Wait, You Call Your Parents While Training for Immortality?

I was still trying to get the blood off my sleeve when Master Calder gave me the first rule. "Never bully the weak," he said. The blood wasn't mine. It had seeped through the cuff of a gray uniform belonging to a boy named Niko Bell, who sat beside me on the floor of the old observatory with his back against a brass pillar. His hands shook when he held the cup of water I'd brought him. Every few seconds, a faint silver glow crawled over his knuckles and vanished. "I wasn't bullying him," Julian Rook said from across the circular room. "We were practicing a transfer." "You left him on the floor," I said. Julian glanced at my sleeve. A thin smile touched his mouth. "And you made a mess." I had been at Aster Vale Institute for less than three hours. Long enough to learn that its stone campus looked down over a fictional stretch of wind-scoured coast called the Ashen Reach, that the dormitory doors unlocked with a pulse of warmth from your palm, and that the students with family crests on their cuffs expected the rest of us to move when they entered a room. Not long enough to learn what a transfer was. Master Calder watched me instead of Julian. "You stopped him?" "I did." "Why?" "Because Niko couldn't stand up." Niko lowered his eyes to the cup. Julian's two friends, both dressed in the deep blue of the senior cohort, stood behind him with their arms folded. Neither had touched Niko. Neither had stopped Julian. Master Calder nodded once, as if my answer had confirmed something. He was a narrow-shouldered man with silver hair and a burn scar running from his jaw to his collar. His eyes were pale, almost colorless. "Second rule," he said. "Never kill the innocent." Julian rolled his eyes. "No one's dead." "Not yet." There was no heat in Master Calder's voice. That made the words worse. He turned toward the rest of us. Twenty new initiates sat in the observatory's wide stone ring, still wearing our travel clothes. Aster Vale had not given us a welcome banquet or a tour. It had given us an empty room, a standing bowl of water, and a test none of us knew we were taking. "Third rule," Master Calder said. "Never mistake power for permission." Julian's smile disappeared. "Those rules are older than the institute," Calder continued. "They are not a promise that the world will obey them. They are a promise that you will." I glanced down at Niko. He had finally stopped trembling, but the silver glow beneath his skin had dimmed. I'd seen it happen when I put my hand on his shoulder. The room's strange energy had flowed toward him, then into me, then back into him. I hadn't known what I was doing. I had just known that his pulse felt too faint. Now my fingertips tingled as if I'd grabbed an electric fence. Master Calder walked to the center of the circle and lifted a black glass disc from the floor. It reflected no faces, only a pale line of light. "Place your hand over the basin," he told me. I looked at the wide bowl of water in front of me. I'd noticed it when I entered, but assumed it was part of the room's decor. "Me?" "You interrupted the transfer. The basin will tell us what you interrupted." Julian stepped away from his friends. "This is ridiculous. She has no training." "Neither did Niko when you started," Calder said. I stood. My knees felt unsteady, although I wasn't sure whether the weakness came from my jump from the road or from having an entire room watch me. I moved to the basin. The water was clear and still. I held my right hand above it. "Touch the surface," Calder said. "Don't try to push anything. Let it answer." I touched the water. A line of silver appeared beneath my palm. It ran outward across the basin, branched into smaller lines, and stopped at the rim. The light stayed steady. My tingling fingers relaxed. Then a second, darker line spread from the place where I'd touched. It moved against the first one, the way a c***k might travel through glass. The water turned cloudy. Niko made a small sound behind me. "What does that mean?" I asked. "Nothing yet." Master Calder took the black disc from the floor and lowered it close to the basin. "Keep your hand there." A thin red thread appeared under the surface. It ran from the basin toward Julian. His face hardened. "I didn't put anything in the water." "I didn't say you did," Calder replied. The red thread trembled. I felt it pull at the back of my wrist, faint as a strand of spider silk. Niko stood too quickly and had to catch the pillar. I turned, reaching for him, but he shook his head. "I'm fine," he whispered. He was not fine. I could see the gray cast beneath his skin. His chest rose shallowly. The red thread snapped. Water splashed over my wrist. The silver light went out. Master Calder looked at Julian. "You'll report to my office at seven tomorrow." Julian laughed once. "My mother can discuss any questions the institute has with the board." "You can discuss your actions with me." "My mother's a board member." "I know." For a second, the room went silent except for the water dripping from my hand. Julian stepped toward me. "You'll learn how things work here." I looked at Niko. I looked back at Julian. "Then I'd better learn fast." He leaned close enough for me to see the pale scar on his chin. "You have no idea who you've just made an enemy." "I know exactly who I stopped." I wasn't sure I believed myself. Master Calder ended the test. The other initiates filed out in pairs, speaking quietly. Niko stayed seated. I offered him my arm and waited until he took it. At the doorway, a brass plaque caught the light. It carried the institute's crest: three curved lines rising over a black sea. Under it, in letters worn smooth by years of touch, someone had carved the three rules. I read them again. Then I followed Niko down the hall, knowing that even on my first day, I had already made one promise I might not be able to keep.