Page 33 of House Ignis

"No, please," I said, offering my hand to ground her. "It's Ava. Just Ava."

Her relief was immediate. "Juliana. But everyone calls me Jules. I'm so glad to meet you!"

She shook my hand with such enthusiasm I couldn't help but laugh. For a moment, everything felt almost normal—just two girls on their first day of class.

Gods, I needed that.

I was about to ask where she was from when the sharp, rhythmic click of polished boots echoed across the stone floor. The hall fell into an instant, suffocating silence.

At the front of the room stood a tall, older male with iron-gray hair and a sharp jawline.

Thin spectacles were perched neatly on his nose, and he surveyed the room with the look of a man who had survived a dozen wars—and enjoyed winning every single one of them.

"Settle down," he said, his voice slicing clean through the noise. "My name is Professor Thandros Vale.

I served three decades as High Historian of Lyr'n'dell. Welcome, first years, to the backbone of your education. History is not just about the past; it is the spine of power. You cannot understand the present without the bones of what came before."

He paced slowly across the platform, his sharp gaze sweeping the room.

"And of course," he added, his eyes landing on me with pointed intent, "a special welcome to Princess Ava Pyreson of Zymarra."

Ignis, spare me.

The hall erupted into polite applause. I wanted nothing more than to vanish beneath Nyxira's veil and stay there. Beside me, Jules clapped with such genuine enthusiasm she looked ready to burst.

"Now," Professor Vale said, raising a silver-grey brow to quell the noise. "Let's start simple. Can anyone tell me the primary function of the Astral Guard?"

A male student a few rows behind me raised his hand tentatively. "They protect the kingdoms, the Ring... and the Monoliths."

"Correct," Vale nodded.

"The Great Monoliths—living reservoirs of divine power. They store the excess elemental magic of their respective kingdoms, regulating exactly how much power a wielder can safely access. Without them, we would burn this world to a cinder in a week."

The hall fell into a heavy silence.

"Each Astral Guard division bears the name of the Monolith it protects," Vale continued, his voice echoing.

"Ignivar. Litharyn. Abyssryn. Skythryn. Noctyrra. They answer to divine law first and the whims of kingdoms second."

He stopped at the center of the dais, his spectacles catching the light. "Who can tell me how the Guard was founded?"

Ember's hand shot up like a bolt of lightning.

"The gods formed them after the First War to restore order across the fractured kingdoms."

"Correct, Miss Pyreson. Well done." He turned back to the class, his expression solemn.

"They answer not to kings, but to the gods themselves. Every generation since has sworn their blades to maintain that divine order. It is a debt paid in blood and iron."

He gestured broadly, and an enchanted map shimmered into existence above the dais.

Five glowing points marked the edges of the known realm, a massive jagged wall encasing the territories in a locked embrace. A thin, pulsating line of light spiraled out from the Monolith outposts, weaving together until a shimmering, translucent barrier encased the map—humming with spectral gold-and-silver light, beautiful and terrifying.

"The Containment Ring," Vale said quietly. "The only thing keeping the Void at bay. If the Ring falters, if the outposts fall... the kingdoms fall with them."

Silence stretched across the amphitheater. Even Ember looked subdued.

"The Astral Guard doesn't just sit in towers," Vale added, pacing toward the front row. "They man those outposts. They bleed to keep that barrier shimmering. They are the pulse of the Containment Ring."