?Hundreds of eyes tracked our every move. I looked up at the Aurelius Academy crest carved into the stone archway. We weren't the only ones who had crawled out of the dirt to get here; this was the terminal for the desperate from every corner of the globe.

  ?The reason was as simple as it was brutal. This was the ‘Golden Ticket’—the only way to flip a life from the gutter to the throne overnight.

  ?For commoners or those from the fringe territories, an Aurelius certification was a guarantee. Combat graduates became high-ranking Council Knights. Those with mechanical aptitudes became Aether-Engineers, building the technology that moved the world and earning more in a year than a Dustopian mechanic saw in a lifetime.

  ?A suffocating silence settled over the marble plaza. The massive doors remained sealed. No announcements. No welcome. Thousands of applicants began to murmur, the collective anxiety thickening the air like humid smog.

  ?Then, the high-pitched shriek of wind being sliced open overhead shredded the silence.

  ?A gold streak punched through the clouds, descending with a velocity that defied basic gravity. A fleet of floating carriages—ornate white-gold frames—glided down. Their wheels didn't touch the ground; they spun atop shimmering Aether-currents. Ten carriages moved with a predatory elegance that made the train we arrived on look like a scrap-metal toy.

  ?The crowd surged. Jaws dropped.

  ?"Hell... who’s that?" Ethan asked, squinting his crimson eyes at the display.

  ?Vanessa stood rigid, adjusting her glasses. Her voice was flat. "The Valentine crest. The superpower of Celestia."

  ?The carriage door hissed open. The plaza went dead silent. A girl stepped out, her black lace dress a sharp contrast against skin as pale as unrefined marble. Her hair was deep, ink-black with a faint violet luster that caught the sun. Her eyes, a piercing shade of amethyst, scanned the crowd with a cold, cosmic distance.

  ?She held a black lace umbrella—her Medium—radiating a low-frequency hum of concentrated energy.

  ?"Lady Alissa Valentine has arrived!" the herald boomed.

  ?The carriages ascended, leaving Alissa standing alone in a sea of applicants. She swept her gaze across the plaza, her eyes treating everyone like dust motes caught in a beam of light.

  ?"Is there a reason you're staring... you little specks of dust?" Alissa asked. Her voice was melodic, but the smile accompanying it was as cold as a scalpel. To the House of Valentine, everyone else was just sewage cluttering the hallway.

  ?Ethan’s brow twitched. "Okay... she’s pretty, but she’s got a mouth as foul as that Solaris brat. I’m over it." His fantasy of a ‘heavenly angel’ shattered instantly.

  ?The massive stone gates ground open, the vibration rattling my marrow. Marcus, Ethan, and Vanessa moved with the tide of applicants, hands white-knuckled around their Mediums.

  ?Ahead lay the Floating Altar. At its peak, the Augur stood in deep blue robes, still as a statue. The Aether around him distorted light into shimmering waves. Surrounding the altar were marble tiers where the proctors sat. Their gazes were clinical. They were sorting cattle.

  ?"This place feels like it wants to eat us alive," Ethan whispered, his pulse visible in his neck.

  ?"Regulate your breathing," Vanessa warned. "The proctors are reading the Ether-leakage from our crystals. Don't give them a reason to flag you for instability."

  ?I didn't speak. I just adjusted the Fractured crystal in my bag. Its cold hum felt jarring against the heavy pressure of the room. At the very top tier sat the Headmaster. He wasn't looking at anyone in particular, but he had the look of a man waiting for a specific chemical reaction to occur.

  ?The Augur raised a staff. A wave of white light rippled outward.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  ?"Step forward... those summoned by Fate."

  ?"Fate shall dictate the path before you reach the Scale. I shall pair you based on the resonance of your souls. Those called by the Orb... step forth and prove your compatibility atop the Spire!"

  ?I watched high-caste pairs called first. Some looked triumphant; others looked at their partners with pure loathing.

  ?Pairs moved toward the Scale. I watched a group from a lesser nation place their crystals. The Scale tipped violently. A red light flared.

  ?"Fail! Return to your homes and refine your resolve!" the proctor’s voice was ice. The applicants walked out with their heads down under the pitying gaze of the crowd.

  ?Most passed easily. They had been bred for this. I stood there in my soot-stained coat, feeling like a malfunction in a pristine system. I had no tutor. No training hall. Just a jagged rock in my pocket and a desperate sprint to the finish line.

  ?The Augur’s orb flared gold.

  ?"Next group: Marcus of Dustopia, Ethan of Vakus, and Vanessa of Oasis!"

  ?A murmur rippled through the hall. "The outliers together?" "How is that group supposed to survive?" Ethan didn't care; he marched forward.

  ?I reached into my bag and pulled out the Medium. I placed the Fractured Crystal—purple cracks spiderwebbing through its center—onto my palm. The murmurs turned into an uproar.

  ?"What is that? A Fractured crystal?" someone shouted.

  ?"Trash from Dustopia only carries trash," Alissa Valentine scoffed from the sidelines.

  ?Up on the bleachers, the proctors broke their silence, arguing fiercely. "Professor, this is a violation!" a young proctor protested. "A Fractured crystal is unstable. He should be disqualified for public safety!"

  ?The Headmaster, who had been silent until now, raised a hand. The hall went silent.

  ?"Wait," the Headmaster’s voice was thin but sharp. He leaned forward, staring into the purple cracks on my crystal. "In imperfection, there is often a logic our textbooks have yet to write. Let the boy prove himself. If he fails, the Scale will judge him, not our prejudices."

  ?His word was final. The proctors sat back.

  ?I gripped the crystal. I looked at Ethan and Vanessa. "Sorry for the added risk," I whispered.

  ?"Hah! Who’s scared?" Ethan bumped my shoulder. "A stone with cracks just means it’s got battle scars. Let's move!"

  ?Vanessa gave a sharp nod. "Initiate the sequence."

  ?We stepped into the Gauntlet of the Spire. The internal defense wards immediately began churning the Ether into a localized storm. The wind howled, carrying auditory hallucinations pulled from our own psyches.

  ?"Hey! What the hell is this!" Ethan roared. His red crystal flared, radiating a heatwave. "The Vakus infantry... they’re surrounding us!"

  ?He was about to break formation, charging into a phantom, but Vanessa’s hand clamped onto his arm.

  ?"Ethan! Stop!" Vanessa’s voice was a low, grounded frequency. She looked him in the eye, her green crystal glowing with a steady light. "Those aren't enemies. They're neural feedback loops. Focus on my footsteps. Don't look at the shadows."

  ?Ethan blinked, his pupils constricting as he regained focus. Vanessa turned to me. "Marcus... don't sink into the cracks. Synchronize your breathing. We reach the top together."

  ?At the top, the Great Scale swung aggressively. Vanessa took the lead, her eyes tracking the oscillation like a musician waiting for a beat.

  ?"On my mark," she whispered. "Ethan... dial it back. You're running too hot. Marcus... let the Fracture flow. Don't fight the output."

  ?"Drop!"

  ?Clang.

  ?The three crystals hit the plates. Ethan’s red surge made his side of the scale dip dangerously, but then the purple light from my crystal flared. The energy seeped into the Scale’s gears like oil.

  ?"It’s losing equilibrium!" a professor yelled.

  ?"No," Vanessa murmured. She closed her eyes, funnelling her emerald energy into my purple stream, acting as a buffer. The two colors fused, locking Ethan’s tilting plate into a dead halt. The Scale stopped in a horizontal line so precise it looked frozen in time.

  ?A pillar of gold light erupted toward the ceiling.

  ?The professors sat in stunned silence. The Headmaster smiled. Vanessa let out a long, slow exhale. "See? Controlled focus makes these just... rocks."

  ?Later, we slumped onto a marble bench in the corner of the plaza. Ethan wiped sweat from his face. "Heh... didn't think we’d actually make it work. Hell of a coincidence."

  ?"Fate," Vanessa replied. "Or our spiritual frequencies were simply the most compatible outliers."

  ?Ethan turned to me, slapping my shoulder hard enough to rattle my teeth. "But damn, Marcus! Controlling that broken rock... I thought it was going to blow our heads off."

  ?I looked at the purple crystal in my hand. "It wasn't just me. If you two hadn't held the balance, I would’ve lost the rhythm."

  ?"Damn right!" Ethan puffed his chest. "I’m a descendant of warriors! This was nothing!" He let out a loud laugh.

  ?I raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? I seem to remember someone almost charging off a ledge because he saw ghosts."

  ?Ethan’s laugh stopped. He bared his teeth in a mock snarl. "What! You want a piece of me? You were standing there staring at that rock like you were about to faint!"

  ?"I was calculating, you oaf! The illusions were high-frequency!" I shot back.

  ?We both stood up, ready to bicker. Vanessa let out a heavy sigh. She stood up between us.

  ?"Stop."

  ?The word was short, but we both froze as if hit by a paralysis spell. She looked at us, then offered a rare, microscopic smile.

  ?"At least we passed. And more importantly... we’re a team now."

  ?The silence returned, but this time, it was the quiet of a shared burden.

  ?