Kayden locked the door of the small apartment where she lived alone then walked down the rickety stairs. She rented an apartment above a butcher's shop.
Two men were waiting for her at the base of the stairs as they always were for the past month and a half. When she tried to move past them, they blocked her path. She didn’t look up at them and tried to push through but they wouldn’t budge an inch.
Officer Griff grabbed her chin and she tried to yank it free but he jerked her head until she was forced to meet his eyes. She glared at him. He grinned viciously.
“Good morning darling.”
Officer Griff was a young man in his mid twenties, clean shaven with his hair neatly slicked back. An outstanding citizen by all appearances, but Kayden knew that only hid the cruel person he actually was. His badge gave him the power to exercise his cruelty on those too weak to fight back, like Kayden herself.
He moved her head back and forth in order to take a good look at her then looked over at his companion Officer Deaik. “It’s a pity such a pretty girl has the blood of vermin.”
Deaik snorted. “Probably not very smart to touch her without gloves. She’s most likely riddled with disease.” He spat to the side. “Cliff Side scum.”
Kayden smacked Griff’s hand away. “I’m not a Cliff Sider.”
“Maybe we should teach her some manners, Officer Deaik.” Griff laid his hand on the stun cudgel at his side.
“It would be in her best interest to learn who her betters are.”
“If you touch me, I’ll report you,” Kayden said with her hair hiding her face from her two assaulters.
“Do you really think anyone will care what we do to a street brawler like you,” Griff said. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I could beat you right here in the middle of the street and nobody would do a thing to stop it.”
“I’m a student of Ernestine Academy,” Kayden said weakly.
“And from what I hear they’re ready to expel you. We’d be doing them a favor by taking out the trash. Rats like you don’t belong at that school. You give it a bad name and make the whole place stink.”
Kayden had had enough and focused her aura into her arm. This time when she pushed Griff out of her way it had enough strength to force him back a step.
He cursed and reached out to grab her but she jerked her arm free with the power her aura infused arm gave her. It was an ability her father had taught her from a very young age. Usually it required some type of focus to channel one's aura, and runes to make it do what one wanted, but sometimes if trained at a young age and over an extensive period of time, one could learn to manipulate their aura in interesting ways without the aid of such things.
Officer’s Griff and Deaik trailed behind her.
“We could have you arrested for assaulting an officer,” Griff continued to taunt, but Kayden ignored him.
There wasn’t much she could do if they really wanted to do something to her. Griff wasn’t bluffing when he said that nobody would stop them. Even though she was in Ernestine Academy she was still the daughter of a wanted fugitive.
She clenched her fists and tried to keep the tears that came to her eyes at bay. She wouldn’t let them see her cry. She wouldn’t.
“This could all go away if you tell us where he is,” Griff said. “The academy might even let you retain your membership as an act of charity.”
Kayden hated that she actually considered his offer. It was a real possibility. She had already been summoned to the headmaster’s office on numerous occasions to discuss her father. They told her that they couldn’t have her father’s name besmirching the honored tradition of their school, but they might be able to work something out if she turned him in. They could spin the story as her having come from a troubled home, and through the tireless efforts of the institution, she was able to be rehabilitated.
Except she hadn’t come from a troubled home. It was anything but. She loved her father more than anything in the world. Which made his betrayal and abandonment hurt all the more. Even if she wanted to turn him over to the authorities, she knew as little about where he could be hiding as them.
Her father hadn’t left her any money when he fled, and she was kicked out of the home where she grew up when news of his criminal activities got out. It was only through the Academy that she even had the tiny apartment above the butcher shop to stay. They said they couldn’t allow one of their students to be living on the streets, but that was more about preserving the name of their institution than in helping her out. If they expelled her then she would have nowhere to go.
She left behind the Merchant District where she called home and entered into the Tower District. This is where she had grown up. The streets were lined with tall and grand buildings which housed luxurious apartments. Wide open parks filled the areas between buildings, and automobiles drove in the streets.
Automobiles were a new invention, but they had instantly gained popularity in more wealthy communities where the streets were nice enough for them to run. The city was working on constructing more friendly roads for the vehicles in order for them to be more widely utilized.
It always filled her with grief walking through this place, but it was the quickest way to get to the Academy. Usually she would avoid this route altogether, but she wanted to get away from the officers trailing her, and they wouldn’t leave her until she entered academy grounds.
Ernestine Academy was located on the other side of the Tower District within the Civil District where most people living within the Tower District worked and commuted every morning. As such the streets were always heavily packed in the morning with many people walking and driving in the same direction.
The Civil District was, as the name implied, where all of the city offices were located, including the Palace of Commerce. Mitros was a free city state that was governed by ten judges who were elected by the Council of Merchants. The Palace of Commerce was where all of these officials conducted their business.
As Kayden made her way out of the Tower District and into the Civil District she could see the Palace of Commerce in the distance. It was this grand dome shaped building that dwarfed everything else in the city. She had always imagined that she would one day work there, acting as an aid to someone important and making the city a better place. Maybe even working under Ragwort, the Judge of Foreign Relations, where she would be able to travel to exotic places. But that was a hopeless dream now. She would be lucky even to graduate from the Academy at this point.
Why did her father have to do this to her? He betrayed her for a gang of Cliff Siders. It was difficult even to contemplate that her entire life had been funded by a criminal organization. Even her enrollment within the Academy came from her father leveraging his connections within the underworld to get her accepted.
Ernestine Academy wasn’t only the most prestigious school in the city but arguably in the entire world, at least in regards to engineering, commerce, and magical theory. Even though Kayden grew up in a prestigious community such as the Tower District and had gotten good grades her entire life, that was no guarantee that she would have gotten in. The entrance exams were extremely competitive, and Kayden had to admit to herself that she just wasn’t cut from the same cloth as the other students.
So, it was to her great surprise when she found out she had made it. She should have been suspicious when her father showed no surprise. Why should she? He had been there for her every step of the way, and had even convinced her to take the entrance exam when she thought it would be pointless to try.
When it came out who her father actually was, a lot of other things also came out, such as the fact that her father’s gang had threatened and bribed her way into the Academy. It wasn’t really surprising that the Academy was going to expel her. What was more surprising was that they hadn’t already. She supposed they wanted to save as much face as possible, and that meant spinning the story in their favor.
It helped that the commissioner had probably convinced them to keep her in the Academy so they were able to track her movements in case her father tried to contact her. But she had seen no sign of him since he disappeared. He had lost himself in Cliff Side, and it would be very difficult for the police to track him there.
She still found that hard to believe. Was her father really a Cliff Sider?
Cliff Side was the underbelly of Mitros, where all of the gangs made their bases and where all sorts of shady dealings went on; smuggling, drugs, forbidden magic, it could all be found there.
The city of Mitros was situated upon a plateau, protected from the Gelgine Wilderness and all of the ravenous beasts that called that place home. There was limited room for the city to grow, and as such the less affluent continued to be pushed further and further toward the edge of the city until there was nowhere else to go. Their solution was to build into the cliffs of the plateau itself, creating ingenious architectural feats in the process and utilizing a network of mines to build.
The result was that Mitros quite literally spilled over the edges of the plateau and cascaded down in several layers, stopping just above the deadly wilderness below. The city had also begun to build upwards in order to make for its lack of space, thus areas such as Tower district had formed.
Because of Cliff Side’s less than savory relationship with the rest of Mitros, they were looked down upon and distrusted by those on top of the plateau, Uptowners as they are called. And now Kayden not only found out that her father was a criminal but he was also a Cliff Sider, and through association, she was as well even though she had never been Cliff Side.
She never thought much about Cliff Side other than what she had heard around her. It was an insult people often threw around at each other in Uptown. There were also Cliff Side clubs that she heard some of her fellow students frequented, but those areas could barely be considered Cliff Side, they specifically catered to Uptowners who wanted to escape the stifling atmosphere of Uptown but didn’t want to dirty themselves too much with Cliff Side.
All in all, finding out that one was a Cliff Sider was akin to finding out one had a contagious disease. Kayden had never fit in with the wealthy students who got in through their connections, and she couldn’t keep up with the students who got in through merits, but now eve the single friend she had been able to make, Rya, wouldn’t even meet her eyes anymore.
Kayden didn’t blame her. Rya was from a wealthier family and she had to keep up appearances as much as possible, associating with a Cliff Sider did nothing to help that. They used to make fun of all the posturing they saw from their fellow students, but in the end Rya was part of that world. Kayden would probably have done the same thing in her place. It still hurt regardless.
“Hey, watch where you’re going.”
A man in a suit had stepped out of a door and into Kayden’s path. She tried to step out of his way but he stepped directly into her before she could move.
She kept her head lowered. “Sorry.”
“Hey, I recognize you. You’re that Cliff Side girl. The daughter of that wanted criminal. I saw your face in the newspaper.”
Kayden hurried on, keeping her head lowered as other curious pedestrians heard the man. Some of them called out insults at her and a couple even went so far as to jostle her around. Griff and Deaik did nothing to interfere.
She simply kept her hair in front of her face and pushed through the abuse until she rounded the corner and came to the street that led to the Academy.
Ernestine Academy was an illustrious institution. Its’ grandeur, second only to the Palace of Commerce. It was constructed in the same style with a preference for domed buildings and arches. There were several statues of the Academy's more prominent alumni.
The courtyard in front of the school was heavy with traffic. Several stalls sold various materials for both technology and magic that students could use for school and personal projects. This place was a hotbed for progress so there were plenty of interesting things that could only be seen here, but Kayden was used to all the strange things, so she didn’t pay it much attention even when someone’s malfunctioning drone buzzed passed her with the desperate inventor chasing after it.
It was at this point that Griff and Deaik finally left her.
“We’ll see you after school,” Griff called after her. “Don’t go running off without us. Who knows what could happen if one of your father’s enemies found you without us to protect you.”
Kayden kept walking without looking back until they were lost from sight behind all of the bustling students.
That was another thing she had learned since discovering her father’s true identity. The gangs of Cliff Side were often at war with each other, and one couldn’t run with the gangs without making a considerable amount of enemies who would kill you on sight. If Kayden were to step foot in Cliff Side without protection--as she wanted to when she first learned of her father’s disappearance--then she would most likely be taken prisoner at best, and at worst she would end up in the gutter with her throat slit.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She hated Griff and Deaik, but she couldn’t deny that their constant surveillance protected her from anyone who might want to get revenge on her father through her.
It was infuriating. Anywhere that she turned someone would be demanding to know where her father was. She couldn’t do anything to escape it. Why did he have to do this to her? Her life may not have been perfect, but it could have been worse as illustrated by these current events. She just wanted to go back to when everything was normal and she thought her father was a broker for exotic goods.
Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t believe she had never realized what her father actually was. A broker for exotic goods? Please, that job description basically gave it away on the spot. But combined with his work always taking place at night, him randomly disappearing for days without a word, and all of the strange scars on his body, it all added up to a single thing.
To be fair, that was what Kayden grew up with. How could she have known that it was odd for a father to leave his daughter all alone and unsupervised? Luckily, all of that had prepared her for this moment when she was officially abandoned by him.
She wished he would return if only so she could curse him and spit in his face.
It was only fair after everything he had done.
As she entered the building of arcane arts, someone stepped into her path. An obese girl that dwarfed Kayden in girth and height. She wore a frilly dress and her hair was done up in tight curls. Kayden bounced off her stomach.
This was Bellina. She was the heir to one of the city's more prominent families, but despite that, she hadn’t gotten into the Academy through her connections. No, she was one of the students that had gotten in through her merits, which made her all the more insufferable. She was intelligent and powerful, and she knew it.
The posse that accompanied her everywhere surrounded Kayden, leaving no escape.
Bellina had always picked on Kayden because she was a prime target. No one could understand how Kayden had gotten into the Academy. The only thing that protected her was her relationship to Rya, but with that gone and the news of her father out, Bellina had upped her attacks to an unbearable level.
“Look at what crawled out of the sewers,” Bellina snarled her belly pushing Kayden back into the girls that surrounded her.
They shoved her while she was off balance and Kayden fell to the ground. She knew better than to get back up. She stayed in place with her head hidden in her hair and waited for her abusers to get bored.
“If I didn’t know any better I would think someone had dragged a stinking turd in here on the bottom of their shoe.”
The other girls laughed. Bellina kicked Kayden. It would have hurt if she hadn’t seen it coming and channeled her aura into her arm so that it deflected the blow. This only worked to enrage Bellina further.
She gurgled a loogie for a protracted period of time and hocked it directly on top of Kayden’s head. She felt it splatter there, thick and warm, then slide down the side of her hair.
Finally, once they finished laughing at her pathetic condition, and after she made no move to stand up for herself, they lost interest and walked away.
Kayden stood up and found her way to the restroom where she proceeded to clean her hair as thoroughly as she could with only the aid of the sink and hand towels available there. By the time she was done, she was already late to her theory of runes class.
She slipped into the auditorium silently and kept her head down as she found her seat in the back. Bellina grinned at her from the far side of the room. Professor Beltraz was already in the middle of her lecture and did not pause when Kayden entered.
“So following the logic presented to us by Sardiva, and assuming that it is true what he discovered about the mutable and immutable relationship of runes, can someone please tell me how that affects our understanding of ancient devices left behind by the Sendolian Empire? Kayden, since you saw fit to arrive late to my class, I assume you must be well versed on the subject. Why don’t you enlighten the minds of your fellow students.”
“I’m sorry professor, I’m not sure,” Kayden answered, barely loud enough for her voice to carry to the teacher.
A wave of laughter traveled through the class.
“Ah, so not only did you see fit to interrupt my class, but you have also failed to come prepared. If you had read the assigned chapters, you would know that runes’ meanings are fixed, thus immutable, and yet influence each other, thus mutable. A single rune can not be changed no matter how hard one may will it, but by adding runes in a chain one is able to shape all of the involved runes’ meanings. How this relates to ancient devices left behind by the catastrophe that befell the Sendolian Empire is that even though we can see runes we are familiar with, their meanings allude us. Because to understand a single rune one must understand the entire framework in which it exists, and yet one can not understand the entire framework without understanding the individual rune. You see the conundrum that arises, and what has prevented us from rediscovering the technological marvels that the Sendolian Empire was able to achieve.”
She paused in her lecture and sighed. “I suppose I shouldn’t be too hard on you considering your circumstances. You can’t expect a draft horse to fly alongside a pegasus.”
Kayden flushed bright red at the off handed insult, and the rest of the class laughed even though she was sure that ninety percent of them probably wouldn’t have been able to answer the question either.
“You disappoint me and this institution which you have forced your way into. Let this be a lesson to everyone here. No matter how hard you try, you can’t hide who or what you really are. Not inside this classroom and not out there in the world. One way or another everyone’s true colors are revealed.”
With that, Professor Beltraz turned her nose up at Kayden and went on with her lecture, completely ignoring her from that moment forward. Kayden slumped down in her chair and tried to turn invisible.
No matter how hard she tried to focus on the lesson, she couldn’t get Professor Beltraz’s words out of her mind. What hurt the most was that she knew they were true. Kayden didn’t belong here, she never had.
To Professor Beltraz and many other teachers like her, this school was the cornerstone of civilization, where bright minds could propel everyone into a better future. Only the best belonged here. Underachievers like Kayden took up spots that would be more suited for others.
Did it matter that plenty of other students got in because of the families they were associated with? Not really, because money and prestige were just as important in making this place function as it was to provide a top notch education. So even though there were plenty of students like Kayden, Professor Beltraz and the other teachers sucked up their pride and said all of the right things so they could still get to the small number of students who actually showed promise.
Unfortunately, Kayden no longer fitted into either category. She was an outsider, and this made her an easy target for all of the ire her teachers felt toward the students that took advantage of their believed institution. Did it matter that she didn’t know her father had forced her acceptance through? No, she was still benefiting from a corrupt system that took this education from those who actually deserved it.
Kayden hated them, she realized. She hated all of them. The students who looked down on her, the teachers who belittled her, the institution which was rejecting her even though she had never done anything wrong, and her father for causing this all to happen. Everyone in the city was her enemy.
This resentment was not a new thing. It had certainly flourished since discovering who she really was, but it had always been there before. Maybe it was because she knew she never really belonged here. Maybe deep down she always knew she was a Cliff Sider, and she hated that more than anything else.
When the class ended, she left in a hurry, not wanting to draw the attention of Professor Beltraz or Bellina. She passed Rya on the way out. Rya met her eyes and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but instead she shrunk away and lowered her eyes. Kayden brushed past.
Waiting for her outside of her political analysis class was a girl around her age, looking very impatient. She stepped into Kayden’s path before she could enter.
“Are you Kayden?”
Kayden nodded mutely.
“Headmaster Winslow would like to see you in his office immediately. Do you know the way?”
She nodded again. She had grown extremely familiar with the way to the headmaster’s office.
“Good.” With that the girl strode off without another word.
Kayden’s fellow students were making their way into the classroom by this point. She sighed. Even though she was being taken from the class by the headmaster, her professors still wouldn’t give her any leniency when she missed the class. She would have to make up for it with her own studying on the side.
She made her way over to the mathematics wing of the science building where the headmaster had his offices since that is where he taught, but when she arrived and knocked on the door nobody was there. That meant he must have been at the official headmaster’s office located in the administrative building. He never used them and that girl that had summoned her didn’t say anything about it, so Kayden had assumed he would be where he always was. Now she would have to trek to the opposite side of the Academy.
It took her a long time to get there not only because the campus was so vast, but because a student’s experiment had gone haywire and exploded, so the quickest route was barricaded off and Kayden had to wind through unfamiliar territory in order to get there.
When she arrived she walked up to the secretary who ushered her through the waiting room into the offices beyond with an angry, “Where have you been? You’ve kept them waiting.”
Them?
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know he would be here.”
“Where else would he be? Go on. Go on.”
Kayden had no chance to defend herself before the secretary brought her before the headmaster’s office door and knocked.
“Enter,” a stern voice said.
The secretary opened the door and pushed her through with no preamble. Kayden stumbled in and righted herself just as the secretary closed the door behind her.
Sitting across his desk was the headmaster. He was an abnormally tall and skinny man with faintly green skin and large eyes made even larger from the glasses he wore. From what Kayden had heard about the man, he was supposed to have ogre blood. Her experiences with the man had revealed that although he was stern, he was also fair. He was a big part of why Kayden hadn’t been expelled from the Academy yet.
Usually their meetings consisted of just the two of them, but sitting across the desk from him was a peculiar figure, even more so than the headmaster. He was tiny, about four feet tall, and had the features of a fox, a teumessian. He had a lightning bolt pattern of white fur starting from between his eyes, going up his head, and down his back where it disappeared underneath the collar of his suit.
What was he doing here? And waiting for Kayden no less. The teumessians’ worked exclusively for only the most wealthy individuals. They were supposed to be masters of the arcane.
Upon her entrance Headmaster Winslow gave her his usual level gaze. She detected a note of disapproval there but it was hard to read anything on his stoic face. She was about to explain her tardiness, but before she could begin the teumessian leapt to his feet and came over to Kayden.
“So this is the girl that has been causing the Academy such a headache.” He circled her, studying her from every angle. When he stood in front of her once again he held out his hand. “The name is Dex.”
Kayden hesitantly shook it. His hand was extremely soft because of his fur, but strong.
“Kayden,” she introduced herself even though it was perfectly obvious he already knew that.
“Please have a seat,” Winslow said and the two of them sat in front of his desk.
Atop his desk was a cloth which had several slight bulges where it covered several hidden objects.
“Thank you for joining us, Kayden,” the headmaster began. “As I am sure you are aware, the Gifting Ceremony is approaching.”
The Gifting Ceremony was a tradition within the Academy that spanned back as far as the Academy began. It was a ceremony that happened at the end of students’ third year, in which they were recognized for their achievements and gifted a focus which would allow easier manipulation of their aura.
It was a hugely important moment, not only did it mark a student’s advancement within the curriculum, but it also strongly signified what field they would be pursuing. Just like any tool, each focus had unique properties which were situated for different types of environments.
“Due to your unique circumstances,” the headmaster continued, “The Academy has deemed that it is inappropriate for you to attend the event.”
He paused as if he expected her to interject, but these types of offenses had become such a common occurrence that Kayden didn’t find them at all surprising anymore. Still she couldn’t help but feel a great surge of disappointment. This had been one of the moments she was looking forward to the most from attending the Academy, and she had hoped that if she could obtain her focus then she would be able to find a job even if the Academy no longer allowed her to attend. Even if she didn’t graduate, having a focus would open up many doors.
But she said nothing.
Headmaster Winslow cleared his throat. “Right, well regardless of circumstances, the Academy has a duty to fulfill our commitments toward you. Even though we have deemed it inappropriate to include you in the ceremonies, that does not mean you will not be receiving your focus, and it is for this reason we have brought you here today. Dex here is an artificer that specializes in crafting focuses. Dex if you would please.”
Dex grabbed the white cloth and removed it. Underneath were several objects: a stylus, a hammer, a necklace, a knife, a mirror, and a cudgel.
“A focus can take on any form really, many of the students here already know what focus they will choose before they even enter the Academy, but that does not mean the shape serves no purpose,” Dex said. “Magic is shaped through intent, and a focuses purpose strongly influences that intent. For students such as yourself who do not have a predetermined focus already, I take upon myself the task of selecting several different paths to assist you in narrowing down the options. You see I am talented in divination and each of these objects spoke to me in how they could shape your future. Please, take your time.”
Kayden looked at Headmaster Winslow. He nodded his head. After a pause in which she felt her heart leap up into her throat, Kayden began to inspect each of the objects.
She started from right to left with the cudgel. It was light and fit her grip but it reminded her of Griff so it didn’t take her long to immediately discard it. She held up the mirror and it reflected an opaque version of herself covered in shadows. It gave her a queasy feeling so she put that one down almost as quickly as the cudgel.
Next came the knife. It wasn’t just any knife she realized, it was a dagger. It had a silver blade with stabilizing runes carved up the center. The second her fingers curled around it, she knew this would be her choice. Not only did it fit in her hands even better than the cudgel, it made her feel powerful when so much in her life was beyond her control.
She felt her aura act in response, and almost like when she imbued her arms with her aura, she began to channel it into the dagger. It immediately responded. The runes flared up and she felt it begin to attune to her. Black wisps like smoke began to emanate from Kayden and go into the dagger. The blade turned black, and then the whole thing vanished in a puff of black smoke.
Kayden looked up in surprise as if she had done something wrong. She saw the headmaster looking at her with sad eyes, and Dex rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“Summon it back if you would please,” Dex said.
Kayden wasn’t sure how to do so, but as she turned her attention toward her aura, she noticed that a significant portion of it was no longer free. It was taken up by something. She reached out and grabbed it and the dagger reappeared in her hand in the same puff of smoke.
“May I?” Dex held out his hand and Kayden reluctantly handed it over.
It felt like she was handing over a piece of herself.
Dex took only a moment to inspect it before handing it back and turning to Winslow. “It is as the board feared, a shadow dagger, a tool of assassins and Cliff Siders. This girl does not belong in the Academy.”
“What?” Kayden looked down at the dagger in her hands and then up at Winslow. The sad expression he wore before was gone and all that remained was his usual stern expression.
“I am sorry Miss Boone this was a test determining whether to retain you as a student of the Academy or not and you have failed. We have no other option than to expel you from the Academy.”