Chapter 11: The Assessment

Elara:

I hadn’t slept.

Not even for a minute.

The bed in my dorm had probably been the softest bed I’d ever laid on. The room itself was larger than the apartment my family and I had lived in back in Florida, yet I had spent the entire night sitting by the floor-to-ceiling window with my knees pulled against my chest, watching the moon slowly disappear beyond the mountains. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw blood. Mom’s lifeless body draped over Dad’s. Felix reaching toward me with his trembling hand. The masked warriors. Their magical swords. Their emotionless voices. And somewhere in between all those memories came the image of the blond jerk from last night with his arrogant smile and those infuriating words. By the time the first rays of sunlight crept into my room, I hadn’t slept a single second.

Now I sat alone inside what appeared to be a classroom, my heart threatening to drop straight into my stomach.

Assessment.

That was the only thing anyone had told me. No one had bothered explaining what exactly they intended to assess.

Were they going to determine whether I truly possessed magic? Or whether I really was the princess they claimed I was? Or perhaps this was about the so-called seal Ms. Noctis insisted had been placed on me when I was a baby.

The more I thought about it, the less I understood. Because despite everything they had told me, despite the warmth I’d felt last night, and despite that impossible memory weaving... I still didn’t feel magical.

I felt exhausted, broken, and empty. And certainly not like someone with extraordinary powers sleeping inside her.

My fingers tightened unconsciously around each other. Part of me desperately wanted this entire thing to turn out to be some ridiculous misunderstanding. If this assessment proved they I had no magic in me like they believed, perhaps they would finally let me leave this place.

Then reality would immediately remind me...

Leave? Leave and go where? Back to Florida? Back to a house stained with my family’s blood? Back to a life that, according to Ms. Noctis, had never truly belonged to me in the first place?

I still wasn’t sure whether I believed everything she had told me about my parents and the Reapers. It sounded too outrageous. Too unbelievable.

But... if even half of what Ms. Noctis had revealed was true, returning to the human world wasn’t simply going home anymore.

It was gambling with my life.

That realization frustrated me more than anything else. For the first time in my life, I had absolutely nowhere to go.

A familiar ache settled inside my chest as another thought surfaced.

Crazy.

I closed my eyes briefly.

The silly white cat had wandered into our backyard nearly three years ago, covered in mud and so thin I could count every rib. Mom had wanted to take him to a shelter, but Felix had laughed, declaring that the stubborn furball had clearly chosen us already. Crazy had lived up to his name ever since, climbing onto roofs for no reason, stealing socks from the laundry basket, somehow opening kitchen cabinets, and occasionally disappearing for an entire day before returning as though nothing had happened.

And last night... I’d been almost certain the white blur jumping out of the SUV had been him. Almost. Yet I hadn’t seen him again. Not once. Which made me think that maybe I’d imagined it. Maybe grief had been playing tricks on my exhausted mind.

Or... maybe it really had been Crazy. But if it was, then where was he now? Was he wandering around this enormous academy alone? Was he scared? Hungry?

The thought of him having no one to feed him or call him home twisted painfully inside my chest.

Without realizing it, I reached down and nervously clutched the hem of my pale blue blouse. The fabric felt strange beneath my fingers. It was too smooth and too expensive, nothing like the oversized t-shirts and faded jeans I normally wore.

Earlier this morning, shortly after sunrise, someone had knocked politely on my dormitory door. Outside stood a middle-aged staff woman pushing a rack filled with clothes while another carried neatly folded towels, toiletries, shoes, handbags, and several boxes whose contents I hadn’t even bothered checking. She had simply informed me that everything had been sent by Vice Headmistress Noctis before wishing me a pleasant morning and leaving.

The clothes fit perfectly. Every single piece. Even more disturbingly, so had everything else. Including my undergarments.

I still had absolutely no idea how Vice Headmistress Katherine Noctis somehow knew my exact measurements. Maybe it was also among the information she had received about me. The thought alone was unsettling enough that I’d deliberately stopped thinking about it.

The quiet click of a door interrupted my thoughts.

I immediately looked up just as the classroom door opened and several people entered together.

Professor Fenrith was the first. Behind him came Vice Headmistress Noctis. Another woman followed - a graceful brunette who looked to be somewhere in her early thirties, dressed in elegant emerald robes that marked her as another professor.

Then, my eyes landed on the final person entering the room.

Regent Lorien Moonveil.

And for just a second, I forgot to breathe. If I’d thought he had looked unreal beneath last night’s moonlight, then sunlight made him look even worse. Or better. Depending on how one looked at it.

His silver hair had been neatly styled away from his face today, revealing every sharp angle of his features. A perfectly tailored black suit fit him effortlessly, making him appear less like an educator and more like someone who belonged on the cover of an international business magazine. The sunlight streaming through the classroom windows caught strands of his silver hair, giving them an almost ethereal glow.

Then his blue eyes found mine, and the same gentleness I remembered from last night was still there. It wasn’t pity or sympathy. Simply... gentleness. And it felt strangely unfamiliar.

Most of the strangers I’d met since arriving here had looked at me with curiosity. Or judgment. Or outright arrogance. Lorien was the only one whose expression remained consistently gentle.

Almost without realizing it, I pushed my chair back and stood as the four of them entered.

Professor Fenrith exchanged a few quiet words with the brunette professor while Vice Headmistress Noctis walked toward the row of chairs arranged neatly along one side of the classroom.

She stopped, and then turned toward Lorien. And much to my surprise, she inclined her head respectfully.

"Headmaster Moonveil. If you would." She gestured politely toward the seat positioned in the middle.

My eyes widened slightly.

Headmaster?