed and blunt weapons. Racks of swords, maces, halberds, and other assorted weapons were set up throughout the room. There was an archery range off to the far side, with a table at one end that was already filled with bows, crossbows, and quivers full of arrows. Next to Pale, Kayla swallowed nervously.

"Well," she said, "this all looks dangerous."

A door at the far end of the room near the archery range suddenly opened, and Professor Kara came striding in. Pale took note of the fact that she already had a sword strapped to each hip.

"Welcome, welcome!" Kara called out, getting their attention. "Everyone, gather around me at the front of the room, please!"

They all did as she commanded, forming a circle around her. Pale noted that they were all now very close to the racks full of weapons, though she didn't have much time to dwell on it before Kara began to speak to them.

"I know what some of you are wondering – why is it important that you learn how to fight without magic when this academy is supposed to be teaching you more about magic in the first place? Well, that's simple – even the most practiced mage in the world will eventually run out of mana, and if that happens, they're useless. My goal is to teach all of you the basics of how to defend yourselves when you're out of mana."

Several of the students exchanged a glance before Cynthia raised her hand. "Um, Professor? If we were out of mana, we'd be suffering from mana exhaustion, right? So we'd still be mostly useless."

"But not completely," Kara pointed out. "You are correct that you'd be debilitated by mana exhaustion, but would you rather fight on despite being exhausted and live, or lie down and die? I know which one I'd choose, and I suspect you'd all choose the same."

Kara looked around, her face brightening as she took note of the fact that several of them already had weapons on them. "I see some of you have come prepared. That's good – there's a reason we gave you weapons to pick from during initiation. Of course, this begs the question – what are we going to be doing here to train you, exactly? Well, I'm so glad you asked. To put it simply… I'm going to drill you like you're my own soldiers. By the end of this year, you will all be practiced in how to wield basic weapons effectively enough to defend yourselves with them without using magic of any kind. Not the most exciting thing, I'm aware, but I'd implore you to take this seriously since it could very well save your life at some point."

Kara put her hands on her hips and grinned at them. "Now then… I believe a demonstration is in order. I'll need two volunteers."

"Volunteers for what?" Cal asked.

"I'll need one volunteer," Kara said. "How about… you."

She pointed at Kayla, who immediately stiffened. "Me?"

"Both of you, step forward," Kara said. Tentatively, they both approached her. She nodded once they were about ten yards away from her. "Good. Now… try to kill me."

"W-what?!" Kayla asked.

"I mean it. Take that blade on your hip and try to run me through with it. I want to see what you're capable of." She looked over to Cal. "And you… take up a weapon and try the same. Ideally, both of you will attack me at once."

Cal hesitated. "Professor, is this-"

That was as far as he got before Kara suddenly closed the distance, drew her sword, smacked him across the head with the flat of her blade, and sheathed it, all in one move. Cal fell to the floor unconscious while Cynthia screamed his name, only for Kara to raise a hand and silence her.

"He'll be alright," she said. "I'll use some healing magic on him in a minute. For now, I want to see what she's capable of."

Her gaze turned to Kayla, who again simply stared at her with wide eyes. Pale's expression narrowed, one hand flowing to the hilt of the knife at her belt. Kayla did nothing, though, and continued to do nothing for several seconds until Professor Kara finally let out a sigh.

"There's a couple every year…" she muttered. "Not to worry, though – we'll work on those self-preservation instincts easily enough. By the end, you'll all basically be killing machines."

Kayla let out a small, fearful whimper at that. Pale, meanwhile, refrained from saying or doing anything.

She was, after all, already a killing machine, but nobody else needed to know that right now. And so she stayed silent, even as Kara motioned for Kayla to head back into the crowd, then began healing Cal and woke him up.

"Have a nice nap, Cal?" she asked.

"Ugh…" Cal groaned as he stood up. "I feel like I just got in a fight with an elder dragon and lost…"

"That's a bit exaggerated, admittedly, but hopefully by the end of the year, you're all confident enough that you could take on an elder dragon." Kara's eyes suddenly lit up. "Ooh, perhaps wyvern hunting would make for a good practical exam…"

Kayla let out another whimper, and Pale simply stared at Kara in disbelief. So far, this was the weirdest class they'd ever experienced, though something told her the others might surprise her just as much as this one had.

She certainly hoped they wouldn't, but the Luminarium was turning out to be full of surprises already.