Veria and Syllis made casual conversation as the former led them through the complex building that was Lurgica. It had dozens of twisting corridors though still paled in comparison to the Boorne estate in complexity.

‘It is much more visually appealing though…’Syllis could not help but admire the architecture and decoration.

The walls were a pearl white and arched towards a domed ceiling. Intricate murals depicting valiant fights were etched into the wall in a variety of forms. The floors were equally as beautiful, despite their darker colors. Various shades of woods interlocked in various shapes to form the exquisite linoleum floors.

Syllis could not help but think that these floors were the kind she wanted in her own house someday.

“So, what’s your bond?” Veria asked casually, turning to face the nymph.

Syllis’ jaw fell harshly and she stood in place for a few moments. This was an absurd question to ask someone you had just met. Even someone as eager as Syllis herself held back against asking Clyde what Korman and Aura’s bonds were.

She regained her composure before answering. “I can conjure and manipulate ice.” Her answer was concise.

Syllis was not against letting the woman know. After all, everyone in this school would likely understand the depths of her bond soon enough. Besides, it was not a particularly unordinary question when she remembered it was an administrator asking. The woman responsible for managing the famed school of Lurgica needed to know what everybody's bonds were to ensure safety.

“Very straightforward. I can appreciate that quality in a student.” Veria began walking forward once again.

She moved her hand to shift her glasses, colliding with air. Apparently she had forgotten that she took them off earlier.

“So, where are we headed?” Syllis questioned, surely there was paperwork to sign. Naturally, this paperwork would be near the administration office, so why had they been walking for nearly five entire minutes?

“Here.” Veria gestured for the nymph to step through a large archway.

Both of them stepped out under the light of Asanoch’s false sun. They walked towards the center of the large, paved outside. Located there was an elevated circular platform that had four staircases led up to it from separate paths. What lacked the ability to be natural gardens were situated in the sections between other entrances to the large courtyard.

“So what is here?” Syllis inquired, still confused as to what her purpose was. It certainly was not as simple as showing her around.

“Your entrance exam.” Veria spoke, remembering not to try and adjust her glasses this time. “Normally, there would be no reason for something like this.

“We observe our students throughout their entire attendance while this is their secondary schooling. This voids the need to test them when they inevitably choose to attend Lurgica as their primary.”

Veria spoke un-enthusiastically. She seemed to dislike the time taken from her paperwork, perhaps it was piling up on her desk.

‘Those were rather large stacks…’ Syllis mused before shaking her head slightly, again listening to the—younger than she had anticipated—woman in front of her.

Veria had stopped noticing that she lacked Syllis’ attention. Then, she spoke again.

“However, with you, someone without ever attending Lurgica or any other magnet school. We have to take precautions: testing your bond, making sure you are not a hazard, other things I forget.”

The administrator let out a small, self-deprecating chuckle, as though criticizing herself for not remembering a crucial part of her job.

“So, get up onto that platform. Then do some cool stuff.” Veria spoke apathetically.

‘What a bizarre woman.’ Syllis could not quite pin down this woman, in any regard.

Syllis did not even know whether she was human. Veria looked incredibly different to anyone she had ever seen before. She thought of asking but decided against it, that was especially rude after all.

Beautiful people were easily recognized for their race, they were judged based on how perfect they harbored their race’s features. For a nymph it would be their large height, small chest, deep gills, as well as their high cheekbones.

‘If I were to ask, then I would essentially be calling her ugly!’ Syllis knew she could not do that, despite it not being her intention. It was just that she did not know many race’s features.

Syllis had heard of Sulphen and Fieran, she just lacked any knowledge of their features. Asanoch was nearly entirely occupied by humans and nymphs.

Disregarding her current train of thought, she approached the raised platform. Syllis walked the ivory pathway and stepped up the half-dozen limestone steps.

It was only after being more than several feet raised from the ground that she truly appreciated the courtyard gardens. The various flowers intertwined forming a colorful environment. They even seemed to slightly take over the raised chairs in front of them.

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Syllis invoked her bond, muttering Coryzan’s incantation under her breath. It had been etched into her mind after her ritual. No matter how many times she tried to forget it in the years afterwards, it never worked.

She asked Veria if there was anything in particular she was supposed to do. Her administrative observer only shook her head in response.

A lengthy javelin formed just above the palm of Syllis’ hand. The specks of azure light that melded together were beautiful. Though, the end result was somewhat crude.

The secare nymph presented the spear to Veria who changed her expression. Her observer seemed to be impressed.

‘You had better lose your mind in a minute…’

Syllis took a step backwards. She pulled one foot back several feet and brought her body close to the floor. Then, she brought her javelin-bearing arm close to her side.

A crude block of ice rose. Syllis pushed off it with her right foot and quickly spun. Her momentum was carried into a step forward and swing of her arm.

As her body abruptly stopped and her hand opened up, the javelin inherited her velocity. The azure stake was darted into the sky, beaming towards the false sun.

The javelin did not accomplish much, but what it did not was much more impressive. The thrown javelin had melted in an instant.

Veria’s eyes widened, her pupils dilating at the sight. Suddenly, she wished to have brought a telescope.

“Let’s go sign some paperwork.” Veria’s voice now carried the enthusiasm it locked, and maybe even a bit of fear.

It was quite a shocking event, the javelin disintegrating. If it merely remained intact and fell, then it would not have been nearly as impressive. The fact that the javelin melted meant that it had reached the false sun.

So what if it had not pierced through it?

That sun was maintained by dozens kindred with applicable bonds that they had curated over a hundred years. The fact that Syllis had managed to throw her javelin the hundreds of meters needed to reach the melting point of the false sun was mind boggling.

As the deceptively alluring secare nymph approached her, Veria even shuddered slightly. She imitated Syllis, shaking her head before leading the way back towards her office.

Internally, Syllis was slightly displeased. Being asked to demonstrate her bond reminded her of its flaws. There were natural progressions to her bond that the nymph had never been able to achieve.

One of which had been the conjuring of a suitable weapon, although she achieved it recently, crossing it off of the list.

Another was to pull the manifested weapon back to her hand if it ever left. This proved difficult, it was hard for her to move and pull a solitary object towards her.

The crags she raised from the ground were easier, they moved in one direction and could be shifted to another through deflecting them off of mini crags. Even her ice shards which she cast towards both Clyde and her in their spar were simple, she simply realized the direction they would be thrown in beforehand and only finished her conjuration of them once she needed them to be launched.

The weapon was a unique problem though. Syllis’ dominion over ice could pull it towards her, but it required a great deal of focus and could only be pulled in a straight line towards her.

Even more horrific was the fact she had no way to predict how it would angle on its path towards her. If Syllis was not careful, she could accidentally skewer herself.

Syllis had also wanted to be able to grow ice directly from her palm. It would be incredibly efficient to be able to place one's palm on a person and instantaneously cause her ice to puncture and splinter within them.

While she could foresee solutions to her need to pull her weapon back, the latter need could not be figured out. There was no solution, her ice needed to be isolated from any solid matter to initially form.

This was why her crags began slightly above-ground before being connected to the ground below with another conjuration. Even this was an inefficient flaw that she hoped to remedy someday.

‘Flaw after flaw. Every time I make a breakthrough it's accompanied by an equally large disappointment.’

Syllis let out a large sigh causing Veria to jump.

Carefully, the administrator—who had essentially demoted herself to a tour guide—looked behind her, checking to see if the nymph was displeased.

They made it back to the administration office.

Veria once again took comfort behind the safety of her desk. She placed her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose and flipped through several drawers in her desk.

Two pieces of paper were placed in front of Syllis.

‘Why do I feel like I’m signing my life away nowadays…’ An indifferent sigh left her mouth. Suddenly signing several contracts left the nymph feeling uneasy.

‘But what am I supposed to do? I can’t just miss out on this…’ Syllis had used the same thought that caused her to sign Clark’s contract.

Syllis read through both pieces of paper.

The first was straightforward. It had the date of enrollment, student name, term length, and then the line to sign her name.

She scribbled her name in the same poorly written way she had yesterday and picked up the other paper.

This paper was much weirder. It almost seemed to be a joke. Hidden beneath several paragraphs of legal filler was the underlying message. It was essentially saying. “I promise not to try and kill my fellow students and to restrain my bond.”

“This is a really weird piece of paper.” Syllis held it up for Veria, as if she had not read it previously.

“Ah…” Veria shifted her glasses and turned her head slightly.

“That is for students that have some… Potentially disastrous bonds.” Veria looked at Syllis’ expression and began to start stuttering.

“B-but as you can s-see. It really won’t affect you unless you go rampant trying to destroy everything.”

Syllis did not speak, only shooting a peculiar glare before signing the piece of paper. After handing both papers over to Veria, Syllis felt conflicted.

Syllis watched as Veria filled in the rest of the information. It was uncomfortable seeing her full name for the first time in many years. ‘How long has it been? Six—no seven maybe?’

Once all of the information was filled out, Veria congratulated Syllis on her admission.

‘A little bit of a self-centered thing for the administrator to say. Do you think that I’m so lucky to be joining your school!’

They both rose and Syllis shook the ghostly pale woman’s hand.

“If you want to get shown around today, please head down to the first floor and step into room 104. Tell Mr. Harfell I told him to show you around. Otherwise, feel free to come back tomorrow and I will arrange for someone to show you around.”

Veria said goodbye before returning to her paperwork with a stressful expression.

‘Now how do I get down to the first floor?’ Syllis was beginning to seriously question her navigational capabilities.