The next few hours were the longest moments of Elaina’s life, yet as she later thought over them it all seemed a blur that she could scarce remember. After Waine’s outburst, the crowd of new students couldn’t help but laugh, and not a chuckle like during the headmaster’s jokes either, but roaring laughter the likes of which Elaina had never heard before, and probably never would again. Alonse Stormshine beckoned her to return to her seat, so she did, carrying a lump in her chest heavier than anything she could have imagined. 

She sat there for the next hour as other students went up one by one to undergo their Awakening. She didn’t bother to listen to their aspects. They all had one, and that was all that mattered. When dinner was finally served by the same autonomous suit of armor she had seen guarding the gate earlier, she looked up, trying to make sense of the situation. The rest of her table ate silently, the only table doing so, as the rest of the hall chattered about during the feast. Ivis, Daly, and Nyla all struggled to hold back smirks as she glanced over them, while Waine held a furious glare at her, his eyes boring through her. She hadn’t had to look up to know he was angry though. He’d been right, after all.

Prisma only looked down, eating in complete silence, utterly composed, acting as if nothing had been amiss. Almost, anyway. Her eyes betrayed her as well, the shame, pity, and disappointment evident even to an Elaina whose own embarrassment had her in such a stupor she herself was barely conscious. 

Embarrassment wasn’t all though. Embarrassment, shame, humiliation even, Elaina was well used to, and she had her own ways of handling them. This was also loss. She’d resolved to remake herself at Endrin, to become better than anyone ever thought she could be. She knew she didn’t deserve the opportunity, that she hadn’t worked for it or earned it, but for a year, at least, she’d had the opportunity, had a future. 

It was gone. She was a dud, and she’d have to return home a dud. Could she even return home? She couldn’t afford passage. The academy had paid for her trip here, and now they owed nothing to her. And even if they would pay for it just to get her out of their sight, would she really be able to go back, endure the tormenting from her childhood friends, the gossip from the townspeople who’d always told her she’d never amount to anything, the disappointment from her parents?

Yes. That, at least, she could manage. 

Resigned, Elaina took a deep breath and began eating her food. It was exquisite, but tasted like mulch in her mouth. The tea served with it was elegance in a cup, but to her only tasted of mud. She barely noticed that a room key had been placed on the table with her dessert. Hah, at least they’re going to let me stay the night before throwing me out.

People slowly began trickling out of the hall after dessert was served. Elaina had thought there might be some speech from the headmaster before they were dismissed, but she supposed that he had already said something to them before dinner started, before she’d regained her small modicum of composure back. Eventually, her table began getting up too. Ivis first, then Daly and Nyla together. Finally, Waine stood up, grabbing Prisma by the arm as he did. “Come on, let’s go.” 

Prisma sat for just a moment, sparing a single glance at Elaina before nodding and standing up with them. Elaina wanted to speak, to say something. A thank you for the kindness, however short-lived. Elaina had never deserved it, but for a brief moment it had been offered. As long as the moment stretched in her mind though, the moment did end. Prisma walked away, arm in arm with Waine, and Elaina remained, alone. She drew in a deep breath and grabbed her key. I don’t even know where to go with this, she thought before pushing her chair back and standing up. 

“Excuse me, Miss,” a voice said from behind her. She twisted back and laid eyes once more on the man who would have been her headmaster, Alonse Stormshine. “Would you care to join me in my office for a moment?”

***

Elaina had expected even more opulence in the office of Alonse Stormshine, but it wasn’t to be found. The walls and flooring were still Endrin, of course, complete with the red carpet, but the desk at which he sat at across from her was normal, as normal as the one her mother had back home, maybe even less ornate, even if it the quality of construction betrayed that it was crafted by a better artisan. There were portraits of other people, headmasters of the past most likely, on the walls, and a large library of books, more books than Elaina had ever seen, but comparatively speaking it was the least extravagant room she’d been in since she left the inn that same morning.

“Now,” the headmaster said, opening a drawer from his desk and pulling out a glass. “How old are you, Elaina?”

She’d never given her name, but that seemed like the least of her worries right now. “Twenty, sir.”

“Good!” He placed the glass in front of her, then took out one for himself along with a bottle filled with amber liquid. “And your birthday?”

“Uhm, today, sir.” 

He nodded, smiling as he uncorked the bottle and poured drinks for the two of them, filling hers up just barely short of halfway, with his nearly to the brim. “I suspected it was today or tomorrow.” 

Elaina stared at the glass in front of her, wondering what she should do with it. “Is it okay for me to drink this?”

“Of course! You’re of age as of today, after all, legally speaking anyway,” he said as he took a long sip from his. He visibly relaxed as he did so, sinking back into the chair. While the desk was nothing close to ornate, the chair was indeed lavish, even more so than the dining room chairs from before. He had his vices, she supposed “Students still aren’t allowed to drink of course, but you’ve had quite a long day, so I’ll make an exception. And besides, you’re not technically a student.” 

Elaina froze as she was reaching for the cup, as if she was one of those automatons that had suddenly lost its magic. 

Stormshine laughed, waving her off. “Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t jest like that. I’ve always had bad taste in jokes, almost as bad as my taste in drinks.”

Elaina, still stunned, nodded, though she wasn’t sure what she was agreeing to. She took a sip from the glass, feeling thick liquid fire run down her throat. She choked what little had passed her lips down before slamming the glass on the table and coughing.

“I did warn you,” the headmaster said, finishing his drink off before pouring himself another full glass. “Now, first things first, you haven’t done anything wrong.”

“But-”

“You have done nothing wrong.” His voice was forceful again, like when he’d been speaking to the entire first year class, but the warmth she’d heard when she was on the platform was still there too. “This is a clerical error, a quite unfortunate one, but still just a clerical error.”

“I don’t have an aspect, though. How is that clerical?”

“You don’t have an aspect yet,” he said, taking another swig of what Elaina now assumed was brandy, “but you will.”

Elaina paused to think, taking another small sip of her own drink. She was twenty years old, twenty years old exactly, and even she knew that aspects presented at exactly your coming of age. She coughed slightly as she put her drink down, “If- if I am Aspected, shouldn’t it have awakened by now?”

The headmaster pursed his lips, staring at her with a raised eyebrow. “Technically, no, but it’s complicated.” He opened another drawer and brought out a small starmap. “You are star blessed, as you’ve been told, but the stars have been acting slightly strange lately. 

“Our astrology department has published papers on it, but it’s not yet widely known beyond academics. Your village’s head priest should know about it, but…” He trailed off, glancing at his cup. “I mean no offense, but we don’t expect much from your region in terms of Aspected individuals. It’s very possible that he wasn’t informed, or that if he was he didn’t pay attention to the papers, possibly didn’t even understand the implications.”

That last one sounded about right to Elaina, to be fair. It’s why she worried there may have been a mistake in the first place. “Uhm, right. But, what are you talking about?”

The man waved his hands towards the map, shaking his head back and forth. “To make a long story short, the stars aren’t in exactly the places they should be. We call it the Celestial Drift. In practical terms, over the last decade there have actually been a total of two extra days than there are on our yearly calendars. Meaning that even though you are legally an adult, as I said, astrologically, you have two days left until your birthday.”

Two days. Because the gods had decided to pull some strange celestial prank, Elaina was two days short of her Awakening. And two days short of the enrollment deadline as well. “So… I can’t attend Endrin this year, but next year I can?”

“Nonsense,” Stormshine said, downing his second glass. He glanced at the bottle for a moment before shaking his head and capping it off, returning both to the drawer in his desk. “As I said, this is not your fault. Technically you’re correct, that you shouldn’t be here at all yet, but I’m not about to send you back home over something like this. I’ve written to my idiot brother a number of times over the last five years to officially do something about the calendars, but he’s more concerned with frivolities than accurate record keeping.

“Besides, the weekend is tomorrow. Your birthday, as far as the gods are concerned anyway, is in just two days, the day before classes start. We’ll have a special redo Awakening then just for you, and everything will be sorted.” He smiled at her. The lump in her chest finally faded away, and she started to cry. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying now.”

“No no, it’s alright, you’re alright.” He placed his hands across the desk on hers, waiting for her to finish crying. She wasn’t sure if it was a minute or an hour, but he waited as long as she needed. “You should probably get some rest now.”

Elaina nodded, about to get up before she remembered something. “Earlier, you said the other students had— well, you said they hadn’t done it, but it was obvious they did…”

“Ah, yes.” With a flourish, the crystal that had been used for the Awakening appeared again above the desk. “This isn’t the only one of these devices. It not only triggers an Awakening, but also detects the aspect of anyone who is already awakened. They’re not cheap to come by, but the wealthy students, the vast majority of the students here, well, it’s well within their price range to rent for a night. It is illegal, of course, but I’d say a good ninety percent of the students here have already had their Awakenings, unofficially.”

“Oh,” Elaina said. It was that simple, of course. Money bought everything, she knew that, but to be so casual about breaking the law…

“I guess I should warn you. Those who have already unofficially awakened didn’t just check their aspects. They’ve been practicing. Some are about your age and have barely had a few weeks of it, but others are nearly a year older than you.”

“So, I’m behind.”

The headmaster paused for a moment, stunned by the sudden bluntness. “Yes, you’re behind. But they won’t have been doing intense study. They can’t go about practicing in public, and getting Endrin-quality teachers will have been out of the question. All the teachers of that caliber have been here, of course, teaching last year’s freshmen.”

Elaina nodded, determined. “But I have work to do.”

“Yes. But as I said, that can wait. For now, go get some rest.”

Elaina finished off her drink, placing the glass back on the table, only sputtering out a small cough this time. “Thanks for that. I think it helped. And for everything else, Headmaster Stormshine.”

“No no,” he said, standing up to guide her to the exit. “Just ‘Headmaster’ is fine, or ‘Headmaster Alonse’ if you must. Stormshine is such a terrible, gaudy name, don’t you think?” His mouth broke into a wide grin as he opened the door, slightly yellowed teeth baring at her. 

“Oh, al-alright, Headmaster Alonse. Have a good night.” She bowed her head as she exited, then headed off down the hallway.

Idiot brother, terrible name. Two statements that were borderline treason. The man was warm, kind even, Elaina could tell, but there was something about him that was slightly off. She was happy he would spare her the ordeal of waiting another year back home, but there was something strange about the man. 

That would have to wait though, because it was late, and she was tired. And she also realized she still had no idea where her room was.