Xander knew his jaw was hanging open, but he couldn’t have stopped himself, even if he cared enough to bother. The Ember Academy was everything he’d imagined a great school to be. A complex of nearly a dozen buildings, the main building looking like a stately manor of some powerful Elderlord, with walls of immense white stones traced with ruby krusteel veins that pulsed with the power of fire coursing through the reinforcements. The light from those veins pulsed in the air. No, not pulsed. Flickered, like they were open fires themselves. The smaller buildings were still large enough to dwarf Xander’s entire former school. Two buildings flanked the main one, large towers that jutted out of the ground with dozens of windows on each floor. Xander counted at least thirty floors, the tallest buildings he’d ever seen, and the top of each building was ringed with a halo of flame that crackled and circled lazily.
Compared to those three, the other buildings of the complex were almost tame by comparison. Something glowed orange in the center of the complex, but Xander couldn’t quite make it out what it was. Too immense to be any normal flame. He glanced upwards, looking for signs of smoke, but instead he found something wholly unexpected. There was another layer of buildings floating above the ground. They seemed to sit on great storm clouds, until Xander noticed the way they rolled and licked tendrils downwards. Then he realized they were actually masses of flame, but flame in greyscale, starting white at the base and becoming darker until the tips of the flame flickered black.
He’d heard of buildings floating on clouds before, although he’d never see one. But buildings supported by flames? That was like nothing he’d even heard of.
The area around the buildings had pathways, but no plants grew within a hundred feet of the complex. Instead, there thrived a different sort of garden. Xander marveled at them - they looked a bit like trees, but their trunks had sharp protrusions that suggested stone more than bark, and the ‘leaves’ looked like shards of colored and broken glass. He’d heard of them before, drysliths, but never expected to see them in person. They only grew around sources of great, perpetual fire, and were said to be the native flora of another world with a sun that filled half the sky.
He looked for anyone in black and red, like what Markus had worn, but so far the few dozen people he could see wore simple clothing like he and Lilyn had adorned themselves with. They were gathering in a courtyard that looked like it had obsidian for paving stones. Thinking of Lilyn, Xander reached over to nudge her awake, not taking his eyes off the sight.
Sudden motion from Lilyn caught his attention, and he whipped around, his arm coming up in a block. He just barely caught her wrist on his forearm. She was holding what he took for a knife at first, but when he looked closer, he saw it was made of grey cloth, stuffed with something that was soft but tightly woven enough to keep its shape. Lilyn blinked a couple times and gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry,” she said, lowering the mock weapon. “Reflexes, y’know? Had this made so I wouldn’t actually stab anyone.”
“I should probably get one of those. But... our stop’s coming up, and I thought you might want to see this.”
Lilyn looked over his shoulder and gasped. She started to tap his arm frantically. “Can we change seats? Please?”
Xander wanted to stare more himself, but figured it was only fair to let her have a chance to gawk.
***
By the time the train came to a stop, the aurophant blasting from all four trumpets to announce their arrival, both Xander and Lilyn had resolved to join in with the people who were already gathering. A couple other people were coming up behind them, a man with deep brown skin and his head shaved smooth in the style of one of the Inner Seas provinces, and a woman that made Xander do a double take. He’d never seen one of the venotian in person before, but her scales glistened in the sun, black diamonds tracing her arms and legs and breaking the dark green coloration. Her slitted eyes flicked to him and then moved past, dismissing him completely. They both wore their medallions openly, however, so they had to be here for the same reason. None of the four of them had to stop to collect stored baggage either - everything they owned could fit into a single pack.
Eager to get on but not wanting to be rude, Xander offered the two new Initiates a slight bow. “Xander-”
“No one cares,” the venotian woman said, gliding past him with a dismissive wave of her hand. Two steps later and she took off into a sprint.
The man sighed and shook his head, then returned Xander’s bow. “Anoki,” he said. “I just spent most of the trip dealing with that attitude, so I welcome any conversation.” He bowed to Lilyn as well, and she mirrored the gesture before introducing herself. Then, almost as one, they turned their attention back to the Academy.
“I wonder why everyone’s already here,” Xander said. “Thought we had another day.”
Anoki shrugged. “I just got here too, so can’t really guess. But I know one thing - I’m sure not going to miss whatever’s going on.”
“Especially because we can’t rule out that they moved initiation up and couldn’t tell us in time,” Lilyn said. “We might actually already be late.”
That thought shot through the three of them like cold water thrown onto their face, and they all started running. The venotian must have already had the same thought, which would somewhat explain her rudeness - or at least her haste.
When they reached the spot where grass abruptly turned to stone, they all came to a halt. The ground here was covered in finger-long, narrow crystals that looked like they’d stab straight through the foot of anyone who walked over them. Xander’s head whipped around until he saw the obsidian pathway that led the rest of the way in, and he motioned for the group to follow him. A small sign was embedded in the grass just before the changeover. Medallions must be visible for Initiates to safely enter. All three of them checked before stepping through.
Xander could feel the presence of some kind of barrier pushing against his skin. Then the sensation vanished, and he was allowed to pass. Of course they would have something in place of a wall, but without the ability to see beyond normal sight, all Xander could know was that it was ‘something.’ Most of the Academies didn’t use physical barriers, from what Xander had heard, but a defensive construct their students powered as part of their training. If nothing else, that was true of the Ember Academy.
Inside, the air was far hotter than it had been just a moment ago, and Xander could already feel his skin sticking to his clothes. He hurried along, glad he’d purchased wood-soled sandals as opposed to cloth slippers - leather boots, of course, being out of his price range. The path would be far less painful this way. Or so he thought, but both Lilyn and Anoki wore slippers instead, and they looked as surprised as him that the obsidian didn’t seem to bother them.
“Would you mind not holding up the whole cursed path?” a voice behind them growled. Xander looked over his shoulder to see the single largest man he’d ever seen, easily a head and shoulders taller than Xander. He had clearly done very little to make himself presentable since returning to civilization, his hair wild and unkept to match his beard.
“Apologies,” Xander said. “I certainly meant no-”
“Oh, Gods of the Inner Worlds. Can we go?” This man had no more rank than them, his marble medallion hanging on a coarse string, and his tone was sharp but not outside the bounds of equals. Xander started to walk, not wanting to start a fight on his first day, but he kept one eye on the large man. This one would be trouble, Xander was certain of it.
They barely had time to reach the obsidian courtyard before the air was filled with the sound of a ringing bell. Everyone looked around, clearly trying to figure out what was happening. Xander, meanwhile, looked to the bell tower on top of the main building. Sure enough, there were three figures in black and red up there. As the ringing faded, they leapt off the top as one. Their fingers stretched out, and streams of the grey fire that was holding the building aloft spread from their hands. It didn’t stop their flight, but it did slow their fall, enough to bring them to a gentle landing in front of the students.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Everyone had seen them now, and was staring at them with a mixture of wide eyed curiosity and fear. Xander didn’t see Markus among them. Instead, the leader of the group was a woman with blood red hair tied back in a bun, the slight lines of wrinkles at the corner of her eyes the only mark of her age. She surveyed the prospective initiates with an imperious glance. The man to her right had a scar over one eye, from his cheek up to his hairline, and it left a streak of white hair as it continued along his scalp. The man to her right was…
Xander stared at him. Soon everyone was, and there were whispers passing through the group. He had horns, which no native people of the Empire had, and a tail nearly twice as long as he was whipping through the air.
The stern woman finished her study of the group of newcomers, and by the way her lips curled down, she was less than impressed with what she saw. When her gaze passed over Xander, he could feel it like a physical weight. “Well,” she said, and her voice didn’t match her expression at all. It was warm and honey soaked, welcoming and inviting. “These are the recruits this year. There is much you have to learn. This is the Ember Academy. You have arrived here Broken, your ability to channel stripped away. Some of you lost it in a duel. Some of you lost it due to incompetence. Some of you pushed too hard to advance. Whatever your reason, you have survived your Crucible, which means you’ve already exceeded your peers.”
She fixed her gaze on them again, and somehow it felt like she was looking right at Xander, but with the way the crowd shivered, everyone felt the same weight of her attention.
“I am unimpressed.” She held up a finger before anyone could even think to object. “I am unimpressed every year. If I saw something that impressed me, I would be sending it away, and disciplining the recruiter that had brought me someone who wasn’t already Broken. You should not be impressive, because you are only here for one reason. In one way or another, to come to me, you are a failure.”
She let that hang in the air, and Xander could feel tension building among the other students. Others looked thoughtful, but no one said anything. She clearly had this speech prepared, and Xander certainly wasn’t going to risk interrupting her.
“You failed to win the battle that broke you. You failed to understand what you were doing, and were shattered. You failed to advance so terribly, it tore apart your very soul. Even if you feel you were ambushed, or you were betrayed, or you were misled - then you failed to keep yourself guarded.”
Now a bit of anger was building up, and Xander could feel some of it himself. He couldn’t have done everything against-
“Or you just failed to be strong enough.”
Xander felt the weight of those words, and when she put it that way, she wasn’t wrong. It still felt unfair to Xander.
As if she could read his mind, she forged ahead. “You are likely thinking this is unfair, but I assure you that it is not. I am the Headmistress of this Academy. I am also a Sage of the Third Rank, and the Saint of Char. My name of birth is gone. I have burned it away, replacing it with a new name. You will call me Mei, for that is my name now. I have excelled in the Path of Fallen Embers. And to do this - I had to once stand where you are, and admit I was a failure.”
That shocked Xander to his broken core. A Sage? Anyone who outclassed her would be among the Ruler Tiers. She was as powerful as a person could become without reaching a stage of advancement so far above mortal that they might as well be lesser gods. A Sage could fight lesser gods. And what was this about a Saint? It sounded impressive, but he’d never heard of the Saint Tier before. Xander’s mind was spinning, but one fact stuck to his thoughts like a burr.
She’d once stood here, one of the Broken herself. She’d once been, in her own words, a failure.
“Anyone who follows the Path of Fallen Embers, and any of its branch paths, was once like you. If you follow the Path of Fallen Embers, if you excel, you can reach powers that might have been beyond your body before. You have been melted in the crucible, and some of you will be reforged to reach immense heights. But. This is your second chance. There are no third chances. Should you fall off the Path, you will die. Your failure will kill you, whether it destroys your body, or I am forced to sever the head of the monster you become.”
Sage Mei motioned to the two men, and they held out their hands like they were clutching invisible boxes. There was a flash of flame, and suddenly there were boxes in their grasps, somehow conjured from thin air. They started to walk among the Initiates, and whispered softly before allowing them to pull something out of their box. When the man with the lashing tail reached Xander, he could see the box was full of small, iridescent pills. Even to his Broken core, they radiated with power. “Do not swallow until you are instructed,” the man said, and his voice was low and smooth as velvet. Did the Path of Fallen Embers grant you a beautiful voice, or was that just for the Sage and this man?
“Now,” the Sage said, once the pills had been distributed. “You are going to face a great deal here soon, so I need to make sure there are no doubts as to my intentions.” She turned her face skywards. “I, Sage Mei of the Third Rank, the Saint of Char, Headmistress of the Ember Academy and Partner of Golomoch do swear upon my Core and my Bond that I will never speak an outright lie to these students gathered before me, nor will I mislead them with the intent to cause lasting harm to their bodies, minds, or souls.”
Flame erupted from the drysliths around them.
The Sage turned her attention back to them. Such an oath could only be broken at great harm to the oath-breaker, and she’d demanded nothing in return. She’d left herself plenty of room with that oath - misleading for other purposes would be allowed, and Xander wondered if there was such a thing as a lie that wasn’t an outright lie - but it still restricted her. At her power, breaking her oath might outright kill her.
She turned her gaze back to them. “Now. In your hand is a refining pill. It works on those who have been broken. It will rebuild your foundation, restore your core, and clear your channels. You will be Stone, and of the lowest Rank, but you will have your souls back. I’m certain some of you are ready to take it now, and some of you are thinking that this is impossible. The second group is mostly right. Attempts to restore the Broken permanently through such means are impossible. This will give you one month of functionality. If you do not pass the Trials of this Academy, at the end of that month, your power will turn on you, eating you alive from the inside. Nothing we can do will stop that. This is your last chance to return to the Inner Wilds. Between now and the first official day of the semester, in one week’s time, you will be free to return that pill and your medallion, and resume living as you were.”
“If you will not,” Sage Mei said, sweeping her eyes over them one more time. “Then you can take that pill as soon as you are ready. You can begin your Trials ahead of those who are arriving later than you. It will give you an edge, but it will also mean you are committed. Since you all have arrived so early,” and there was a hint of venom in those two words that Xander couldn’t miss. He was grateful that Markus had given him an early arrival date, but from the way she said that, Xander was also grateful not to be Markus at the moment. “You will be ahead by a great deal. Every year, we lose half the class to failing the Trails. Now. When you are ready, you may take the pill.”
Xander only waited for one full breath before he popped it into his mouth and swallowed. Even if he failed the Trails, a month of true life was better than years of the half life he’d lead out in Inner Wilds.
Sage Mei’s gaze fell on him for certain this time, the weight almost a physical thing. He moved to bow to her, but some force on his soul kept him from moving. A number of people were looking at him in shock and horror. Lilyn looked from him to the pill in her hand and to him, as if trying to process what she’d just seen him do. He hadn’t been the only one to take it immediately. Part of why the crowd was staring so strongly at Xander was because they weren’t just looking him, but also at Anoki.
Lilyn popped her pill into her mouth to shocked mutterings. The large man who had pushed them to move quicker earlier took a step back, as if he expected them to explore in a shower of bone and gore. Sweat started to bead on Xander’s brow. Did they know something he didn’t? Or were they just uncertain.
There were several others who had taken their pills that Xander could tell, including the venotian woman. They were all getting similar stares. As if they were all waiting to see what happened, silence settled on the courtyard. The sweat was getting thicker on Xander’s brow and had spread to his chest and arms. He could feel a warm, molten mass growing in his stomach.
Xander cast his gaze towards Sage Mei, and this time when she spoke, her face had a softness that matched her voice. “In a way, you who plunged ahead are the fortunate ones. Many do choose to return to the Wild after seeing this.
Xander dropped to his knees, The sweat coming from his pores was thick and black, like tar. Impurities being forced out of his body. This happened when advancing from Stone to Steel, but Xander had been unconscious then. Now, he could feel every second of it, and it felt like someone had turned his veins to fire.
He threw back his head and screamed, in so much pain he should have blacked out, but some invisible force held him in place, forcing him to remain aware for just a few more moments.
Just before words flickered in his vision.
System Recalibration Initalizing.
Then, finally, the pain overwhelmed him and Xander only knew darkness.