"...Suspicious."

Lucavion's grin widened immediately. "Very."

"Not suspicious," Toven shot back, trying to sound offended but coming off more defensive than anything. "Just… private research."

"Research you're too scared to name?" Caeden said evenly, cutting into his meat without looking up.

Mireilla leaned closer, chin propped on her hand. "Come on, Toven. You can't just leave rune-scrawled circles all over your floor and then act like it's none of our business. That's how curses start in horror plays."

Lucavion chuckled, low and knowing. "Or cults."

Toven glared at him. "It's not a cult."

Lucavion smirked. "That's exactly what someone in a cult would say."

Mireilla's lips twitched into a victorious grin. "Suspicious," she repeated, softer this time, savoring the word.

Toven slumped forward with a groan, head thumping against the table. "You people are impossible."

Lucavion tore another piece of bread in half, scattering crumbs across the tablecloth, and offered it out toward Toven like some kind of peace treaty. "We're not impossible. Just curious."

"Curious is annoying," Toven muttered into the wood.

"And secrets," Lucavion said, his grin sharpening, "are entertaining."

Toven lifted his head just enough to grumble, voice muffled with irritation. "They're dangerous."

Lucavion leaned back, smirk pulling wider as if those two words had just signed a contract. "I like danger a lot."

Toven groaned and shoved a forkful of sausage into his mouth. "...Whatever."

Lucavion tore into his bread like he'd just won a debate, crumbs falling onto his plate in uneven heaps. The triumphant gleam in his eye didn't fade, even when Toven deliberately looked away.

Caeden, perhaps sensing that this particular skirmish would go nowhere, set down his knife and fork with quiet finality. "Anyway," he said, steady and pragmatic as always, "today's orientation."

Mireilla blinked once, pulling her chin off her palm. "Right. I almost forgot."

"Yesterday," Caeden continued, "Magister Selenne walked us through the grounds. Today will be about the structure of the Academy itself, isn't that the case?"

Lucavion gave a lazy shrug, but Mireilla answered before him, brushing her thumb against the rim of her coffee mug. "Yep. That's what the schedule said. Hierarchies, divisions, rules…

******

"Yesterday…you were shown the grounds, the shape of this place you now call your training ground, your trial, and for some, your home. You saw the walls, the halls, the chambers that will test your body and sharpen your will. But stone and wood are not what make an Academy."

The morning sun sharpened against silverstone paths, gleaming white and pale gold across the amphitheater-like courtyard where students gathered in neat tiers. The air smelled faintly of dew and chalk-dust—wards laid across the stones hummed with subtle resonance, threads of mana woven to carry voices cleanly to every ear.

At the center, elevated on a narrow dais flanked by two slender pillars of carved obsidian, stood Archmage Selenne.

Her robes fell in perfect order, deep violet lined with silver thread, the fabric catching the light with a shimmer that seemed almost deliberate. One hand rested lightly at her side; the other traced a small movement in the air, and a transparent screen of pale-blue glyphs spiraled outward.

"An Academy is built on order. On rule. On law. Without these, you are only children with dangerous toys."

The glyph-screen shimmered, unfolding into a series of neat sigils that restructured into written lines:

The Imperial Academy — Foundational Regulations

Selenne's voice did not rise, but it pressed down like the weight of an oath.

"The first: Division and discipline. You belong to your assigned division. Your classes, trials, and contribution records are bound to that division. To defy this structure is to tear the balance of this institution apart. Do not attempt to cross into privileges not earned."

The words hung heavy. Elara—Elowyn—felt them thread into her chest with an uncomfortable echo.

"The second: Conflict is bound, not free. Duels are permitted only under the Academy's sanction. No strikes are to be made in secret, no ambushes, no retaliation outside the ring. You will have many "enemies" here. You may fight them only where the law allows."

Her tone sharpened at that last line, as though her eyes had already found those who would need reminding.

"The third: Knowledge is not yours alone. Research, cultivation techniques, spells discovered within these walls—if derived from Academy resources—belong also to the Academy. To hoard them in secret, to attempt to smuggle or sell, is treason to your oath of study."

A ripple of unease moved through the tiers, subtle but real. Aurelian's eyes narrowed in measured thought. Across the way, Toven's shoulders stiffened, though he kept his head down.

"The fourth: The faculty are law." Selenne's voice cut clean. "Magisters, Archmagi, instructors—when they command, you obey. You may question with words, but never with disobedience. To defy is to risk expulsion, and expulsion here…" She let the pause stretch, deliberate, "…is exile from every gate in the Empire that bears our seal."

The pale-blue glyph-screen shimmered again, text reordering itself with the same clinical precision as Selenne's voice.

"The fifth," she said, her tone steady, clipped, unyielding, "is competition."

Her gaze swept over the gathered tiers, violet eyes sharp enough to cut through the chatter that had begun to stir. The silence that followed felt intentional—held taut, like a string drawn to its limit.

"This is not a monastery. You are not here to find peace." The faintest curl of her lips—too cold to be called a smile. "You are here to be broken open. To be reforged. And growth, as you will learn, does not come in the stillness of comfort, but in the friction of rivalry."

The glyphs pulsed, reconfiguring into clean lines of text:

The Fifth Regulation: Competition is the crucible.

"Yesterday," Selenne continued, her voice carrying across the amphitheater without strain, "you saw our halls, our dining chambers, our cultivation rooms. You learned that no student here will want for bread, or warmth, or shelter. The Academy does not starve its own—it sharpens them. You will not know hunger here, but you will know pressure. You will not face poverty, but you will face failure. And it is failure—not famine—that drives you to rise."

A flick of her hand, and the screen shifted again. Lines of neat sigils rearranged into tall columns: divisions, ranks, contribution scores. Names flickered in empty spaces, waiting.

"Your daily needs are guaranteed. But what is beyond the basic—time in cultivation chambers, access to the rarest texts, personal tutelage from a Magister—these are not gifts. They are earned. Those who strive will be rewarded. Those who falter will remain where they are until they find the will to rise."

The air tightened; whispers darted through the tiers like sparks through dry brush. Some students leaned forward, eyes bright with the hunger of opportunity. Others stiffened, discomfort writ plain on their faces.

Selenne let the noise swell for a breath, then cut it down with the weight of her voice.

"Do not mistake me," she said, precise, deliberate. "This Academy does not breed warriors. That is not our mandate. You are here to become scholars, leaders, builders of empire. But in every age, in every form, growth demands contest. You will be tested against yourselves, against one another, against the expectations of those who came before you. Some will rise to meet it. Some will not."

Her hand rose, palm open, and the glyph-screen bloomed outward into a vast projection—a spiraling web of lines, names, divisions, a lattice of positions to be filled.

"This is your crucible. These ranks, these credits, these scores—they will track you, bind you, judge you. And they will not lie."

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