Starborn Shadows

Chapter Four

The line toward the front of the hall moved slowly, though no one complained about it openly.

Students shifted where they stood, adjusting bags against their shoulders, glancing toward the front whenever another pulse of light came from the platform. The room carried a quiet kind of tension now, anticipation. Everyone was waiting for something they still didn’t fully understand.

Isla stood beside Kaia and Lena while Leo and Jax remained behind them.

At the front of the hall, Chancellor Ardyn Vale stood near a raised platform alongside several staff members dressed in dark academy robes. Near the center sat a smooth black sphere atop a silver stand.

It was strange-looking up close.

Not large

But every now and then, faint silver lines shifted beneath its surface like movement trapped under glass.

Kaia stared at it for a second too long. “Okay, I know we’re all pretending to act normal right now, but that thing definitely looks cursed.”

“It’s a sphere,” Jax said.

“A suspicious sphere.”

Leo leaned slightly around them. “I was hoping for something bigger.”

Kaia looked at him. “Why would bigger make it better?”

“Because if I’m being magically evaluated, I want the experience.”

“You want theatrics,” Isla said.

“Yes.”

“That explains a lot actually,” Lena murmured.

Leo looked genuinely pleased by that.

At the front, one of the professors stepped forward.

She looked younger than Isla expected for someone standing beside Chancellor Vale, though there was something sharp about the way she carried herself. Silver-blonde hair rested neatly over one shoulder, and the dark robes she wore carried thin silver embroidery along the sleeves.

When she spoke, the hall quieted naturally.

“My name is Professor Selene Marris,” she said calmly. “I oversee first-year evaluations.”

Her gaze moved briefly across the room before settling near the sphere.

“This is an alignment sphere. It responds to magical affinity.”

Quiet murmurs spread almost immediately.

Kaia leaned toward Isla. “That sounds important.”

“It probably is.”

“Helpful as always.”

Professor Marris continued before the whispers could build too much.

“At Velmorne, affinities are categorized into three primary classifications. Elemental. Arcane. And primal.”

This time the murmuring lasted longer.

“What’s the difference?”

“Do we choose?”

Professor Marris waited patiently until the noise settled again.

“Your affinity determines your foundational placement, introductory magical coursework, and class schedules during your time at Velmorne. This is not a ranking system. No affinity is considered superior to another.”

Leo nodded thoughtfully behind them. “That absolutely means students still argue about it.”

“Students argue about everything,” Jax replied.

“That’s true.”

Professor Marris gestured toward the sphere. “You will approach when called. Place your hand against the sphere and remain still until your alignment stabilizes.”

Kaia frowned slightly. “Why does ‘stabilizes’ sound concerning?”

“You think everything sounds concerning,” Isla said.

“We’re in a giant magical academy with mysterious glowing objects. I’m being reasonable.”

Honestly, Isla couldn’t argue with that.

The first student was called forward soon after.

“Your hand,” Professor Marris instructed.

The boy obeyed immediately.

For a second, nothing happened.

Then pale blue light spread softly beneath the dark surface of the sphere.

“Elemental affinity,” Professor Marris announced.

The boy visibly relaxed as a staff member handed him folded papers.

“Oh,” Kaia whispered. “That wasn’t as terrifying as I expected.”

The process continued.

Another student stepped forward.

Silver light.

“Arcane affinity.”

Then another.

Deep crimson.

“Primal affinity.”

One after another, students approached the sphere, received their classifications, collected schedules, and moved aside. Slowly, the tension in the room began easing now that everyone understood the process.

Mostly.

“Lena Valewood.”

Lena immediately straightened beside them.

Kaia touched her arm lightly. “You’ll be okay.”

“That confidence feels very artificial.”

“It is,” Kaia admitted.

Lena laughed quietly under her breath before stepping forward.

She looked nervous all the way to the platform, though she tried hiding it well.

The moment her hand touched the sphere, soft silver light bloomed beneath the surface.

“Arcane affinity.”

Lena blinked once, visibly relieved as she accepted her papers and returned toward them.

“You survived,” Leo said immediately.

“I nearly passed away internally.”

“But externally you looked calm,” Kaia told her.

“That’s because my panic stayed private.”

“Leo Arden.”

Leo straightened like someone had just announced his arrival at a ceremony.

“Finally.”

“You’ve been waiting for thirty minutes,” Jax said.

“And suffering every second.”

He walked toward the platform with far too much confidence for someone who had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

The second his hand touched the sphere, deep crimson light burst brightly beneath the glass.

“Primal affinity.”

Leo blinked once before grinning. “That sounds aggressively cool.”

“Everything sounds cool to you,” Jax muttered.

“That’s because I choose joy.”

“Jax Mercer.”

Jax moved forward calmly while Leo continued looking weirdly proud of himself.

His result came quieter.

Deep blue light spread steadily beneath the surface.

“Arcane affinity.”

Leo frowned thoughtfully as Jax returned. “Why did yours somehow look smarter than mine?”

“That sentence exhausted me.”

Kaia laughed softly.

Then

“Kaia Rowan.”

Kaia inhaled sharply. “Okay. Suddenly walking feels unnatural.”

“You’ll survive,” Isla said.

“That sounded very unconcerned.”

Still muttering quietly to herself, Kaia stepped forward.

By now, fewer students remained waiting in line. The hall felt quieter. More focused.

Kaia placed her hand carefully against the sphere.

Warm crimson-gold light spread beneath the surface almost instantly.

“Primal affinity.”

Kaia blinked. “Wait really?”

Professor Marris handed her papers calmly. “Yes. That is generally how results work.”

Kaia nodded quickly. “Right. Of course.”

When she returned, Leo immediately looked offended. “You’re primal too? Okay, now we’re clearly the superior group.”

“Didn’t they literally just say not to think like that?” Lena asked.

“Yes. But I ignored it emotionally.”

Then Professor Marris looked down at the final name remaining.

“Isla Altair”

Kaia looked at her immediately. “Okay. You’re going to be fine.”

“You have no way of knowing that.”

“I’m choosing optimism.”

“Dangerous habit.”

Leo leaned slightly toward her. “If you explode, try not to hit us.”

“Very reassuring.”

“You’re welcome.”

Isla stepped out of line.

The walk toward the platform felt longer now that everyone was watching.

The sphere sat perfectly still beneath the overhead light, silver patterns drifting lazily beneath the dark surface.

Up close, it felt colder somehow.

Quieter.

Professor Marris gestured toward it. “Your hand.”

Isla placed her palm against the sphere.

Cold.

That was the first thing she noticed.

Then the sphere flickered violently.

Not glowed.

Flickered.

The silver beneath the glass jerked sharply like something inside it had suddenly woken up.

Several professors straightened immediately.

Blue light flashed beneath the surface.

Then gold.

Then crimson.

Elemental.

Arcane.

Primal.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Too fast.

Murmurs spread instantly across the hall.

Kaia frowned. “…Is it supposed to do that?”

Nobody answered her.

The sphere pulsed harder.

The silver lines beneath the glass spread rapidly beneath Isla’s hand

Then every light in the hall flickered once.

A sharp pulse of energy burst outward from the platform hard enough to force Isla to pull her hand back instinctively.

The sphere went completely dark.

Silence filled the hall.

Not nervous silence.

Real silence.

Professor Marris stared at the sphere.

For the first time since the evaluations began, she looked unsettled.

Beside her, Chancellor Vale’s expression had gone completely unreadable.

Then quietly, from somewhere among the staff

“…Not again.”

The words were soft.

Almost swallowed immediately after being spoken.

But Isla heard them.

So did Kaia.

The silence that followed felt heavier than before.

Professor Marris recovered first.

One of the professors moved toward the sphere quickly while another spoke quietly to Chancellor Vale. The dark surface of the sphere remained completely blank now, no silver movement beneath it anymore.

Like it had shut down.

Students around the hall had started whispering openly.

“Did it break?”

“Was that supposed to happen?”

“I’ve never seen—”

“Quiet,” Professor Marris said sharply enough that the hall immediately fell silent again.

Isla stood motionless near the platform, suddenly aware of how many people were staring at her.

She hated it instantly.

Professor Marris looked toward Chancellor Vale briefly before speaking again.

“…The evaluation will continue.”

Continue?

The sphere looked dead.

But another professor stepped forward and pressed a hand briefly against the silver stand beneath it. The dark surface flickered once more before dim silver movement slowly returned beneath the glass.

A strange tension remained among the staff afterward.

Like everyone was pretending nothing unusual had happened while very obviously thinking about it.

Professor Marris finally looked toward Isla again.

Her expression had smoothed back into calm professionalism, but something sharper lingered beneath it now.

“Your placement will be reviewed separately,” she said.

That caused another wave of murmurs.

“Separately?” Kaia repeated under her breath.

A folded schedule packet was handed to Isla anyway.

Before she could even look at it properly, Professor Marris continued speaking to the room.

“Students will now receive dormitory assignments, campus maps, and introductory schedules. Classes will begin in two days.”

The tension shifted instantly.

Not gone.

But redirected.

Students relaxed almost immediately at the mention of dorms and schedules, conversations rising around the hall again.

“Oh thank God,” Leo said. “I thought they were going to make us do another test.”

“You didn’t even struggle during the first one,” Jax replied.

“That’s not the point.”

Staff members began directing students toward long tables arranged near the side of the hall where room keys, folded maps, and schedules were being distributed.

Kaia immediately moved toward Isla once she stepped down from the platform.

“…Are you okay?”

“I think so.”

“That did not look normal.”

“I noticed.”

Leo arrived seconds later. “Okay. So. Small observation.”

“Don’t,” Jax warned.

“You almost exploded.”

“I did not explode.”

“You aggressively glitched the magic sphere.”

“That sounds fake when you say it like that.”

“It looked fake when it happened.”

Lena glanced nervously toward the platform again. “The professors looked scared.”

That made the group quiet briefly.

Because they had.

Kaia recovered first. “Okay. New plan. We ignore whatever that was until we know what it means.”

“That sounds healthy,” Isla muttered.

Leo pointed toward the tables ahead. “Come on. Let’s see if Velmorne blessed us with decent rooms.”

Students crowded around the tables now, collecting packets while staff members directed them toward different dormitory wings.

When Isla finally unfolded her schedule packet properly, several papers slipped free at once.

A detailed map of the academy.

Class schedules.

Dormitory assignments.

The map itself was larger than she expected, showing multiple academy buildings, courtyards, training halls, libraries, lakes, gardens, and separate dormitory wings connected through winding stone paths.

Kaia stared at hers. “Why is this school the size of a kingdom?”

Leo unfolded his dramatically. “If I disappear, assume I got lost immediately.”

“You probably will,” Jax said.

“That’s hurtful.”

Lena looked down at her room assignment. “West Dormitory. Third floor.”

Kaia checked hers quickly. “Wait, mine too.”

Leo looked at his own papers. “No way. Same.”

Jax sighed softly. “Unfortunately, mine as well.”

Kaia immediately turned toward Isla. “Please tell me you’re with us.”

Isla looked down at her packet.

West Dormitory.

Fourth Floor.

Room 407.

She blinked once.

“You’re upstairs,” Kaia said.

“That’s rude,” Leo declared. “They separated the emotionally attached group.”

“We met today,” Isla reminded him.

“And yet the bond is strong.”