Kayla passed her years at Madam Georgia’s in quiet determination. Rose was never friendly to her again, offering only snide remarks about her disrespectful attitude in class or when they passed in the corridors. While the other girls condemned Kayla as vulgar and uncultured, and the teachers admonished her for talking back, she studied hard, and began to earn grades as high as the rest of her peer group. With time, she saw them grudgingly accept that she wouldn’t be kicked out.
As she grew older, fantastic daydreams about hunting monsters in the night faded, and she realized she couldn’t know what the future held. All she knew was the single rule she had clung to as her guiding light; she must never quit. Her schoolwork demonstrated the power of that oath. She pushed to the top of her classes and was shocked to see representatives from universities across the League messaging her to offer scholarships. If Kayla had learned nothing else, she had gained the insight that no doors were closed to her if she didn’t want them to be.
She also saw that behind the jokes and the sniping, she scared her Helvet classmates. In their minds, success was supposed to come from family, connections, or reputation. Colonists were backsliders, running from their responsibility to civilization. Neither the girls nor the teachers could understand what drove her. They had no idea what the Academy was, but its exclusivity and mystery convinced them that it had to be a path to greatness in their world. Their culture was too narrow-minded to see any other possibility. Kayla’s dogged ambition could only have looked like the attempt of a colonist to climb the social ladder higher, so she could kick down at them. That thought usually made her smile.
While she often doubted her memories of the fateful day she lost her father, there was one conviction she never let go of. As Urtiga had promised, if she made it to the Academy, whoever was waiting for her there would offer her a choice. And then, finally, she would be able to figure out how to save her home from whatever was trying to destroy it.
On her eighteenth birthday, Kayla wiped dirty hands on her jeans as she settled into her usual nook at the top of the bell tower. After working out in the gym, which she did religiously, she liked to pass her time contemplating the unmatched view of the wilderness outside the city. Sometimes, Caldera’s magma-scarred moon rose as she watched the sunset, reminding her of all the death that hung on her conscience. She followed the news feeds from Zula, and though there were fewer attacks every year, each one left another small scar on her soul.
As the sun dipped closer to the horizon, Kayla’s phone buzzed, and she smiled when she saw that it was Jack. They had become very close following her father’s death. Nothing could replace her true father in her heart, but Kayla knew that he would have wanted Jack to take his place.
After her mother sold the farm and moved away with a new boyfriend, Jack offered to adopt her. Kayla had agreed without hesitation. She could never forgive her mother for moving on so quickly. They hadn’t talked in several years, and that didn’t bother Kayla one bit. Now she had a new parent; one who deserved every bit of her loyalty and respect.
“Happy Birthday!” Jack congratulated her.
“Oh… yeah. Thanks, Dad,” Kayla said. She had forgotten and wasn’t sure she cared.
“You’re visiting soon, aren’t you? I already got you a present.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“Sure I did,” he said. “You need a new pair of socks.”
Kayla laughed. “I have a vacation in two weeks. I can’t wait to see you.”
“After you meet the Academy graduate?” Jack asked.
Her stomach knotted as it had repeatedly over the last few days. “Yes, but everyone will be there. I probably won’t get to speak to her.”
“Maybe you will, don’t be so pessimistic. You know you’ll be accepted, don’t you?”
“Maybe.” All she wanted to do was get there, and hopefully see Urtiga again. After that, she could worry about passing the infamous entrance test.
“Definitely. Rolf Barnes raised a winner. I know that much.”
The memory of Jack’s firm shoulder squeeze floated through Kayla’s mind, and she smiled. “I guess. Thanks, Dad.”
Jack never questioned her dedication, and she often wondered if he knew more about the Academy than he let on. One day, she had asked him if he’d ever heard news about the old women who’d passed through the village before the attack that killed her father. She always claimed to Jack that they had given her the invitation to Madam Georgia’s. He only shrugged his shoulders and pleaded ignorance.
His voice brought Kayla back to the present. “Have you turned into a book yet?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Har har. Wasn’t it you who said: ‘work like someone else is working every day to take it all away from you?’ Well, that’s exactly what Rose is doing.”
“Oh yes. Your long-time arch nemesis, the terrible shadow you can’t let slip, the lady of darkness—”
“Yes, her. You have no idea what a bitch she is,” Kayla glowered.
“Watch your language, young lady.”
“Sorry.”
Jack chuckled. “You’ll forgive me for not taking school rivalries too seriously. Once you get out into the real world and get some experience, you’ll look back on your squabbles and laugh about it.”
“You don’t know her like I do. She’s so horrible. You should hear the stories she tells about me, and only half of them are true,” she said, with a hint of pride.
“Probably as bad as the stories I heard about your father from when he was a boy.”
“Mmm,” Kayla said. She loved Jack’s stories and often tried to get him to talk about his life on other colonies. But he shied away from those conversations, and that saddened her.
“Kesan was asking about you.”
Kayla sighed and closed her eyes. “No. You’re lying.”
There was a pause. “Well, I’m sure he would if you asked after him,” Jack said. “People still talk about you.”
“They’re saying that I’ve abandoned my community. Or that I traded in my roots for a life of privilege. I wish you wouldn’t play this game.” Kayla’s eyes started to well up at the memory of the cold stares she got whenever she went home. Someday, they would understand that she was trying to help the colony, but she had so far to go until then.
“They don’t hate you, Kayla,” he said.
“Well, maybe they should. I feel useless here. All I’m doing is reading books and losing my mind.”
“You stop that kind of talk right now. You know better than to get lost in self-pity.”
Kayla rubbed her temple. “They made me take a class on Helvetic governance. You should hear how they talk about colonists. They think they’re saving us from ourselves. They’re insane.”
“Don’t you mind them, and don’t you mind us either. You just focus on getting to where you’re going, and the rest will work itself out.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
She wanted to cry and tell him that she had no idea what the Academy had in store for her, and demand to know if he knew anything. But even if he did, he wouldn’t tell her. He had the same stubbornness as her father.
After the call ended, Kayla took a last look at the horizon, then descended from her perch into the school’s interior. Passing the common area, she saw Rose and Gaella, seated with a gaggle of admirers at a distant table. They glanced back at her as they usually did, whispering and giggling.
Rose looked up and called out to her. “Kayla—hi, do you have a dress for tonight?” She smirked.
Kayla stopped and gritted her teeth. She hadn’t put on a dress in years, so Rose was obviously baiting her. “Yes, it’s quite nice actually,” she replied, ignoring Gaella’s look of scorn.
“I’m so glad to hear it,” Rose continued, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “because we don’t want to make the wrong impression on the Academy graduate, and you know you can be so presentable when you make an effort.” She grinned as the other girls burst into giggles.
A jolt of pain shot through Kayla’s heart. Staying calm, she raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I agree impressions are important. So, I’ll be sure not to mention the results of your physics test from last week.”
Rose stiffened. “The question on fluid dynamics was not covered in the reading material; I sent a stern letter to Madame Arnoise about it. That kind of trickery is not acceptable.”
“If you had paid attention to the hints she dropped in class, you would have prepared on your own. Like I did.”
Rose got to her feet. “Yes, I’m sure farm schools prepare you for all kinds of dishonesty.”
The other girls laughed, but Kayla had clearly gotten under her rival’s skin. “They prepare you to understand there isn’t always a reading list you can rely on,” she said.
“What would we do without your folk wisdom?” Rose said. “And of course, I suppose we had to suffer another lecture from the principal because it was you who stole permission slips from her office?”
“That’s an unfair and completely unfounded accusation,” Kayla replied with a hurt expression. “But she should probably remember to lock her office window when she leaves.”
“You climbed in through a fourth-floor window? Are you a monkey?”
Gaella scratched her head. “Eek eek!” she said to an outburst of laughter.
Kayla pictured the girl with a bloody nose for a second but pushed the thought away and reminded herself to breathe slowly.
“Interesting question,” she replied to Rose, “are your grades worse than those of a monkey? But listen, if you have a problem, why don’t you just rat me out?”
The room went silent. Kayla knew Rose wouldn’t tell on her, or allow anyone else to either. She had to beat Kayla’s grades fairly and show off her innate superiority. It obviously burned her pride to think that a lowly colonist could be working as hard and achieving as much as the elite daughter of a billionaire.
“Perhaps I will, Kayla,” Rose said. “Your disrespect for rules and propriety is a great detriment to this school’s reputation. I will never understand how you were accepted here in the first place. Just some random—”
“Peasant?” Kayla said with a smirk of her own.
“—nobody. Who certainly didn’t earn their place here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a dance recital to attend. Many of Rackeye’s finest will be there, and I can’t let them down.”
Kayla waved her hand loftily. “By all means, your highness, I wouldn’t want to deprive the world of your delicate footwork.”
Rose stalked off in anger, her entourage cooing around her. Kayla heard Gaella frantically whispering that they would never let a farm girl into the Academy.
Dinner that night was held in the main hall—the most glamorous part of the school. An enormous crystal chandelier hung over ornately carved tables and chairs. Bright silver cutlery glittered alongside glasses as intricately stylized as snowflakes. At the back of the room, a long table sat on a raised stone platform—the reserved area from which the teachers would survey their obedient charges.
For Kayla the opulence was gaudy. The colony needed infrastructure, but instead the school’s benefactors had demanded what was obviously a giant peacock’s tail.
She wore her new dress—black—a color she knew would never be out of style. Most of the day had been spent trying not to get her hopes up and the other half trying not to freak out. Even so, her imagination ran wild. After ten years, she was finally going to see someone from the same world as the mysterious Urtiga. She often wondered how much of her memory of that night was real, or whether she was just being stupid, inventing a fantasy to help her cope with the tragedy of losing her father.
Kayla didn’t know what kind of a person would run through dark and dangerous territory to kill a monster that had flipped a heavy truck with ease. Someone like her? She worked hard, and would do whatever it took to protect her fellow colonists, but what if that wasn’t enough? What if she was just an idiot who liked to daydream? What if she couldn’t help to stop the attacks after all, and all she had done was waste her time in this school? The prospect of finding out terrified her.
She was seated at the back of the hall, as she expected; only the more well-connected ladies would be allowed near the graduate. Craning her neck, she saw the teachers’ table fully seated, but with a new woman she didn’t recognize. Kayla’s stomach lurched. She had to be the graduate, though she looked like any other woman, albeit much more serene than the excited, chattering professors that surrounded her.
Kayla’s own neighbors largely ignored her. She didn’t mind—she could only listen to their talk of renowned artists and rich heirs for so long before boredom reduced her mind to jelly. Their name dropping about who they were last invited to dinner with was an obvious show of superiority. They might not have Rose’s station in life, or Kayla’s grades, but they had to find some way to place themselves several rungs up the ladder. As far as Kayla could tell, that was the whole point of Helvetic society.
At the teacher’s table, Madame Lefevre tapped on a glass, and, once silence descended, introduced their guest as Masey Laukkanen. Masey rose from the table and walked to a nearby podium, where she began her speech. She talked about the importance of hard work, making sacrifices, and working towards higher moral principles—the same old speech every dignitary in Rackeye made. Kayla was disappointed by how generic the words sounded.
The speech ended with applause and the dinner resumed, while Kayla scrutinized the speaker. Well-defined, though not big, muscles stood out on her arms, and her dress, also black, was what one of Kayla’s classmates called ‘uninspired’. She was apparently bored by the school mistresses around her, who laughed loudly and excessively throughout the night. Amidst a sea of expressively flailing limbs, Masey was still. When she got up to walk around, she moved quickly and purposefully, and never hesitated. She reminded Kayla more of her fellow farmers than anyone she had met in Rackeye. Helvets had to invent things to be excited about. Colonists had a reason for everything they did.
“Kayla?” A girl named Sasha interrupted her reverie. “Will you go home to visit your family during vacation?”
Kayla dragged her gaze back to the table. “My adoptive father, yes,” she said. “He raises horses, so I’ll get to ride a bit, and maybe shoot his guns.”
“Oh, that’s… but your biological parents?”
“My parents died when I was young.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Still, it must be nice to take a break at home,” Sasha said politely.
“Definitely,” Kayla said, returning the fake smile.
Sasha turned back to the other girls. Kayla mentally ticked off another girl at the table who’d completed her charity work for the evening.
The night wore on and Kayla did her best to be polite and make small talk when it was expected of her. She struggled because the effort of talking to people who obviously didn’t care about anything she had to say was exhausting. By the time some of the other girls started to leave she’d had enough, and got up herself.
As she walked over to the cloakroom, a woman’s voice called out to her. “Kayla Barnes?”
Kayla turned and saw, with shock, Masey looking at her expectantly. Kayla’s heart began to race. Why was this famous graduate bothering to talk to her?
“Yeah- um yes. That’s me,” she stammered.
“You stick out like a sore thumb in this place,” Masey said. “Nice dress—black is always appropriate.”
Kayla blushed—partly from the compliment, partly because years of habituation shocked her to hear such a blunt tone from another woman. “How do you know who I am?” she asked nervously.
“Urtiga told me your story, and you’re the only one here who looks like they want to punch someone in the face.”
“Oh…”
In a heartbeat, the memory of Urtiga returned as though it had happened yesterday, and for the first time in a very long time, Kayla was intimidated. Masey stood with a confident posture, her feet evenly spaced, her shoulders back, and chin high. She spoke without pauses or hesitation, and her tone implied that nobody would want to interrupt her. Her lips curled in the hint of a smirk but not, Kayla decided, aimed just at her. She wanted to glance away from the unwavering eye contact, but didn’t dare.
“I don’t blame you,” Masey continued. “All this school stuff is a drag, and honestly, I hated it too.”
“Um…” Kayla was too nervous to ask the flood of questions that had built up over the years.
“This school might seem pretty dull to you right now, but, provided you don’t quit, one day in the future you could end up in a situation that’s going to demand everything from you and more. When that happens, you’ll be grateful you put a hundred and ten percent into every stupid skillset your teachers put in front of you.”
“Uh…” was all Kayla could manage. She wanted to kick herself. A graduate of the Academy had decided to talk to her, and she was reacting like a mouth-breathing fool.
Masey shrugged her shoulders. “Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon. Urtiga always picks good ones—don’t know how she does it. I’ve got to get back to the old biddies, but tell me—you’re working hard? Getting after it?”
“Um… yes. I’m the top student in my year.” Kayla’s mind raced. She was one of the ‘good ones’? What did that mean? What if Urtiga was wrong?
“Awesome, smash this challenge. Urtiga says hi. DQ—I’ll see you out there.”
Then she was gone, leaving Kayla dazed, but enraptured.