A tense silence followed, interrupted only by the flight attendants announcing that the plane will take off soon, and giving us the typical plane instructions. Birgit seemed genuinely stressed during take off, which I chose not to comment on but found rather amusing.

The whole flight lasted a surprisingly short amount of time. We landed less than an hour later, and got off–but only those of us that wanted to go to Atlantis, but we shouldn’t take any luggage. Azam got up, and Birgit and I followed, out to what looked to be a massive aircraft carrier–so much so that four other planes landed on it, dozens of what I assumed were students coming out of them.

“Alexander?” asked a voice from behind me. My blood froze. I turned around and was met with…Maria. “Looks like you made it in after all.”

“You-you did too,” I said, backing away only to bump into Azam’s massive frame. He looked down slightly, between me and Maria. Birgit and she made eye contact, and I couldn’t help but wonder what went on in Birgit’s head with everything I’d told her. Before anything else could happen, she let out a huff and walked away.

“Hey!” another familiar voice popped up behind me. I turned back around to see Ivan walking up to us, the apparently ever present smirk still on his face. “Čovječe, it’s good to see you, Alex. You too, Birgit,” he said, motioning to me and Birgit. He then turned to Azam, looking him up and down before they exchanged introductions.

“You already seem to have connections here, Alex,” said Azam, looking at me contemplatively. He crossed his arms before declaring that he would walk around a bit and try to make a few connections of his own and he left.

“A bit of a Kurac, isn’t he?” asked Ivan with a snicker.

“You have no idea,” said Birgit.

“He-he really wasn’t that bad,” I said, flashing back to my school years. Yeah, compared to those, he was borderline nice. At least, based on what I’d seen. Birgit grabbed my hand and squeezed it, changing the topic by asking Ivan how he did at the exams.

“Oh,” he said passively. “Proud number seventy three! The written exam really didn’t do me any favours.”

“I came in seventh,” grinned Birgit. “I wonder what the rest of the top ten are like. Oh! Maybe I’ll get to fight any of them.”

“Ah, your champion spirit never rests.” laughed Ivan. “How about you, Alex? What’s that saying–did you knock it out of the park?”

I messed with the seams of my gloves. “Eighty sixth,” I said for the second time in the last few hours. It wasn’t that I was unhappy with it, but so far I was the lowest-scoring person that I had met. It didn't really help my confidence.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Ivan, almost like he had sensed the mood. “You can choose to look at the positives.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said, his smirk turning into a smile. “For instance, if what I read is correct, we’ll be house mates.”

“How do you figure that?” asked Birgit, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

“You know how Atlantis has mansions all across the Isle of Heroes?” I asked her, surprised that she didn’t know this.

“You mean the worst named island in existence?” she retorted, grimacing at the name. “Yeah, I do. We’ll be separated along six of the mansions. Doesn’t answer my question.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“We’ll be separated based on our performance. First three mansions will have thirteen people each, last six twenty eight, so-”

“So, while you two get to be all buddy buddy, I get them scaly fjols. Isn’t that fun?” she complained. Her eyes widened a moment later, and she turned to me. “How will we see each other? Can we–”

“We can move freely, yes,” I said with a small smile. “And we have weekends off, as well as the same schedule throughout the year, so don’t worry about that.” Truth was, I was very worried about it, and what would happen with…well everything, but I couldn’t let that show if I wanted to calm Birgit down.

“Come on, Birgit! Look on the positive,” said Ivan, echoing the words he told me before. “You’re in Atlantis, and you have your extraordinarily tall boyfriend with you!”

“He is like a giant, isn’t he?” she said in a mock whisper.

“Quite.” He nodded sagely.

“You’re both nearly as tall as me. If I’m a giant, you’re giants,” I shot back, attempting to regain some high ground in the conversation.

“I wouldn’t mind being a giant,” said Birgit with a shrug. “I could use my enormous height to intimidate you whenever you’re being an idiot.”

Our…less than thrilling conversation was cut short by the sound of helicopter blades twirling. We looked up to see a helicopter hovering above us, Loudmouth holding on to a rope that was hanging below it.

Once it got low enough, he jumped off, and the students made a circle around him. He looked around, as if appraising us, before he grunted and motioned for the helicopter and nearest planes to leave. Soon enough, they were all gone–barring the few jets that were on the carrier beforehand.

“This is not a game,” he said with tangible heaviness in his voice. He turned to someone in the crowd. “You are here because you proved yourselves smarter, stronger, and sharper than your competition, right?”

“Uh, I guess so?” said the person. It was apparently the wrong answer, as Loudmouth shook his head at it.

“No, you’re here because you managed to pass a few exams. Atlantis is not the end goal. It is not even close. It’s a door. A door which you opened. And what does it lead to? A long and painful path. A path that, even when completed, won’t be the end.

“I’m not trying to intimidate you. I’m not trying to threaten you, or to warn you even. The world is massive, even if it feels like it has gotten smaller over the years. Do you understand?” he asked the same person as before, who just nodded this time. “The rest of you?” Everyone either nodded or murmured yes, and he let out a satisfied–I assume–grunt.

“Now,” he continued, “to get to business. I want those of you that took places one to twenty six to go to the front end of the carrier, an old geezer like me will be expecting you. Places twenty seven to sixty seven will go to the opposite side, a pretty young lady will be expecting you, you lucky dogs.”

Birgit and I hugged goodbye, promising to call each other when we were done before she left with her group. Ivan raised his eyebrows suggestively, but I just looked forward in what I hoped was a non awkward way.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked and, when I turned around, I noticed that he didn’t have even the tiniest hint of a smile or smirk on his face.

“It’s all more, well, more than I expected,” I said honestly, clenching my hands as the murmurs around us increased. I couldn’t lose it. If nothing else, I had to learn how to be in crowds on my own if I wanted to be a hero.

Suddenly the whole carrier shook. Water droplets fell on us. Some people panicked, others prepared for a fight, but we were all awed when we saw what caused it. It was a large galleon, water falling from its bridge, its masts standing tall, even if they didn’t look like they had sails.

It looked like it was made from wood, but that wasn’t possible, so I assumed someone really smart or really powerful, or both, made it all work.

“Look at that statue,” said Ivan, pointing to the marble Poseidon at the front–his trident, of course, was golden. He chuckled slightly. “This and the exams–they really are mad bastards aren’t they?”

White, holographic sails appeared on the masts. A golden circle of stars appeared on each of them, followed by a small one inside it, and a trident inside that one. “This is but a fraction of what your future holds. Are you sure you’re ready for it?” Loudmouth laughed heartily. “Wherever you’re from, whatever your story, let me be the first one to say

“Welcome, future heroes, to Atlantis.”