SHADOW || The Catalysts Series, #2

Pt 4 • XXXVII || Adjustments

Part IV: Origin

In the weeks after the captured students are safely returned, healed, and finally back to the Academy, days almost seem normal. Almost. And as normal as the City of Leatia can get.

Lena finds herself easing into the routine of Arcane Academy, not after being used to the gossips right when she first came back. It wasn't about her, but rather about the Roen, Sumiye, and Lucifer. And about the breaking news all over the City—the rift and the explosion of the quarantined sector, Andromeda.

It's hard to not respond to every murmur of the circulating topic when she was actually a part of it. Even as she keeps her mouth shut, it's hard not to turn toward the whispered breaths of what happened. It's easy to participate in conversations about the fate of Andromeda Sector, and debates on what that means for the City of Leatia—because she finds herself curious about this.

But there's no time to worry about things like that when Arcane Academy is often bringing surprises.

Arcana, the headmaster of the academy, announced upon his return—acting like nothing strange has happened over the span of these weeks—that all students are still required to go through the compulsory trials set up by the government. The man also quirkily told all his students to be prepared for more exciting events to come.

Lena wonders what else is in store for Arcane Academy's students, but she's been thinking of the trials ever since she has been told about it: no one told her she'd be assessed. Still, she should have known. Her palms are always painful these days, with her nails digging too much into skin in anxiousness.

The trials is a set of examinations consisting of both physical and mental capacities, aimed to grade and filter the students and understand the younger population's abilities. It measures their ability type and ability class, and is supposedly a good opportunity for those discovered talented to be offered a chance to speed up their studies and become a full-fledged Catalyst.

Everyone in Arcane Academy takes this seriously, and has been busy preparing for it since the announcement from their headmaster that they effectively forget the incident about their three students, and before that, Lucifer and the demons. Perhaps it was indeed Arcana's plot to distract the students from any traumatising experience.

Lena, who has no idea how she ended up in Arcane Academy in the first place, is at a total disadvantage. She has zero knowledge about the trials and what they are about. She tried searching it up from her desk's infinite database of resources and yet there is no comprehensive detail about the trials. Apparently, Neesha mentioned to her fleetingly that it is different every year, and variates for every student depending on abilities and skill set.

Just then, a thought occurs to her, so she turns now to the one sitting behind her—

"No," the white-haired savage says before she even gets a word out, not bothering to lift his purple eyes from the book he holds in his hand. A physical copy of a book, which is considered old-fashioned in the City of Leatia, where the population reads using either reader glasses or tablets. But in Caelus' case, his light, frameless glasses that blend in with his pale skin are just... regular glasses.

A wave of silence rolls across the room, the way it usually does when Caelus is involved. Whether the Ace speaks or is merely striding across a random hallway, there is a sort of atmosphere—literally speaking—around him. People steal glances at the tiniest movements he makes, and Lena wonders how he ever gets a moment of peace. It is not as if Caelus is drawing attention on purpose, either; in fact, he does the exact opposite, always staying on the sidelines and is everything but active.

Lena supposes it's just something that comes with being the strongest of unique ability users in a competitive academy.

And surprisingly, she is used to it by now, by the influence Caelus unintentionally carries around him. So the short span of silence of the class only makes her pause for a second, before she pushes on quietly, "But I haven't even—"