GLASS || The Catalysts Series, #1

II || Arcane Academy

Lena isn't exactly sure what she's been expecting, but a ripple and some sort of shift in the atmosphere around the gates right after she enters the academy as if she's stepped foot into a whole new dimension is definitely not in her list.

As she phases through, she feels as if the molecules of her body leave her then reassemble. This odd sensation — you don't feel this everyday, really — sends a chill down her spine.

Just hoping to get it over with, she shuts her eyes and takes another step.

Only when she's certain her body is in one piece does she reopen her eyes.

When she does, Lena has to restrain a bewildered gasp.

Inside, it is much more fascinating.

It is exactly like she's just entered a new world. The majestic courtyard of Arcane Academy — didn't it look smaller and closer seconds before? — is far too grand and spacious for it to really be there. She wonders if it's physically real.

But as Lena takes a careful step forward, her shoes hit solid ground. The pavement is below her, stable and stern. On both sides of the walking path, grasses sway in the mild, gentle wind, with bushes of flowers she doesn't recognise blooming every corner. To her left, there is an open sitting pavilion with columns of marble surrounding it, with vines growing up and twisting along them. A fountain stands right next to it, sitting in front of the Academy's build. Water sprouts from two hands of an Angel.

Several students in uniforms like the one's she's in — simple white collared inner wears with black pin-stripped suit, except the suit's parting is to the right and it looks like some Royal Navy uniforms. Four golden buttons touch up the design, and when Lena looks at them clearly, they all have a symbol of wreaths encircling the letter A.

Arcane Academy, she thinks. In the gap of the letter A, there is a something like a tiny swirling dot, something like a black hole. Around it, the mini captured black hole seems to explode. The entire image formed as far as she can make out is an encircling icon with growing, uneven edges and a line that cuts into the dark sphere but bends outwards at a different angle.

Now that, she doesn't understand, but she shrugs it off for now.

Looking around and breathing in fresh air from the bustling city of tall skyscrapers and flying cars, she almost feel like home. The atmosphere around here is so normal that she drops her tensing shoulders.

Unfortunately, her euphoria doesn't last for long. Lena's temporary moment of belonging is wickedly stripped away by a crash, and when she turns, she feels as if a massive mass just dropped on her chest. Her heart nearly stops.

Not only does she find students battling each other and tearing one another apart to test about their superiority — right, where in the world will you find students fighting with mystical powers so openly within a school compound — the Academy itself seems to think this is all too natural like the other students, adapting well to its surroundings.

The Academy walls broken from the impact are quickly recovered nearly instantly. The static-like walls crawl at the broken edges and mend themselves, like a puzzle piece quickly solving itself.

But that's not all of it. Lena realises she's only been looking straight all this while as she entered the Academy through some dimension thing and what not — she's still convinced she's somehow entered a portal, no way the Academy is this huge from when she approached the gates.

She feels like she might faint. All around her, the world is no longer a mere three dimensions, and the ground is not just flat. A huge basketball and football field stretch to the West, directly disobeying the laws of physics as she understands it from books. On the other side, the East, are more buildings and tall towers that seem out of place. When she turns, more land stretches overhead, probably other facilities.