I stepped through the mercury screen of the Janusian teleportation gate and for five whole seconds was held in pitch darkness that not even the night vision I had gained as a Copper Imperator could pierce. The artificial night was impenetrable and seemingly infinite in its reach. I felt like I was simultaneously moving at great speeds and was being locked into stasis at the same time, covering lightyears without moving an inch, flying between solar systems of distance without a single step.

Then light returned to my eyes, and I pulled through of the other side of the Janusian gate, streamers of silvery metal stretching from my form as I stepped beyond the entrance and gleaming droplets of liquid quicksilver clinging to my clothes and skin. Those little drops winked out of existence like dying stars when I took another step, more annihilating themselves out of space and time than evaporating into gas.

Our emerging group found ourselves walking on a paved cobblestone path that meandered over hills of lush verdant grass and gentle woods and it led a distance away to three small mountains in a ring and a castle. The castle was levitating in the sky, floating in the middle of and above the three miniature mountains arranged in a circle. The castle had white stone walls, starkly illuminated by a manmade sun similar to the one that had lit the ring of Sunburst Station from its epicenter. The false star was slowly dimming into a nighttime setting, becoming more like a moon than a sun. Within the fortress citadel’s four rising tiers layered like a cake were features I could observe and recognize with my powerful eyesight as I craned my neck up to gawk at the majestic collection of buildings. There were halls for dining and classrooms, an upraised colosseum, temples to the twelve divine Olympians of Heaven’s Peak along with innumerable shrines to minor gods and spirits, a great castle keep, a hundred foot tall regal statue of the Regent that was plated with enough white Jovium metal that it could have made the hull of a starship cruiser, barracks and gymnasiums, courtyards and natural parks. All were contained within the mammoth citadel. Towers made of gold and glinting diamond crystal stretched into the sky, dangerously nearing the lofty artificial star set in a ceiling painted blue.

“This place is massive!” Kato exclaimed excitedly. “How deep could we possibly be beneath the Governor’s Palace for there to be this much space for all this stuff, Adrias?”

“Deep. Very, very deep.” I replied, though I was beginning to buy into Clodias’s cryptic hints that we had been transplanted somewhere else, possibly somewhere far, far away.

“It could use spatial warping technology to make more room out of a smaller area like how the standing jump test made a tiny room as tall as a skyscraper.” Caesia suggested.

I nodded. “That’s definitely possible.”

I suspected that that was true, the Scholarium probably was using spatial manipulation mechanisms, but that it probably was also somewhere else, somewhere far larger. I wondered privately where exactly. On one of the moons of the gas giant planets of the Apollonian solar system? A secure military installation space station floating out in the void, perhaps on the very edges of the solar system? All the way out into interstellar space in between any of the holdings of the Dominium’s grasp? It could be anywhere.

“Look!” Someone among our class shouted, pointing upwards.

A flying chariot pulled by horses made of yellow fire and bright lightning zoomed through the sky, heading straight towards us. The chariot landed on the cobblestone road like it was an airship runway, sparks striking up from where the elemental horses of thunderbolts and flame’s hooves touched the cut and sanded stone, and smoke pouring from the wheels of the chariot as they came into contact with the ground. As I began to worry that the chariot was not going to stop in time, it slowed, and the fiery horses calmed to a trot. I was not sure what they were exactly. Holographic projections? I could smell the smoke and ozone generated by them though. Infernal Beasts? They did not quite look demonic or monstrous enough.

Stepping out of the chariot and approaching us was a Golden Magister, a member of the Scholar subspecies of the twelve Paths, the ones who taught and educated and instructed Imperator youths as tutors. I was able to identify his Path immediately by his grey pupilless eyes and the owl feathers that grew from his scalp instead of normal human hair. The Magister was flanked by two Bronze Imperators, who seemed to defer to his leadership even though by the laws of the Dominium’s imperial caste system they were technically above him in the social order

“Welcome, children. Welcome to the Scholarium.” The Scholar said. “I am Headmaster Artimias Morghion, appointed as head of the officers’ school by our Governor Claudion. I have come to greet you and explain some basic yet vital information to you, though your orientation in the coming days will bring you up to speed in more depth and breadth. Before you lies the three Housing Mountains, Tertius Mons, Secundus Mons, and Primus Mons, as well as the Apollonian Citadel. The Housing Mountains are where the Scholarium’s three years of student classes stay in personal villas that wind up the mountain of their year. Tertius Mons is where you first years will be staying, while Secundus Mons is for second years, and Primus Mons is for officer trainees in their final year of schooling here. Your villa locations will be decided by the order of your ranking from Examination Day with rank 300 being located at the very foot of Tertius Mons and rank 001’s housing at the very peak of the first years’ mountain. I have been informed that we will unfortunately have only two hundred and seventy-seven of you, but we will make do as best we can.”

Headmaster Morghion continued after taking a breath. “The Apollonian Citadel is the heart and soul of the Scholarium and is where you will take your classes and extracurriculars. Please proceed onwards to Tertius Mons and find your respective estates and get a good night of rest. I know you will all need it after today. Dismissed.”

The headmaster and the two silent Bronze Imperators got back on the chariot and the Golden Magister turned it around, whipping the reins and sending the elemental horses off into a gallop and then dragging the chariot back into the air to return to the floating Apollonian Citadel.

The two hundred and seventy-seven of us first years walked and then ran the rest of the way to Tertius Mons when it became clear that walking the long road from the Janusian teleportation gate would take far too long. We climbed our Housing Mountain, people dropping off along the rising path as they found paths jutting off the main mountain road marked with the number they had earned during the examinations. About three quarters up Tertius Mons, it was just Clodias and I walking besides each other, the others either having found their resting places, were lagging behind us, or had moved ahead faster than the two of us.

“See you around, 001.” I said when I found a path diverging to the side with a painted signpost with the Romaen numerals II written on it in blocky script.

“Good night, 002.” Clodias said in farewell and continued up the peak for the final villa estate that waited for him. “May your dreams consist of glories and honors.”

I paced down the path that led to my villa, enjoying the cool night air and the way the dim light played with the cherry blossoms that formed an archway over the track I was walking on.

A few minutes later, I came to my secluded estate. It had a peaceful atmosphere to it, whitewashed walls with orangish red clay roofing. There were fountains adorned with mermaids, and well-groomed gardens and flowerbeds, and ponds filled with koi, and a swimming pool. Entering my new domain, I was greeted by a smiling Livia who was waiting for me. She ran over to me gleefully and hugged my midsection and I gave a soft smile in response. She must have been brought here before me. Other servants walked around, accomplishing tasks and stopping to bow in front of me as they saw me, both ones from the Servi Antonias had provided for me as personal servants and ones that seemed to be from the Scholarium that had come with the II villa.

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“Adrias! You’re finally here! You got 002, I knew you would do amazing at the exams!” Livia said. She searched my eyes and frowned. “Adrias, you look… out of it, what happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m just tired.” I said, trying to get out of saying anything further.

“No, something’s wrong, I can tell.” She insisted.

“You got me.” I admitted. “We were attacked on our decoy flight to the North Sea. Twenty-three of the three hundred were killed.”

“By who???” Livia asked me, her brown eyes wide.

“Servi flight attendants on board our airships. They attacked on route to the oceanic site.” I replied.

“Servi killed twenty-three Bronze Imperators?” Livia said in disbelief. “What kind of weapons did they have?”

“No weapons, or at least not ordinary ones. They had syringes filled with some kind of alchemical serum that transformed them into monsters. Blue skin, completely black eyes, fangs, foot long claws of bone. Voices like scraping metal and growling animals. They were like nightmarish ghouls out of fairytales. Their claws and teeth were poisoned, and they managed to get one boy on our flight and twenty-two others on the other airships.” I said.

“That’s terrible!” Livia said with sympathy in her voice. “Did you take them into custody or kill them on the spot?”

“They died on their own. A little while after their communicators signaled them to inject themselves with the mutagenic elixir, I heard a second alert coming from their wristwatches and then shortly after that they dissolved into black slime.” I said.

“But why would Servi attack you?” She asked.

I paused. Livia, like me, had grown up on the world of Lavinius. A veritable backwater of a planet, the poorest realm in the Apollonian solar system, I had probably been the only Imperator on Lavinius since it had been terraformed. While both of us might have inherited a jealous envy of the Imperator’s Path, neither of us had had to live under the shadow of Imperators like Servi on Sunburst Station had nor had we had to fit into the dystopic landscape of Iulius where Imperators’ privilege and Servi’s destitution was so stark. To Livia, Imperators had been distant masters at worst, more celebrities than dominating lords. What was the word “oppression” to a girl who had never felt the lash of a whip or seen riots and protests gunned down by imperial forces or had had to work backbreaking factory work that would kill you before your forties for meager wages that barely fed you and your family? Livia would not, could not, truly understand the hatred of the suicidal attackers that they had held for us Bronze Imperators.

“Things are tense on Iulius.” I said finally, keeping my voice down so that only Livia would hear me. I did not know how some of the other servants might feel about the attempt on our lives, some of them might secretly celebrate it. “There’s always going to be resentment between the haves and the have-nots, always going to be anger at the powerful and wealthy, even when we Imperators aren’t being complete bastards about it, which admittedly a lot of the candidates’ families absolutely revel in being. We were targets because we’re a visible example of the institutions and establishments of the Dominium, scions of the Highest of Houselines and the most skilled prodigies out of the racial upper-class. It is what it is. The only thing I can do is try and make things better for everyone in the Apollonian system and the rest of the Dominium better when I’m Silver or Gold.”

“I believe in you, Adrias. You have a good heart.” Livia said.

“Thank you.” I said as we walked to my quarters and the master bedroom. “How was your trip to the Scholarium?”

“Frightening.” Livia said, shivering. “As soon as the reports came in that you were part of the chosen, they threw a black bag over my head and put me in shackles and then passed me off like a sack of potatoes until I wound up in this estate.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I said. “I’m glad though that you weren’t with me in the airship even if your treatment was rough, I would not have wanted for you to get injured by the terrorists.”

We entered my master bedroom, most of it was as I expected it to be, opulent and extravagant bedframes and dressers, a wide-open balcony, silk sheets, but there was one oddity that had me puzzled. In the room there were nine bunk beds, crudely made, with metal frames and thin fabric cots that would make for uneasy sleep.

“I thought you guys had servants’ quarters for yourselves?” I said to her.

“We do. I don’t know what those are for. We were forbidden to touch them. First thing the Scholarium’s provided Servi told us when the others and I got here.” Livia said.

“Funny.” I said. “Well, I’ll figure it out tomorrow after a night of rest. Good night, Livia.”

“Good night, Adrias.” Livia said and shut the door to my bedroom behind her.

I lied down and quickly fell into a dreamless slumber.

…

…

…

“Ow!” I said as I awoke to feel a sharp prick in my neck. Opening my eyes, I saw a Golden Huntress standing over me with a handheld injector in her hand, her yellow slitted cat’s eyes a dead giveaway for her Path. My heart pounded and I tried to reach for her but whatever she had injected me with slowed my muscles to a crawl.

“Who?” I managed to get out and she winked seductively at me. I realized whoever had sent her had put good thought into her assignment, only a Venator Gold of the Assassin Order would be silent and stealthy enough to not be detected by an Imperator’s subconscious mind, battle instincts, and sharp senses that would have loosened out of my limiting control during my sleep. Who had sent her though? What had been in that injector? Was I about to die, so far from my dreams of my destiny as a Gold Imperator?

“Do not worry, darling, I’m with the Scholarium. It’s all part of the plan, you’ll see.” She said with an accent.

My head crashed back into the pillows.

…

…

…

I woke for a second time, groaning, lifting my cheek off cool stone. I was in a dark chamber without electric lights or candleflame, seeing my surroundings only with the Imperator night vision I had gained at Copper Rank. There were ten other people in this dank, underground room with me, ten other heartbeats pumping blood to their respective beats. I recognized Kato, Andarias, Pollixa, and Aurelia, but the other five first year students were members of the three hundred I had never spoken with, and the Bronze Imperator man standing over our sprawled and curled up bodies was an unknown too. There were no exits that I could see in here, only smooth stone on all sides and the ceiling and the floor. Moisture beaded on the roof. How had we gotten in here? Another form of teleportation?

“Where are we?” I directed my question to the adult in the chamber.

“The catacombs of Tertius Mons.” The man answered calmly.

“Who are you? What have you done with us?” Aurelia Nerion demanded.

“A farmer.” The Bronze man said cryptically. “A farmer ready to sift wheat from the chaft, little Hetaira-spawn. You have been taken by Hunters for additional study under my gaze.”

“How dare you!” Andarias said. “I am done with these damn tests and trickeries. We are the chosen few, the best of the best. Look at our rankings, there is nothing left to be done or looked at.”

All of us had managed our way to our feet by now and many of us were glaring at the man who had brought us here, myself included.

“There is always further testing to be done, so long as there are new metrics to be utilized and subjects to compete against each other.” The Bronze Imperator instructor said.

“What is your name?” I asked him.

“Justinias.” He said. “Justinias Barathion.”

“And what’s this test about and for?” Pollixa Gallion said.

“You all have grown up in the lap of luxury, softened and weakened by your unearned place in society. The Scholarium seeks to humble you and build up leadership dynamics that have been achieved by merit rather than what woman you came out of. You will have noticed that there are nine cots in your bedrooms that have been left unoccupied. One of you will keep your lavish bed and the others will join as subordinates who will live in your villa and sleep in those lesser bunks as a mark of subservience. This is a hallowed Scholarium method, where the final and ultimate victor of one-on-one fights between all of you gathered here in this room will be labeled the Spartiate, the dominant leader of your new formed clan, and the rest of you will be his or her Helots, the followers. Your Spartiate will command you through group exercises at the officers’ school. Any questions before we begin?”

I raised my hand.

“Yes, you, boy.” He said, pointing at me.

“What happens to our servants if we’re one of the Helots?” I asked, thinking of Livia. “There’s not enough room for nine other households of villa staff to join one estate.”

“They will be sent back home to your families or reclaimed by the Scholarium if they were provided.” Justinias said.

My heart pounded. I had to win. Livia would have nowhere to go without me.

“Now pair up and let’s get this show started.” Justinias Barathion said.