Year End Examination

 

The Verdant Dawn Academy was abuzz with tension.

 

The end-term exams loomed over the students like a guillotine, and fear was the dominant emotion in the air.

 

Some students hadn't slept in days. Others clutched their textbooks like lifelines, whispering prayers to every deity they could think of.

 

Alaric, on the other hand, was perfectly calm.

 

"You're not worried at all, are you?" a fellow student groaned, dark circles under his eyes.

 

Alaric offered a polite smile. "I've been a little busy."

 

A little busy. Right. The guy had only revolutionized communication, sent nobles scrambling to curry favor, and somehow still managed to be the academy's star student.

 

But what Alaric didn't know—what he couldn't know—was that he wasn't the only one carrying a secret.