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I grinned at Vallie. “See, I told you I wouldn’t make us late.”
She rolled her eyes at me, but I saw a hint of a smirk appear just as Professor Gibs wobbled in on her cane. She was the oldest professor at LakeWood and had been teaching Mortal-Allium History for as long as anyone could remember. Other than her slight limp and silver hair, she looked young. Everyone of our kind did. An Advenian could be a thousand years old, but still pass for a thirty-year-old mortal.
“Students, as you are all aware, your Trials are approaching. I was instructed to remind you of its significance and how the weekend will go. The first portion will be an examination. The exam will be an accumulation of everything you have learned over your years at LakeWood,” Professor Gibs said. “It will make up one-third of your overall Trial. I suggest you all take it seriously. The test will determine your knowledge and rank you amongst your peers. The last two-thirds of your Trial will take place the following day. You will have your rank evaluations to classify what Dark powers you possess of Tennebris as well as your physical Trial for the career you’ve selected.”
She paused as she scanned the room, staring down at us. “All three sections—the exam, the rank evaluations, and the physical Trial—will be used to determine your worth to our society. As you’re probably already aware, members of the High Council of Tennebris will be at the ranking and Trials to evaluate your performances. They will ultimately be the ones who determine your future. You have the freedom to try out for any career, but not everyone gets the job they’ve selected, so you must do well in all three parts. This is your one chance to carve the pathway for your future. Whatever worth and job the High Council grants you, will be yours for your entire life.”
The entire class fell eerily silent. The Trials this upcoming weekend were nothing new to us. We’d been preparing for them ever since we were little, but the fact that they were only a few days away was starting to sink in. By the end of the week, my life would be changed forever. For good or bad, I would finally be leaving LakeWood.
“The majority of your examination will consist of Tennebrisian history and abilities. However, do not pass over your study material on Lux. Although we live separate lives, knowledge of Lux is just as important. You will be tested on everything.” Professor Gibs tapped her cane on the ground, snapping us to attention. “Now that we have that sorted, let’s review. Who can tell me about the differences between Luxian and Tennebrisian abilities and markings?”
She peered around the room, glancing over all of us from the top of her pointed nose. No one raised their hand. We knew by now it didn’t matter, Professor Gibs would call on whoever she wanted anyway. “How about Yuri John,” she said sternly.
All eyes immediately went to Yuri. She smiled broadly, aware of the attention focused on her as she flicked her hair over her sharp shoulders. I rolled my eyes as a blonde curl bounced behind her back.
Yuri gently cleared her throat. “Of course, Professor Gibs. Our Kingdom, Tennebris, is the Dark Kingdom. Our powers consist mostly of the inner mind. When we use our abilities, if we are lucky enough to have any—” Yuri paused deliberately and twisted in her chair to face me. A few snickers echoed throughout the room at what she implied. Her hazel eyes met mine before she continued, “—our bodies will produce golden markings unique to each individual. As soon as we are done using our abilities, the markings will fade from our skin, allowing us to blend in with the human race if we ever had to. The Advenians from Lux, the Light Kingdom, tend to have abilities that are more prone to the elements. Their markings are black and appear on their body whenever their marked skin comes in contact with fluid. It doesn’t matter if they are using their powers or not.”
I hated being reminded of my different markings. Everyone’s markings were unique in design and appeared in various areas of the body. Luckily, my black markings of Lux were confined to my back, so it was manageable to hide them from anyone in Tennebris. If mine were in a more visible area like my hands or face, I would have been discovered long ago. Now, I just had to keep my back covered at all times.
“Very good, very good,” Professor Gibs said with a half smile. Leave it to Yuri to be the one who could turn our Professor’s frown into a grin. Doing so, even ever so slightly, was a big feat. “And how do both of our Kingdoms determine how strong one’s abilities are? Can anyone tell me how the abilities are ranked?”
Professor Gibs pointed toward a student near the back of the class. The boy’s voice was shaky as he answered, “Our abilities are tested throughout our schooling and our final ranking will go on our official record during our rank evaluations at our Trials. They vary from rank zero, which is having no powers, to rank five, which means you have the strongest and rarest powers. Everyone will be evaluated by how many abilities they possess and how powerful and rare they are. A rank five for Tennebris is extremely rare. Mediocre abilities score a rank of one or two. And those who have no abilities are tainted with human blood. They arenixesand are given a rank zero.”
Someone coughed my name, and a few laughs echoed throughout the classroom. Professor Gibs either didn’t hear it or chose not to. I knew without turning my head that the entire class was now glancing my way.
I had no Tennebrisian abilities, my skin would never turn golden, no matter how hard I wished it could. No one from the Dark Kingdom knew I wasn’t one of them, except for the man with the lavender eyes who captured me all those years ago. But even he had belonged to Lux with the way he manipulated the fire and left me to the mercy of my old counselor. To everyone here, I was a worthless nix of Tennebris, a flea to society, and I was happy to keep it that way. At least it would keep me alive.
I remembered the day I realized this. I was eight, a year after being in Tennebris, and we just had a lecture about the differences between the two Kingdoms in our Magical Theories class. After spending the entire year being manipulated into thinking I made everything up, I had started to believe it.
Having no memories of my childhood, except for the night of my capture, I questioned if I really was crazy. Was I really just an Advenian of Tennebris, an orphan, and a nix? Was everything in my head?
I remembered sprinting back to my dorm immediately after the lecture about our markings. I lit all the candles in the bathing room and jumped in the bath, scanning my body in a rushed state to search for any markings. I normally opted for darkness when I bathed over the flame of a candle so I never really paid attention to what my skin looked like in the water before. I was so disappointed when I found no black designs dotting my skin. I sobbed as I hopped out of the tub. I was using my towel to wipe off a section of the mirror and almost didn’t notice as I turned around.
My entire back was covered in the dark, black markings of Lux, glistening and glowing from the water droplets running down my spine. I kept craning my neck to get a better look. I couldn’t make sense of all the symbols and designs.
The golden markings of Tennebris were mostly patterns, circles, lines, dots, and spirals, but mine took shapes. A large tree with thick bark around the trunk ran up my spinal column. Beautiful feathered wings covered in flowers were spread across my shoulder blades with water and fire entwining around either side. Other symbols were scattered across my skin, symbols I didn’t recognize. Symbols that covered every inch of the flesh on my back.
I searched my body one last time to make sure I didn’t have markings anywhere else, anywhere that I might have missed, but I found none. Blank—the rest of my body was utterly blank. I stared at my back until my body dried and the black markings disappeared with each drying drop of water.
I was exuberant for a brief moment as revelations flashed through my mind.I was not a nix. I had abilities.I didn’t know what they were, but I had powers. The markings indicated that I wasn’t truly a rank zero. That meant something to know I wasn’t crazy, I didn’t make everything up. I was Luxian. I had a life before this, a life I was uprooted from. I had a family in Lux. A family I needed to find, or at least discover what their fate had been. I had to uncover what really happened that night.
Then the dread and realization of what that actually meant sunk in. My entire back was covered in black markings, and if anyone saw them, they would know I was from the Light Kingdom. I would be killed. I couldn’t comprehend the reason why I was brought here. Why did those men start the fire just to abandon me on this strange soil? What was the purpose of me growing up here?No matter how hard I thought about this, I never got closer to figuring it out. I sobbed for days after realizing I would never have a normal life here. I would have to hide my identity forever. It would have been easier to just be a nix.
Since it was illegal to intermix between the two Kingdoms, I could never take a husband in Tennebris. My markings would appear whenever any fluid made contact with my bare skin. I could never keep them hidden from a spouse forever. I would be exposed and branded a traitor or spy. There would be no logical reason I could give as to why I was living here. Nothing I could explain, or at least that anyone would believe. I had already learned that the hard way.
That was why I chose to try out for the King’s Guard. After that bath when I was eight, I realized it was my safest option and the only possible career path for me. A guard was the only career that didn’t encourage marriage. I would never have to worry about someone seeing my naked body and discovering who I was. I would never have to worry about a potential offspring that would only bring death because a child mixed of both Kingdoms was forbidden. I vowed that day to never marry anyone from Tennebris, to never even let myself date.
I also vowed to never leave myself defenseless. Never again would I be uprooted and forced into a situation where I couldn’t defend myself. So I started training…
Every. Single. Day.
I would wake up before classes to do physical training. I attended all the guard classes in our curriculum, and read about the different fighting techniques and styles during my spare time.
And although I hated thinking about it, I knew my nightmare would serve as a reminder. I would become strong. I would be able to defend myself. Never again would anyone overpower me. Never again could anyone take me from my home. Never again would I be helpless and not able to protect the ones I loved.I would not be weak.
I tried to not let it bother me that this only gave my classmates more reasons to loathe me. On top of being the orphan nix who survived a tragedy, and the deranged child who made up stories and told lies, I was trying out for the guard. The only female to do so at LakeWood. The only rank zero to do so. Both were unheard of.
The males in my guard classes made sure I didn’t forget where I belonged. They never held back when sparring with me. In the beginning, I would come back from practice covered in bruises, barely able to walk. Every day was like that until I learned to use my petite frame to my advantage. I focused on technique since I couldn’t fight with abilities. I became faster, more agile. I learned to predict my classmates’ movements, zipping out of the way before they could overpower me in brute strength. I learned to fight back.
