The internet café smelled of coffee and cheap cologne. Val sat in the back corner, her hood pulled up, and her eyes fixed on the screen. She had paid for thirty minutes, which meant she had twenty-two minutes left to check her messages, scan the job boards, and get out.
She didn't have a phone. She Couldn't afford one. But she'd had created email address when she was fourteen in search of a job. It was free, anonymous, and the only thread connecting her to the world. She checked it once a week, usually at a library or a café, always in a different part of the city.
Today, there was one new mail.
She almost deleted it without reading it. Spam, she thought. Most likely. Or one of those scams that promised fortunes if you just sent your bank details. But the subject line made her pause.
Zōdiakos Academia – Admission Offer
She stared at it for a long moment, her finger hovering with the mouse over the trackpad. She was deliberating whether to open it.
Then she opened it.
—
Dear Ms. Valerie,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for admission to Zōdiakos Academia for the upcoming term. We have been informed that you have exceptional potential, and we believe you would be a valuable addition to our student body.
Full tuition and board fees are covered under the Chancellor's Discretionary Fund. And You are not required to pay any fees. Till the end of your study at our redeemed institution should you decide to accept the admission/scholarship.
Please report to the admissions hall on the first day of the new moon. Bring this letter and a valid form of identification.
If you have any questions, please contact the Admissions Office.
—
She read it twice. Then a third time. Her eyes trailed to the end of the mail where the admissions office contact details where.
Her heart was beating too fast. This was a mistake. It had to be. She'd never applied to the academy. She had never taken any assessment. And she heard that peasants had to take assessments. She was a nobody from nowhere—a street kid who'd been stealing to eat since she was eleven.
She scrolled down. There was a name at the bottom, someone in the admissions office, and a phone number. And No explanation of how they'd found her.
She closed the email and sat back in her chair, her hands shaking.
This wasn't for people like her.
The screen glowed, the email waiting. She thought about the students she had watched from the rooftops, their dark uniforms crisp, their faces clean. She thought about the way they walked, like they owned the world.
She thought about her system, the fire that lived in her chest, waiting to explode.
"This is your chance," a voice in her head whispered. She didn't know if she was capable of making that decision..
She opened the email again and read it all the way through, slowly, looking for the catch. There was none. Just an offer, clean and simple.
She looked at the clock in the corner of the screen. She had Fourteen minutes left.
She opened a new message and typed:
I'll be there.
She sent it before she could change her mind. And then she felt stupid. It sounded unprofessional and stupid. But she couldn't delete it now .
Well she had nothing to loose. Or did she
---
She walked out of the café into the afternoon light, blinking against the brightness. The streets were crowded, as usual. People pushing past, lost in their own lives. She pulled her hood tighter and walked.
What are you doing? she asked herself. You don't belong there. They'll take one look at you and they'll know.
But the email was still there, in her pocket, she had printed it on a sheet she'd stolen from the café printer. She could feel the paper against her thigh, solid and real.
She thought about Corin. About the day he left, standing in the doorway, promising to come back. She hadn't seen him in six years. She didn't know if he was alive.
Maybe this is what he would have wanted, she thought. A way out. He'd definitely want this for her.
She stopped at a street vendor, and bought a piece of bread with some of the silver she'd saved, and ate it while walking. The bread was stale, but she didn't care. Her mind was still on the email.
The academy. Free. The thought of it still made her cringe.
Who would do this? She didn't know anyone who could. Didn't know anyone who would.
---
She spent the afternoon on her rooftop. This one she'd claimed three years ago, it was a place where no one else came. She sat with her back against the chimney and watched the sun sink behind the academy towers.
She willed her system into place. Her system screen hovered in her vision.
```
User: Valerie
Status: Awakened
Rank: D
Sign: Aries
Stage: Awakened
Aspect: — (pending)
Element: Fire
Special Powers: Wildfire, Ember Step, Flame Cloak
Mauri: 85/100
Experience: 73/100
Memory: —
Echo: —
Flaw: —
```
She'd never pushed her Experience past eighty‑something. She had never needed to. But now…
If I go to the academy, I could get stronger. Better at control. Maybe even figure out why she had a system in the first place. Since she was a measly peasant.
She thought about the merchant's guard who'd told her she had the power of an Astral. She'd laughed at him. But he had been right about one thing: she needed training.
She pulled the printed email from her pocket and read it again.
First day of the new moon. That was in three days.
She folded the paper carefully and tucked it back into her coat, next to her knife.
---
After finalizing her routine, which consisted of eating and surviving it was now time to rest.
That night, she slept in an abandoned warehouse near the river. It was cold, and her blanket was thin, but she had slept in worse places. She lay on her back, staring at the rusted ceiling, and thought about what she'd need.
Clothes, maybe. Something that didn't look like she had stolen it off a wash line. She'd never needed to dress decently and she never cared about the clothes she wore. It didn't matter as long as she was clothed. She also needed A bag. A way to get to the academy without looking like she belonged in the gutter. Even though it seems like she did.
You don't belong there, the voice in her head said again. They'll know your a loser.
She closed her eyes and tried to push it away.
Maybe not, she thought. Maybe this is the one chance I get.
She fell asleep with her hand on the knife, her coat pulled tight, the email folded against her chest.
---
The next two days were a series of preparation.
She found a second‑hand shop in the eastern market, bought a dark jacket and a pair of boots that almost fit. She washed her hair in the public fountain when no one was looking, scrubbed the dirt from under her nails.
She didn't tell anyone where she was going. She didn't even have anyone to tell.
On the morning of the new moon, she woke before dawn. Somewhat excited and nervous. She dressed in her new clothes, packed her old ones in a bag she'd found behind a bakery, and stood for a moment in the doorway of the warehouse.
It was strange, leaving. She'd never had a home, not really, but she'd had places. Corners of the city that weren't hers, but she knew the exits, the hiding spots, the ways to disappear. She was leaving all of that behind.
Good, she told herself. It was never yours anyway.
She walked to the academy through the waking city.
---
The gates of Zōdiakos Academia were taller than she thought. She'd seen them from a distance, from rooftops and alleyways, but standing in front of them was different. Students were streaming in, their clothes pressed, their faces bright. Some were with their parents, hugging goodbye. Others walked in groups, laughing while talking about classes and teachers. The school grounds where almost like a whole new city enclosed in a wall with a gate.
Val stood at the edge of the crowd, her bag slung over her shoulder, her jacket new, her boots clean.
You don't belong here. She'd thought for the umpteenth time.
She took a breath and stepped through the gate.
The admissions hall was a building of white stone, its doors open to a courtyard where clusters of new students were gathered. Val found the desk, presented her email and her identification—a battered ID card she'd had since she was thirteen, the photo so worn it was barely visible.
The woman behind the desk looked at her, then at the card, then at the email. Her expression flickered—something that might have been surprise, or pity, or both.
"Valerie?" she said.
"Yes."
" Okay You've been assigned to the Anómalos faction. Your dorm Room 204A. Orientation will start in about an hour."
Valerie took the keycard she was given and walked away before the woman could ask any more questions.
---
After asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of walking She found her room on the second floor. It was small and clean. A bed, a desk, a window that looked out to the courtyard. She dropped her bag on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed, her hands folded in her lap.
She pulled up her system screen, just to check.
```
User: Valerie
Status: Awakened
Rank: D
Sign: Aries
Stage: Awakened
Aspect: — (pending)
Element: Fire
Special Powers: Wildfire, Ember Step, Flame Cloak
Mauri: 85/100
Experience: 73/100
Memory: —
Echo: —
Flaw: —
```
Seventy‑three experience points. She'd need more if she wanted to reach the next threshold. She needef to fight. To train. To become something more than a street kid with a fire she couldn't control.
She dismissed the screen and looked out the window.
Somewhere out there, the person who'd sent that email was probably watching. She didn't know they were and why they'd chosen her, or what they wanted. But she was here now. And she wasn't going to waste it.
She stood, straightened her jacket, and walked out the door to find Orientation.
---