The Garden of Athermane

Although the lines were long, time seemed to pass quickly; perhaps thanks to Mia’s growing anticipation. Before she knew it, only one person stood ahead of her. In the line beside hers, just two people remained: a boy teetering somewhere between nervous excitement and full-blown panic, and a girl who had been giving Mia strange looks ever since she arrived. That girl radiated arrogant boredom, the kind that said, “I don’t belong here. My time is worth more than this.”

When the two students ahead finally left the room, the stranger took her sweet time, slowly dragging her eyes up and down Mia’s body in a way that felt deliberately provocative. Mia noticed, of course. It was rude, but she chose not to overreact. Instead, she calmly locked eyes with the girl, just long enough to memorize her face. Best to avoid crossing paths again if she could help it.

Mia’s gaze briefly flicked between the girl's hair and eyes, unsure which stood out more.

The eyes won.

They were an intense silver cold and pale, like the blade of a sword. Then came the hair. The girl was a redhead too, but while Mia’s hair leaned toward a warm, orange-copper tone and flowed in soft waves down to her hips, this girl’s was red tinged with hot pink, straight and sleek, falling just past her shoulders.

“Keep your gaze down, girl.”

“Only if you keep yours,” Mia shot back, taken aback by her shamelessness “Why do you keep staring at me like that?”

The girl smirked: it was the first time Mia had seen any other emotion cross her face.

“I was curious about you, last girl. The teachers delayed opening the doors, hoping a few more hours might give you time to wake up.”

“Oh.” Gaia had not informed her about that.

“You shouldn’t have.” Her smirk disappeared. “If you’d stayed asleep, you wouldn’t have to feel the pain and humiliation of losing to me. You could’ve gone back to your filthy old world, never knowing there was another way.”

Who does this bitch think she’s talking to?

“Losing to you?” Mia blinked. “Wait, since when are we supposed to go on a fight?”

The girl couldn't help but let out a chuckle at her complete lack of awareness.

“Esten didn’t tell you what’s really going on?”

“Hum… No? He just said to wait our turn in the garden... and that the horses would choose us.”

“Hmph. So he didn’t tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“That only one of us is going to be chosen.” As the girl leaned in, Mia caught sight of a small slit in her left eyebrow. “The pair enters the garden together. But only one leaves with a horse. The other…” she paused, letting the weight of her words hang in the air. “The other is useless. And you know what happens to useless people.” A wicked smile clung to her lips.

"Great," Mia muttered sarcastically, using dry humor as a shield against everything crashing down inside her. In fact, fear wasn’t the first emotion that hit her : it was betrayal. Gaia and that annoyingly short teacher hadn’t said a word about the selective nature of this process. Nothing. But then she remembered the other faces in line, all nervous and anxious. Maybe they’d kept it vague on purpose... to spare her the weight of dreading something she couldn’t change. Before she could overthink it further, a voice pulled her back to the moment.

"Last girls. You’re up."

A man (this time much taller than her) swung the doors open, and light flooded the room. Mia squinted, and what she saw outside made her forget how tense her shoulders were. A garden, wild and breathtaking, stretched beyond the doorway. Towering trees unlike any she’d ever seen stood in full bloom, their leaves glowing faintly in strange colors. Species she couldn’t name — maybe even ones that didn’t exist in her old world.

But she didn’t let her eyes linger too long on the scenery. What truly caught her attention were the horses. Massive creatures, much taller and more muscular than any back home, grazed peacefully in the grass. Their coats shimmered in impossible colors — blue, pink, lavender, glowing gold, and even one as red as Gaia’s fur. Each one looked like it had stepped out of myths and bedstories her father read to her.

But Mia noticed something particular. There were way too many horses for such a smaller number of riders who waited earlier. So… could it be that some of them wouldn’t choose a rider at all? They would rather stay riderless?

The man, who had opened the doors and introduced himself quickly as Professor Aze, raised a hand, pointing to the middle of the grass, where stood a white podium.

"Welcome to the Garden of Athermane. You will proceed to the platform and take your places, standing back to back. Do you see the hourglass upon the pedestal?"

Both girls nodded. The sand sat still in the bottom bulb, untouched.

"When I flip it over, your trial will begin. Once the last grain falls, you are to step down — regardless of whether a steed has chosen you or not. Take this.” Each girl was handed a pale, unfamiliar fruit. To Mia, it resembled an apple in shape, but its scent was strange: sweet, yet tinged with something sour she couldn’t name. "You are to hold it gently in both hands and wait. If a horse accepts the offering and consumes it, then it has chosen you. If none approach, then you shall eat the fruit yourself. That will mark the end of your trial. Good luck"

A cocky smirk tugged at the corners of the other girl’s mouth. She leaned in close to Mia and whispered, smugly, “Yeah... good luck.”

She spun on her heel and marched ahead, but Mia wasn’t about to let her get the last word. She grabbed the girl’s shoulder, pulled her back, and whispered right back:

"Good luck."