“Dying?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Hmmm… Strange.”

“Yes. … Test?”

“Yes.”

“100?”

“Yes.”

…

“Imbalance?”

“Plague.”

“Plague? No.”

“Imbalance.”

“…No. Plague.”

---------

The rest of the Ceremony passed in a blur, and before he knew it, Elliot was bundled into a wagon with three other kids and an adult.

Or rather, not an adult, but some student in one of their later years. He was currently sleeping.

Elliot expected a long, awkwardly silent wagon ride, since he had no intention of speaking up first, but one of the other boys spoke up almost immediately.

“That was crazy wasn’t it? We’re like the only people to hear that version of the speech! People will talk about this for years! We’ll be the ones in the history books!”

The other two boys started chatting back and forth about all the exciting things.

Elliot joined in once or twice, so he wasn’t acting like a standoffish jerk, but for the most part he kept to himself. Shortly thereafter he decided to try and sleep, and though he never actually managed to fall asleep, it did keep the others from talking to him too much.

It was a long trip, only because tradition dictated they take the ancient spiral path up to the Academy, instead of cutting up the Main Street. Eventually the others fell asleep, so Elliot was able to look out the window and look at the scenery. Already the Center was far bigger and grander than his comparatively tiny town. As they climbed higher and higher in the spiral, more and more of the city and surrounding landscape became visible. The city used to be perfectly circular, the roofs painted to the Mark of Balance, but ever since the Shattering, more and more people had moved in, so a bunch of suburbs and slums were scattered around the outskirts, creating an odd lumpiness to the symbol.

They rose and rose and finally arrived at the top. The older student had long since woken up, though he hadn’t tried talking to Elliot, so that was something.

The line of wagons clattered up the cobblestone path that led to the three main buildings. The smallest of the three, though still fairly large, only had one story, and came with a little loading area off one side of it.

The other two were large in different ways. One of the buildings was very blocky, but rose what appeared to be eight stories high, while the other only seemed to be three or four stories high, but was much longer and wider.

Behind the buildings rose a smattering of trees, which, though sparse, there were enough of them to obscure whatever may have been on the other side of them.

The green, or the lawn, or whatever it was called, was nicely trimmed, with many decorative bushes and hedges, pruned into the shapes of various people and animals. So far it all looked like it had sounded from the Elders’ descriptions. One thing that hadn’t been mentioned was the large, sturdy, bizarrely fancy bridge that stretched from the middle of the tall, blocky building, to the roof of the tallish, longer building.

But before Elliot could marvel at it for too long, the wagon clattered to a stop in front of the blocky building.

The older student shook the three who were sleeping awake. “We’re here.”

Elliot hopped out while they were waking up and rubbing their eyes, looking around. Other wagons were already stopped, their occupants clustering together and whispering, while the older students prowled along the edges, making sure people didn’t wander around too much. Wagons continued to roll up, but Elliot paid them little heed, as a flash of white darted behind a bush in his peripheral vision.

He glanced around, and upon finding no eyes immediately upon him, he scampered that direction.

The bush (a shrub clipped into the shape of proud sheep) appeared devoid of anything remotely white. It was, in fact, a pretty boring green plant, all things considered.

Before he had time to investigate, one of the older students jogged over. “Hey there kiddo. We’re going to be heading inside any minute now, so why don’t you come on back for now. There’ll be plenty of time to explore later.”

Elliot nodded, following him back to the gaggle of other new Children. The wagons had begun to leave and no more seemed to be coming, which apparently was a sign to begin heading inside.

One of the older students stood up on the steps and announced, “Alright, listen up everyone! We’re heading inside now. Follow us up to the Assembly Hall. When you get there, take a seat in the front two rows. Let’s go!” He turned and entered the building, the other older students ushering the gaggle up into the building.

Elliot lagged in the back as much as he could, but he was gently shoved along before he could get too far behind.

Right inside of the main doors, after a little opening room, a hall stretched both left and right for a good ways, but directly in front of them a pair of fancy double doors stood wide open, through which the thirty-some first-years streamed.

The large room they entered appeared to be a gymnasium, complete with climbing ropes and training dummies.

But they did not stay here for long, instead turning to go up some stairs to the third floor.

Upon entering, Elliot immediately wished he had managed to lag behind, but instead he slunk forward with the rest of the new kids. Most of them sat happily, albeit nervously, in the first row. Elliot, on the other hand, sat slouched in the second row, behind the biggest kid he could find.

Several minutes passed while older students filed in and sat in the other seats around the room. Loud chatter filled the room. One of the three kids from Elliot’s carriage turned around in his chair and began to engage in smalltalk.

Elliot tried his best to be interested, but he was too nervous and excited and terrified to really pay full attention. The other kid didn’t seem to realize this, and just rambled on regardless.

Fortunately, barely a minute passed before the Fifth Elder stepped up to the temporary podium in the middle of the room.

She still wore the ceremonial white robes from before, but she had since put her purple hair into a ponytail.

Elliot studied her as she waited for the students to quiet down. He hadn’t noticed before at the ceremony, but she looked far, far younger than the eighty or ninety years she had lived through. Her blue eyes were crystal clear, without even a hint of cataracts or blindness, or whatever else caused old people’s eyes to get all cloudy.

Halfway through his musings on what caused old people to get cloudy eyes, the fifth Elder began her speech.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Welcome, students, to the Academy of Balance. You’ve all already heard this school’s backstory, so I shan’t bore you with that. However, I do need to go over the rules, for those who are new, and for those who didn’t care to listen the first time around.”

Elliot leaned forward, wishing he’d brought a paper and pen to the assembly.

“First of all, there will be no leaving academy grounds. You all have been told how this Academy works, so that should come as no surprise. However, many of you have probably aren’t aware why. As Children of Yang, you are constantly in danger from the Corrupted. Once you begin training at the Academy you become even more vulnerable. Collecting aspects of Yang draws the Corrupted to you, and as untrained novices you would be highly susceptible to being kidnapped or killed. Yes, even you in your eighth year. Your gap year was not allowed lightly. While some of you might be able to handle a Corrupted, or even many, there are many individuals who would barely break a sweat in subduing you. Here, we have defences. Here the Corrupted cannot take you or destroy you.” She smiled. “That is the first rule.”

As she continued, Elliot leaned back, thinking. Why would collecting aspects of Yang draw in the Corrupted of Yin? One would think that such a high concentration of warm, bright, good aspects would drive away those attracted to cold, dark, and evil.

He shook his head. There would be plenty of time for thinking later.

“-be allowed in study rooms. Two Children in their first year attempted to collect and form aspects of Yang into a fire spell.” The fifth Elder closed her eyes for a moment before continuing. “The one boy suffered major burns across his torso and face, crippling him for many years. The other died. This was but the last of many mishaps. In one instance, a girl in her sixth year attempted to form aspects of Yang into a spell of happiness. The poor boy she cast it on laughed until he could not breath and continued laughing still, until he finally fell unconscious from lack of air. Do you all understand?”

There was a smattering of nods around the room.

Alright, so either be careful with unsupervised spells or, more likely, don’t do it at all. Got it.

This continued for quite a while, covering things like etiquette, dress code, curfew, and further restrictions on magic, though most of it was just sensible ‘Don’t be Dumb’ stuff. The Elder mentioned how a list of the rules were posted in every commonroom for accessible review, and Elliot determined to remember to look them over them every morning until he could remember them all without needing the list.

Hopefully I’ll actually remember to do that.

“Now that the rules have been spelled out for you all, may I introduce the House Captains,” as she said this, three older students who had been standing out of the way, stepped forward, lining up to her left. “For the Golden Dragon, please welcome Seth Heid.”

The first of the three stepped forward, and bowed politely to the applauding crowd, before stepping back in line.

“For the Crimson Hawk, please welcome former vice-captain Connor Mullen.”

The second stepped forward and bowed as well. The applause for him seemed ever-so-slightly louder, but not by too much.

“And finally, for the Emerald Dragon, also previously vice-captain, Aralynn Deighton.”

The young lady at the end of the line stepped forward with a jaunty wave, before bowing and returning to her spot.

The Elder continued, “The house Captains have limited authority, but authority nonetheless. If you disobey a reasonable order from one of them, even one of a different house, points shall be deducted. If you believe them, or their vice-captain to be abusing their power, please take your concerns to a teacher or to one of us Elders. If it is found to be true, appropriate punishment shall be meted upon them.” She smiled gently. “Hopefully that shall not be necessary.”

She let that sit for a moment before moving on. “Now then, to those beginning their first year, each of the Captains have been provided with a list of names, evenly dividing you among the three Houses.”

The Elder outlined the process, and then the first Captain, Seth, stepped forward and began listing off names.

Elliot’s name wasn’t called, nor was Felicia’s.

Once Seth was done, Conner, the Captain for the Crimson Hawks, stepped forward. Towards the end of that list, Elliot’s name was called.

Felicia ended up in the Emerald Dragons, as did all three of the boys who Elliot had rode up with. He hadn’t gotten to know them really at all, but he had still hoped that they’d have ended up in the same House.

The Elder smiled as Aralynn finished up her list. “Now that that has been taken care of, supper shall start at four-thirty in the Dining Hall. Those of you who are not in your first year may fill that time with whatever you so desire. Those who are, your House Captain shall be giving you an escort of the buildings and grounds. Once that tour is complete, you should have half an hour to make yourselves at home in your dormitory and freshen up. Here’s to a great new school year, and may Yang guide your steps. Thank you.”

The assembly applauded as the Elder stepped down off the podium and bowed, but it didn’t take too long for students to begin filing out.

Elliot shifted in his seat uncomfortably. The large room quickly had fewer and fewer people, which meant fewer targets for the remaining people to focus on.

Fortunately for Elliot, the remaining people were mainly focused on the three approaching Captains.

Seth stepped forward. “Alrighty then. Do you all remember which house you were assigned to?”

Most of them had, and those few that hadn’t were soon reminded by those who were sitting next to them.

“Excellent. Then those in the Golden Dragons, please follow me.”

Connor and Aralynn said much the same thing.

Both the Crimson Hawks and the Emerald Dragons were led out of the room, back down the stairs, and out of the building. At that point the Emerald Dragons headed off towards the long, wide building, whilst Elliot’s group headed off toward the one-story building.

As it turned out, that building was the Dining Hall, which contained the main dining room, an off-limits kitchen, and an off-limits loading-dock.

They walked around the grounds a bit, Connor showing off all the highlights, such as the swimming pond, the game field, and a few other nice little areas, though the majority of the grounds were left to be explored on one’s free time.

They passed by the Emerald Dragons again as they headed towards the wide, flatter building, which was soon revealed to be the main School part of the Academy. Connor led them around to the different classrooms, showed them where various teachers’ offices were, where the restrooms were, and various other things. There was also a large library, which Conner specifically commented on.

“Now, later on you may think this library is redundant, since each year of the Dorm building has its own library. But you’ll find that this library not only contains all eight years of books put together, but also has an extensive number of books not on the shelves in the dorms. Obviously those books don’t leave this room, but they aren’t the essential books anyway.” He smiled and winked back at the group. “Just the interesting ones.”

They soon moved on to the first building, the Dorm building apparently.

The entire group was devastated to learn that the first years resided on the very top floor, each consecutive year moving one floor down. There were a lot of grumpy faces at the thought of running up and down eight flights of stairs every day, and they didn’t cheer up any when Connor reassured them that it ‘wasn’t so bad’.

The lowest floor gym was technically open for anyone, but since the sixth through first year floors each had their own mini-gyms, it was mostly seventh and eighth year students doing serious training, throwing around highly dangerous spells. This meant that it was almost certainly a terrible idea for anyone below fourth year to try to train there.

They finally made it to the top floor. The floor, as promised, had both a small library, and a small gym, as well as two study rooms. The three remaining rooms were the actual dorms, each door painted with the signature creature, which made it plainly obvious which dorm belonged to which house.

“Obviously, don’t go into the other house dorms, but you are definitely welcome, and encouraged to hang out with the other houses. We’re all friends here. Dinner starts at four-thirty, so you can hang out for a little, get your stuff in order and all that. Girls on the right, boys on the left. If you have any questions you can ask me, or my lieutenant, Sandy. I’ll make sure you know who she is before tomorrow. You’ll be given your schedules tomorrow morning, and wake-up bell is at six. Any questions for now?”

Nobody had any, so Conner bid them farewell.

Elliot grabbed his bag from the pile of luggage in the middle of the commonroom, and hurried into the dorm proper while everyone else chit-chatted in the other room. He immediately picked the far corner bed, getting everything in order as soon as he could, before slipping out of both dorm and commonroom, into the hall.

He took a moment to consider what to do next, but before he could figure it out, a flash of white dashed around the corner in the hall up ahead.

Elliot frowned, glancing up and down said hall, but there was no one else around at the moment.

Hesitantly, he headed down that direction, passing by the Emerald Dragon’s room.

As he rounded the corner, he saw the flash of white disappear into the library, whose door was apparently wide open.

Elliot found this quite peculiar, since Conner had closed the door when they’d left, and no one else had come up yet.

He approached the door and peered into the room.

He saw nothing out of the ordinary and was almost tempted to just leave well-enough alone. But then again, even if the strange whatever-it-was wasn’t in the library, they hadn’t really gone in earlier, so why ever not?