Amber

The written exam ended and I returned to the hideout.

I couldn’t sit still, but we didn’t have any jobs coming up. No preparations to be done, let alone a heist. We had to wait for Wei to sell the salts we’d gotten from the train. This left me to walk around the hideout looking angry, annoying the rest of the gang with my impatience. I couldn’t help it. I’d never done an exam.

My new companion, the black blotch on my skin, called herself Xandria, short for Alexandria. She didn’t make waiting easier. ‘Think you passed? I think you did.’ In her own words, Xandria was an Entity from the Dusk who’d bound herself to me. She could now travel across my skin like a mobile tattoo. How? Neither of us knew. Did it grant me the new magic? Most likely. Did that make me like having her around? No.

I tried soap, scrubbing, and sandpaper. My skin got clean, red, and then really red, but Xandria remained unaffected. I tried my knife, drawing a tiny dot among Xandria’s dark form, but she didn’t seem to process pain. Maybe if I skinned myself I’d be free of her, but that plan had a couple drawbacks.

‘Why me?’ I groaned.

‘Right place, right time,’ Xandria replied. She had an energetic, eager voice. ‘I think you’ll make for a good host, though. How better to acquire knowledge of humans than through a child?’

‘I’m not a child.’

‘Aspiring adult, then.’

‘Why are you so interested? And since when did Entities talk?’

‘Your first question is like if I asked you why you get hungry. Of the second…I have no idea. When did you start?’

I didn’t remember, but that wasn’t my point. Entities didn’t talk. Attempts to communicate with them led to bloodshed. That’s why I hadn’t told anyone. They’d freak out. I would, in their place. But Entities also didn’t bind to people’s skin, so I shouldn’t have assumed Xandria would be like regular Entities. She wasn’t all bad, either.

During the exam, for example:

After Xandria first made herself known, I’d gotten overwhelmed with shakes and sweating. But I didn’t need my body to work, only my mind. Wei had a contact in Vandagriff who provided us answers for the entire multiple choice section. Those sixty questions would nearly secure a passing grade. So I shut my eyes and mouthed a song Stefan and I had made to memorise the answers. That way I rapidly filled out the multiple choice section, confident I hadn’t missed marks. Good, I thought with a sigh. I couldn’t do mathematics, but a useless skill like memorising a bunch of letters came easily to me.

‘The girl next to you keeps looking over,’ Xandria whispered. I scowled and shielded my papers. ‘She’s not trying to cheat.’ The coldness transferred from one side to another, like a block of ice sliding between my shoulders. ‘In fact, she’s getting almost all the answers correct, but she keeps erasing them.’

‘How do you know?’ I mouthed.

‘Knowledge is sunlight and I am Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis.’

I flipped to the next section. ‘Tell me the answers.’

‘That is called cheating.’

‘Yes, it is.’

‘I may have not made it clear earlier, but I intend to learn from you, not the inverse.’

Fine. Jaw clenched, I took a deep breath, and started to write. I saw the letters in my mind, but my hand didn’t cooperate. After a few minutes, I heard:

‘Swap the “I” and “E” in piece, and add an apostrophe to—’

‘What happened to no cheating?’

‘I never said I was against it. And I’d call this critiquing.’

With Xandria’s help, I survived the exam. I didn’t fill in all the questions, and my answers were a weird mix of messy and simple with the occasional big, complex word suggested by Xandria.

I had no idea if I’d passed.

Stefan and Tea went with me to check the results. Rhiannon, one of our gang’s con artists, used Vulpecula magic to alter our appearances. The leader of the infamous Hunter-Yao gang couldn’t wander around a city-sponsored institute of learning.

The Academy had a massive bulletin board outside the front gate. Not wanting to spend long there, we waited for the crowd to thin before rushing into a gap. We scanned the boards, but I made the mistake of looking for “Amborella Cole”. The police knew I was a member of the Hunter-Yao gang, so for Vandagriff I got registered as “Eleanor Wilson”. Not my choice.

‘There!’ Stefan jabbed at the board’s upper left. Eleanor Wilson. Me, for the next few years. Stefan patted my shoulder, his smile a mix of pride and savage glee. One step closer to taking revenge on Sergio’s killer. Tea hugged, before trying and failing to lift me like when I was a child. The celebration felt like how our fake family should act – and it wasn’t hard to pretend. I was ecstatic, in my own quiet way. Sure, I’d cheated lot, but who cared? I was going to be a Vandagriff student.

‘You’re being watched,’ Xandria said.

Again? I tensed. Where? Who? I sharply inhaled as coldness went to my ass. ‘Keep off,’ I hissed to Xandria, but she didn’t understand my anger. I slowly glanced over my shoulder. Sure enough, a woman in the crowd watched us. Watched me. Our eyes met, but she didn’t look away. There was no emotion on her face, but her eyes felt like static orbs of loathing. Suddenly it was me who couldn’t look away. Who the—?

A group of overjoyed students approached the woman, who instantly matched their joy with high-fives and wide smiles.

‘Tea, Tea,’ I said, tugging her sleeve. ‘Who’s that?’

Tea froze, broke into unsteady laughter, and sucked air through her teeth. ‘She goes by Naracilla Geisler, but sometimes I call her Sister.’

Xandria travelled up my back. ‘She’s a nun?’

‘Your sister,’ I murmured.

‘Nara works at Vandagriff as the hierophant of history,’ Tea said. ‘Also, she gave us answers to the exam.’

‘Let’s head back,’ Stefan said, before I could ask more about Tea’s sister.

In the hideout, we had a great celebration with lamb, potato salad, and real cake. Way above our food budget, but the gang must’ve figured we’d make a bunch more money after I got a Sentinel licence, which made the letter we received all the more annoying. It had been delivered to a fake address and addressed to Eleanor Wilson, so clearly it had to do with Vandagriff, but it wasn’t a welcome letter. They wanted the students to do extra exams to qualify for a Sentinel licence.

‘It stipulates,’ Wei said, ‘that these newly-designed exams may be attempted once annually for the duration of a student’s enrolment.’

Xandria moved to my neck. ‘That means once a year.’

‘I know,’ I snapped, causing Wei and the others to stare at me. ‘I-I know we need a Sentinel licence, but you don’t expect me to stay there for more than a year, right?’

Wei folded the letter in half. ‘Let’s discuss that when it’s pertinent.’

‘Pertinent is a synonym of relevant,’ Xandria said. ‘Oh, and a synonym is…’

I tuned out the voice on my shoulder.

I needed that Sentinel licence.

I went to the next exam.

#

I was back in the dome with a bunch of students when some old guy came out to talk about the exams. Then the floor moved and we went down. People screamed, which amused me. According to Tea’s sister, Naracilla Geisler, we’d have to evade Entities for a while. I rewrapped my knuckles and let myself smile. Maybe the Academy wouldn’t be too boring. Look at them, I thought, as students panicked. Smart but weak.

The floor stopped moving. We’d gone pretty far into the earth. Dozens of wide, pitch black hallways went in every direction at the edge of the dome. Someone shrieked nearby. I whipped around, fists raised. An Entity rose through the stone floor among a group of students. More followed. Like real Entities from the Dusk, they came in an endless variety. Some looked humanoid, other animalistic, and a few like random shapes. I smiled. The spoiled kids didn’t know the first thing about being in the Dusk. There wasn’t a reason for fear because unlike real Entities, these ones didn’t have—

White spots like empty eyes appeared from inside the Entities’ dark bodies. Just like real Entities.

No way they’re real, I thought. Yet, my muscles tensed. If the Entities were fake, they were bloody convincing. No, no, definitely fake, since it was impossible to capture Entities. Then again, Xandria should’ve been impossible. Doubt crept in.

‘Xandria,’ I whispered. ‘Are they real?’

‘Tough to say.’

‘What? You’re one of them.’

‘Do you always know a human is a human?’

‘Yeah, pretty much.’

‘…Really?’

I refocused. Xandria might’ve helped when I sat at a desk, but this “Entity trial” was physical. My domain. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and recited the Litany:

‘You’ve never backed down from anything in your life. Fear is a weapon against death. When fear and death are gone, only you will remain.’

When I opened my eyes, my body felt still and ready to act, not with anxiety but anticipation. I hadn’t used the Litany in a long time, and it brought back memories of the man who taught it to me. Sergio Nicodemo. I let slip a savage smile. He’d been killed by someone at the Academy, and I was going there to help avenge him. All the more reason to use the Litany, so Sergio’s words could calm my mind and live on through my actions.

‘The test will begin on the word start,’ Naracilla Geisler said. ‘On your mark, get ready, start.’

I kicked up dust by sprinting to the nearest hallway. Most of the students followed a second later. Over my shoulder, I saw a few stragglers get surrounded by Entities. The screams grew louder. Of the students who followed, the nearest was almost Gudbrand’s height. Annoyingly, he kept pace with me. In fact…a few of them did. No, worse. Some got ahead, including the girl who’d kept looking at me in the first exam.

The girl didn’t wear a beret today. Wavy, honey blonde hair flowed behind her in a ponytail. She had good running form. Strong and confident. Clearly trained. It pissed me off.

I sped up and kept pace with the front, but I couldn’t get ahead of the blonde girl. We kept going, and so did the hallway. Dim yellow lights along the edge of the floor gave us just enough light to see where we went but not enough to see far ahead. On and on we ran. It was hard to tell how many minutes passed. Among the students, we didn’t talk, only ran, no sound but shoes on stone and a steady inhale-exhale.

My thighs and lower back felt warm with pumping blood. Good, I thought. It served as a sign I’d warmed up. We kept going. The breathing grew louder. I held on, but I didn’t know why we bothered going so fast. No Entities were behind us. I figured the group propelled itself, like nobody wanted to be the first to stop.

If the students in the dome had split up according to pace, we must’ve been at the front. Those around me felt like the kind of people who wanted to be first. Determined but also sort of hateful when we lost.

I slowed a tiny bit and looked back. The entrance from the dome should’ve been visible, but I saw only dots of yellow light. Had a door closed? I looked back, ahead, and back again. The dots of yellow light were unequal. I realised we’d been running along a gentle curve, so slight I hadn’t noticed. Where were we going? Naracilla Geisler from before had told us to avoid the Entities until the trial ended, but she didn’t tell us an exact duration. And what about the hallways? Surely they had an end. If I reached it, I might win by default, since the Entities would be preoccupied with everyone else.

Some of the group slowed down, and I did the same. Honestly, we’d gotten so far ahead, we didn’t need to keep the same intense pace. A boy with curly brown hair kept to my right. ‘Hey, where’re you from?’

‘Huh?’ My tongue had gone dry and thick from the stale air. I didn’t trust my voice, but he repeated the question. ‘West,’ I said, keeping vague like Wei told me.

‘Oh yeah?’ The boy looked me up and down, talking without any signs of getting tired. ‘What made you pick Vandagriff over Tanstock?’

Is he serious? I thought. Not the best time for chatting. I tried to let my face convey this, but there might not have been enough light because he kept talking.

‘The better question might be why you wanna be a Sentinel?’ He spun and ran backward. Now, that really pissed me off. Knowing the people around me were smart and strong already caused a cold rage, but this guy brought it to a new level. ‘Just saying: You don’t seem the sort.’

‘Why not?’ I snapped, breathing harder.

‘No offence, but looking at you, I’m not sure how you made it past the first exam.’ He chuckled. ‘Now we’re here, and you can’t perceive the trick.’

My fingers curled into fists, ready to punch the brat. No chance I’d get caught by an Entity, not when I was stronger and faster than the other students. So I assumed. Ignoring the boy would’ve been smart, but I couldn’t help it. I asked:

‘What trick?’

He had a wide, toothy grin. ‘The fact we’re running in a circle.’

I should’ve paid attention and realised it before. I should’ve understood the implication after the boy told me. But in the moment, I figured: So what?

We ran a short while longer. Ahead, another group of students ran toward us. Behind them, a horde of Entities. Dark figures with long, thin limbs loped across the stone, while smaller ones scrambled along the walls. Their pure white eyes shone with eerie clearness. I swore.

‘I know your breed,’ the boy said. ‘Every year a bitch puts on robes and thinks they’re part of Vandagriff. This year – that bitch is you.’

That did it. Forget the trial. I didn’t care that our group was on a collision course with the group ahead. I’d make the boy bleed.

‘Quit while you can,’ the boy said, before spinning to face the front. In the process, he jutted out a leg. Usually I’d have dodged it, but I was off-balance in the dark, and his hard boot caught my shin. At that speed, I flew forward, skidding on the stone. My knees, palms, and chin bled.

The boy, joined by a few others, spun and sprinted back the way we’d come.

Still on the ground, I watched the remaining students run onward, straight toward the oncoming group. The blonde girl reached them first. Without slowing, she kicked off the wall to redirect her momentum. Rather than hit the opposite wall, she went straight through. It wasn’t magic. We’d reached another of the hallways leading from the dome.

Her abrupt motion scared one of the oncoming students, who tripped, only for the tall guy to catch and pull her into the hallway. Aside from those three, the remaining students were a mess of stopping, sprinting, and smashing into walls as they tried to squeeze past each other, avoid Entities, or go the other way. Entities caught all of them.

I scrambled to my feet, but a lanky Entity had reached me. Pressed against the wall, I couldn’t dodge. Its long limbs covered my exits. Every muscle tensed. My chest ached and I turned my head. A dark hand reached out, only to stop. A bubble-like shape distorted the air between us. A shield. My shield. I’d used my magic without realising. The Entity trudged away.

‘Interesting,’ Xandria said. ‘Your magic strikes me as versatile.’

‘Shut up.’

‘You sound troubled.’

‘Shut up.’ I panted. Failing to outrun the other students. Getting tripped by the boy. Not avoiding the Entity. None of it should’ve happened. Using my shield magic felt like cheating. I didn’t mind on a written exam, but this trial should’ve been simple for me. None of the Academy students had been in fights, stolen from Auroch convoys, or jumped onto a moving train. But I had to face it: Maybe the boy was right.