Pellen picked at the skin around her fingernails in a poor attempt to sit still before the priest of Will, the man who would appraise her compatibility with Arcane.

  “No need to be nervous, miss,” he said. “Just put your hand on the plate here.” He gestured to the plate of blue-black metal on the table. An Arcane shard—a sliver of glowing gold crystal—already sat in the divot to one side of the plate.

  Pellen reached out and touched the metal.

  “Now push a small sample of your Focus into the plate,” the priest said.

  Pellen squeezed all her eyes shut as she did as she was told, begging her Focus to be compatible with the Concept of Arcane. As if begging could change anything.

  “That is plenty,” the priest said with a chuckle. “Go ahead and stop.”

  Pellen pulled her hand back, her fingers immediately returning to their anxious picking. She needed to stop. The air was cold and dry. They’d bleed if she kept this up. Her Vitality wasn’t good enough to heal it quickly.

  There was nothing she could do now. Either she was compatible with Arcane and was just incredibly unlucky, or she wasn’t and had just wasted five years of her life attempting to be something she never could be.

  The priest of Will placed his hand on the reading plate, his eyes closing to evaluate her results. The minutes stretched endlessly. Was she unlucky? Was she a failure? How strange was it to hope she was simply unlucky?

  His eyes opened a moment later—a sad glint in his two eyes.

  Pellen could feel the tears welling. She knew what he’d say even before he spoke.

  “I am sorry, miss.”

  Pellen stood sharply, her eyes squeezing shut. She was incompatible. Tears beaded across her face. She’d promised she wouldn’t cry. Not in front of the priest.

  She was a proper adult. A proud student of the Academy of Arcane Arts. Not for much longer. But for now.

  She forced the words from her clenching throat. “Thank you.”

  “I am certain you will find another path,” the priest said softly. His words flowed over her like a warm blanket.

  He was right, of course. She would find something else. But it would never be as a Professor of the Academy as she had dreamed.

  She rubbed her face, trying—failing—to wipe away all the tears. “Thank you.”

  She hurried out of the room before the man could try to comfort her further. She didn’t want comfort.

  Didn’t deserve comfort.

  She needed to make a decision. They would report her results to the academy sooner than later. At which point, she’d be removed from her Professor track position. She could still become an Assistant. A second class Assistant. She wouldn’t be allowed to lead a lab, but with the right Professor, she could continue her research.

  Probably.

  If it wasn’t reassigned to an Assistant on the Professor track. What did an Assistant need research credits for, after all, if not to progress toward Professorship themselves?

  She bit her lip, walking faster down the halls and back into the main temple.

  The other option was to switch to a combat track. She still wouldn’t get a Professorship from it, but she’d be more likely to be hired as a mage if she could show she had certification in combat magic of some form.

  She’d done alright in the Catacombs—as pointless as that turned out to be. Perhaps Lady Alyx or Lord Kohen would even hire her again? Perhaps which ever one did not end up being Dragon Knight? She imagined the Dragon Knight would use the military’s mages if they needed them.

  Was it wrong to hope Lady Alyx would not get a dragon so she might choose to hire her again in the future? Yes. Probably. She shook the thought from her mind.

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  There were worse fates than combat mage. One could get a good position as a combat mage without a Professor title.

  But it would mean setting aside her research. Combat mages rarely invented their own spells. Not from scratch. Not the way Pellen wanted to.

  The third option was to admit she’d been wrong, go home with her head bowed, and beg her mother to take her back. Admit she wasn’t suited for magic and accept her place on the Dusk Light.

  Pellen’s feet stepped slow and heavy as she stepped out of the temple. Miss Cass had asked she wait for her, though she hadn’t specified where outside exactly. Pellen took in her surroundings, Unobstructed Sight searching the grounds outside for her. Her eyes darted to and fro, time crawling to a near freeze as she evaluated the space around her.

  No, Miss Cass was not here.

  Perhaps she was still speaking with the priests? She seemed to have some business with them, too. Pellen wondered what.

  Miss Cass was an odd duck.

  Pellen hadn’t thought spirits still walked the Fractured Skies anymore. Supposedly, spirits like the slyphid hadn’t been seen since the last age. They should be from other realms unreachable across the realm barrier and the inter-realm space.

  Slyphids in particular should be from the Aether realm, a legendary realm of twisting storms, blinding light, and choking aether. But Miss Cass had said she wasn’t from there. And that there hadn’t been other slyphids where she was from.

  Was there a realm of disparate spirits? What kind of environment would allow different kinds of spirits to coalesce together? Maybe some sort of fused realm, where fragments of other realms collided? It was theoretically possible from what she knew of realm models.

  Or had Miss Cass been the only spirit in a realm of physical bodied peoples? Miss Cass seemed quite comfortable with non-spirits, so perhaps that was the case.

  Where was she, anyway? Pellen looked around again, firing off another round of Unobstructed Sight. Again, time slowed as she took in the world around her on all its wavelengths. Light, heat, energy, she absorbed it all. Potential, Focus, Stamina, she evaluated it for all. Miss Cass was still not here.

  She wondered what Miss Cass wanted. It couldn’t be to hire her again, could it? Or did Lady Alyx still wish to attempt to reward her for her part in the Catacombs? Pellen wasn’t sure how she would tell the lady she could not take the promised reward. She could not in good conscience keep accepting Concept Gems until she received Arcane when no number would ever provide it.

  Would she still consider hiring her if she knew she did not and never would possess Arcane?

  She shook thoughts of Arcane away. She didn’t want to cry. She wasn’t ready to come to terms with the death of her dreams yet.

  She should just keep looking for Miss Cass.

  Time passed slowly. Every minute, thoughts of the strange slyphid were increasingly replaced with thoughts of home. Of the endless empty expanses between the isles of the archipelago.

  Nope. This wasn’t working. She could not keep standing here. Miss Cass had asked her to wait, so she could not possibly have wandered off without her.

  Probably.

  Unless the business Miss Cass had was about hiring her, and she had somehow overheard the priest’s appraisal and decided she didn’t need a failure of a mage.

  Pellen shook her head. No. She would look for Miss Cass. If she were inside still, she would find her. And if she weren’t, Pellen would go home and pack her bags.

  She nodded to herself and stepped back inside.

  The inside was no less busy than it had been before. Most of the worshipers were centered around the large statue of She of Stunning Brilliance and Striking Inspiration. A few accumulated around her shadow, projected on the wall behind her, representing He of Consuming Shadows and Slicing Betrayal.

  Not many. The God of Dexterity was not well-loved in Vaisom.

  She activated Unobstructed Sight again. In a moment, she could see the entirety of the Temple, every single person, whether she had a direct line of sight on them or not.

  Miss Cass was not here.

  She picked at her fingernails. Had Miss Cass actually left already? Had she…

  Pellen shook her fears aside. No jumping to conclusions. Maybe she was still talking to a priest?

  Should she just keep waiting?

  No. She could do a little better than that. There was the priest who had seen her a little bit ago. He had also said he’d send someone to talk to Miss Cass. Perhaps he would know if she was still talking?

  Pellen steeled herself and hurried up to him again. “E-excuse me?”

  The priest smiled down at her. “Ah, Lady Mage Ioptes. Did you forget something?”

  Pellen shook her head, her heart pinging at the title Lady Mage. How much longer would she be able to claim that title? “There was another woman with me when you saw me. She asked to talk to a priest as well. Do you know if she is still talking or if she has already left?”

  The priest frowned. “The woman did not wait, it seemed. By the time the priest I sent to talk to her made it to her, she was already gone.”

  Pellen’s chest fell. Miss Cass had left? Just like that?

  Why? Had something come up? Maybe sudden business for Lady Alyx?

  “Did you need anything else, Lady Mage?”

  Pellen shook her head. “Thank you.”

  “May you walk your patron’s path with pride,” he said with a wave.

  Pellen meandered toward the bench she’d last seen Miss Cass sitting at. Maybe she had left a note or… Pellen didn’t even know why it mattered to her so much.

  Perhaps she just wanted to be needed. Especially now. When she would never be needed again.