Free Web NovelChapter 27: Gate
The days before the expedition passed quickly.
I split my time three ways. Training in the early mornings, classes through the day, and the evenings divided between Kira at the library, Hart in the infirmary, and Cecilia at home.
Cecilia was the hardest of the three. Hanging around a step-sister who could freeze the air in a room by accident was its own kind of experience.
She’d become a fraction warmer since the gate-clearing night, in the sense that she now answered direct questions instead of staring coldly, but that was it. The frost still showed up under her chair every time I sat across from her at dinner. The eyes still went pale when I said something she didn’t like.
The System stayed quiet through most of the week except for the few choices that appeared.
The ones that did were small. A training drill in the courtyard one morning gave some attribute rewards.
An early morning conversation with Hart over the infirmary coffee maker gave a health potion.
Helping Kira carry a stack of books from the upper library shelves to her study table on Wednesday gave me an attribute distribution choice, three points spread however I wanted, and I dropped them all into Mana to keep the channel feeding the C-rank skill from going dry.
[ASH ROWAN]
[Class: Physical Enhancement]
[SP: 200]
[Rank: C]
[Strength: 105] [Agility: 77] [Stamina: 73] [Mana: 81]
[Skills: Afterimage Step (A) | Tempered Channels (D) | Buddha’s Palm (C)]
[Inventory: Core Improving Pill, D-Rank Gauntlet, D-Rank Armor, E-Rank Health Potion]
[Affection]
Kira — 71 / 100 (Drawn)
Hart — 65 / 100 (Charmed)
I closed the screen.
The courtyard of the academy was already filling out by the time I crossed it.
Every class from the E-rank rows up to the A-rank students had gathered in their assigned blocks, instructors at the head of each group. The S-rank students were at the front of the formation, standing apart with their own personal instructors at their sides. There were only four of them this year, the headcount that the academy boasted about in its recruitment brochures.
Cecilia was the centre one.
Her silver hair was down this morning, falling in a clean sheet all the way to the small of her back, almost to her buttocks.
The morning light landed on her hair and turned the ends pale. She wore the academy combat uniform in white, the colour reserved for the four S-ranks, and the man standing beside her in matte black was an instructor I’d never seen before.
Cecilia didn’t turn around when I walked past her block on my way to my own. She didn’t need to. The drop in temperature around me as I crossed the perimeter of her formation was greeting enough.
I smiled wryly, shaking my head at her greeting.
Lena was in the E-rank block further back. She stood at the edge of a small group, but the small group wasn’t including her in their conversation. Her arms were crossed. Her hair was pulled back in a tight braid that she hadn’t worn before.
Lena caught sight of me, looked at the ground, and didn’t look back up.
I found my own block near the rear of the courtyard.
Kira was already there. Tom Avery was beside her, his small frame nearly lost in the academy combat uniform, his hand wringing the strap of his bag. They’d staked out a corner of the assigned area. The other students milling around them were scattered solo bodies who hadn’t been picked by any team and were waiting to be redistributed.
I stopped beside Kira and looked across the empty space where two more bodies should have been standing.
"Nobody decided to join our team in the end, huh."
I smirked.
Kira gave me a sidelong look. "This isn’t funny."
Tom nodded. "I, I asked a couple of E-rankers yesterday. They all said they’d already committed to other groups. A few of them looked like they were lying about it."
"They were lying about it," Kira said.
"Yeah."
The instructor for our group today was not Soren, but a wiry woman in academy black named Mira whose specialty was field tactics, walked to the front of the assigned block and pulled out a tablet.
She scrolled through it with the impatience of someone who’d already done this five times this morning and had a sixth to get through before lunch.
She looked up.
"Listen up. Most of you have your teams. Hold your formation. Those of you who didn’t manage to get yourselves picked, you’ll be randomised into the existing teams that have open slots. Don’t complain, don’t argue, don’t request transfers. Whoever you get, you work with."
She tapped the tablet.
A holographic projection floated up off the screen, showing the team rosters in a clean grid with empty slots highlighted in pale red.
The instructor tapped the screen again.
Names started rolling into the empty slots, the academy’s randomisation algorithm doing its work in front of us. I watched the slot beside my name fill in.
LENA CASTILLE — TEAM 7 (ROWAN)
A small yelp came from across the courtyard.
I turned my head. frёeωebɳovel.com
Lena had been watching the projection over the heads of her group. She’d seen her name land in our team in the same second I had, and her face had drained of colour. Her arms uncrossed and one hand came up to cover her mouth. Her eyes flicked across the space between her block and ours, found me, and the colour didn’t come back.
I raised an eyebrow.
She’d been part of the popular cluster a week ago. I’d assumed her group would pick her up for the expedition first thing. The fact that she’d been dumped into the random pool at all meant her friends hadn’t put her in their roster, and the more I thought about it the more it tracked. The arena beating had taken the shine off her. Popularity in this place was thin, and getting publicly slapped around by an F-rank wasn’t the kind of thing that survived a peer review.
The remaining slot filled in a second later.
EDGAR HALE — TEAM 7 (ROWAN)
The boy who shuffled forward from the random pool was tall, gangly, an E-rank by his badge with a wind-element marking on his collar. He looked tired in the way some students looked tired, the way that meant he was carrying something at home. He glanced at our group, glanced at the floor, and made his way over without a word.
Lena hadn’t moved.
I crossed the open space between her block and ours.
She watched me come without lifting her eyes off my chest. Her hands were knotted in front of her now, fingers worrying at each other. Her braid had slipped a fraction during her shock and the fine strands at her temple were loose.
I stopped two paces in front of her.
"Welcome to the team."
She didn’t answer.
"Let’s forget the past." I kept my voice even. "Focus on the present. We’ve got a gate to walk through. I don’t want a fight inside the gate over something that happened last week. Are we good?"
Her eyes finally came up. They were red at the edges. She didn’t speak for a long moment, then nodded once, a small motion she barely got through.
"We’re good." Her voice was thin.
"Good."
I turned and walked back to my own block. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
Mia cleared her throat, "It’s time for your gate assignments."
