Rez's eyes fluttered open to the muted sounds of Sheath stirring to life, echoing around the shaft and into their quarters. The city's rhythm felt heavy with yesterday's defeat.

For four years, continuous martial and military training had been building toward this day. They would first meet at the academies quarter on this side of the tower. A modest part of the horst on ground level. Nothing more than an antechamber to the true academy that awaited within the tower. Today he would step into the light for the first time.

Rez dressed in drab student clothing they had all been given. They weren't mandatory but most didn't have anything else and Rez counted among them. As he laced his boots, thoughts drifted to his past training. Strike and parry had been etched into his muscle memory, a relentless preparation for the Climb. Yet for all their drills, combat and magic theory, the magic of the tower had remained the ultimate hurdle. The teachers never let you forget that, while they trained you for combat with all means. Anyone that wanted to challenge the tower needed to master casting most of all.

Stepping out into Sheath's muted light, Rez joined a stream of young initiates making their pilgrimage. The paths upwards wound their ways through Sheath's underbelly. The tower lit their way where it could. Ropes to hold onto in the darkness of earthen tunnels. One by one, Rez felt more than saw his friends and classmates join in.

The group filed into Moraine Academy's entrance hall, its walls adorned with tapestries depicting great battles and ascensions within the tower. Master Gelrin and other instructors moved among them, faces set in stern lines as they assessed each new arrival, counting them.

Once all had arrived, they were ushered through corridors that bore no resemblance to the grandeur of the inner sanctum high above. This was merely a threshold. Foundations. These led downwards again, until they arrived at a stone chamber. The end of the chamber opened up towards the tower, representing a funnel leading to the light. The opening left a strong, narrow streak of light into the room. All surfaces of the chamber had been carved around this streak, leaving about a stride widths of clean, polished floor and ceiling from one end to the other. Reflections in the shadowy carvings glinted ominously in the darker sides, and everyone had fallen somber at the sight.

The gatekeeper, a weathered man, stood halfway towards the opening as they arrived, while the initiates crowded around the entryway.

"In two seasons' time," he intoned, "you will emerge for the end-of-season climb." His voice easily reached them in the silence. "It is there you will prove whether you have truly learned what it means to be a caster."

The gatekeeper paused before continuing. "You've trained in martial disciplines; now you must meld those skills with the possibilities of casting." His eyes swept over them once more before he stepped aside.

A murmur of uncertainty ran through the initiates. But before anyone could take action, Master Gelrin stepped forward, his silhouette sharpening as he entered the streak of light from the tower. Dust motes danced around him, the only movement in the once again still chamber.

"Last season's we failed," he began, his voice cutting through the hush that had settled over the initiates. "Sheath had to learn to live with failure long ago. We understand this was not your fault, but ours. But we are left with no choice but to accelerate your training."

He paused, letting his gaze drift over the faces before him. Rez felt the expectation pressing down upon him.

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"The pace will be relentless," Gelrin continued. "You will find little rest and even less reprieve." He gestured toward the streak of light. "The tower does not indulge weakness, nor does it pause to mourn the fallen."

Gelrin turned his back to them and strode toward a table in the shadow, laid with various artifacts and tomes. He arranged them, before grabbing a bundle.

"You will be tested beyond what you thought possible," he said without looking back at them. "The Climb is merciless; it demands your all. Your family, your friends, your neighbor—Sheath demands it. "

Rez watched as Gelrin lifted the bundle. It had a satin sheen, with a worn pattern, against a layer of brown leather. The Master flipped the bundle open to reveal something that glinted with an inner light.

Gelrin’s hand hovered above the items for a moment before he spoke again.

"Your instruction will be rigorous," he said. "Combat and spellwork will be intertwined from this moment forth."

Master Gelrin's fingers brushed the bundle's contents, holding up three shards that shimmered like captive stars. Rez leaned in with the rest, a collective intake of breath filling the chamber.

"You probably have seen what happened in the last climb. These," Gelrin said, lifting the shards high enough for all to see, "are fragments of golem hearts. Rare. Powerful."

A whisper of awe rippled through the crowd as Gelrin's eyes locked with Rez's for a fleeting moment.

"From this moment," Gelrin announced, his voice taking on a new edge, "your training is a competition." He held the shards into the tower light. "The most adept among you will earn these."

Gelrin placed the shards back onto the table with deliberate care before continuing. "You will form trios, mirroring the teams that enter the Climb. Your performance will be judged individually; triumph is not guaranteed by association."

Murmurs filled the chamber as initiates exchanged glances with potential allies—or rivals.

Rez's mind raced. Who would he choose? Who could complement his skills? The room felt smaller suddenly.

"You have two weeks to form your teams," Gelrin concluded. "Choose wisely." With that, he stepped back, his figure once again merging with the shadows that surrounded them.

The gatekeeper moved and the attention of the crowd slowly moved back to the sole source of light in the room.

One by one, initiates approached the opening. Different from the climb, today each one entered separately. Approaching the boundary between worlds.

When Rez's turn came, he felt an involuntary shiver course through him as he neared the threshold. His gaze tracked the border of the smooth path, where it fell off towards the carvings. The figures and runes seemed to reach for the path, for the light.

With a deep breath, Rez didn't stop his gait and stepped right over the ledge at the end of the path. He couldn't help but close his eyes in the last moment. Through his eyelids, he saw light enveloping him; a sensation of being untethered from gravity, and a message flickered through his mind. Initiate identified. Then just as quickly anchored him anew, as he was given direction. He opened his eyes again as he floated towards the surface of the tower. He couldn't see anything else beyond the surface and the surrounding light. No walls of the gap, no horst rising above.

Uncertainly he raised his hand. What would it feel like, when would it happen, did I miss it? Thoughts raced across his mind, as he followed the simple instructions they had received over the last months. And before he could find what could have gone wrong, his fingertips began to warm and glow. A shiver ran through a surface that had been invisible until a moment ago, but now was right up against him. From the three fingers that had touched the surface, ripples had spread, and in their wake, Rez could see the lowlands spread out before him like reflections in water.

With a jolt, Rez realized that this is what the carvings in the antechamber had imitated. Ripples of stone, marred with runes and figures depicting the lowlands in an ethereal view between worlds.

Rez jerked his head around, because if there was a moment to see his parents soul, or ghost or whatever it was the tower kept from them, it was now. He tried looking beyond the ripples, and for a moment he could swear he saw other hands pressing against it as they passed over the surface. But before he could make out any faces or features, his fear of missing his chance and lots of training overruled him.

"I am here to be reborn." Rez said to the void if light.

Initiate consent received.