Chapter 6

"Get moving," Henry said. "They're watching you."

Four stares burned into Damien's face as he made his way back to the group of students. Dross, however, seemed largely unimpressed. He finished writing and snapped his notebook shut.

"You're lucky to have successfully completed a summon on your own," Dross said. "It wouldn't be the first time it's happened, but it's stupid and dangerous. We're done here.

There will be further tests, but not today. You have all displayed sufficient talent to be accepted into a mage college."

"That was a given," Nolan said, recovering from the shock of seeing Damien nearly perform as well as he had.

"Did we get into Kingsfront?"

Dross turned a cold eye to Nolan.

"First years are sent to a college at random. These testing results are for your own information not mine. The data will be sent to you so you can get an accurate reading of your abilities. If you wish to apply to a more prestigious mage college, you may do so at the end of your first year.

Be aware there are strict requirements for entry, and not a single one of you is anywhere near meeting them at the moment."

Nolan's eyes bugged out.

"Not even close?" he protested. "How is that possible?"

"Welcome to college, Gray," Dross replied. "You aren't the big fish in the pond anymore. You aren't even a guppy.

Now, don't look too sad. If you all keep your wits about you and work as hard as you can, you might even pass your first year."

With that comforting piece of advice, Dross returned the book to a holster at his side and gestured for them to follow as he headed back toward the portal.

As he walked, a rectangle of white fire traced itself into the air before him. With a crackle, the air peeled away, and Dross reached into the white box, pulling out a slip of parchment.

"And would you look at that. Right on time," Dross said.

"Your college has been assigned. The five of you will all be attending Blackmist for your first year. You will receive a bracelet when you arrive. It will contain information about your current abilities and will update live based on your progress…or regression."

"Wait, the five of us?" Nolan asked, glancing at Damien.

"I thought you said it was random?"

"It is. We sort by wagons to make things easier.

Generally, students within the wagons already know each other as they're from the same area. You five just happen to be an abnormality. If I cared, I would apologize. Now, get in the portal."

The blue light swirling in the stone arch behind them shimmered, turning a grayish black. Damien felt a slight suction force coming out of it, drawing him in slowly.

Mark was the first to hop through it. Nolan and Reena followed after him, with Damien and Sylph.

This time, Damien was ready for the teleportation. His foot landed on what looked to be obsidian brick seamlessly.

He braced himself. Then doubled over and threw up. Turns out, being ready for something doesn't mean you can deal with it.

Damien groaned, wiping his mouth. Before he could even avert his eyes from the vomit on the ground, it vanished. The young man looked up into the cold eyes of a mage in black leather and chain armor. He had a clean-shaven face and short hair.

"It's a long-distance teleport," the mage said. "You aren't the first person to throw up, and you won't be the last."

"Thanks," Damien said, straightening. He took no small degree of pleasure in noting Nolan and Reena looked just as disoriented as he did. Mark and Sylph looked better, but their faces were still pale.

They stood in a large obsidian-tiled courtyard. A massive mountain range surrounded the yard, rising high into the sky on every side and casting them all in shade. The world looked like it was drawn in hues of gray.

"Tread carefully," Henry said, his words cold and lacking the sarcastic tone Damien had gotten used to. "This college is covered in wards. Since we've both got a vested interested in you not dying, you must not reveal my true nature. Mortals will not hesitate to kill you if they discover the truth of who I am."

With that cheery piece of information, Damien felt Henry withdraw into the depths of his mind. All around them, other students popped into existence. Damien couldn't tell exactly how many other groups appeared, as the courtyard was quite large and could have held several hundred people without difficulty, but he guessed there were probably fifteen to twenty other parties of students.

"You five were tested by Dross, right?" the mage asked.

"We were," Nolan said. "I'm Nolan Gray, and this—" "I know who you are," the mage interrupted. "And, frankly, I'd drop your last name. Nobody cares who you are.

Blackmist is at the edge of the continent and just barely under the mage queen's reign. If you want to learn politics, you'd best hope to transfer Goldsilk or Kingsfront. Just survive your first year, and you'll be fine."

The mage traced a circle in the air. He reached inside and pulled out a bundle of metal rings. He checked before handing one out to them in turn.

"Put these on and take a glance at your information," the mage instructed. "That should keep you occupied until everyone arrives and the campus tour begins. I've got to go hand more bracelets out and disappear vomit so, best of luck."

With that, a shadow passed over the man's face. It enveloped his body, turning him darker until he was practically pitch black. Then he sank into the ground and disappeared.

Henry shifted, stirring from his idle observation of Damien and his surroundings. A moment later, he faded like smoke from a dying candle.

He reappeared, floating within a black abyss. Miniscule stars in the far distance moved to and fro in a mesmerizing pattern, slowly forming into an enormous face. It looked down at Henry with an expressionless gaze.

There were no words spoken. Henry looked at his chest, where a small mote of light shimmered. Unlike the stars, this light shimmered with a warm glow. A cold wind blew past Henry's face, carrying the distinct air of distaste.

"He appears to be impressionable," Henry said. "The boy has not stopped to wonder why we seek the destruction of the Mortal Plane if it is the only thing that gives us entertainment. With a little more work, he will do as I say without question."

The air around Henry grew cold. He had no skin, but the outer edges of his body grew impossibly cold as his very soul was chilled to the core. The face contorted, its brow lowering ever so slightly in anger.

"We are one and the same. There's no reason to react like that," Henry said, unperturbed by the cold. "We designed me to be like this. You can't complain about our own handiwork. If I was to act normally, the boy would never trust me."

The growing chill relented, but the face looked no less pleased. A moment later, even though it seemed as though they hadn't spoken, Henry flickered.

"The others didn't completely make it? How is that possible? Either they're on the Mortal Plane or they aren't," Henry said. "I'll investigate. I just need to wait for the boy to give me permission to leave. It shouldn't be too hard to get once he's tired."

After a final, miniscule inclination, the head exploded back into stars that flew across the sky, vanishing into the darkness and casting the world into shadows. Henry vanished, reappearing within Damien's mind once more, a pensive frown on his many mouths.

"That wasn't dramatic at all," Mark said, rolling his eyes at where the man had melted into the ground. He slipped the band over his wrist without hesitation. His eyes zoned out as he focused on something in the air before him.

Damien inspected the band. It was covered with miniscule runes. They were so small he could barely make them out. He recognized a few of them, but it was borderline impossible to tell what they were doing. With a shrug, Damien put it on. The metal was cold against his wrist. Nothing happened. He reached out with a tendril of mental energy.

The moment his mind touched the metal, light flashed across his vision. Numbers and words etched themselves into the air at the bottom left edge of Damien's vision. He had to keep himself from glancing to check if anyone else could see what was happening.

"It's all in your mind," Henry confirmed. "And, for the record, it's quite invasive. This little thing knows just about everything about you. I've kept myself hidden from it, so you can keep up our little lie about me being from the Plane of Darkness."

Good.

Damien glanced at the numbers at the corner of his vision. The moment his attention was on them, they rose in front of him and enlarged until they were the size of a large sheet of paper.

Damien Vale Blackmist College Year One Major: Undecided Minor: Undecided Companion: [Null] Magical Strength: 3.4 Magical Control: .5 Magical Energy: 8 Physical Strength: .2 Endurance: .3 "How can they just stick a number on my abilities? All they have to go off is what Dross said," Damien said, forgetting to think silently within his own head.

"They don't," Mark said. "It's more of an estimate, but I've heard the mages administering tests are incredibly accurate."

"This is just the basic version, if I'm not mistaken," Reena said. "You can get better versions that have some powerful enchantments on them. Teleportation within campus walls is a common one."

Damien blinked furiously, trying to dismiss the floating paper from his vision. It didn't budge. He frowned and swiped at the air, trying to wave it away. To his surprise, the page vanished, returning to a tiny dot at the corner of his sight.

"That's some really advanced rune work," Damien said.

"This must be really expensive."

Nolan scoffed at that, but Damien ignored him. Mark just shrugged in response.

"Probably," he said. "I don't really get how money works. I haven't had much of a chance to use it."

Before Damien could ask what the boy meant, a powerful gale swept through the square. Gentle purple light washed over the crowd as a woman appeared on a translucent platform above them. She wore a cloak made of a motley mix of purple and black that somehow looked garish and fashionable at the same time. For some reason, the woman had two large metal gauntlets on her hands.

"Greetings, new students of Blackmist!" the woman called. Her voice was rich and powerful, with an unmistakable edge of authority. "I'm the acting dean for this year. The previous one is currently off in the Wastes looking for a new weapon after he broke his last one over the head of a devourer beast."

That elicited excited chattering that the woman silenced with a single sharp glance.

"If you don't know what that is, well, there's a reason we've got a general library. You'll be spending a lot of time there, so you might as well get started early. Now, you may refer to me as Dean or Dean Whisp. I've been informed I'm to lead a tour of our main facilities so, please, brace yourselves."

Damien didn't get a chance to wonder what she meant.

Henry snarled, and Damien felt the companion's presence condense into a miniscule dot within his mind. Moments later, the world twisted around him, and the young man launched upward. He flew into the air against his will, and his vision seemed to shimmer.

A cold gaze passed over him, threatening to bare the contents of his soul. The feeling remained for a few moments before vanishing. With a start, Damien realized he was looking down on a crowd of students staring blanky into the air.

"For many of you, this is the first taste of real magic," Dean Whisp said. "I won't be telling you what my companion is, but it's from the Plane of Stars and gives me access to Astral Magic. You're currently experiencing something called induced astral projection. Fear not, your bodies will be perfectly safe. Better yet, you'll find yourselves all unable to speak, so we can get this over with nice and quickly. Come along."

Dean Whisp floated into the air, her cloak rippling around her. Damien's vision went along with her as they left the crowd of bodies in the courtyard.

As the dean flew higher, Damien saw the buildings surrounding the courtyard. They were all of different shapes and sizes, but most of his attention was on the enormous mountains surrounding them.

They were much bigger than he had originally thought.

They dwarfed the school and surrounded it on every side.

There seemed to be thousands of small dots carved into the walls, but it was difficult to make out many details.

"We'll start with the mountains surrounding us," Dean Whisp said. "These are where the majority of students live.

The mountains are rich with Ether, which will increase the speed of your magical growth. I'm sure your teachers will go more into that."

The dean shot at the ground. Damien wished he could feel the air rushing past him, but the only sense the dean had brought along with her was sight. Even so, the reminder that he was such a small part of the world was a humbling thought.

Within his mind, Henry scoffed. The boy's realization couldn't have been farther from the Eldritch creature's thoughts, which were almost the exact opposite.

The dean arrived before an enormous gray building within only a few seconds. Great pillars of marble held up tall, beautifully carved roof. In fact, the entire building was one giant tapestry of stone art.

Two massive stone doors at the front of the building towered over them. They must have been nearly two stories high. They sat open, revealing an equally massive library behind them.

"This is the general library," Dean Whisp said. "It's got all sorts of things that will help you in your classes. You'll be paying it a visit later today, after your rooms have been assigned."

She launched into the air once more, forcing Damien to tear his eyes away from the huge building. He tried to turn and get a better look at it, but it was impossible. The woman had complete control of him.

"Absolutely not," Henry said. "I know everything there is to know. I highly doubt some measly little library would hold any information I can't already teach you. I do not want to spend another year of boredom inside the musty walls of some stupid building."

Damien didn't reply. He was already envisioning the countless runes stored within the great library, just waiting for him to learn them.

"Don't you want to cast real magic?" Henry asked. "I can give you access to powers your compatriots can only dream of, but you want to study…writing?"

Why can't I have both?

There was a pause. Then Henry's laugh echoed through Damien's mind.

"That's the attitude, boy. The world is at your fingertips.

Never accept compromise. We'll make a conqueror of you yet."

Damien would have winced if he were still in his body.

Anything the Void creature approved of was probably not something he should be doing. He mentally shoved Henry away as the dean arrived before the next building. It was long and rectangular, with an obsidian-plated roof that curled upward at the edges.

"This is the mess hall," the dean said. "If you need to eat for free, this is where you'll go. Of course, you may also cook in your rooms. That's actually advisable, especially if you want to become a combat mage. Again, I'm sure your teachers will go into it, and I can't be bothered to explain."

She flew off again, this time coming to a stop only a few blocks away from the mess hall. The building below them was not much more than a large house. It was made of wood and stone, with a small, quaint-looking door and a single window at the front.

"Student service building," Dean Whisp explained. "In case you've got problems with the college. It's empty, by the way. I'm just contractually obligated to show it to you."

She brought them to the other side of campus, coming to a stop before a large stone building that resembled the library. The carvings were just as intricate and impressive but had more carvings of human mages and their companions. It was slightly smaller than the library and had several men patrolling it. They glanced up when the dean arrived but returned to their duties shortly after.

"This is the Treasure Pavilion," the dean said, gesturing to it. "The school will periodically assign quests for you to complete. Many of them offer rewards that can be claimed from the Pavilion. When I was a student, it was my favorite building on campus."

A smile tugged at her lips, and she flew a short distance away, stopping at a large arch with a glowing black portal swirling inside it.

"This is the portal to the Central Courtyard, in which you are all currently sitting. The courtyard has portals to just about every other area on campus, including the mountains, a large forest outside the college, and several other fun locations I'm sure you'll come to learn of.

However, none of them paid enough to get put into my contract, so I'm not giving them any of my time."

The dean took to the sky once again. She rocketed back over to the Central Courtyard. Once she hovered above their bodies, Damien's mind lurched. His vision twisted as he was practically hurled back into his fleshy form.

His stomach twisted and he heaved. Luckily, he'd already thrown up, so nothing came out. Damien groaned and looked into the sky, where the dean was already receding into the distance.

"Nice lady," he muttered.

Nolan grunted in agreement. Then he realized he was supposed to dislike Damien and crossed his arms, turning his nose up and looking away.