The Day of the Black Sun.

An event engrained at the back of everyone’s minds, haunting the nightmares of young children and staining the dreams of grown-ups. A catastrophe so dark it kept pregnant mothers up at night, constantly worried that the stars might just not be in their favour.

Of course, Alaric knew the stories. Every single person on the continent of Valeria knew of the events that happened on that day, albeit in varying levels of knowledge.

“They say…”

“Shush, Aiden. We’ve arrived,” a girl with short red hair elbowed the blonde boy just as the hall they’d been traversing suddenly expanded out around them, shooting out in all directions to reveal a grand chamber that dwarfed all of Alaric’s previous thoughts on the Tower’s architecture.

If what he’d already seen was marvellous, this was downright mind-blowing.

Everything in his field of vision shouldn’t have been able to fit inside the building… and yet it did.

It only dawned on Alaric then that the Tower was several times larger than he’d initially anticipated… and that it didn’t matter how many Aspirants there were.

Space was the least of the Tower’s concerns.

The gargantuan chamber was so large that Alaric almost failed to see the wall on the other side.

Briefly shifting his attention to the person who’d interrupted Aiden, he recognized the girl from their ride on Garin’s guardian, SwiftWind.

She had red short hair, which, unlike Aiden’s, was well-kempt with a silky glow to it. Beside them was another girl whom Alaric also recognised.

Surprisingly, her features were also ingrained at the back of his mind. Long jet-black hair with a reserved expression that was almost shy. This facade, however, hid what was actually a very observant young girl.

When she gazed at Alaric, he could tell she saw more than just his unassuming appearance. Oddly enough, he didn’t shiver under her gaze and as a boy who trusted his intuition, he figured she meant him no harm and chose to let her be.

Up until this point, the group of six hadn’t had proper introductions, so Alaric resolved to calling her Black while he called the other girl Red.

Even Aiden’s own name had leaked out during a conversation with Garin, as had Alaric’s.

“Welcome, young Aspirants,” an old raspy voice boomed through the Great Chamber.

Shooting high above them, the chamber seemed to have no end. A man dressed in pristine white robes similar to those of the great Seekers they’d seen in the tapestries was floating on a platform looking down on the children that had come to be appraised.

Above him, the ceiling was drowned in a multitude of glowing orbs of different colours, each pulsing with magic, gently floating together in a sea of aether much like a multi-coloured starry night.

[Red, Silver, Gold, Bronze and… Emerald. What do you think those are?] Alaric sent a thought to his safely-hidden guardian.

[Look closely at their distribution,] she replied.

[Distribution?]

[How many they are…]

[I can’t count all those things. It’s like trying to count the grains of sand at the lake back home] the boy argued.

[Oh dear!] the guardian groaned, [I didn’t ask you to count them one by one. Just pay attention to which colours seem more than the rest.]

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[Oh… You should have just said that] the boy chuckled.

As Alaric paid more attention, he noticed they weren’t of equal number. The gold orbs were the fewest among all of them, drowning in a sea of countless other colours while the bronze orbs seemed to dwarf all other colours with their numbers.

The dark-haired boy grew vaguely aware of what this meant, not to mention the fact that even within the orbs of the same colour, some were designed far more intricately than others, possessing swirls and shimmers more dazzling than the others.

‘Those are the things that will decide how strong our guardians are, aren’t they?’ he sighed.

[Yes, they are. Now pay attention. It’s starting,] Alia chided.

The boy looked to the old man standing on the platform high up with the orbs and for a moment, the two locked eyes or at least, that’s what Alaric thought they did.

The old man seemed to tense under his gaze but only for a brief moment before he continued to survey the room.

‘Can he sense you, Alia?’ Alaric asked.

[Perhaps… Garin was able to, so I wouldn’t be too surprised] The guardian shrugged.

Alaric felt his mood dim at the realisation. He could already feel the strain as the aether in his body continued to circulate, maintaining the spell that kept Alia’s presence hidden. It was an intricate spell to hold. While it wasn’t the most effective out there, it was far more powerful than anyone his age should have been able to achieve…

‘This sucks,’ he groaned…

“I see plenty of promising candidates this year…” the old man began.

‘Of course, you do, old snitch!’ Alaric mentally cursed.

Alia merely chuckled.

Oblivious to these mental remarks, the Seeker continued talking, “I am Elder Gregory, the Master of the Eastern Tower of Seekers. Allow me to welcome you all to the Eastern Tower of Seekers. Today is a big day for you all. You’ll get your guardians appraised. Now, listen well. Having your guardian appraised doesn’t mean you’ll be able to summon them right away—”

“What is he doing here?” a rough male voice suddenly tore through the vibrant speech.

Everyone turned to witness a boy with messy blue hair staring at another one dressed in ragged clothes. Alaric easily recognized the boy in ragged clothes. It was the same thief that had been caught outside.

‘So they decided to let him in,’ Alaric thought to himself, wondering what angle the Tower was playing at.

He also noticed a knight standing behind the boy in tattered rags with a golden rope that bound the thief’s hands behind his back. From the mana pulsing off it, Alaric could tell it was no ordinary rope.

‘There were exceptions to those that could come in without escorts,’ he thought to himself.

[Technically, the boy’s tied up and the guard is here to make sure he doesn’t cause any more trouble. That’s hardly an escort] Alia corrected.

This was true…

However, even though he couldn’t really call the knight an escort, he was still not an aspirant.

“The same thing you’re doing here, Aspirant. He might have been caught stealing but he was also doing so with magic. I don’t have to explain how rare that is,” the Seeker answered.

There were a few murmurs here and there but when the sneering boy who’d interrupted his speech didn’t speak, the Seeker turned away from the banter, “Please refrain from interrupting me unless you have a real problem.

We have visitors here who’ve travelled for days to get here and would rather rest than be bothered by trivialities. Alright, where was I? Having your guardian appraised doesn’t mean you’ll be able to summon them immediately… right…

After knowing how powerful your guardian is, you will be given the choice to take on any walk of life you so desire, depending on your guardian’s power, of course. If you so wish to undertake a path that’s not within your guardian’s abilities, you might be required to take extra tests. And yet, some of you will have the whole world open up to you.

Choose well and you might just make a name for yourself in this world. Above us are objects you’ve all probably noticed by now unless you’re blind to both light and aether. You will notice several floating orbs of different colours. These orbs stand for the different classes in our power measuring system and they are as follows.”

Tension in the room continued to rise as the old man explained the rankings to the aspirants. Everyone here had come hoping to receive a high ranking for their guardian after all. Alas, this was not a choice any of them could make for themselves.

They would have to leave it all up to chance.

Even then, however, rankings didn’t determine everything. When it came down to it, so many things determined whether one would ultimately be considered powerful.

There were, however, some limitations to how much one could alter the equation of power.

One could train their bodies and improve their skill, honing their bodies till they were as sharp as an executioner’s blade, but how far this could go was determined by their guardian.

Unfortunately, Guardians didn’t have much room for improvement.

A guardian’s power and limitations were determined at birth… and that was why the rankings existed this way. That was why appraisal was so important. To know the limits of one’s guardian.

The old man’s voice rumbled across the vast chamber big enough to be a colosseum.

“The Bronze orbs stand for D-class, The Red orbs stand for C-class, the Silver Orbs stand for B-class, the Emerald orbs stand for A-class while… well, you know what the gold orbs stand for. The fabled S-class.”