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 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 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

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