Only the Cosmos Knows

PROLOGUE | The Room

We've never been out of this place before.

Aquila's thoughts rang through his head as the supervisors led him to a small room at the end of a long corridor.

They've never let us see the light of day.

That wasn't entirely true. Starfall Academy had windows, but all they presented was a depressing view of ocean, ocean, and more ocean. Sometimes they would walk past some windows that presented a view of some small buildings in the distance.

The supervisors called that place "the Outside". No one was allowed to go to the Outside unless the supervisors said they could. Occasionally there would be some people who would try to see the Outside. Only some succeeded. Others had not, and were punished greatly for disobeying the rules. They were told that those who made it to the Outside were as good as dead.

Where are they taking me?

The infamous corridor. Aquila and others alike had watched countless walk through that corridor, only to never return. They feared the corridor, but it was only due to the mysteries shrouded it. After all, there is only fear in what is not understood.

Was he going to be allowed to see the Outside? Aquila's heart raced in his chest at the thought. It was a theory many others had had, although none could prove it to be true unless they tried to leave themselves. The supervisors wouldn't tell them about it either. Then again, if going to the Outside was so discouraged within Starfall Academy, why would he be going to see it now? Perhaps there was another purpose to this mysterious room.

One of the supervisors noticed Aquila looking around. "Quit staring," She demanded, watching him quickly snap his head back in the direction he was walking.

This comment made Aquila's eyebrows raise. Was there something about this room, about Starfall Academy as a whole, that they didn't want him to know?

Starfall Academy was very different from the Outside. All the supervisors of Starfall Academy were from the outside, or so they claimed. Why they wouldn't want anyone else going to see the place they were from remained a mystery to the other students of Starfall Academy. Despite not knowing much about it, they learned many things about the Outside, such as the countries that it had, the languages that they spoke, and the people that lived there. Even after learning all this, they were still not allowed to experience it for themselves.

Another thing that the students of Starfall Academy knew about the Outside was that the people of the Outside didn't have powers. The supervisors didn't have powers, and they didn't like the students using their powers either. From day one, the main rule of Starfall Academy was to not misuse your powers. There were rumours within the academy stating that misusing your powers greatly would get you sent to the mysterious room at an early age. The supervisors who were told of these rumours simply told the students that it was correlation, not causation. There were still many who thought the coincidence was too strange to be false.

Aquila was one of those people. Well, not really. It was more that he valued his life, and feared the things they might do to him in that room. He always kept his powers under control, and never misused them when a supervisor was around. Now, as he walked closer and closer to the room at the end of the corridor, his heart pounded faster and his hand began to shake lightly.

He had lived here for nineteen years. He was nineteen years old. Life at Starfall Academy was quite simple: don't misbehave, listen to the supervisors, and don't go to the Outside. Most students were sent to the room when they were nineteen, and there was never anyone older than nineteen at Starfall Academy besides the supervisors. Reasons like these were why Aquila decided that fearing for his life was a good idea.