The smell of ozone and sterile herbs was the first thing that hit me. My eyes snapped open, but my body refused to follow. A dull, rhythmic throb pulsed through my veins—a brutal reminder of the "Lightning Dance" that had shredded my stone defenses like they were made of parchment.
I was lying in the medical ward of Xernes. The white ceiling seemed to vibrate, still echoing the lingering after-effects of the electrical surge. Every time I tried to twitch a finger, a spark of phantom pain shot up my arm. My Earth Magic was grounded, but my body was still reeling from the shock.
"You okay, Lance?"
I turned my head slowly, the pillow feeling like sandpaper against my cheek. Percy was sitting in the bed next to me. He looked surprisingly intact, though his usual arrogant smirk was replaced by a look of weary frustration.
"Maybe," I croaked. My throat felt like I'd swallowed hot coals. "It feels like my muscles have been rewired by a madman. How are you... and Lily?"
"I'm fine," Percy said, though he was carefully cradling a heavily bandaged hand. "Minor burns. Lily is just exhausted; the healers said her mana core was tapped out, so she's in the next wing resting. That guy... Dean. He was a monster. I've never seen anyone move like that. He took all three of us down without breaking a sweat."
"I didn't 'defeat' your team," a strained, raspy voice interrupted from the far corner of the room.
I squinted through the dim light. It was him. Dean, the Sky Magic user. He looked significantly worse than we did. His skin was pale, almost translucent, and he was hooked up to several glowing mana-stabilizers.
"I just took all three of you down with me," he finished, followed by a wet, hacking cough.
"Wait," I said, forcing myself to sit up despite the screaming protest of my core. "Why are you in the infirmary? Your team won the match. You should be celebrating in the common hall."
Dean gave a weak, bitter laugh that turned into a grimace. "Winning has a price, Earth-user. As I said, I took you down, but Sky Magic isn't a gift—it's a loan with a high interest rate. It shredded my internal organs just to produce those bolts. I'm on mandatory bed rest for a week. The healers say if I'd held that Dance for two seconds longer, my heart would have stopped."
I stared at him, my mind immediately going into analysis mode. So that's the trade-off, I thought. Sky Magic is pure output, but the human body isn't built to be a conductor. He's a glass cannon.
"It must be brutal," I said aloud. "Having to save your natural magic as a last resort because using it literally kills you from the inside. You spend your life training just to avoid using the very thing that makes you special."
Dean froze, his eyes widening as he looked at me. "How do you know that? Most people just see the flash and the power. They think we're gods."
"My sister," I said quietly, the image of Florida's tired eyes after a duel flashing in my mind. "She possesses Sky Magic too. She's one of the strongest people I know, but she only uses it when there's no other choice. She spends all her time perfecting complex elemental combinations—stuff that's ten times harder to learn—just to avoid the cost of her own blood."
Before Dean could respond, the heavy oak doors of the ward swung open. Professor Lucious stepped in, his black boots clicking sharply on the polished stone floor. He didn't look like a teacher; he looked like a general inspecting a pile of broken shields.
"Well, well. The warriors are awake," Lucious said, his gaze sharp enough to cut glass. "I watched the recording of your battle. You boys pushed too hard, lacked coordination, and ignored your surroundings... but then again, that's exactly why you're here."
"We don't follow, sir," Percy muttered, crossing his arms. "We lost. Isn't this school about winning?"
Lucious leaned against the foot of my bed, his expression turning grave. "Xernes wasn't originally a school, boy. It was a unit—a specialized group of thirty soldiers who fought in the First Magical War. They weren't fighting for medals or rankings. They were fighting for the survival of the human race against a single Dark Lord."
"A Dark Lord?" Percy asked, his voice dropping. "You mean he had a Dark Army?"
"No," Lucious corrected. "I mean one man. A single entity capable of defeating five lakh magic users on his own. He hadn't just mastered magic; he had mastered the concept of Sky Magic and combined it with an insane level of physical control. He was a hurricane in human form."
My heart hammered against my ribs. I thought about Dean, who almost died just taking down three students. Then I thought about a man taking down half a million. The scale of it was impossible to wrap my head around. "How did Xernes defeat him then?"
"They didn't 'defeat' him in the way you see in storybooks," Lucious said. "Of the thirty who went into that final rift, only five walked out. Those five realized that raw power was a lie. You can have all the mana in the world, but if you don't know how to survive the first ten seconds of a real fight, you're just a very expensive corpse. They built this school to pass on that singular, bitter lesson. That is the history of Xernes."
"Who were they?" Dean asked, leaning forward as much as his wires would allow. "The five survivors?"
Lucious offered a mysterious, thin smile. "A topic for another day. But I'll tell you this: all five are still alive, and they are watching this generation very closely. Now, rest. The House Selection Ceremony is tomorrow. You'll need every bit of strength just to stand up."
Later that evening, the healers cleared me for a walk. I found Florida near the northern courtyard, staring out at the mountain peaks.
"The first battle was rough, wasn't it?" she asked without turning around.
"It was," I admitted, looking at my trembling, bandaged hands. "But I fought with no regrets. I learned more in those five minutes of failing than I did in a month of practicing."
Florida turned and smiled at me. It wasn't the teasing smile she usually gave; it was a look of genuine respect.
"Florida," I hesitated, "which House do you belong to?"
"The Eagles," she said. "The House of Precision. We don't believe in wasting a single drop of mana."
I took a breath, the doubt I'd been carrying finally surfacing. "Do you ever feel... like it would have been better if I had Sky Magic too? Everyone looks at you and expects me to be the same. Instead, I'm just... Earth. Slow, heavy Earth."
Florida walked over and gripped my shoulder. Her hand was warm and steady. "When I first realized the agony Sky Magic causes, I wanted to run away. I didn't want to be a mage. But Dad told me that you don't use power for your own glory. You use it to be the wall that stands between the innocent and the dark. Sky Magic is a spear, Lance. But Earth? Earth is the foundation. Without the foundation, the spear has nowhere to stand. You saw what I did to those Night Cultists—I used one spell to end it. I'm brave, sure. But I'm not as smart as you, dunbo. You see the board differently."
I nodded, feeling a bit of the weight lift.
The Great Hall was packed the next morning. Lucious stood at the podium, flanked by four massive banners.
"There are four Houses in Xernes," he announced. "Each represents a pillar of survival."
EAGLES: Precision and absolute control.
TURTLES: Survival through endurance and the 'flow' of battle.
TIGERS: Strategic, high-pressure offense.
MAMMOTHS: The art of the Tank. Absorbing, redirecting, and outlasting the enemy.
The selection began.
Dean was called first. TIGERS.
Lily followed. TURTLES.
Percy stepped up. EAGLES.
Then, my name echoed through the hall.
"Lance... MAMMOTHS."
The hall went quiet for a second. I was an Earth user, which fit the 'Mammoth' theme, but I was thin, tactical, and built for speed. People expected the Mammoths to be giants with shields.
I walked toward my new house, my mind already racing. Mammoths don't just take hits, I realized. They are the ones who control the battlefield because they refuse to move.
Lucious looked at us all. "Classes start next week. Until then, prepare yourselves to survive this school."
I looked at my new teammates. The journey had just begun.