All Chapters of The Academic God : Chapter 1
- Chapter 7
7 chapters
The Boy from Hearthaven
The first thing anyone noticed about Aethelgard Academy was the smell.It wasn’t a bad smell. It was the smell of stone warmed by the sun, of old paper and polish, of the sharp, clean scent of lightning that had just missed the ground. People called it the “ozone tang.” It was the smell of magic itself, or so the teachers said. The air in the valley always carried it, a silent whisper that something extraordinary lived here.The second thing anyone noticed were the towers.They rose from the cliffside like sharp teeth made of grey rock and blue slate. Seven main towers, one for each school of magic, pointing at the sky. Between them, lower buildings of classrooms, libraries, and dormitories clung to the rock, connected by stone bridges that crossed over misty drops. Waterfalls spilled from the cliffs above the academy, their mist painting rainbows in the morning light.And on the winding road that crawled up from the green valley below, a lone cart rattled and shook.Elian Vance held
The First Lesson
The sound that woke Elian wasn't a bell. It was a book hitting the stone floor.Thump.He sat bolt upright in bed, heart hammering. Grey morning light filled the small room. For a terrifying second, he didn't know where he was. The rough wool blanket, the stone wall, the strange, clean smell in the air...Then memory settled. The cart. The towers. The Hall of Echoes. Aethelgard."Sorry!" Felix whispered loudly from the other side of the room. He was on his hands and knees, scrambling to pick up a large, leather-bound book that had slid from his desk. "I was trying to be quiet. It's heavier than it looks."Elian rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?""The wake-up chimes haven't gone yet. But I couldn't sleep." Felix stood up, clutching the book to his chest. His glasses were slightly crooked. "I found this slipped under our door. It's our schedule. And... other things."The mention of a schedule pulled the last of the sleep from Elian's mind. He swung his legs out of bed. The stone floor
The Hum in the Walls
The next morning began with a bang.Literally.A thunderous BOOM shook the Novice Tower at dawn, rattling the wooden shutters on their window and sending Felix tumbling out of bed with a yelp.“What was that?” he cried, scrambling to his feet, his hair standing on end. “Are we under attack?”Elian was already at the window, pushing it open. The crisp morning air rushed in, carrying the smell of wet stone and, faintly, something like burned sugar. In the courtyard below, a thin pillar of purple smoke was dissipating above the Alchemy Labs.“I think it’s just the Alchemy students,” Elian said, watching a harried-looking teacher in orange robes rush across the flagstones, waving his arms to clear the smoke.Felix groaned, collapsing back onto his bed. “They blow things up before breakfast? How are we supposed to sleep?”But sleep was over. The regular wake-up chimes followed a few minutes later, and the tower came alive with the sounds of a hundred grumbling first-years. As Elian pulled
The First Friend
The next week settled into a rhythm, a strange, demanding music that began with the morning chimes and ended with the deep, hidden bell in the night. Elian moved through it, trying to find his place in the tune.He learned that the strange hum in the walls was strongest in the oldest parts of the academy, the lower levels, the foundations of the towers, the Scriptorium. He learned to mostly ignore it, though it always sat at the edge of his senses, like a bass note in a song he couldn't quite hear.He learned that classes were hard. Really hard.History with Proctor Brom was a waterfall of names, dates, and theories that threatened to drown him. He filled two notebooks and his hand was permanently cramped.Mana Theory with Professor Lin was delicate and frustrating. He could feel the energy in the room, a buzzing, shimmering soup of different pressures and tones. But asking it to do something? To gather in his palm like Lira could? It kept slipping away, like trying to hold smoke.Run
The First Test
The first real test wasn't on parchment. It was in the air.A week after the study group formed, Master Kaelen strode into the Evocation practice yard and didn't tell them to breathe. He stood, arms crossed over his broad chest, his red robes stark against the grey morning."Enough theory," his voice boomed, silencing the nervous chatter. "You've attuned. You've listened. You've felt the cosmic flow." He said the last words with a twist of his mouth, as if he knew half of them had been daydreaming. "Today, you make a mark."He held up his hand. This time, no gentle light orb appeared. A tiny, brilliant spark of white-hot energy crackled to life between his thumb and forefinger. It sizzled, throwing off miniature, snapping arcs of light. The smell of ozone spiked sharply."This is a lumen spark," Kaelen said. "The most basic evocation of energy. It is light, heat, and raw force in its simplest, most unstable form. Your task: create one. Sustain it for a count of five."A wave of pure f
The Proctor's Study
The walk to Proctor Brom’s study was the longest of Elian’s life. Prefect Selene moved with silent efficiency, her grey-sashed robes swishing. She didn’t speak, and Elian didn’t dare ask any questions. His mind was a whirlwind of panic.What did I get wrong? Was my lighthouse theory stupid? Does he know I can hear the hum? Did Lira’s containment answer get me in trouble?They left the main buildings, crossing a narrow, enclosed bridge that led to the faculty towers. The air here was even older, dustier. The walls were lined not with student art, but with portraits of severe-looking past professors and glass cases holding strange artifacts—a clock with no hands, a compass that spun lazily, a book sealed with iron chains.Selene stopped before a heavy oak door, its surface carved with runes that seemed to drink the light from the hall sconces. She knocked once, sharply.“Enter.” Brom’s dry voice came through the wood.Selene opened the door, gestured for Elian to go in, and then closed
The West Wing
It was Felix who found the door.The week after the meeting with Brom passed in a blur of hard work. The weather turned colder, and a sharp wind whipped through the valley, howling around the towers like a lonely spirit. Inside, students buried themselves in books and practice. Elian's spark still sputtered, but it lasted three full seconds now before biting him. Lira's was a steady, cool star she could maintain for half a minute. Felix had managed a single, glorious pop of light that singed his eyebrow, which he considered a rousing success.They were walking back from the Alchemy labs, their hands smelling of sulfur and mint, their minds tired from a morning of trying (and mostly failing) to turn copper coins a different shade of copper. They’d taken a wrong turn, following a lower corridor they thought was a shortcut back to the Novice Tower.“This isn’t right,” Cassia said, peering at a tapestry of a griffin hunt that looked older than the stones. “We should have passed the statue