The sky above Aetherfall was a color Aria Velthorn had never seen before—somewhere between violet lightning and a soft, dying ember. It shimmered like liquid magic, breathing in slow pulses as if the realm itself were alive. She stepped off the floating skystone ferry, her boots touching the glowing tiles of the Academy's entrance bridge, and instantly felt it—the pull.
It wasn't just awe. It was... a calling.
Behind her, students chattered, some levitating luggage with glowing sigils, others riding on enchanted familiars—foxes with wings, scaled hounds with shadowy tails, even a floating jellyfish wearing a monocle.
But Aria wasn't watching them. Her heart was beating too loud.
She clutched her mother's letter—folded and re-folded so many times, the edges were frayed. "Do not trust anyone until your dreams speak their name."
Cryptic, typical of the Velthorn matriarchs. And deeply unhelpful.
A gust of wind tugged at her aubergine cloak, and in that moment, the air shimmered. She blinked.
Someone was staring at her.
Across the marble courtyard, under a crooked arch wrapped in silver vines, stood a boy.
Tall. Shadow-wrapped. And way too confident.
He didn't smile. He just tilted his head slightly like he was trying to hear her heartbeat from across the distance. His eyes were dark, unreadable, but something about them made her stomach twist—like he'd seen her before.
And then he was gone.
Just like that.
The shadows swallowed him like smoke in the wind.
---
> "Miss Velthorn?"
The voice startled her. A floating scroll bobbed in front of her, etched with runes and humming softly.
"Dorm assignment. Welcome to Aetherfall."
She took it automatically, but her mind was somewhere else.
Not on the scroll. Not even on the Academy.
But on that boy.
That impossible boy.
Because as soon as she saw him, something inside her flared awake.
Not magic.
Not fear.
Recognition.
---
Aetherfall Academy loomed in front of her—part cathedral, part beast. Spires twisted into the clouds, stained glass pulsed with spells, and bridges hung in midair with nothing holding them up. She stepped forward, and the ground glowed with her name in ancient tongue.
"Welcome, Aria Velthorn."
And somewhere deep in the halls of the Academy, in a chamber where no student was allowed to enter, a mirror cracked down the center.
And a prophecy stirred from its slumber.
---