"The Institute is exactly what the name suggests, an institution. Somebody realized after the near defeat of the Second Defense that having a standardized education for Awakened might be a good idea. Whether or not they realized that they were creating one of the strongest political blocs in the City is up for debate”
History of Our City, Author Tell Hodges (230 AF). Since replaced with more modern histories
I’ve never been a big fan of authority. Whether that was a quirk of personality or something that came with being a scion of one of the most powerful houses in the city is up for minds greater than my own to decide. It drives my parents insane, but I couldn’t care less.
I tell you this so you understand how I reacted to finding out that I’d be forced to spend five years of my life at the Institute. You might think that I would be unabashedly excited, to escape the home that I wasn’t exactly a fan of. And I was, to an extent. Getting away from home and the politics of my family would be great. But I also know what the Institute is for, and that tempered my excitement. Because past all of the propagan-I mean advertisement and aggrandizement, the Institute has one purpose.
To make killers.
And sure, it was nightmare killers, so not exactly a horrible profession. But being a professional killer of anything takes its toll. I’ve seen plenty of it. And for all that discovering that I’m Awakened was cool and all, I hadn’t actually got much out of it yet. Spontaneous background music with no discernible effect was kinda awesome actually, but the thing I’d found most useful in the survival of those ruins had been the general increase to physical fitness, and the ability to hear things that really shouldn’t be sound.
I know that sounds weird, but it’s about all I’ve got. The ability to hear where people (and ‘mares) are by some sort of aura that expressed itself as music was very helpful in the whole not-dying-painfully business. Back inside the City it was less useful, as it was harder to tell the difference between people’s sounds. Being able to tell where people around you are isn’t as useful outside combat environments, and being unable to tell who it was didn’t help at all.
Anyways, now you know how I was feeling as I approached the gigantic steps that led up to the entrance to the Institute. Like everything else in the City it was made of faintly glowing white brick, but that’s where the similarities to the rest of the City ended. It had four towering spires set up in a diamond along the walls. I’d been told before that the walls themselves were set up like how people used to set up defenses before the Founding. It made sense, given their imposing nature, and the design was clearly intended to cost any ‘mares as much time and blood to take as possible. A real homey place.
The towers I know more about, with three of them topped by the color you’d expect of the houses they represented, and a fourth for the Institute itself. The red and gold tipped towers aren’t of much interest to me, I have no plans of being that extreme in any view. The grey tipped tower isn’t much more appealing to me, for separate reasons. I wave to the top, in case one of my parents happens to be up there, but otherwise ignore it.
It’s the entrance, and the deep blue roof on its spire that’s most interesting to me. A way to both satisfy my parents and escape their constant gaze is a win/win as far as I’m concerned. The guide continued rambling on about the history of the Institute as we walked up the steps towards the object of my interest. The blue tower, appropriately, was also the entrance to the institute. Supposedly it was some symbolism about how graduates were loyal to the City first, faction second, but I wasn’t sure how much of that I believed. I think it might just be that they had first pick of the towers when the place was first made.
An imposing man is standing at the top of the steps, waiting for the guide to finish her tour. As she finishes explaining to some of the people nearby where to find the first year dormitories, he coughs politely.
“Oh, sorry headmaster, I was just finishing up with the tour.” she said, seemingly surprised at his presence.
“It’s not an issue Stephanie, but Professor Willow is looking to speak with you, if you could head towards her office while I finish up the tour.” He suggested in that way that people with authority do, where it’s a suggestion that’s not really a choice.
She immediately nodded to him, and walked away from the group of us, whose numbers I now estimated to be around 100. A slightly smaller than average class, but not the smallest I had seen.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Welcome students. You may already know me, but I’ll introduce myself for those of you who don’t. I am Headmaster Polar, and before you ask, no that’s not actually my last name” He chuckled to himself. It was the type of joke that only people who were in charge of a situation found funny.
I always hated that kind of joke.
“You’ll go over how I ended up with that title at some point, but for now it’s my honor to give you all your first year groups. Keep in mind that these may change if we find a reason that they won’t work out for some reason, but it’s likely that these people will be part of your graduation team. Get to know them, it’s important you can work well with these people.” he announced.
I barely paid attention to his words while he was speaking. The sound coming off of this man is so much clearer, and it was mildly terrifying. Both the fact that it was so much clearer than everyone else around me, and just the general vibe the music gave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6sIK2KnhH8&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
It gave the impression that this was a man tormented, and I didn’t know what to think. Luckily for me, I was quickly given another thing to worry about, as my name came up.
“Dami-” he started, but I quickly cut him off, on this one thing I’d contest the Storm itself, so asking a scary Professor wasn’t all that hard.
“Jay, please, sir” I yelled out before he could finish my given name.
He looked at me and smiled, and the music around him drastically changed. That alone was weird, as I had never heard anyone’s sound change so dramatically, so quickly. Probably a function of how little time I had spent Awakened, but it still threw me off. Now it sounded like ambient sound, similar to something you’d hear in one of the forests inside the walls, not a heavy dirge. I wonder what the change meant?
“Ah, yes. Understandable Mr. West.” he replied, and continued listing my group. “Stephen Green, Aminci Delgado, Amora South…”
That threw me for a loop. They were putting two of the greater houses in one group? That’s unusual. Normally they each get their own so their overbearing parents can use the success and failure of the groups as yet another way to compete with each other. I wasn’t the only one surprised either, and the headmaster paused for a few seconds for all the chatter to die down as people speculated as to why the Institute would throw two of us together.
I still think the whole cardinal directions thing is stupid. It wasn’t like any of our families actually controlled a quadrant of the City, we just happened to live in separate corners of it. Making anybody part of the main house adopt the last name was just another way to tie people closer to those in power, from the way I saw it. It fed into the competition between the houses, with a member being chosen from amongst the ranks of each to represent their respective direction every five years.
I didn’t know that much about Amora, beyond the fact that us not having met before meant that she had to have been part of a lower house. Her whole family must have been recently elevated because of her status as Awakened, which had to suck. Giving up your last name because some old people think it’ll make you like them more can’t be fun.
Eventually he repeated his polite cough, and the crowd of teenagers quieted down. Impressive, getting a bunch of people in their late teens to quiet down with so little effort, but I guess it was a function of the respect for his position. I knew the Goldies hadn't had any other Awakened in the last five years, so as least they probably got raised pretty high. I looked around for Amora, wondering what the newest scion of the Golden House would look like.
Come to mention, I hadn't heard who was representing the East this time, and started looking around for whoever it might be. Had to size up the competition, you know?
That stopped quickly as the headmaster announced the last member of our group and I felt like I had been punched in the gut. This had to be a joke, a cruel demonstration so the Institute could flex its dominance over the City.
“And Emilia East” he said, looking at me, and then somewhere else in the crowd where I assume she was standing.
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“Are you sure it’s a good idea to put all three in the same group?” Willow asked.
“We’ve had this discussion before, you know. It’s not like I’m doing this for fun” Headmaster Polar responded.
“We need the Houses to be on the same page if we’re right about what’s coming, especially if we’re right about the boy”
“I’m not sure if I’d call someone 19 years old ‘boy’ Headmaster” replied a man in the back of the room replied, his first and only addition to the discussion.
“Please, 19 isn’t even a fraction of the age of anyone here. If you don’t have anything constructive to add Marcus, can you please get the testing grounds ready for the second years?” He replied, testily
The man jumped to his feet, clearly looking for an excuse to leave, and hurried out of the room.
"You'll need to apologize to him later, you know? That was unnecessary" Willow said, looking at him
"I know. I'm just worried. If the West boy really is Calamity Echo, we need to have people who can handle him nearby. I can't think of anyone better than the scions of the Houses for that. ”
“Analytics is convinced that Delgado will finish high on the combat aptitude list, why not her?” Willow responded, clearly meaning to reduce the tension that would exist in the group being created.
“Why not?” the Headmaster responded, and replaced the fourth name in the group with Delgado.
“You know that’s not what I meant” she huffed. “You're being paranoid. Why not replace Emilia with her? I've heard she and the 'West boy'" she said with air quotes, clearly making fun of the previous reference to him. "have had previous....issues." she finished with a smirk.
He looked at her before she started speaking again. "Okay, maybe not, but if the kid does go off the reservation, that’s definitely a group who could put him down.I just feel a little bad for the Green child. That's not going to be a very comfortable environment for him” she admitted reluctantly.
“I know. We just don't have a better option.” Polar said as he sent the list to be displayed.
“Nightmarish times call for nightmarish decisions”