Chapter 3

She couldn't predict how she'd react to the things Alisha mentioned. They were too far outside her normality to provoke a substantial reaction other than a foreboding sadness. A sadness at the words themselves—for Alisha to say those words and how many she lost for them to be said.

However, her decision remained firm. After being told there was a threat to herself and, more importantly, her loved ones and race, there was no conceivable reason she would decline. Furthermore, it was magic. As Alisha said, could anything scare her away?

Rather than depression or anger, Anna felt something else.

Hope and desire.

She could become a part of the solution.

"I'm still joining," she mumbled, her hand atop her beating heart. "How can I not?"

"'How', indeed." Alisha shook her head, and her voice was normal again. "Forgive my crude methods. I've never been very good with words that aren't my own."

"Clearly." Anna returned to packing her suitcase. "It's fine, I get why you did it."

As for how she'd feel seeing her future peers get hurt? Well, she'd just have to prevent that from happening by becoming powerful enough. Maybe even learn some healing magic.

"You're an odd one, Annabelle Frost."

Anna scoffed. "If I got a dime every time someone said that to me," she said derisively.

Alisha left the chair and returned it to Anna's desk. Without glancing back at Anna, she said, "Maybe you'd have enough break free from your parent's position."

Anna froze. "What... did you just say?"

She must have misheard.

Alisha giggled like what she just said was a childish joke. "Someone will be here for you in a few hours tops; classes start tomorrow, and you'll probably see me at orientation… Or not." She shrugged. "Depends how I feel."

"You bitch!" Anna spat, but Alisha was gone. So was the violet hue as her computer continued the video she had on. She angrily tossed her last shirt into the suitcase and clicked her tongue, not that anyone was there to hear it.

After confirming she was alone by even checking the balcony, Anna returned to packing. She might have been overdoing it, but she didn't know what to expect! Unless they had magic-resisting clothes, it was better to have a lot.

She finished packing the last few items slowly as Alisha's words rang in her head on repeat, a grim reminder that the world of magic wasn't all magnificent exploration and power.

Oddly enough, it didn't frighten her one bit.

Possibly because it was too difficult to fathom such a concept as world destruction outside of fiction. The only images Anna could conjure were video-gamey creatures such as goblins, trolls, and slimes. It would be worse, but she'd deal with that when it came.

Bastion's existence meant hope, and she wanted to be a part of that. If anything, Alisha's words just created that desire within her.

She wouldn't die, she wouldn't let her new friends die, and she sure as hell wouldn't sit by and accept her race's annihilation.

After a few more carefully selected choices, Anna sealed her suitcase and pulled it off the bed.

"And now I'm ready!" She pulled out the handle and slid it to the front door before falling on her couch. All she had to do was the hard part—waiting.

As if God decided that Anna didn't deserve to suffer in silence, the doorbell rang before she could even flip the TV on.

"Coming!" she shouted like an eager child. It hadn't even been an hour since Alisha left!

She whipped that door open with her stuff already in her hands, ready to leave immediately.

"Hello! Are you— woah."

The most breathtaking woman Anna had ever seen stood outside her door, looking down at her from her towering height.

Short, snow-white hair and eyes like cold amber made her look straight from a video game. Her face was as stoic as they come, with the only noticeable change being a minuscule raise in her brow when she looked down at Anna from her height of at least half a foot over her.

Trying to decipher what was behind those amber eyes seemed like the greatest puzzle in the world. A rarity for Anna, who considered herself adept at deciphering people.

However, the true weird feature, and the one that cemented the situation as outlandish, was the long katana strapped to the woman's black light cargo pants.

Those pants and sleeveless white turtleneck, along with the long katana and her stoic appearance made the woman look like a mix between a stone-cold businesswoman and a modern-day warrior.

Anna closed her jaw, her face hot after realizing it was agape. She cleared her throat. "H-hello?"

"If you're done ogling me, then we can leave."

Her sound was almost precisely what Anna expected, low and commanding with a stoic grace yet pleasant, like polished marble.

Anna dipped her head and said, "Sorry, you just stand out waaay~ too much."

"Is that it?" Her eyes went toward Anna's suitcase, packed to the brim with her essentials—easily seeable from the slight bulge in it. The slight brow raise returned. "Let's go."

"I feel like you're making fun of me." Anna composed herself, but it was difficult to maintain with such a bizarre sight before her. "I'm totally ready, though!"

"I'm not; the gate closes soon." She didn't wait, already turned around toward the elevator.

"S-so soon?! Wait… gate?"

"Yes."

Anna checked her pockets for her keys.

Upon confirmation she had them, she shut her door and locked it. That would be the last time she heard that click for likely years. Waves of sorrow flooded her body, a sense of loss didn't think she would feel.

However, she had no time to mellow in it.

"I will leave you," the woman said, her voice coming from by the elevator.

"Coming!!"

Despite seemingly rushing her, the lady didn't push for the elevator until Anna pried her eyes off her door. A gesture that didn't go unnoticed.

Anna shoved her suitcase in first, then watched as the elevator doors sealed her vision of her door, the home she lived in for half her life. It wasn't forever, but it sure felt like that.

The lady hit the button for the roof, and they went up in silence. She wasn't much of a conversationalist, so all Anna could listen to was the mechanical sound of the elevator as they went upward.

But that didn't last long.

After a few floors, Anna couldn't hold her tongue any longer. "So... what's your name?" she asked hesitantly.

"Aria."

"Pretty name. I'm Annabelle."

"Thank you... you, too." It sounded awkward like she wasn't used to returning gestures.

And that was all Anna needed to get a preliminary grasp of Aria's character.

She felt more emboldened to speak. "What is the gate?"

"A portal to the academy— get ready."

"What?"

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open a second later.

However, the roof wasn't what she saw through those doors. It was a swirling silver vortex emitting a loud hum and rays of silver light.

"No time to admire it."

"Wai-"

Aria pulled Anna's hand into the portal with her.filled with spires, large windows, and interconnected towers. It looked even grander than just a medieval castle—even too grand to call it a King's palace.

In the center of the island—the middle of the castle—was a large, octagonal tower that pierced the clouds. Presumably, the top of that building held the command center. The people responsible for the Academy and those responsible for her fate! Perhaps even the highest authority in the magic world.

Could she be in that building one day?

"That is the primary building, the headquarters for Bastion's operations on Earth," Aria explained. Anna's confidence in Aria's char

acter grew with each passing moment—how she took on the role of tour guide unprompted. The cold woman was actually quite warm!