Helianna stood at the bow of the ship, looking out at the gorgeous city in front of her. Despite being a port city, it loosely followed the traditional style of cities, with full walls and an acropolis in the center. There were stone walls stretching around the entire city, only the top of some of the houses within view. Another wall surrounded the acropolis, barely visible over the houses. The inner wall looked to be made of tinted glass and was covered in runes, visible even from this distance. Whoever commissioned this wall clearly wanted it to be equally strong and opulent in an astonishing display of wealth and power.

Within the glass walls was an enormous castle, the lower half taking up almost the same amount of space as the entire rest of the city. The lower half rose several stories higher than the surrounding wall before narrowing. The enormous castle rose so high that she couldn’t even see the top, which was obscured by low-hanging clouds. She couldn’t hide her amazement as she looked at the incredibly wealthy city. The observer next to her cleared his throat.

“That would be The Academy.” Helianna whipped her head to look at him and he chuckled. “Well, there’s obviously more there than just the academy, but the rest of the city contains vetted individuals to keep The Academy running. The castle itself is the academy and much of the city is simply there to support the academy and keep it running. This city is where you’re going to be staying for the next few years.”

Helianna didn’t respond, instead looking out and observing the city she would live in for the rest of her life. The guards had let them pass easily once the observer showed his credentials first at the dock, and then at the gate. Even with the extra security, the city was incredibly fancy, every single house more opulent than any house in her small town. There weren’t many people on the streets, and almost none were by themselves, typically in groups of three or more, which she assumed were groups of ithrax. Very few paid attention to them, instead laughing and having fun. Before she knew it, they were at the inner wall, which had somehow grown several times its initial height by the time they got to it. She looked again and verified with herself that it wasn’t her imagination. The wall now looked like it reached multiple times higher than the surrounding city.

The process to let them in this wall took much longer and as she waited, she tried to decipher some meaning from the runes she read on the wall, but she couldn’t understand anything. Having known she would have magic younger than she should, she had tried to find any information she could about runes in hopes to gain a head start. It had been incredibly difficult and she had found very little. As such, she only had the most basic knowledge, all of which was too simple to help her understand the wall’s runes.

When they got through the wall and made it to the front doors of the castle, there was somebody standing at the door seemingly waiting for them. The observer next to her straightened in his seat before announcing them.

“Observer Asim reporting to the academy with a newly discovered null. The null was found in Ash Hill, located in Eastern Caglach, resulting in seven towns being omitted from my route. Permission to release her into your hands and return to my post?” The woman raised an eyebrow and smirked in amusement.

“I’d suggest you let her get her things first. Then you may go.”

“O-of course.” The observer hurriedly got up from his seat and pulled Helianna’s trunk out of the back of his carriage. “Uh, here you go miss.” He dumped it into her arms unexpectedly, causing her to fumble with the large weight and drop it to the ground with a loud thunk. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye before addressing the woman at the door.

“Is there anything else required of me before I return?” The woman barely suppressed a smile as he responded.

“You may go. Now as for you….” She turned towards Helianna. “Let’s get you settled in here.” The carriage rumbled away as the woman led her into the large castle doors. The first room they entered stopped Helianna in her tracks, stunning her with its beauty and luxury.

The room was massive, multiple stories tall with several beautiful pillars adorning it. Two staircases were extended from the walls on the side, which curved in towards the center before disappearing behind the back wall. Alongside the walls and under the staircases were a large number of doors, all of which were labeled. At the base of the stairs stood two very large and intimidating men, clearly meant to be some kind of bodyguards.

In the center of the back room sat a desk, but the woman sitting at it looked more dangerous than the bodyguards at the stairs. Sitting down she was almost taller than Helianna was standing and had enough muscle that Helianna was sure the woman could snap her like a twig without issue.

“By the way, the name is Illuna.” the woman next to her spoke. “Yours?”

“Uh… Helianna.”

“Alright, Helianna. This floor is where any business between The Academy and other people or organizations take place if they need to meet within the castle. Each of the doors you see here leads to different sections for each type of business we do. She’s here…” she paused while pointing to the receptionist. “To make sure people are going to the right places and to lock things down if anybody is stupid enough to try and go upstairs without permission. And speaking of upstairs, let’s go.”

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“Above this floor resides much of the in-house staff with a couple floors being dedicated just to that. Next is most of the student residences, although that’s not where you will be staying. The nulls stay in a separate area. Next we have a large number of floors dedicated just to teach the other ithrax their magic and how to control it.”

They reached the top of the stairs where they seemed to be a platform at the intersection of both staircases. There was a door to the right with a light coming out of a hole above the doorway. Illuna pushed a button next to the door and there was an audible thunk that came from behind the wall. Helianna gave Illuna a questioning look, who responded with a proud smile.

“You never seen an elevator before?” Helianna’s eyes widened and she shook her head.

“Well congratulations, you get to ride one instead of having to walk up twenty flights of stairs. They’re normally quite rare to be used for transporting people like this, instead typically used for something like construction as someone is required to man it. They work much better than simple lifts, especially since we’ve created a much safer and more efficient system. The actual elevator room itself is hemmed in fairly tightly on all sides so it can’t shift around too much..” There was a loud thunk heard on the other side of the door and the light above the door was blocked. Illuna strode in, Helianna following hesitantly.

“First null residential, please.” she seemed to request into thin air. At Helianna’s confused look, she smirked. “There’s a small portal in here, I’m not sure where, but it allows the gravity mage in charge of the elevator to hear us. It’s not big enough for much else, but it makes things easier for him. Anyways, we have an interesting system of runetech built-in that’s partially controlled by him. It makes it so that he can do his duties whenever the elevator isn’t in use and is immediately notified whenever it is, and with him being able to hear us, he doesn’t even need to be here to do it. It’s quite genius if I say so myself.” Helianna looked around at the walls of the elevator.

“Do you think you’ll eventually be able to cut out the need for someone to control it?”

“You mean through runes? We’re working on it, but it’s not exactly simple. We’re working on that and it should be available in just a few years. The first you hear of it is going to be coming from The Academy, I promise you that.” Helianna nodded in response.

“Oh right, sorry. I interrupted myself earlier. There’s the staff and general student residencies, which I think I already mentioned, but above that are the floors that most ithrax train on. They’re trained separately from the nulls, so you’ll be training on different floors, which are just a bit above theirs. And then there’s the null residences, near the top of the castle. You guys all have wonderful views.”

“H- how many nulls are there?”

“Well it depends on the year, but around eighty, give or take a few.” The elevator lurched to a dramatic stop, causing Helianna to grasp at Illuna in momentary panic. Illuna laughed and Helianna returned to a normal state, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

“Don’t worry about it, you were actually a lot more calm than some people have been.” She stepped out of the elevator, Helianna trailing behind her for a moment before stopping in her tracks, gaping at her surroundings. There was a large circular courtyard in the center, with a number of people lounging around. Doors surrounded the courtyard, with one opening up into stairs. She looked up, the center of the courtyard stretching up several floors. Each floor had a path inlaid into the wall, allowing people to enter their rooms while viewing the courtyard from their floors. She was knocked out of her reverie by Illuna addressing the group of varying species mingling in the courtyard.

“Where’s Ayeld?

“I’m not sure,” replied one of the davraki group members. “I think he might be training right now. But Arlo’s up in his room right now, and it’s his floor that’s up for grabs right now.”

“Thanks.”

“You might wanna knock first though,” he said with a smirk. Illuna narrowed her eyes for a moment before rolling them and shaking her head. She then proceeded to drag Helianna up five flights of stairs and stopped and knocked on the first door. Scrambling could be heard from behind the door for a minute before someone showed up. The man standing there barely came up to her waist, his dwarvish genes clearly recognizable. She felt bad for him, knowing he had likely been subject to racism.

People were surprisingly intolerant of each other, often trying to classify people with dwarfism as a different species, calling them dwarves. She had seen some racism herself on account of her large pointed ears, although her elvish ears were undoubtedly easier to hide than his dwarfism. In addition to his dwarfism, his skin was bright red with golden yellow eyes and hair, giving him a striking appearance. There was no better proof that all humans were the same species than the consistent wide variance in skin and eye pigments compared to the homogeneousness of other species. His eyes flicked to Helianna, where he seemed to pause and assess her before looking back at Illuna.

“I take it Ayeld’s unavailable and I need to get her a room?” Illuna nods and he sighs in response. “Alright, give me just a moment.” He disappeared back into his room followed by loud clattering. A few moments later he opened the door suddenly with a key held aloft in his hands.

“Ok, I’ve got it from here,” he offered and Illuna immediately started walking away.

“Sorry, but I’ve got more work to do. See ya later, Helianna. Best of luck.”

The man gestured for her to follow and started walking.

“So your name’s Helianna?” he asked without looking back at her. “Nice to meet you. I’m Arlo. I’m the one that runs your floor. If you break something in your room, come to me. If your neighbors are being too loud, come to me. And surprise, surprise, if there’s any other issue that comes up on this floor, me again. Any questions?”

“Uh… who’s Ayeld?”

“He’s in charge of all the floors, not just this one. Anything else?” Helianna shook her head.

“Good, this here’s your key and this is your room. Everything should be ready and prepared for you. Let me know if you need something that’s missing or you can’t find something, and I'll be happy to help. You know where my room is. If I’m not in the courtyard and I don’t respond to a knock on the door, I’m probably training. I should be here most evenings so that’s a pretty reliable time. Any questions before I let you get settled in?” Helianna opened her mouth to respond, before closing it and simply shaking her head.

“Great, see you later then!” He rushed off back to his room, leaving her to drag her trunk in by herself.