When Zeke woke the next morning, his mind was clear and alert. He rolled out of bed, eager to get going, but promptly tripped and fell. He looked around at the haphazardly strewn tools on the floor and crates stacked against the walls, confused by his unfamiliar surroundings. This was not his room. Then he remembered the previous day’s events and Markus’s invitation.

The thought of living under someone else's roof again so soon after arriving in the city was humbling. This was supposed to be a time in his life when he would gain independence — he had even dreamed of one day owning his own house in the capital. But after yesterday's evaluation, he would have to adjust his expectations.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he entered the kitchen. There he found Markus and his uncle Armin already sitting down to breakfast. Markus gave him a wave while yawning deeply at the same time.

Armin beamed, a bright smile lighting up his face. "Good morning, Ezekiel,” he said cheerily. “Did you sleep well?"

Zeke replied with a half-yawn, half-nod.

Undeterred, Armin continued in high spirits. "Excited?" He winked.

Zeke’s nerves twitched, but he also thought of reuniting with Lilly and finally learning magic. A grin spread across his face as he met the blacksmith’s enthusiastic gaze.

Apparently, that was enough to satisfy Armin. He nodded at Zeke, and they spent the rest of their meal discussing Armin's work as a blacksmith and Markus's plans to assist him. Zeke was happy for his friend, whose eagerness to start the apprenticeship became increasingly evident as his yawns subsided.

After breakfast, Zeke waved goodbye and set out on his journey. On his way to the academy, he took his time to marvel at the capital's sights. As he walked, he noticed numerous guards posted in the crafter’s district, a sign of the city's dedication to the safety of its artisans. The armed presence stood in stark contrast to the lack of security in the outermost districts.

Soon, he found himself approaching the gate of the academic district. The guards at the entrance were unfamiliar with him. However, they remained unalarmed by his approach. After all, the boy was already donning the official school robes he had received the previous day.

Upon arriving at the gate, he rummaged through his pockets in search of the token he had received. Finally finding the insignia, he presented it to the guard. The man, in turn, held out a strange device toward Zeke.

The guard's instrument came to life as the crystal lit up, breaking the slight tension that had filled the air. The armed men relaxed their stance, and it was only then that Zeke realized just how alert they were to any potential threats.

“What about your dorm token?” the leader asked.

“I don’t live in the dorms. I am staying with a friend.”

The man rubbed his chin in thought, eyeing Zeke up and down. Despite wearing the same robe as all other first years, Zeke got the feeling that the guard noticed his humble origins. “That’s unfortunate, kid. Means you’ll have to pay the toll.”

“…But I am a student,” he said in disbelief.

“Better stay on school grounds then, easy way to avoid paying. Living off campus is a privilege reserved for the rich.”

Zeke couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How was this a privilege? Not only did they not allow him into the dorms, but now, he would even have to pay them just to get to school.

“How much is it?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“5 copper.”

Five copper wasn’t a lot, but it wasn’t a small amount either. He had brought around 60 with him. That was all he had been able to save after a year at home. Here, it wouldn’t even last him until the end of the month. He would have to find work — and soon.

Zeke reluctantly paid the man and stepped past the gate and onto the academy grounds for the first time as a student. As he approached the main building, he found himself in the middle of a busy crowd.

Students of all ages huddled together in groups and hurried past him in all directions, apparently all with a perfect understanding of where they were headed. Zeke’s heart sank as he realized that he had no idea of where to go.

It was only now that he truly understood how much of a drawback not living in the dorms truly was. The problem was far larger than just the additional cost of his lodging. He was completely isolated from the other students and would have to figure out everything for himself.

Zeke stood there, rooted to his spot by indecision, when he spotted a vaguely familiar face. He recognized the boy as one of the new initiates from the day before. Unlike Zeke, the boy seemed to know exactly where he was supposed to go as he pushed his way through the throngs of people.

Without losing any time, Zeke followed him. Soon, he crossed paths with other students he thought looked familiar. They seemed to be flocking to the same building, a ways off from the main school complex. This felt like the right place.

The appellation above the entrance revealed the name of the hall: Arkanum. Zeke guessed that it would be able to hold hundreds of people, and upon stepping inside, his prediction was immediately confirmed. There were at least a hundred students already seated among the rows upon rows of chairs, all of them facing a podium at the very end. Even so, they only filled a fraction of the available seats.

Zeke was swept along by the current of bodies and eventually found himself forced into a seat. His position was roughly in the center of the hall, and the layered seating allowed him to have a clear line of sight to the podium.

However, he was much more interested in something else. This was his chance to reconnect with Lilly. His head moved as if on a swivel, looking this way and that, in the hopes of finding those familiar locks of brown hair. But the relative darkness of the spectator area made the task almost impossible.

As he spotted movement ahead, he gave up on his search. On the podium, he found a slew of people already waiting with additional figures joining every so often.

There were already more than two dozen men and women present. Despite looking young, their serious expressions and no-nonsense demeanor separated them from the students sitting down below. Those had to be their teachers.

Zeke scanned their faces, idly wondering who among them would end up teaching him. He spotted many figures sporting red hair, but it was exclusively the paler shade, that he now recognized as belonging to the Fire affinity instead of Blood. Now that he was aware of the difference, he wondered how he could have ever assumed to be the same. His color looked nothing like theirs, after all.

After scanning the row of faces to his left and right, a man at the center of the teachers took a step forward, addressing the crowd. “Attention, please,” he said. His voice carried well, even in this enormous hall. “My name is Wilhelm Windtänzer and I am responsible for this year’s students.

“First things first, I want to congratulate all of you for taking the first step on your journey. As of yesterday, all of you have achieved the foremost stage of Magic. You can now proudly call yourselves Apprentice Mages.”

A murmur swept through the crowd, and even Zeke got a bit excited. He liked the sound of that.

“However,” the man cautioned, “you shouldn’t celebrate early. A first step is good, certainly, but it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. I am going to be honest with you. Here at the Elementium, we don’t coddle our students. The next four years are going to be a constant struggle for all but the best of you.”

Zeke leaned forward. In his circumstances, it was doubly important that he paid close attention to the man’s words. As of yesterday, he no longer held any illusions of triumphing over his peers. Not when competing against Elemental mages hailing from the established powers.

“The Elementium academy produces only the strongest Mages, unparalleled on the continent,” Wilhelm proclaimed. “This is not a boast, but a fact grounded in our centuries of military triumphs. Over the last millennium alone, we have almost doubled our borders. And as of today, there is no single nation that can stand up to the might of our glorious empire.”

The man had to pause his speech as a mighty cheer swept through the hall. Zeke was completely ignorant of such matters. However, that was evidently not the same for the others here. It made sense, most of the new initiates stemmed from Mage families. It was their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers who had fought in those wars and won those victories.

Zeke was astonished by the level of patriotism on display here. This was nothing like the lukewarm sentiments back in his hometown. It took several attempts and a long while until the cheering and hollering subsided enough for Wilhelm to be able to continue.

“Some will claim that our success was thanks to luck, fortunate circumstances, or a few exceptional figures emerging among us. However, let me tell you, none of those are the real reasons our empire stands unrivaled today...”

After a pregnant pause, during which he swept his gaze over the gathered students, Wilhelm continued with renewed fervor. “No, the future of our country is forged in these very halls!” he yelled. “It is us combat Mages hailing from the Elementium, who keep our empire safe. While others have become soft and weak, decadent and complacent — our standards have only risen over the centuries. Every boy and girl, no matter what family they hail from, has to prove his worth in the empire! And only the best will be allowed to call themselves Mages and rise above the common man!”

Another round of cheers.

“And this is why you are ultimately here,” Wilhelm explained. “Yes, we will teach you Magic, but that is not the main purpose of this place. No, you are here to prove your worth. Today is the first day of a trial that will last for the next four years.”

“Now, I want you all to look at the person on your left,” he instructed. Zeke did as he was told and found a tanned boy with sharp features and a confident expression to his left.

“Look to your right.” There, he found a petite girl with blue hair and a sinister glint in her eyes. Upon noticing his gaze, she looked him up and down before licking her lips.

Before he could interpret her gesture properly, Wilhelm continued. “Did you get a good look? Well, don’t get too attached. Most likely, at least one of you will not be here anymore in a year’s time.”

What? If a third of them would not even pass the first year, then how many would be able to graduate? To his further dismay, he noticed how both of his neighbors glanced at him out of the corners of their eyes. He clenched his fists, but soon let them fall back into his lap, the emotion fading away.

Who cared what they thought anyway? He would just have to prove them wrong with his actions.

“It would be smart to consider your fellows as competitors from now on,” Wilhelm said. “I don’t mean to imply that you shouldn’t trust anybody. But beware, each dropout will increase the chances for the remaining students.”

After those words, Zeke could feel the air in the room change. The earlier excitement had transformed into a prudent caution. Similarly, the roaming gazes had turned from curious to guarded, from inquisitive to predatory. By their expressions, he soon realized that he was considered mere prey to this band of wolves.

Wilhelm seemed pleased by this change, as he nodded contently. “I see that you understand. Now, let me explain what will be expected of you this coming here. There are going to be two exams you’ll have to pass.

“The midterms are going to test your grasp of Magic theory and spell crafting. Everybody who doesn’t reach a set number of points in either of these tests will fail.

“The end of the year exam, as always, will be held in the form of a battle tournament. In this trial, the lowest-ranking students will fail. The exact percentage will be determined by how many are still around by then. But understand, that no more than two-thirds of your current numbers will pass this second round.

“Furthermore, anybody who does not manage to reach the level of True Mage by the end of the year will get expelled, no matter your results. That is all. I wish all of you the best of luck,” Wilhelm stated before smashing his fist to his chest. A motion that was simultaneously mirrored by the entire row of teachers. “Glory to you, your families, and the empire of Arkanheim.”

“GLORY TO THE EMPIRE!” the crowd echoed overwhelmingly, as they mimicked the salute.

Zeke tried to follow along but only managed to half-heartedly imitate the other students. A fact that was not lost on his neighbors. If they had not looked down on him before, then they were doing so now. Fortunately, he wasn’t forced to suffer their mocking eyes for long, as the students started to clear the hall.

Upon stepping outside, and before he could even wonder where he was supposed to go next, he heard his name.

“ZEKE!”

He swiveled on the spot to a sight that immediately burned itself into his mind. Through the throngs of people, a beaming Lilly made her way towards him. Her sweet face was lit up with pleasure, her gentle eyes shining and her lips parted in a radiant smile. The rest of the crowd faded into darkness next to her brilliant presence.

Zeke thought about spreading his arms and beckoning her to jump into them, but before he dared, she was already in front of him and started rapidly burbling.

“Zeke, we made it, we’re here! Can you believe it? Have you seen Markus? Where are your dorms? I can’t quite fathom — all that time we spent meditating, it really worked, right? Three affinities! And I have a greater, and even Markus… everyone’s been so nice, and I have such a pretty room, all airy and with big windows down to the ground and —” she giggled “— some of the second and third-year students just jump out of the windows and float to class! I’ll be doing that too before too long, just watch.”

Her bubbly joy was so infectious he found himself beaming back at her, even though the soliloquy was so out of character for his friend that he had a hard time following her train of thought or forming a coherent response.

“Yes — yes — I’ve seen Markus, he’s okay — we live off-campus. Do you want to come over tonigh-”

“Lilly, are you coming?” A smiling girl with pin-straight, glossy black hair stepped up beside Lilly and linked their arms. “We’re all waiting for you, but if we don’t get going we’ll be late to class.”

“Oh!” Lilly blushed. “Yes, I was just saying hello to Zeke, he’s from my village —”

The raven-haired girl gave Zeke a cursory glance, then she turned around without so much as a moment’s hesitation, pulling Lilly away with her. Lilly glanced back over her shoulder with an apologetic smile before she was swallowed up by the crowd.

“Come see us!” Zeke called after her. He had no idea if Lilly heard, and anyway, she didn’t know where they were staying. He would have to tell her next time.

He looked around. Boards had been placed in front of the hall. Each displayed a list of names and their respective classes and meeting places. The titles read Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Others.

It didn’t take long for Zeke to find his name. Out of the over 300 students that had enrolled this year, only about 20 names could be found on the list of ‘Others’. He, alongside everybody on that list, had been placed in the same class, simply titled O-1. As if he needed any further reminders that he didn’t belong.

Listlessly, he plodded along to the designated meeting spot, occasionally asking for directions. But when he arrived at the classroom, his temporarily dampened mood had already improved significantly.

This would be his first proper Magic lesson — time to show those pampered children what he could do.