Ten days had passed since Isyd had given them this strange challenge. The classes had resumed at last and Jadwia had welcomed the return of this scholarly routine. This was accompanied by its usual lot of stress, but after a whole semester of this, she liked to think she was used to this by now.

  No, the real source of her anxiety could be found at the corner of her table and captured all of her attention. Jadwia knew that she should take notes from Tutor Albinez as she lectured about the new direction that her class will take in regard to ; the former being focused to the Eastern part of Ziemia, while the latter had been about the western part of Ziemia. Jadwia could only partially listen to the Tutor, her whole attention was rather focused on the inert Lightsphere taunting her across the desk.

  This blasted thing had refused to turn on for the past ten days. Not even a blip, or a spark. She was half-convinced it was broken, and she may have leant fully into that if it were not for Isyd activating the Lightsphere right before giving it to her. Oliwer also didn’t have much more luck than her.

  Jadwia distractedly took notice of the bell ringing and Tutor Albinez wrapping her class, but instead of following the others leaving, she remained seated and reached for the Lightsphere. It didn’t turn on, of course. Jadwia sighed and changed hands. Still nothing. She closed her eyes, imagining the glass turning on, willing it to do so. Not even the hint of warmth in her palm. It was in those frustrating moments, Jadwia was traversed by the urge to fling the Lightsphere across the room and smash it against the wall. She didn’t let the impulse overcome her of course; she was a well-educated lady and fits of anger were beneath her. Still, she couldn’t help but consider it if only for an instant.

  “Are you still playing with your broken Lightsphere?” a voice said to her side.

  Jadwia opened her eyes to Tatyana, sliding to the seat next to her. Boshena lingered just behind.

  “It’s not broken,” Jadwia said. “Isyd could turn it on.”

  “And you still haven’t figured it out?”

  “Feel free to try, if you think it’s easy…”

  Boshena couldn’t resist the challenge and took the Lightsphere. She frowned as she tried to activate the sphere, but it remained inert. Boshena shrugged then passed it on to Tatyana who looked at it with unbridled curiosity.

  “Have you considered that maybe you’re not supposed to turn it on?” Boshena mused. “Maybe that was the test all along…”

  Jadwia had suggested so to Oliwer a few days ago, but Isyd had overheard her and chuckled. No, this wasn’t a metaphor for something else or an esoteric challenge. The goal was plain and simple: turn on the Lightsphere. A different approach to the Arts, as Isyd kept repeating.

  Jadwia explained so to Boshena. “Well, that’s the first time I’m hearing of that kind of test in a Ring. And not even as admission test.”

  The Lightsphere rolled across the table and Jadwia picked it back up and pocketed it. She still kept her hand in there, touching its surface. You just never knew…

  With the other hand, she gathered her belongings in her satchel and rose up. Moving made her grimace in pain because despite the classes resuming, Isyd had insisted they continued running but only every two days instead of every day. Jadwia flexed her sore legs and followed her friends outside the classroom. In half an hour, both Boshena and Tatyana had to join a meeting of their Ring so they wanted to rush to the Canteen to grab a before then. Jadwia wasn’t very hungry but still went along, appreciating their company. They broke path a bit after and Jadwia was left alone. She knew that if she went back to her chamber, she would spend the rest of the day obsessing about the Lightsphere. So instead she headed to the Common Room. As she stepped outside, she noticed a tall figure strolling around, trying his best to appear inconspicuous.

  “Kewin!” Jadwia hailed him.

  He startled visibly, before turning towards her. Isyd had insisted that Kewin continued wearing the Academy uniform despite no longer attending the classes. Kewin had hesitated before finally agreeing because it allowed him to go in and out of the Academy, unnoticed or at least without drawing too much attention. When this failed and Pupils stumbled on him in the Common Room or out in the Fields, most simply ignored him, but a few made the sign to ward of a supposed evil that accompanied Kewin. When she saw them to that, Jadwia cursed them back in Khrusama like she knew witches used to do for good measure.

  “Grace to you, Kewin!” Jadwia said when she reached him.

  “Grace to you!” he said with a timid but genuine smile.

  “How were your morning classes?”

  “Tedious as usual,” she said. She hesitated on confessing that she hadn’t much focus on them because of Isyd’s blasted Lightsphere. This made her think…

  “Have you seen Isyd today? He wasn’t in the morning classes, and I am certain we have some in common.”

  “He mentioned yesterday that he had to go to the Atelier. Something about a lecture he prepared… He told me to join him here at this time.”

  Jadwia glanced around. “And where is he?”

  Kewin’s smile widened as if she had just said something amusing. Slowly, he pointed up toward the nearest Academy tower. Jadwia looked up and squinted her eyes against the sun glare. Was she supposed to see Isyd through one of the windows at the very top? If she recalled correctly, this tower was the one of the Library. It was then that she noticed something even higher on the cornice of the tower. Not something, someone…

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Jadwia’s satchel slipped from her shoulder and fell to the ground, the same way her heart fell in her chest.

  “I… He… Is that ?” she shrieked in shock. “For the love of God, what is he doing up there? Is he mad?”

  “I think that’s the spot he goes to when he wants to be alone or to think.”

  “UP THERE? IS HE MAD? WHAT IF HE FELL?”

  “It wouldn’t kill him,” Kewin said. He had answered without missing a beat, but with a bit of afterthought, he realized he truly believed it: Isyd would not die from such a fall. The look Jadwia gave him was circumspect at best.

  “Surely, there must be better places,” she muttered. “Since when did you know of this?”

  “I found out a week ago, around the time the classes resumed. It seems to be his secret spot, and I don’t think he intended for anyone to find him.”

  “He didn’t tell you? Then how did you find out?”

  Kewin just shrugged. “You’d be surprised by the things you notice once your days are filled with nothing but idle time.”

  Jadwia was about to say something, when they were interrupted by someone calling their names. They turned to see Oliwer bolting toward them. He skidded to a stop, clutching his sides and breathing heavily.

  “You can still run after yesterday, Oli—”

  “You must see this!” he exclaimed out of breath, but wide-eyed and smiling.

  In his hand, he held an object that he brandished. Jadwia felt her blood turn cold in her veins. It was his Lightsphere, exactly similar to hers.

  Only this one was now flickering alight.

  *

  Jadwia didn’t leave her room for the next three days. Not for her classes, not for her routine with her Ringmates. When her friends had come to check on her, she had told them she was coming down with a cold and that she was taking a few days to rest and recover. It was a sensible explanation and also justified why she wanted to remain alone. Alone with her tears, with her fears and with her thoughts.

  As usual, she was seated cross-legged on her floor, a history book open on her lap. She had it there, but she had barely glanced at it the whole day. Her eyes remained fixed on the inert Lightsphere that had rolled across the room. She hated this small [Arcane] almost as much as she hated herself, but she knew that it was a foolish errand. The Lightsphere was just an object. What she hated about it was that it acted as a mirror to reveal to her who she really was: a fraud. Isyd’s test had proven once and for all that she didn’t have her place here in the Academy, that no matter how hard she studied and how hard she pretended, she would never be an Artyst. She didn’t have the brains and the talent for it.

  Just like her mother had said.

  Disgusted with everything, Jadwia averted her eyes and glanced to the window. The sky was gray, but it had stopped raining at last. The only times she had stepped out of her room the past few days was to get a bit to eat and drink and none of that had required her to step out into the Fields or the courtyards which was perfect because the weather had been dreadful. Jadwia stretched to the side to grab the cup only to realize that it was empty. She had drank the whole mulled wine distractedly and her pitcher of water was empty as well. She had grown to appreciate the warm drink though the taste of it – the spices they used – was different from what she was used to at home. The pitcher of water was refilled everyday by a maid when the Pupils renting the rooms left for their classes, but for the mulled wine, Jadwia would have to go down to the Canteen and hope that they still had some left.

  She sighed bitterly and got up before crossing the room to put on her shoes and her cloak. She may as well go out and enjoy the brief instance of respite between the downpours. Jadwia was at the entrance of the Canteen when she realized she had forgotten her cup in her room. Instead, in the pocket of her clock she found the Lightsphere. She had picked it up without even realizing it.

  She gritted her teeth and spun around towards the exit and the Fields. She decided to see it as the perfect occasion. While outside the Academy, she would find somewhere to get rid of this blasted [Arcane]. There was no point keeping it with herself any longer, if not to torture herself, and even for that she didn’t need it; her mind could that on its own.

  Jadwia followed the embankment of the River downstream but didn’t cross the bridges and remained in the Inside. The afternoon was approaching its end and Vilriver as busy as ever. In this crowd, her biggest fear was to stumble on Kewin or Oliwer or worse, on Isyd. She didn’t think she could stand seeing the disappointment on their face. The past couple of days she had expected Isyd to come knocking at her door and announce her eviction from the Tears. She had even imagined herself going then to Tatyana and Boshena and try to join the Rainbow Forest only to be rejected there as well given how much of a failure she was. Of course, none of that had happened. Isyd had not come and she was, as far she knew, still member of the Tears. This left us with ambivalent feelings. On one hand, maybe they still had hope for her, but on the other hand, maybe she was not even deserving a proper dismissal from the Ring.

  Jadwia shook her head to chase away those dark thoughts and sat down in a calm and remote spot of the embankment, overlooking the River. She pulled the Lightsphere out of her pocket and held it in her hand. Coming here, she had pictured herself yanking it into the waters of the River. It would not have changed anything to her situation, but it may have made her feel better if only for instant. Now, however… well, as she stared at glass sphere, she wasn’t so sure anymore. She made it turn in her palm, admiring how the light interacted with its glossy and reflective surface, and she made her decision. Tomorrow, she would go to Isyd and ask for an extension. He hadn’t given them any time limit, but after Oliwer had succeeded, she had felt like her own time was running out. It didn’t need to be the case. She would go to Isyd and beg him to give her another chance. After all, if Oliwer could turn on the Lightsphere, so could she. She just… she just needed a different approach to what she had tried so far.

  Her attention was captured by the noise from across the River, where a strange ship was anchored. It wasn’t the first time she had witnessed its kind. It was massive – too bulky to be a proper vessel – with a broad and flat hull. To its side was a wooden wheel almost as tall as the ship, turning slowly and steadily as it churned the waters of the River. Those were ship mills Jadwia had discovered when she first arrived in Vilriver. They used the powerful and constant downstream current of the River to mill down the grains into flour, grains that had often been shipped on the same water.

  Jadwia brought up the sphere and looked at the ship through the distortion of the glass. There was something hypnotic in the rhythm of the wheel’s paddles, dipping into the River before rising again. The water rose and fell again and again and the timber creaked and the gears ground in rhythm. And yet, if one was to look at the River alone, the disturbance in its waters was barely noticeable. The wheel kept on turning.

  Jadwia closed her eyes and her breathing deepened. She let the picture of the wheel and River take root in her mind. It was a different way of thinking about her problem. The constant flow…

  Slowly, she felt something appear in her stomach. It was faint at first, but as she focused more on it, it grew in focus; it felt like jitters, like butterflies taking flight in her core. It was the first time she experienced this sensation, but it didn’t feel odd or scary. No, instead it felt… natural. Jadwia smiled as a faint taste of sweetness appeared on her tongue. She understood now, and in response the jitters intensified.

  When Jadwia opened her eyes, her Lightsphere was now glowing bright.

  Thanks for reading!

  very least, he would splatter on the ground like a pancake and absolutelyNow, would Isyd have means to stop his fall? That's a different discussion entirely...