Alistair Blackstar remained at the back of the group as some of the candidates spoke to one another. Why wasn’t his wand working?

Alistair was long past the point of being afraid that he’d fire off a blast of mana like the boy named Juno did earlier. He just wanted the thing to work. Then he could figure out about the summon part, and what it had to do with Resonant Cards.

“Um…” He looked back up to the group and saw some of several of the students partnering up.

Zola, the silver-haired girl without a House, was the first to leave. She didn’t team up with anyone, and she didn’t say anything as she disappeared into the forest, her wand glowing at her side.

Laertes and some of his friends were the next to go, Laertes making sure to sneer at Alistair before departing.

It seemed like most of the Fledglings already knew what to expect, as if they had come prepared. This made sense considering the vast majority of the candidates came from Houses. Their parents and siblings would have gone through this same process or similar. The rest filed out, leaving Alistair alone with Juno, who kept flicking his hand out as if he were trying to conjure something.

“What are you doing?” Alistair asked as he turned to the boy. Juno had frizzy, unkempt hair and big eyes. While he wore a brooch just like the others, his clothing wasn’t made of silk, nor was it pressed and ironed in a way to give additional lines to his form. He was clearly from a House, but he didn’t act like the others.

Juno shook his hand out again. “My sister told me that you can access the system early in this way.”

“The system?”

“The wandbound part. She’s a Skyward.”

“Wandbound? Skyward?”

“Third year. Her name is Melissa and if we’re lucky, we won’t run into her. Pretty sure she’s refereeing this trial. She said to keep the wand in one hand and flick the other. I kept the wand in the same hand and flicked it. She might have been screwing with me.” Juno nodded to the tree that he’d nearly burned down and laughed. “That shit was crazy, right?”

His laughter had a way of relaxing Alistair. “It was. So… you know how to use the wand?”

“It’s not very hard.” Juno aimed the wand at the ground. “It’s intuitive. You don’t need to tense up or be afraid of it. It just works.”

“Sorry. I had no idea what to expect from here.”

“No one told you?” This genuinely seemed to confuse Juno.

“I’m not from a House.”

“But surely you’re from a Lesser House, not that they’re lesser. They need another name for those Houses.”

Alistair shook his head.

“Then where are you from?”

“An orphanage.”

“Really?” Juno’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! The new provost started a program to bring orphans to the academy as part of this year’s Fledgling class. My parents were talking about it. So I guess you wouldn’t know anything about what we’re about to do, then. No one to told you what to expect.”

“No, not really. None of my friends knew. The headmaster didn’t know either. I thought we’d get instructions once we came here.”

Juno looked to the place where Humboldt had stood earlier. “We should have gotten better instruction than that. But we’ll be fine. Stick with me, and we’ll catch our first summons together.”

“What does that mean, exactly? Summons? Resonant Cards?” Alistair knew little about battledeck mages and their actual practices. He’d seen them use their power twice, but that was it. Most were employed by the Crown to explore and fight in faraway lands. Their powers were mainly kept secret.

“They want to see if we can actually capture a monster. We capture a monster, and it becomes a Resonant Card.”

“Monsters?” This was something Alistair knew about. “I thought he called them summons.”

“Summons sounds nicer than a monster, right? No need to scare the kids. Shit, we’re kids, aren’t we?” Juno laughed again.

Alistair cautiously raised the wand. “So I just lift the wand and… pretend?”

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“Pretend? Have you been attuned?”

“Attuned? Attuned to what?”

“You should have received another letter, one that set up a time for your attunement.”

“I only received one letter.”

Juno considered this. “That’s not great at all. You need to be attuned to use a wand. Maybe I can—” His eyes lit up. “Sure. You know what? Sure, I can catch my summon and yours. We’ll just need to find an obelisk to recharge my wand later. Melissa told me about these places. We can rest there too. After, we’ll get you attuned.”

“You’d really help me?”

“Fuck yeah, I would. You’d help me, right?”

Alistair, who’s mouth had dropped at hearing the f word, nodded. Of all the words, that one was the most forbidden at the orphanage. Yet hearing it from the teenage Juno caused him to laugh.

Juno turned to the forest, took a step forward, and stopped. “You have a wand you can’t use, I have a wand I can use. Something tells me I could use both wands. Even if we don’t find a recharge obelisk, even if I use both my Ethereal Nets trying to capture a monster, we have your wand as a backup.” He looked Alistair up and down. “You didn’t bring a bag?”

“I thought everything was supposed to be provided.”

“The letter always says that,” Juno slipped his cloak aside to reveal a black leather satchel. “but everyone in the House knows you can bring a bag. You can store your wand here until you get a holster.”

“We get a wand… holster?”

“Hell yes, we do. Later, though.”

Alistair didn’t hesitate to hand Juno his wand.

“Now, the system,” Juno said as they moved on. “Once you’re attuned, you will have access to it. The system will allow you to see your status and the skills you’ve gained.”

“Through cards?”

“Through cards.” Juno flicked his wrist again. “But I’m not seeing anything. Maybe mine is broken too?”

“Your system?”

“Maybe. But it’s not as broken as yours. Ugh, leave it to the Academy to screw us from the start.”

“Are these things actual cards?”

“Yeah, but not in the way you think. Not playing cards. Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything. We should keep quiet for a bit. We don’t want to be ambushed.” Juno brought a finger to his lips. “Melissa said that monsters sometimes wait near the entrance trying to get us when we’re still figuring it out.”

“So these monsters, these summons, they know we’re trying to capture them?”

“I have no idea, but these ones in particular are here to challenge us. The Lumina Forest hasn’t had anything like this in ages, especially not so close to the academy. That’s what Humboldt did earlier, when he cast magic over the forest. He populated it with monsters. I think. Maybe? I actually don’t know shit, apparently.”

Alistair thought back to the professor’s arrival, how odd he looked wrapped in a blanket. He remembered Humboldt casting his hand over the forest, a wave of magic flowing through the trees. “That’s what you think that was?”

“Yep.” Juno turned back to the path. “Be on the lookout for any tracks or any signs.”

Alistair didn’t want to ask him signs of what, so he simply nodded.

Juno pushed ahead into the increasingly dense forest. “Stay close, and once things open up again, I’ll explain more. We don’t want to get taken out this early in the trials. Wait.” He came to a stop. “Do you hear that?”

Alistair froze once he heard a deranged sound ahead.

Meow-snort… Meow-snort…

“What’s that?”

Juno readied his wand. “I know exactly what that is. Come on.”

Juno ducked behind a tree. He grabbed Alistair’s arm and pulled him down as the boys heard more of the strange sounds. They came from a variety of sources, some of the meows high-pitched, others low and rumbly.

Meow-snort… Meow-snort… Meow-snort!

This was accompanied by what Alistair would classify as extreme hissing.

“Nekogoblins,” Juno whispered. “I read about them in my sister’s bestiary.”

Hiss! Hiss! Meow-snort!

Alistair gulped. “Nekogoblins?”

“Low-level summons. We could try to catch one, but then we’d have to fight the rest.” Juno glanced down at his wand. “We could always use an Arcane Snare. I don’t know.”

Hiss! Hiss! Meow-snort! Hiss!

“And if you catch one, you’re done? You’ve completed the trial?”

“Exactly,” Juno said. “And then I can catch a summon for you. We’d be able to rest, and you could get attuned before the next part of the trial.”

One of the nekogoblins started coughing. The coughing nekogoblin was joined by the others, some of which sounded like they were hacking up a lung.

Keh-Keh. Hack! Koff. KOFF! Hack!

The nekogoblins all stopped at once.

“Shit,” Juno whispered. “They know we’re here.”

“What do we do?” Alistair settled his sudden surprise and clenched his fists together. He’d made it too far to turn back now.

Juno tightened his grip around his wand. “We’ve got this.”

The two boys came around the tree just as the nekogoblins were shifting toward them.

The creatures would have been cute if they were entirely feline. Instead, they had goblinoid heads with withered whiskers, slicked back cat ears atop bald heads and spotty patches of fur running up and down their arms and legs. They stood nearly a meter tall, and it was clear by the length of their claws that they were prepared to do some heavy damage.

“Ready?” Juno asked as he pointed his wand at one of the nekogoblins.

Alistair lifted his fists. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

In just a few moments, Ghost, the assassin brutally murdered by the Unknown Souls a week earlier, would join Alistair’s for the first time, reborn into the body of a sixteen-year-old orphan on the verge of entering a battledeck academy.

Neither would be happy about the fact.

But somehow, it would work.