The morning sun glistened against the high glass domes of the Mysterious Academy, casting mosaic reflections over the floating islands. Somewhere in the northern wing, nestled in a cliffside cabin that overlooked the central arena, Aaron Aetherwyn was doing something profoundly important.
He was panicking.
Not the loud, dramatic kind of panic—but the quiet, existential one. The sort that comes with freshly steeped tea, an untouched desk full of syllabi scrolls, and the realization that in exactly forty-two hours, ten thousand magically-gifted teenagers would descend onto the academy's entrance fields.
And he was supposed to help test them.
Aaron sat cross-legged on his couch, wrapped in a blanket like a burrito of anxiety. The enchanted wall parchment above his head displayed glowing golden numbers:
Entrance Exam Commences In: 1 Day, 18 Hours, 12 Minutes.
"I just got here," he whispered to himself. "I haven't even finished memorizing which tower has the bathrooms…"
A stack of orientation files lay beside him, untouched except for one corner he had nervously chewed.
From the opposite end of the room, a mechanical owl perched on the bookshelf tilted its head with a soft click. "Would you like a refresher on the examiner protocols, Professor Aetherwyn?"
Aaron flinched. "No! I mean—uh, no thank you, Owlexa. I'm good. Just… processing."
The owl blinked with an audible whirr and resumed scanning a floating chart of leyline intensities.
Aaron let his head fall back against the cushion. "They can't really expect me to evaluate prodigies. I mean, look at these files—one kid tamed a spectral hydra at age five!"
He held up a profile marked Top Priority Candidate—Velis Noxen, the time-manipulating elf from the Syndicate. The page shimmered with temporal encryption that flickered if stared at too long.
"I bet he won't even show up on time just to be ironic," Aaron muttered.
He was halfway through internally debating whether to fake a cold when a soft knock came at the door.
He jumped up, hastily kicking aside the blanket and pulling his robes straight. "Coming!"
The door swung open to reveal Instructor Elira, as unreadable as ever. Her dark robes fluttered slightly from the ambient wind that always curled along the cliffs.
"Professor," she said, her voice clipped but not unkind. "Headmistress Nova requests your presence at the Observation Spire."
Aaron blinked. "The… one with the glowing storm ring around it?"
"Yes."
"Isn't that the place where time flows weird?"
"Yes."
"…And the floating stairs scream when you step on them?"
"They've been calibrated. They only scream politely now."
Aaron made a sound halfway between a sigh and a groan. "Alright. Lead the way."
---
The Observation Spire was a crooked, spiraling tower built into the edge of the academy's sky-bound archipelago. Lightning lazily traced itself across the tower's runes, and clouds curled around its peak like watchful serpents.
Aaron barely kept up as Elira led him through the wind-swept halls, past staff bowing stiffly and students whispering nervously in corners. Rumors were already swirling about the entrance exam—some said dragons were being prepared, others claimed one of the sections would involve real-time battlefield illusions.
One first-year hopeful whispered, "I heard the new professor once killed a Demon General with a soup spoon."
Aaron sneezed, startling the student. "Sorry. Just allergies."
They reached the Spire's uppermost chamber, where arched windows displayed the academy in all its floating glory. Inside, a round table of swirling light hovered in the center. Nova stood by it, her usual smile playing at the corner of her lips. Kaelen was beside her, arms crossed, expression unreadable as always.
"You're just in time," Nova said. "We're finalizing the examination layout."
Aaron froze. "Oh. Great. So… um… how exactly does it work?"
Nova waved her hand, and the table displayed a miniature illusion of the floating islands. "The exam begins in less than two days. Four stages: Theory, Combat, Resource Application, and Ethical Trial. The students will rotate through them. You'll be monitoring Stage Three."
Aaron squinted. "Resource Application? Like… mixing potions?"
Kaelen's brow twitched. "Like navigating an unstable dungeon pocket and using supplied relics to stabilize corrupted nodes while extracting essence crystals without collapsing the temporal lattice."
Aaron nodded slowly. "So… harder than potions."
"You'll be part of a four-member examiner team," Nova added. "You're not expected to lead—just observe, take notes, and... try not to spook the students."
"I spooked someone?"
"Three dozen," Kaelen muttered. "Last week alone."
Nova cleared her throat. "We'll go over the logistics shortly. For now, we wanted to brief you on a few of the more… high-profile examinees."
A gesture summoned a sequence of illusionary portraits above the table. Familiar faces from the scroll Aaron received last night hovered into view—Olivia Virelith, Velis Noxen, Rye Grell, Saria Vonn, Kirin Zecht…
"These students are not only likely to pass," Kaelen said, "but could destabilize the balance of the cohort if not assessed carefully."
Aaron frowned. "Wait, so… you're worried they're too strong?"
"Or too politically important," Nova said lightly. "The academy hosts more than mere talent. Some of these students are heirs, envoys, and walking landmines. You're being entrusted with more than teaching."
Aaron swallowed. "You really think I can handle this?"
Nova smiled. "We do."
Kaelen added flatly, "Or we're just desperate."
Aaron nodded. "Somehow, that second one sounds more believable."
---
As the meeting ended and the illusion table dimmed, Aaron found himself once again alone on the windy path back to his quarters. The sun had dipped low, casting long shadows over the academy towers. Staff and students alike moved with purpose—preparing for the biggest event of the year.
A floating banner soared overhead:
ENTRANCE EXAM BEGINS IN: 1 Day, 16 Hours.
Back in his cabin, Aaron stared at the ceiling. His nerves still jittered, but somewhere in his chest, a quiet sense of resolve began to take root.
"Okay," he said, exhaling.
"I'll try not to mess this up."
Outside his window, the arena lights flickered to life.
The world was watching.
And the exam hadn't even started yet.
---