The tall elven woman with the topknot had all of the students who had already summoned their grimoire head off with the incubi-blooded attendant I’d seen earlier, while she led the rest of us – the ones who hadn’t summoned their grimoire yet – into a large room that reminded me of a library. At least, it would have, if not for the fact that all of the shelves had been shoved to one side and completely emptied.

Several large desks had been brought in, and people sat behind each of the desks, with chairs opposite them.

“Alright students,” the woman called out, heading to the only desk that was empty and sitting behind it. “Form up in a line and we’ll call you up as soon as we can.”

There was a lot of grumbling, jostling, and fighting over position in line, but I really couldn’t care less. Did any of these people really think that a half an hour of saved time was really going to matter?

Once I was finally called up, I was with the top knot woman. She nodded to me.

“I’m Bea, a graduate student at the Citadel. Your name?”

“Emrys of White Sands,” I said, and she flicked through the papers until she retrieved a copy of the contract I’d signed. She skimmed it, then nodded.

“All this looks to be in order. Your first semester payout… will you be needing it for transport?”

I paused. Were they not providing transit? I was in the region of Red Earth, which was the same hold as my home, White Sands, and traveling here had already robbed me of the few coins I had left to my name.

But Ocean Spires was on another hold entirely, separated by some rivers and small seas, if I could recall my geography right. I’d have to find a ship that could ferry me there, and I didn't have the money. Plus, I really didn’t want to have to go into a big city. I knew for a fact that my family owned a house or at least a flat in any city that was reasonably large, even if nobody lived there full time, just in case they had to travel there for a diplomatic mission.

That was the entire reason I stuck to small towns and villages.

“I don’t suppose you can snap your fingers and teleport me?” I asked, and she snorted.

“I wish. Teleporting myself here for the testing already took me the better part of a week. So I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Yes,” I said, gritting my teeth. I really didn’t like that the thousand silver I’d been offered was already slipping away so fast, but I had to get to school if I wanted to go to school.

We worked our way through a couple more bits of paperwork, and I learned that I’d be able to register for classes anytime before the first of autumn, but only at the school itself, so as to not waste the time and ether that was already being burnt to hold the tests.

The fact that I had a bit less than two months made it worse, if anything. I’d need to get on a ship directly, and it would need to be a decently fast one, because a slow cargo ship wouldn’t make it to the other side of Cendel in time.

Which meant I needed to go to our hold’s capital, Summerbone, and that posed far too much of a risk for my tastes.

Given the fact that my mother seemed incapable of not having an absurd amount of children, I’d bet that at least some of my older siblings would have headed south to avoid needing to help raise them. Especially the more sentimental ones, who wouldn’t want to get too attached.

Worse, they’d have likely brought an entire contingent of guards and servants with them. I could still remember narrowly making my escape from Salted Shores, when I’d first run away. I’d been eleven or so, and one of my older sisters had been in the capital of Salted Shores at the same time I had been. One of her servants had recognized me, and used the influence of her master – my sister – to rile up the entire city guard. I’d only started learning to condense an ether pool at that point, and didn’t even have any spells.

I’d wound up sneaking out of the city inside a wine barrel in the cart of a farmer who was leaving the city. They would have found me if it weren’t for the fact that I’d held my breath and stayed beneath the surface of the wine the entire time. I was very good at holding my breath, at least.

I had felt bad about needing to empty out half the wine to squeeze myself in, and if I recalled correctly, I thought I’d driven off a bandit camp and stolen their silver, then left it at the farmhouse – that had been the days before I’d begun self-suppressing my bloodline.

Actually, come to think of it, that had been one of the last times I’d used that power, before I’d figured out the bounty hunters were tracking me using the remnants of power that I left each time I tapped into it…

But the point was, I was terrified of going into big cities, and perfectly happy to stick to small towns and villages.

But I was going to need transit to the Citadel of Ether, and I couldn’t get that far on my legs. Even on a strong mundane horse, it would be a stretch to make it there in the two months before the semester began.

“Listen, I really don’t mean to be a pain, but is there any way at all you could take me?” I asked. “I don’t know what your documents say about my bloodline, but–”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“They just say ‘high risk’, and everything else is redacted,” Bea said. “That’s not exactly a stunning achievement. Besides, bringing you means it would take me a full month to get there.”

“Alright,” I said. “Do you know of a way I could get there without having to go through a big city?”

She frowned, squinting at me.

“You are aware that the Citadel is a city, right? It’s a college, but it’s also a city.”

“Yes, but there I’ll just be cowering in my room and going to classes,” I said. “That’s entirely different.”

“I… see,” she said, then shook her head. “Listen, I don’t know what your problem with cities is, but you’ll need to get over it, okay?”

“Fine,” I ground out. What was the worst that could happen?

Bea nodded and withdrew an iron box from below the desk, which I had been confident wasn’t there before. She opened it, then counted out ten shimmering platinum coins.

I stared at it with naked greed. The last time I’d had this much wealth was before I’d run away. It wasn’t even close. Before now, the most I’d managed to hoard up was about two hundred silver, and that had entirely been spent on taking these tests.

I swept the coins into my pocket, alongside the handful of spell components I had, and nodded to her.

“Thank you,” I said.

“See you in autumn. Next!”

Keeping an eye on my surroundings, and making sure to keep my nose out for anyone who smelled like greed, I left the testing center, then spun up my northfinding cantrip, oriented myself, and started walking.

The testing center was a few hours walk from the hold capital, but it was already late in the evening. I’d just walk through the night, I supposed. If someone ambushed me, it would be an annoyance, but a couple of arcane missiles should be enough to drive them away, since I should have recovered enough ether by then.

I had begun walking when I smelled someone approaching me from behind, serpentine and quick. Their footfalls were soft, and I turned to see a woman approaching. She wore flowing robes in a style that was quite uncommon in this region. Or hold. Or even in Cendel.

Her eyes were vertically slitted, like a cat or a snake’s, and given the scales on her exposed forearms, I took her to be a serpentine beastfolk. Her hair was fine black strands, and she was very pretty, in a classical sense of the word.

But the fact she was approaching me had me on edge, because I’d just been handed a lot of coin. That, and Jackson had me already on edge.

“Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but overhearing that you have a bloodline, and needed to keep it hidden,” she said, speaking with a slight lilt in her voice.

A familiar lilt.

I narrowed my eyes, then spoke in Hua-Long, the language of Shen-Long. I was rusty, since I’d learned it before I’d run away from home, but my mother had drilled the importance of speaking it. After all, their Divine King was a longstanding family ally.

“Why could you not help yourself? My senses are sharp, and yet I kept myself from overhearing,” I said.

Her eyes widened in surprise at my tone and words, and the very demure manner in which she had been holding herself faded.

But instead of relaxing, she spat out a chant. Red ether began to pour from her hands, and arcane missiles thundered through the air toward me.

“Oh, hells.”

My ether pool was almost totally empty, since I’d spent it on my water to wine spell, then investing a prayer.

But even keeping my bloodline completely suppressed, I was still fast, faster than a human. I tensed, dropped into a fighting stance, then threw myself to the side. The missiles curved, headed toward me, and I landed in a crouch, then exploded forward, tackling the woman in the stomach.

She lost control of her ether and the missiles faded away, thumping weakly against the ground.

She lashed out with hands that were curled like claws, her nails glinting with sharp edges. I caught one and tried to pin it to the ground, but the other grabbed my jacket, and I felt it rake my back, leaving a trail of scratches, but not drawing any blood.

Both her hands were free then, and going for my eyes. I dodged to the side, but ether suddenly wrapped around the woman. She spat out quick words of power, then spun, flipping our positions so she was straddling me, pinning me down. One hand slammed into the ground next to my head, ripping through the grass, while the other grabbed my throat.

“Which faction do you work for?” she hissed.

“I don’t work for anyone,” I said, coughing. “I’m a wanderer.”

“Why do–”

“Boo, stop flirting,” someone called out. Both of our faces turned red, and I spotted Jackson walking towards us.

I didn’t know if I should be thanking or cursing Effervesce.

The serpentine beastfolk released my throat, and we exchanged a look, agreeing that this definitely wasn’t over. Jackson started chattering away about different things, and I entirely tuned him out, glaring daggers at the woman.

“Anders, you didn’t introduce me. Who’s this?” Jackson asked, and I froze.

“My name is Shé Yushin, or Yushin Shé, in your style of names,” the woman said. “You may call me Yushin. That would be seen as improper back home, but I know it is normal here.”

“Anders Velcer, or Velcer Anders, in the Shen-Long style of names,” I said. “Call me Anders.”

Apparently, that fake name was going to stick. Oh well.

“Wait, you all decided to go in a tussle in the dirt without even getting the other’s names?” Jackson asked. “Hells, Anders, you have to teach me how to do that.”

Yushin and I both looked away from one another, blushing furiously, and unfortunately, my northern heritage, and Yushin’s noblewoman bearing meant that it was blindingly obvious on both of us.

“Nah, nothing to be ashamed of,” Jackson said. “Effervesce’s scripture states that pleasure and love are the lights of our world as surely as the sun, and to needlessly deny oneself of it is like denying a plant of light.”

“Ah,” Yushin said.

“Ah,” I echoed.

Jackson continued to chatter as he steered us both towards the city.

“I’m going to get a room in Summerbone, at my favorite tavern, it’s called Dragon’s Drop Inn, and then I’ll take the boat towards school. Do you all care to join me? It would be great. The first round of drinks is on me.”

“I… Could I speak to Mister Anders for a moment?”

“Course,” Jackson said. “The scripture also dictates that privacy is good for the soul and heart. Just don’t take too long, okay?”

He winked at us as we both stepped back.

I eyed Yushin. She eyed me back, equally suspicious.

“Why should I believe you don’t work for one of them?” she said, speaking in rapid Hua-Long.

“Because I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I responded in the same language. “Listen. You’ve clearly got it wrong. I’ve got a weak demon bloodline, true, but I was just trying to speak to you in your native tongue.”

My bloodline was far from weak, and it definitely wasn’t demonic, but there was no reason for Yushin to know that. I didn’t exactly trust her.

Yushin let out a slow sigh, then her hand blurred. She snatched my hand before I could react, and licked my palm. I snatched it back, but Yushin was staring at me, her eyes as wide as saucers. She let out the most vile string of curses I’d ever heard in Hua-Long, including some curses I didn’t know, before looking back up at me.

“You’re not Anders. You’re Hailaga Dreki, aren’t you?”

I froze in place, as for the first time in years, I heard my birth name again.