Who's Honestly Prepared

Lena, sixteen, tried not to be in the back of the march as the girls passed through the gate, but she certainly didn’t feel like she should be in the front. She heard the warning in the headmistress's voice loud and clear, but what the older woman didn’t get was that going home was never an option. When the school first approached her, home had not been happy. They had bragged, of course. Told their neighbors that their sweet Lena had been selected for the Royal Academy, but when the doors closed, they looked at her as if she was a great trickster.

​“I don’t see what’s so special about you,” Her father had said. “Your grades are middling. You act like you’re too weak for housework. You can’t cook worth a damn.” Just shot after shot. “Are we sure this isn’t some sort of joke?” He had turned to her mother, who busied herself with unnecessary dusting.

​“I just don’t get it,” she said after a moment. “Tell me what you did? Tell me how you convinced them to take you in. I know my daughter, Lena. You are nothing like a Royal.”

​Her father had laughed at that. She was eight at the time. The Royal Academy had been more than what she needed, and she would have stayed here forever if she could. But if the choice was between going home and going through an ominous gate? Well… she had already made it, hadn’t she? It was too late to turn back either way, as they reached the end of the hall.

​Three doors waited for them in the room ahead, and the girls around her started chattering. She might have been talking too if she could find any of her friends, but she had lost them during the walk, and kind of didn’t want to trouble them in the end.

​“All right, listen up!” A voice called over the chatter.

​The crowd parted, and the speaker stepped forward, standing like the headmistress before the three doors. Tall and blond with fiery red eyes, Amelia was the girl who silenced the gathering because she was the only girl who could. It wasn’t just popularity; it was prestige, and that prestige demanded attention. Amelia was the daughter of an alumnus and had spent her time at the academy proving it.

​“The headmistress didn’t tell us the whole truth. The trial is dangerous, but if you stay in this room you will be able to survive. In my opinion, you should stay in this room unless your Astra control is where it should be.” She folded her arms, giving no room for argument. “Raise your hand if you can sense Astra!"

​Lena raised hers, as well as most of the girls. Sensing Astra was one of the first things they learned. Only the smaller girls kept their hands down and lowered their heads to follow.

​“Raise your hand if you can manifest your raiment!”

​Some of the hands dropped, but Lena still had hers up. Their raiments granted them incredible power. Increased speed, strength, durability, and passive regeneration. Without them, you could barely make it to class the next day.

​“Lastly, raise your hand if you can cast spells or make starlight weapons.”

​Slowly, regrettably, she had to put her hand down. A lot of them did. Even though they were technically in the same class, they weren’t at the same level. A raiment was at least connected to your body. Spells and starlight weapons required you to hold Astra in your hands.

​“If your hand is down,” Amelia went on, “stay behind. Go home, honestly, and hope you get recruited elsewhere. It might take a few years, but none of us came here at the same age anyway.”

​“Some of us won’t be recruited! We’ll be too old!” A girl cried out.

​“Then you were already at the end of the line anyway!” Amelia barked back. “No student remains here past twenty-years-old. I’m seventeen. How old are you?”

​The girl in the crowd didn’t answer. Amelia didn’t seem to care.

​“Eighteen? Sixteen? Twelve? We all had the same eight years! If you’ve been lagging behind for that long, how much longer did you think you’d get?”

​Lena wanted to say something, anything, but the words weren’t coming to her. Still, it wasn’t fair that Amelia was talking. Her mother had been training her since she was small. She had tons of advantages, while a lot of them had come from homes that didn’t know what Astra was.

​“Amy, you’re being too much,” a different girl managed to say.

​She stepped out of the crowd, her long black hair falling to her waist, her purple eyes shining despite the tension. Kyoka, another daughter of an alumnus. Lena had seen the two girls interact before, but never like this. Kyoka was smiling, but Amelia looked like she wanted to fight.

​“We’re spoiled, you know that. A lot of them aren’t. We need to be leading by example, not tearing them down.”

​“I am leading by example. I’m the example they should strive for. They could have studied my notes, asked me for advice, or even asked me to train them. Some of them did. Why didn’t the rest?”

​Kyoka laughed. “Because you act like this?”

​Amelia growled. “I act like what we all need.”

​“We don’t need you tearing people down. They’re scared enough.”

​“They should be! This is life or death!”

​Kyoka let out a sigh, and Amelia let out a huff.

​“Listen,” Amelia said, turning back to the rest of the girls.

Lena only then realized that some still had their hands up.

Amelia pointed out four of them. “You’re coming with me. It’s better to face the trial as a team than to face it alone.” She turned back to the rest of them. “If you’re going to be stupid enough to keep going, I suggest you do the same. Pick good people. You don’t want to carry dead weight on your back.”

​Finally, she headed towards one of the doors. It opened and closed without ceremony, and Lena pulled away from the crowd. Chatter had started up again. The better students were pairing up. Kyoka started talking to the leftovers, and Lena just found a wall where she could be overwhelmed.

​This was too much already, making her wonder if going home would really be that bad…