The rest of the week passed by almost in a blur. Curiously, Pale didn't see much of Sven throughout the remaining few days; there were brief glances of him here and there, mainly whenever Joel was nearby, but for the most part, he kept his distance.

And honestly, Pale wasn't sure which was worse – the idea that Sven was actively making moves, or that he was simply content to sit on the sidelines and observe for now, no doubt waiting for an opening to strike.

In any case, she supposed it didn't really matter. There was nothing any of them could do about Sven at the moment, so it didn't make much sense to incessantly worry about it. And besides, she didn't want to put Kayla on-edge, either.

Eventually, though, their first week had to end. And it was during dinner that night that Headmaster Albrecht suddenly stood up and clinked a spoon against his glass, getting their attention.

"Apologies for interrupting your dinner," he said. "However, that you are all gathered here, now would be a good time to explain what your weekends will be like. Essentially, you all signed up to the Luminarium for a specific reason, and now it is time that you begin to fulfill it. For some of you, that is the life of an adventurer, or mercenary on the battlefield; for others, it is that of a scribe or archivist, working in the library. Whatever your reason for being here, your weekends will be where you begin your pursuit of it."

He looked over to the other first-year professors gathered at the table next to him. "Professors Glisos and Marick will begin training those of you who wish to be adventurers or warriors. Professor Kara will train those of you who wish to be healers. Professor Virux, on the other hand, will take those of you who wish to be archivists. For everyone else who may not fit any of those roles or who is undecided, see Professor Tomas. No matter which path you've chosen, your first lesson will begin early tomorrow. So eat well, get some rest, and be prepared to work hard in the morning."

With that, Headmaster Albrecht returned to his seat. The moment he was seated, excited chatter started up among the first-year students, Pale's group included.

"I was wondering when we'd get assigned to our various duties," Cynthia said. "I figured the curriculum seemed a bit light for a school of this caliber; this must be how they make up for it."

"Yeah, by putting us to work on the weekend…" Cal muttered glumly.

"Come on, it's not that bad," Cynthia protested.

"It is if you really wanted to sleep in. Seriously, if I'm the same as the rest of you, then we're all exhausted and everything aches."

"He's… not wrong," Kayla pointed out, her tail swishing behind her as she continued eating. "Still, that being said… I can see the value in it, at least. Right, Pale?"

Pale nodded along. "Sure. Although, I'm wondering exactly what they have planned for everyone…"

"You are?" Cal asked. "Myself, I want to know what everyone here is planning to do. I mean, I know Cynthia wants to be a healer, but me, I've always wanted to be an adventurer."

"You have?" Kayla asked, tilting her head.

Cal flashed her a toothy grin. "Hells yeah, I have. I mean, think about it – you get to travel the world, plunder old tombs, get into trouble wherever you go… not to mention, the girls love a successful adventurer."

Cynthia gave him a baleful glare at that, crossing her arms as she did so. "Maybe try thinking with your head for once instead of something else, Cal."

"Come on, can you blame me for it?" he asked. He shook his head, then turned to Pale and Kayla. "What about you two?"

Kayla thought for a moment. "Honestly, I'm still undecided. Being a healer sounds nice, but I wouldn't want to deal with all the blood and guts it'd require. Same for being a mercenary. As for being an adventurer… I don't know, it just doesn't really appeal to me. I kinda just want to find a nice place to settle down in, maybe teach magic to some younger people… do you think that's an option here?"

"I'd be surprised if it wasn't," Pale answered, earning her a small, happy smile from her friend. "As for me, I can't use magic, so that leaves being an archivist the only thing that's somewhat viable."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Yeah, about that…" Cal began. "We were wondering why you can't-"

"Cal!" Cynthia chastised.

"Well, you were thinking it, too! Hells, so is everyone else in our year!"

"You can't just ask her something that's as personal as-"

"No, it's quite alright," Pale interrupted, taking them both by surprise. "To tell you the truth… I don't know what it is, myself. I think Professor Tomas wants to look more into it, but we haven't had a chance to get together after class again since the first time."

"Well, no offense, but you might want to make that a priority," Cal pointed out. "This is a magic academy, after all; casting magic is kind of a prerequisite for being here. Not being able to probably doesn't disqualify you in this year, but I imagine they can only reasonably accommodate you for so long."

"Believe me, I know," Pale emphasized. "And I'm working on that. Hopefully, it'll lead to something soon."

Cal nodded, satisfied by her answer. The four of them went back to eating after that, the conversation tapering off. And as she ate, Pale couldn't help but wonder exactly what Professor Virux had planned for her in the morning.

XXX

Pale considered herself lucky that she was already awake by the time someone knocked on their dorm room door. Kayla hadn't been quite so lucky, and had been awoken by the sound; she sat bolt upright in bed, her eyes wide and her ears perked up, one hand already prepping a spell while the other reached for the sheathed blade she kept on the nightstand.

"Who's that?" Kayla asked, her voice still groggy from having been abruptly roused from her slumber.

"It's me," Professor Virux answered from the other side of the door. "I'm here to collect Pale."

Pale motioned for Kayla to stand down, which she did, and she hurriedly retreated to the bathroom as Pale made her way to the main door. Pale, for her part, rolled her eyes at the sight of Kayla closing and locking the door behind her.

She'd been telling Kayla for days now that only sleeping in her underwear was probably really stupid, specifically because of something like this happening, but Kayla had insisted that it was too hot for nightclothes. Pale made a note in her databanks to tease her about that later. For now, though, she approached the door, unlocked it, and threw it open, revealing Professor Virux standing there.

"Good, you're awake," he said. He suddenly frowned, peering past her to look into her room. "Is Kayla not-"

"She's here, don't worry," Pale emphasized. "She just ran into the bathroom because she didn't want you to see her naked."

"I'm not naked!" Kayla protested from inside the bathroom. "I'm just… not fully dressed yet…"

Pale, for her part, rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I take it this is about my archivist training?"

"Precisely," Virux said with a nod. "If you'll just follow me, I'll take you to the grand archives, and we can begin. You're the only archivist in this group of first-years, so I hope you won't get too lonely working with just me."

"Somehow, I don't think that'll be a problem," Pale answered as the two of them stepped out into the hall.

XXX

The grand archives, as it turned out, lived up to their name. The Luminarium had impressed Pale before, but this was something else. It was a multi-story building, completely crammed full of shelves that themselves were filled to bursting with books. And from the looks of things, they'd all been very meticulously cataloged.

"Wow…" Pale said as Virux led her into the main room. From what she could see, the archives started with a large circular room, from which several hallways branched out in multiple directions, each one stretching about the length of a small building before leading to a staircase traveling upwards.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Virux asked.

"Very much so," Pale replied. "How is everything cataloged, if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's surprisingly simple," Virux explained as he began leading her through the various rows of shelves. "The paths are laid out according to the four cardinal directions. North is for magical theory and anything related to it, south is for history, east is for anything technical, and west is for whatever else doesn't fit into any of the other three. The various levels are how we separate each of those categories into smaller sub-categories – so, for example, the first floor for magical theory is specifically for the basic affinities; the second floor is for the study of the sjel itself, and so on."

Pale nodded along with his explanation. "It seems very in-depth."

"It is, but it's pretty easy to get the hang of it once you've been doing it for a while, thankfully." Virux stopped as the two of them passed by a large desk towards the back of the room. "This, of course, is primarily where you'll be working when you're not finding books for someone or putting them back. The role of an archivist is, basically, to make copies of books, at least this early on. Admittedly, this strikes many of our prospective students as busywork more than anything-"

"Which is why I'm the only one who signed up to do it," Pale finished.

Virux nodded. "Precisely. It's not a glamorous job, by any means, but it's a very necessary one, as you can imagine. Books are important, of course – without them, we live with the animals. And, to be fair, this job has perks of its own, too – the entire archives are free for you to explore and take what you want, provided you put it back when you're done with it."

Pale's eyes widened with surprise. "Truly? There's nothing off-limits here?"

"Knowledge is meant to be shared, not locked away," Virux answered. "Some students like to spread rumors about there being a secret forbidden section of the archives, but that simply isn't true. If there truly were some esoteric knowledge in a book we didn't want people to know about because it was simply that dangerous or something, we'd simply destroy the book rather than lock it away. And as you can imagine, we aren't exactly fans of destroying knowledge. Like I said, it's meant to be shared, first and foremost."

Pale gave him a nod. "I understand. So, how do you want me to-"

Before she even had a chance to finish, Virux had reached behind the counter and retrieved a stack of thick, leather-bound books, which he placed on the counter next to them with a heavy slam. Pale eyed them for a moment before her gaze slid over to him, and he gave her a grin.

"Consider this the closest thing this job has to a trial by fire," he told her.