He realised something was poking him in the side. When it didn't stop, he tried to push it away with his hand as he rolled over. Unfortunately, it managed to avoid his hand, resuming its poking in the small of his back.

'Wake up; you're going to miss breakfast,' a voice said gently. But he didn't want to get up just yet. A moment later, there was a sharp jab in his side.

'Ouch,' he muttered sleepily, shuffling away. 'What was that for?'

'You need to get up or you're going to be late on your first day,' Cassandra said quietly. The first day, what was she on about? For a moment, he was completely dumbfounded, and then it all came rushing back to him. They were at the tower. He was supposed to be starting his classes today. In an instant, he sat bolt upright as if he had been shocked.

'What time is it?' he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes quickly.

'Just gone seven,' she replied as she got up. He noticed she was already dressed as she began rummaging through the wardrobe in the corner.

'Why didn't you wake me sooner?' he said, jumping out of bed, a small pile of papers sliding off the duvet and on to the floor. He must have fallen asleep while he was reading the contents of the envelope Christine had given him the night before. In fact, he knew he had. He had only managed to stay awake long enough to find out that breakfast started at seven.

'I tried,' she said with a light laugh. 'You're supposed to wear one of these when you are around the tower at all times as well,' she added, producing a white cloak from his wardrobe as he pulled on a loose-fitting black t-shirt.

'You went through this stuff?' he asked as he snatched up the pile of papers from the floor.

'No, it was on the page you were reading last night,' she snapped, throwing the cloak at him. 'I'm going to go and get breakfast; you had better not be late.' Crossing the room in a handful of strides, she stormed out the door, slamming it shut behind her with a bang.

Bemused, Lewis found himself shaking his head. For a moment, he paused, trying to work out what had happened before he remembered what she had said: he shouldn't be late. Pulling on the white cloak that Cassandra had thrown at him, he grabbed the pile of papers. He could read them while he was eating. Hopefully, he will actually be able to take some of it in this time. Folding them up and stuffing them back into their envelope, he turned to the door. Before he had even taken a step, the door crashed open.

Standing in the doorway was Veronica. 'You're late.'

'I thought breakfast only just started,' he said.

'If you want breakfast, you should be on time,' she said. 'You're late for your lessons; we have a lot of work to do. Follow me.'

For the second time in a matter of minutes, Lewis found himself staring, bewildered, at the person in front of him. This time he had no choice but to follow through as Veronica tutted impatiently. With the papers still tucked under his arm, he followed her out of the room and into the corridor, shutting the door behind him.

'What are we doing in this lesson?' he asked, breaking the silence as she led him towards the stairs.

'I will be teaching you some of the basics as well as some of the theory,' Veronica said coldly. 'We must establish your element before we can proceed.'

When they reached the stairs, she ushered him up ahead of her. After his meeting with Christine the night before, he had managed to establish that her office was on the twenty-seventh floor, his room was on the eleventh floor, and food was on the ground floor. Apart from that, the rest of the tower was a complete mystery to him.

'This is the room,' Veronica said, interrupting his thoughts when they reached the next floor. Taking a left at the top of the staircase, she led him a little way down the corridor until they found a heavy wooden door blocking their path. As she pushed past him, she produced a heavy ring of keys from inside her cloak, picking one seemingly at random before unlocking the door with it.

He hadn't really known what to expect, but it certainly wasn't what he found in front of him. Veronica opened the door, allowing him to pass her into a warmly lit room. To one side there was a roaring log fire, and the wall opposite was covered with bookshelves, each overloaded. In the centre of the room was a small, square table that was barely a foot high, with a pair of what looked like iron handcuffs sitting in the middle. Around the table were a series of dark red cushions, one for each side.

Behind him, the door slammed shut. 'Have a seat, and we will begin,' Veronica said, encouraging him forward. Doing as he was told, Lewis moved over to one of the cushions and took a seat on it. It might have only been a cushion on a stone floor, but it was far more comfortable than he had been expecting. 'Place your hands on the table, please.'

As he put his hands out, she reached down, snatching up the handcuffs. With a snap, she placed them around his wrists, the heavy cuffs joined by an unnecessarily thick chain. 'What are you doing?' he asked, surprised. He had thought his days of being a prisoner were over now that he was in the tower.

'This is just for my protection,' she said calmly, taking a seat opposite him. 'Do exactly as I say, when I say, and we won't have a problem.'

Silently, he nodded. Something told him that now was not the time to be asking questions. Instead, he sat and watched as Veronica produced a wad of papers, not too far from the size of the pile that was now sitting on the floor beside him. Muttering under her breath, she began to fill them out with a neatly-shaped feather quill.

'Do you know what we do at the tower, Lewis?' she asked, suddenly becoming very formal.

'You used to train precursors,' he replied. Ellen and Olivia had told him that on several occasions when they had been heading north.

'We still do,' she said, making a note on the page in front of her.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

'I thought they all died when Arcadia fell,' Lewis said.

'Do not interrupt,' Veronica said warningly without looking up. Around his wrists, the cuffs seemed to grow warm for a moment. Looking down in surprise, the handcuffs seemed to be unchanged. Before he could tell her it was only a question, there was a sharp tap on the door. A moment later, it opened, and a severe-looking man in his fifties with thick black glasses stuck his head around the door.

'Veronica, a moment outside,' he said flatly.

At his command, she got to her feet. With a glance down at Lewis, she picked up a heavy, leather-bound book, dumping it on the table in front of him. 'Read this until I return. Don't even think about leaving,' she snapped before marching out of the room after the man.

So much for his lesson, Lewis thought as he adjusted the handcuffs slightly so that he could pick up the book, flipping it open to the front page. In large, intricate letters were the words, 'Welcome to The Tower'. It looked like it was a history book as he flipped over another couple of the pages. Judging by the thickness of the book, that was one thing there was a lot of.

For centuries, this group of dedicated, hand-picked people has taken up the mantle of responsibility in the training of precursors, sharing their knowledge in the hope of achieving the greater good. At the tower, students are given one-on-one tuition on the history of the precursors, their abilities, and how to control these powers and utilise them for the benefit of the people.

Who are the precursors? The precursors date back into the depths of time. Generation after generation, they have assumed their role to help and protect civilization from disease and disaster, man-made or natural. For more details, see page 27.

Precursors come in many types, each one varying slightly to make up a complex web of potential roles. These types are broken down into four main categories: seer, healer, constructive, and Destructive.

By far the rarest of these four is the Seer Precursor. Exclusive to females, the Seer Precursor makes up less than one percent of all recorded precursors, as far back as records go. Though they are extremely rare, they are widely regarded as the most dangerous of the four types. While they do not cause physical damage like Destructive precursors (see page 54), their minds become their weapons.

At the most basic level, a Seer Precursor is able to catch snippets of the future, usually conveyed through visions that are often mistaken for dreams. These visions are often sporadic and spontaneous occurrences, with the precursor in question unable to control what they see.

With a degree of training, the Seer Precursor is able to access these visions almost at will, focusing on specific parts of their visions, a trait often sought by high-ranking military officials in order to turn the battle in their favour. But their abilities do not stop there. At the peak of their power, a Seer Precursor is able to manufacture memories and implant them in the minds of others without their knowledge.

It has been widely claimed that this is the method used during the great robbery of The Vault of Oria, in which countless priceless items were stolen, including but not limited to a Blood Stone and The Orb of Embers. Since then, it has become an offence punishable by death for a Seer Precursor to implant thoughts into the mind of another individual, whether they have given consent or not.

The second category of precursor is the Healer Precursor. Making up approximately ten percent of the population, these precursors are also highly sought after by military as well as civilian leaders. Besides being able to tend to battle wounds, they are also capable of identifying and curing many viruses and infections. Taught to recognise symptoms at the earliest stages, they are often able to create antidotes from everyday items.

As ninety percent of precursors are destructive, the final two categories, Constructive and destructive, are broken down further. Whether a precursor is described as Constructive or Destructive depends greatly on another factor, its element. In total, there are six elements, three falling into each category. Earth, ice, and Lava make up the Constructive precursors, while Air, fire, and Water come together to form the Destructive category.

Typically, a precursor will favour one element, although they will also have a good command of the other elements in their category. While they are able to utilise the three elements belonging to their counterparts, they are nowhere near as effective. In battle, it is crucial to have an understanding of which elements perform best against others.

He never knew there were so many options. Looking up from the book, he thought about the different categories. Emily was a Seer precursor; that much was obvious. He had no idea where Thomas belonged, though. Although he had seen him use a ball of fire on the spectre in Fir Forest, Constructive and Destructive Precursors could use all elements. What was his element? he wondered.

'I thought I told you to read until I got back,' Veronica snapped, appearing behind him so quietly that he could have sworn a spirit would have made more noise.

'I was, and I stopped to consider my element for a moment,' Lewis said. After all, it was the truth.

'Don't talk back,' she said, rounding the table. As she did so, the handcuffs seemed to tighten slightly. One moment they were cold, and the next they were burning against his skin. Letting out an involuntary yell of pain, he recoiled, dropping the book.

'What was that?' he demanded, staring at the handcuffs when the metal cooled again.

'You are to do as I say in these lessons or you will be punished,' she said calmly, seating herself opposite him. For a moment, she considered the papers in front of her. 'How far have you got?'

'I just finished reading about the different elements,' he replied, biting back a sharp retort. He had already told her, but he was in no hurry to feel the burning handcuffs against his skin.

'I expected you to have gotten further,' she tutted. The words had barely left her mouth when the handcuffs tightened again, briefly burning his skin. 'Slacking will not bode well for you here, do you understand?'

'I do,' he grimaced. Looking down at his wrists, he slid the handcuffs down his wrists slightly. The skin that had been underneath them previously was red and raw. At the sight, his stomach turned.

'Good. Now, what is your element?'

'I don't know,' he said. Part of him was expecting the handcuffs to clench again, but they didn't this time.

'Seer Precursors are exclusively female, so that rules that out,' Veronica muttered as she crossed something out on one of the pages in front of her. 'Have you ever healed any injuries before, yours or those of others?'

'I don't think so,' he said hesitantly as he racked his brains.

'You don't think so?' she said, her head snapping up and her eyes narrowing slightly.

'No,' he corrected. With a nod, she looked away, crossing something else off her list.

'A simple battle precursor, then, it seems,' she sighed.

'What's a battle precursor?'

'That is what we call someone who belongs to the Constructive or Destructive category,' she said. 'Common as they come. It's a shame; I thought I was getting better with you.'

Not sure what to say, Lewis looked away. It wasn't his fault that he fell into the most common category. Why had she been expecting more from him, though? Thomas had once said that he could identify other precursors; did that mean she could see more in him?

'We're done here,' Veronica snapped suddenly as she got up. 'You will refer to your schedule for your afternoon class. I strongly suggest that you are on time tomorrow morning as well.'

'What about these?' he asked, holding up his wrists that were still bound by the handcuffs.

With a click of her fingers, they fell off, landing on the table with a bang. Before he could even begin to comprehend what had just happened, Veronica stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. What was he supposed to do now? She had said he should check his afternoon class; did that mean he was free until then? For a moment, he considered riffling through the papers that had come in the envelope from Christine before deciding that he could do that back in his room later. Glancing around the room one last time he stood up, he thought, maybe he could find some food somewhere, as his stomach rumbled loudly.