Edmund finally managed to lead them to where he wanted to go in the first place, past the dorms. There was an even bigger building hiding behind them with a massive sign on it that read: 'Testing grounds'.

  Edmund turned to them, walking backwards towards the 'testing grounds' building as he talked. "So, we're basically going to test how well you do in whatever you want to do. Just go in and follow the instructions. Also, you're lucky you came in when admissions were going on. You don't need to join in the middle of the year and miss like half the content."

  Liv nodded. "One at a time?"

  Edmund shook his head. "Why do you think the building is so damn large?"

  Liv shrugged. "There are a lot of things you can do?"

  "We have spatial pockets we store the trials for the 'other things' in when they're not in use."

  Liv nodded before dragging Luna directly into the building. "Hey!"

  Liv let Luna go. They'd entered a room with spiraling stairs going up as far as the eye could see. There were doors and numerous landings, one for each door, around the staircase, each presumably a different trial site. She could see a couple people come out of doors and start walking down the stairs. No one new was waiting to take any trials, for some reason, so Liv and Luna had the pick of the empty rooms.

  They simply chose the ones closest to the ground, having no desire to walk up the entire staircase. Luna got room twelve, and Liv got room twenty-five.

  Liv entered her room, opening and closing the door behind her. It had a lock on it that she engaged before turning to examine the rest of the room. The entire thing was a collection of white walls, almost looking as if she was in some kind of white void. At the center, there was a single glowing blue orb, floating in midair. Liv walked over, tapping it.

  Words appeared on the wall opposite the door. 'Speak what you wish to be trialed in, Spiritspeaker.'

  "Combat."

  The words changed. 'Preferred weapon? Virtual ones will be provided.'

  "Sword."

  They changed once again. 'Types of spirits you can use? These will be virtually trapped and put in your weapon.'

  "I don't trap spirits-I speak to all of them."

  The wall went blank for a moment before more words came up. 'Confirm. You speak to spirits out in the wild and do not capture them?'

  "Yes."

  This was a calculated risk. If the Gemstone Council was leading this school, they would be accepting of all types of people. After all, they had been the ones to train Eternity, the person who had done as much Good as possible, no matter what he was doing.

  The walls suddenly turned black, before a meadow formed around Liv. She felt Dream spirits curl around her as this happened, teleporting her consciousness to whatever spatial pocket held the trial while her body stayed in the room.

  The meadow stayed as Liv felt herself appear. Words appeared in midair. 'First trial of combat. Survive.'

  They disappeared and the meadow started to rumble. Liv blinked after a moment, ignoring the rumbling. The meadow simply disappeared into nothingness at the end, though her brain was trying to convince her that there was a thick tree line instead. Shrugging, she waited for the rumbles to do something other than attempt to intimidate her.

  Soon, she got her wish. Monstrous amalgamations writhed out of the ground, destroying grass and flowers as they surfaced. As they moved towards her, they shifted into a form, holding that form after they were fully turned.

  Liv unsheathed her sword-which she had just realized she had-and cut through the nearest monster, an ant. No Whispering was necessary for this first wave of monsters, nor was it needed for the next three. When she reached the fifth wave, words appeared in the air, once again. By now, the meadow was littered with blood and death, corpses of the countless monsters who'd come after her. Liv glanced at the words. 'Boss wave'.

  A giant amalgamation popped out of the ground. It immediately shifted into a troll, holding a stone club twice the size of her entire body. It smashed the club down, but Liv simply stepped to the side, stabbing her sword into the troll's knee.

  Nothing happened. The troll was too big for a tiny wound like that to affect it. Liv finally Whispered, a quick wind blade simply carving the head of her opponent off its shoulders.

  Just like that, the boss wave was over, and more waves kept coming, with occasional bosses coming after her as well. It never grew harder than the first boss she had faced, and Liv simply kept fighting until the trial seemed to give up, the meadow disappearing.

  Liv reappeared in the white room, the blue orb in front of her now a deep purple, almost deep enough to be a black. A new blue orb was next to it, now, and Liv tapped it, getting sent to a new trial.

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  She reappeared in the meadow, though there was a person standing in front of her this time. The person, who she could not identify features of, or even their gender, made a cutting motion, sending a wind blade at Liv's neck. She blocked it with a Thoughtshield, using one of her own to chop off the person's head. Another appeared, with a slightly stronger blade, but she blocked them all with the simple Thoughtshield, striking back with one wind blade per person.

  The trial gave up once more, transporting her to the room she'd started in. The second orb was dark purple as well, but there was no third one. Words were written across the walls. 'Error. Please leave room. A master will assist you.'

  Liv opened the door, almost walking into a haughty-looking man wearing a piece of a yellowish-clear gem that she didn't recognize. "What's that?," she asked, pointing at it.

  "This is poudretteite," the man said.

  Liv shrugged. "Never heard of it. So, you're supposed to help me?"

  The man immediately glared at her before turning away, his nose so far in the air it seemed he was looking straight up. "I'm supposed to fail you and not let you into the school for not knowing any of our entry curriculum."

  Liv felt a twinge of pity for the man. If they fought, Liv expected to win, though perhaps with a few wounds. "So can we just fight for a little while to finish out the tests?"

  The man turned to her with a malicious smile. "Why, little girl, yes. That's exactly the test I have planned. Funny that you think you can best a master. It's not something a student can do."

  Liv gave him a small smile as they stepped outside. "I'll even give you a free strike, right now. If you can hit me before I dodge, I'll let you into the school." He turned to her with a smug grin.

  Liv immediately launched a Thoughtcleave, giving him a deep cut down his left arm. "Does this work?"

  The master stared incomprehendingly at his arm for a moment before turning back to her, his mouth set. "So, you have a gimmick of some kind. I'll root it out eventually. Then I'll ruin your life and kick you out of the school. What do you say?"

  The man raised a hand to her, obviously not expecting Liv to reach forth and clasp it, yanking his hand up and down in a caricature of a handshake. After regaining control of his arm, he glared at her before walking away. Edmund chose that moment to pop out of a bush near Liv. "No one likes that dude. He's one of those posh kids, but not even Diamond can throw him out, just because of his dad. So we gave him Periwinkle or something. I forget what his gem is." Edmund thought hard for a moment. "Periodontically? I give up."

  He grabbed Liv by the shoulder, pulling her aside. "Luna should be out soon. You got full marks on all your trials, by the way."

  They sat down next to the road to wait for Luna, all the students gazing with curiosity at Liv. She expected this was happening because of her proximity to Edmund, or Topaz, as they more likely knew him as. Eventually, Luna arrived. Edmund gave her a once over before speaking. "You got a seventy-three. Better than most students."

  Luna shrugged, turning to Liv. "I did something."

  Liv raised her eyebrows. "Was it a stupid something?"

  Luna rolled her eyes. "Why is that the first conclusion you jump to? Actually, don't answer that. Anyways, I managed to call a wind blade strong enough to kill this giant ant thing."

  Liv nodded. "How much Voice did you use?"

  Luna winced. "Ummmm... All of it?"

  Liv smacked her face, letting her hand run slowly down. "We have to work on your wastage, got it?"

  Luna sheepishly nodded. Liv got up, grabbing Luna's hand again, and Edmund led them to the dorms.

  They soon reached the building. Edmund stepped through the bottom floor, which seemed to be an eatery, only stopping to wave to a barkeep standing behind a counter, who returned the favor. They quickly reached the stairs, the room being empty, and walked up it. When they reached the eighth floor, Edmund stopped. Liv started walking down the hallway, but Edmund called to her. "Wait! Your room's not here. This is just Luna's floor."

  Liv scrunched up her face. "What if she moves in with me?"

  Edmund looked thoughtful for a second before agreeing. Waving to them to follow, he started up the stairs once again, eliciting a groan from Luna. After a little while more of walking, they reached the top floor, as evidenced by the lack of further stairs. "These are the best rooms. After the disaster a long time ago, we stopped using soul keys, but-" Edmund dug in his pocket for a moment. "We have key spirits now."

  He pulled out a pair of coins. "I have a second key Luna can use as well. So, just offer the coins to the key spirits for your room. They'll let you in and memorize the signature of your power, so no one else gets in."

  Liv shrugged, grabbing a coin and handing the other one to Luna. Edmund directed them to a door close to the center of the hallway coming off the landing, stepping aside with a flourish pointing to a door. It had no room number, just a plain doorknob, though there was a small locking mechanism powered by Key spirits. Liv offered her coin to them and they immediately accepted, opening the door. She closed it, ushering Luna towards the door.

  Luna held the coin out to the handle area, where the key spirits were, and it dissolved, just as hers had. The door clicked open, letting them walk inside to examine it.

  The suite, to say the least, was palatial. Anything and everything they would need was right there for them. There were menus to order food, books and other means of entertainment, and even a built-in aquarium. "Like the room?," Edmund asked from behind them.

  Liv turned to glare at him. "With a room like this, who wouldn't like it?"

  Edmund shrugged. "The people who usually get these rooms are nobles, and they don't often like them. These rooms are amazing though, frankly."

  Liv nodded. "I can't understand how someone would dislike this."

  "Me neither. I'll leave you to settle in-class schedules and locations will be sent to you."

  Liv raised her eyebrows. "I don't get to choose them?'

  Edmund shook his head. "How you got through your trial gives us all the info we need. Then we choose the best classes we can for you."

  "The trial was a bit easy for me, though."

  Edmund raised his eyebrows. "Periwinkle has trouble with those things, and he's a master!" He leaned in conspiringly. "Though he is Periwinkle, and basically anyone who's learned how to do things can wreck him if they wanted to."

  Liv laughed at the comment before shooing Edmund out of their new rooms, citing the need to settle in. He graciously walked away, leaving them to their own devices. Then Liv turned to Luna, seeing the real reason she had sent Edmund away.

  "You know... you're basically my adoptive mother, now," Luna said, a few tears starting to flow. "You're acting like it, and that's what you are in all but name. I feel like if I was in danger, you wouldn't hesitate to put your life on the line to make sure I don't die."

  Liv nodded. "That's true. Really, I'm quite fond of you, Luna. If you want, we could call ourselves mother and daughter."

  Luna started crying, rushing forward and hugging Liv, who patted her on the back. Things were starting to turn around in the little girl's life.