I woke up on the ground, right before the gate. It was wide open now. I got up from the ground, brushed my clothes from the dust, and picked my stuff. The whole gate thing was weird and honestly it creeped me out a little bit, so I decided to continue backing up and trying to find the same way I got in here. I turned around and was going to walk away when I heard a faded voice whispering inside my head. At first, it was inaudible and I thought I was imagining things but as I slowly walked closer to the gate I could hear it whisper come inside again and again. I didn't want to walk towards the gate but I couldn't stop myself. I knew what I was doing and what was happening around me but at the same time, I was like in a trance, and something was making me walk through the gate. I only had this feeling inside me, telling me and pushing me towards that gate. I gather up my courage to walk faster and decide to go to the other side instead, rather than being lost while trying to find another path. I pass the gate and the darkness that was around me in that alley is gone. No more fog or trees in a creepy alleyway. Instead I was welcomed by a bright warm light that made me almost blind so I squinted my eyes hard and covered my upper face with my arm, pressing the back of my left palm on my forehead. As I got used to it, I slowly opened my eyes and turned my hand around, pressing the side of my palm on my eyebrows to check around my surroundings only to be greeted with this big old building. It looked like one of those gothic structures they have in Europe and totally out of this place. The weather was nice, warm and sunny. Completely different from the previous dark place I was in that was covered by the shadows of trees, no sun rays hitting through or anything. It was an old strange building in the middle of a yard filled with soft green grass and some small park surrounding the sides of the building. You could hear some birds chirping, feel a slight summer breeze on my cheeks and hear a lot of chatter. Young people I would guess around my age were standing in front of the building, sitting on the grass chatting, walking around with books and backpacks, or just having fun playing some card games or whatever. It was all overwhelming and I was still trying to process what just happened. But at least there are some people around so I decided to walk up to someone and ask them for directions. As I walked closer to the building and the people in front of me, I started to feel a little electricity buzzing all over my body. It was a weird sensation. It felt something like a static electricity you get when you brush a balloon too fast and then all your hair stand up. I look down and around me to see a bright blue tint on the grass under my feet. I look around and see my whole vision is turned blue. It was a slight change, almost invisible at first but it made me panic and take a few steps back trying to get out of it. I shake my head and after a few steps, everything is normal again. The grass is its' normal green color and the air feels like it's supposed to be too. I didn't want to risk it so I only reach in front of me with my hand and take slow steps. I could feel the buzzing on my body again but just the hand that passed into that weird static energy field so I pull my hand back. I guess I shouldn't try doing anything with that weird spot so I turn my head to the left and look at the building trying to figure out a different path. One half of the building is almost white and the other one is dark brown. It looks like they painted the walls and then took a break or they are out of the materials. Did they start repairing it just now? I wondered. I stumbled with my steps, walking towards the building but looking around the place. It was so strange and I don't think I heard anything about this place. No mentions by the locals or anything on the map but for some reason I felt safe here. Thinking about where I ended up I was stumbling around, turning my body and my head to figure out where I was and them I got pulled back to reality by a familiar voice. I turn to the direction of the voice and see Reilly at the other half of the yard. She waves at me and runs towards me.

Me: Reilly? No! Stop. STOP! There is electricity-...

But I couldn't finish that sentence and Reilly ran through that weird electricity field. She ran to me and laughed. I quickly grabbed her shoulders and was checking if she is okay but as usual her fire curls were dancing in the soft wind and her face was reassuring me that nothing happened to her. I guess it was just a weird occasion and my brain must have imagined it since I was pretty tired already. I felt my body relax a little bit and Reilly tried to put me back on track.

Reilly: I know. I know. It won't do anything to me. It's sad though that you are in the Aveus. I can always visit you though.

Aveus? I was wondering what was she talking about and then a female voice interrupted my thoughts. I turned around to see who it was and Reilly slightly bowed to the older female. She was dressed in long burgundy dress with long sleeves that were ended by a white flowery lace and the top of the dress continued into a turtleneck covering her whole body. He hair was long and brown, neatly braided and then put up into a bun, holded with a few pins. Her outfit was totally matching the vibe of the building and she looked like she was from a last century. I was still assessing her while she started talking to me.

Lady: Welcome to the Aveus Umbras Academy. You have been selected by the school to attend a 5-year program. My name is Edite, daughter of Aphrodite. I am the initiator for the administration.

At first, everything she said seemed normal. I somehow got accepted into a university program without applying or doing anything which was weird but good I guess, because I didn't have to worry about what should I do next with my life. I was planning on just working and I didn't like any field of study to continue it after high school. But did she just say the daughter of Aphrodite? I chuckled but the lady kept her straight face the whole time. I guess her mom had a really nice parents to give her that name but it was weird to talk about it and ask a total stranger about their family so I let it go and instead said something else.

Me: Ehm, I am sorry. Edite? It's just an unusual name for someone, never heard of it.

Reilly: Not really. Well, I guess you don't know because no one told you, but all kids and teachers at Umbras are descendants of gods.

My mind stopped working for a while. I started laughing at Reilly. What a good joke she made. But she and the old lady were dead serious about this. I clear my throat and then look at them both. I didn't want to say anything more stupid so I let the person continue.

Edite: Edite is my god-name. I use it instead but Umbras graduates can choose between their parental giving names or chosen god ones. This doesn't affect you though. By selective force of the Inyll gate, you have been accepted to the Aveus program for young magicians. I must now leave you to attend to other new students but I have notified the school and someone from the initiator magicians will be with you shortly to introduce you to your admission.

So if I get this right and take all this as a real thing, I am a magician? If Reilly wasn't here, I would think this is 100 percent a prank by someone from the old high school. But Reilly seems to believe it too so I will play their game for now. Magic is supposed to be real? I look at Reilly and give her a small smile. She is still wearing the turqoise short dress, the same she had for the graduation ceremony and our lunch. It was complimenting her red autumn hair. Reilly was the same as me, not really into all those girly things even though we used a basic make up, but dress was a weird territory for both of us. Despite that we both decided to look somewhat decent and „normal" for our graduation so we both went shopping for some dress. She chose pretty quickly, not even thinking about it and bought these dress that had a tight top, squeezing her chest and almost sucking all the air from her lungs but she didn't complain, while the bottom was a loose skirt. It had a nice V-shaped decolt and short sleeves. Nice but good for movement as Reilly said while picking them up from the rack and waving it in front of my face. I guess she must have left right after me and didn't even have time to change her clothes. Reilly quickly links both her arms with my left arm and pulls me towards the school. She jumps on the way and is all giggly, almost looking like a girly girl if you look at her. I let her drag me across the areal of the academy while some of the people who are around just stare at us and others don't simply care. We arrived at the double stairs in front of the building. You can walk up from both sides, left and right to the top and see, I would guess, a main entrance of the school. The front of the stairs was just a wall that was simply and decorated with only a giant emblem in the middle of it. There is a boy leaning against the stair wall and he was playing with a card. It wouldn't be so weird if the card wasn't floating in the air. BY ITSELF! He was dressed casually in a black jeans topped with yellow short-sleeved shirt tugged inside his pants and black Converse shoes. He looked a bit older than me but was relatively good-looking. You could see his full face since his black hair were cut short, shoving his sharp asian features. I still wasn't buying all that magic is real crap but I didn't know what to say to him and Reilly didn't seem to know the guy so I just blurted something out to catch his attention.

Me: Hey. Nice trick.

He looks me in the eye with an annoyed expression and clicks his tongue, grabbing the card from the air. He looked at it and read something that was written on it. Then he looked back at me and said my name as a question. I nodded and he adjusted his position, now just simply standing in front of the wall and not leaning his back against it. His expression said it all, that he didn't like me, but he continued to introduce himself.

Boy: We have another "mundrel" here? Great. My name is Young and I am Ossilor 3rd year. I am your initiator for admission. Come with me, mundrel. You, demigod. Go to your half and get assigned.

I was annoyed with him calling me by that word. I didn't know it and what it mean but I had enough nicknames my whole life. They could at least be normal here. Well, if normal can even describe this place since it was supposed to be an academy for magic. He asked Reilly to go away so she let go of my hand and waved while she was walking to the other side. Does that mean she is a god descendant or whatever is that other half supposed to be? That thought hit my brain and left me in shock. I looked at her all lost in this place. I wanted her to come with me, the only person I know here and the only one I could hold onto while I lose my sanity with this „being a magician" stuff but she just signaled me to go with this Young guy. I click my tongue and then turn around to face him. But I didn't even hear him shuffle around or move and that guy was already walking to the school so I had to run to catch up with him. I ran up the stairs from the left side and joined him as we went inside throught the main entrance. We walked through the corridors of the school and he was explaining everything. I didn't hear half of the things since I was trying to check and examine my surroundings. He was talking about every classroom and place in this school we passed but he brushed it just slightly and told me that the prefects will explain it later in detail. I was still looking around when he suddenly stopped and I bumped into his back. He turns his head slightly to the right to face in my direction and clicks his tongue. After that he doesn't say anything and simply turns back. We continued to walk a few more steps and then we stopped again, this time I was following the sound of his footsteps so I knew he stopped moving. We were facing this big wooden door in front that was maybe two times bigger than our heights, puts his hands on the door, pushes it open. The door reveals a wide hall with many people already standing in it. They were dressed in their casual clothes, either modern dress, shorts or jeans with T-shirts. Just your casual bunch of students that were gathered here the same way like any event at your highschool or assembly. The hall felt a little bit cold compared to the summer weather outside and it made my jump when I chill ran down my spine. I shrugged it off and studied the room. It was an old room in the same style as the building. Felt like one of those old renaissance buildings in France. The room must be at least 50 feet. There were some banners hanging on the walls, pretty high up and each was playing with different colors, decorated with different emblems. Young grabs my shoulder and pushes me inside, then he closes the door. There was some empty spot in front of me so I stayed there for a while, still checking out those decorations. The banners, four of each kind, twinning to the ones on the other side. They started from the left side when you look at them or when you basically enter the hall, and continued to decorate the wall up to the giant window wall in front of the entrance to the room. One was gold, then the second one was brown and orange, the next one green and purple, while the last one was blue and turqoise. I didn't know any county or clan or anything having those banners so they must belong to the school in some way. I finished up looking around and I decided to check out what was happening up front. I walk to mingle with the other people already being there. They all looked young and we all got assigned here so I would guess that they are high school graduates like me. I push through the crowd and I get myself slightly up to the front to get a better view and assess the place. All I could see is older people sitting at this long table. The table wasn't decorated or anything, but there were some refreshments placed on it. Champaigne glasses filled with some bubbly liquid and plates with different fruit or cakes. They didn't seem to touch the food at all even though some of the glasses were full and some already had half of the drink gone. An old lady then stands up and claps her hands, then sits back again. Some people were still talking to each other so all their attention went to her and then on the old man who suddenly stood up and walked from behind the table to its front.

Old man: Welcome, young magicians. The Academy called to you and you have been accepted to the Aveus program for magical descendants. My name is Aldo Idarin and I am the head of the Aveus Academy. In the future you can call me Principal Idarin. I hope everyone will harness their talent in a good way, after finishing your studies you will successfully ascend but also will enjoy your stay in the meantime at the academy.

He then claps his hands and the large door, now behind me, opens again. A few new people come inside and I don't recognize any of them. They are all dressed in different casual clothes but every one of them has this wizarding cloak like they are cosplaying Harry Potter. They must be other students though because I see Young between them who also has that ridiculous cloak on. The Principal introduces them as prefects or supervisors and tells us to follow them. The supervisors started to split us up into smaller groups and then each group follows a different student. I went with my group and our prefect which didn't end up being Young, even though I tried to slip into his group. He didn't seem very fond of me but at least he was somehow another person a knew a little bit in this place. After my unsuccessful infiltration into his group, I got pushed with a different one so I followed them as we exited the hall. At first, they take us to the library. It looked like a casual library with different sections. We got hauled off to the back of it, into a smaller room which was basically a store room for textbooks. We waited for the group before to get their books and then it was our turn. They show us around to different shelves and then they gave us a bunch of books from each one. Some of the books were old, binded in brown or black leather and were really thick, the others looked like a normal „human" textbooks, printed by a machine. We take the books and slowly walk out the room since the stack was a bit heavy and follow them to different locations. The next stop was a dressing room.

Supervisor: Mostly you are allowed to wear casual clothes brought from your homes but for the classes, you need to add a cloak. This is the room where you will get your 1st-year cloaks. Later you will revisit this room if you develop a power.

Other students working in the dressing room toss one black cloak at the top of the books we are holding. After we were finished we then proceeded to left the dressing room to walk through the school. The interior of the school was also matching that european style, it felt like some private English school. The walls were mostly stone and decorated with dark brown wooden plates. There was some occasional painting or swords on the walls which were illuminated by the outside light coming through the big windows that were cut into smaller ones by a decorative metal grids. We passed multiple classrooms, which the prefects introduced to us, at least those we need to find to be able to attend our 1st year lessons. I tried to remember where I should go even though I was still considering leaving. Like am I really going to study magic? I don't even know how to decline this invitation so I decided to roll with this thing a bit longer until I can ask someone, maybe the principal who seemed like a nice old grandpa, how to leave this place. Eventually we get to the main hallway and gather in front of wide wooden stairs that were going up and then splitting to left and right.

Supervisor: First you will be assigned to the random rooms here at the main dormitory, which you can find on the first floor after you go search for your rooms. Later when you develop your power, you will get assigned to the houses, each in a different wing of the school.

Then we were taken upstairs to the rooms and split into smaller groups of 3. Girls on the left and boys on the right. I am paired up with two other girls who were shorter than me and I could barely see them since their bodies were hidden behind the stack of books and a folded black cloak. They seemed okay with the situation or weren't as shocked a sme, which I guess means that they must have known about this place or that magic exists. We continue carrying our things with the addition of room keys the supervisor gave us and told us to go find our room. After walking and looking at the door numbers to try and match the number with the one on the key to the little golden plates with numbers on the doors, we finally found ours. Room number 373. We stopped in front of the door and then look at each other to see who is going to unlock them. We all had our hands full with the books and stuff so it was hard to try and grab the keys or the handle but then the door opened by itself. We looked at each other but we were accepted to a magic school so nothing is weird here anymore and I should take this as my new „normal". As I walked behind the girls, we got inside and saw our room. It was spacious and filled with normal stuff, like beds, closets, tables, and lamps but it was luxurious at the same time. At least it was more luxurious than my old room at the orphanage or any of the rooms prepared for me at my foster homes. I toss the books on the remaining empty bed, since my roommates already chose theirs, and then I take the cloak from the stack of things to put it into the closet which was right next to the head of my bed. They were both simple but nice, something between modern and old type of bed. It looked like from this century but the wood was dark and thick, decorated at the legs with some swirls. The cabinet and my wardrobe matched the wood and the style of the bed. It was pretty big for me based on what I had in the past. We were supposed to share one room but considering that each one of us had own furniture, there was still some free space to move around in the room. Our bathroom was separate in the right corner of the room, close to my spot. I open the wardrobe and see all of my clothes, at least those I had at the orphanage, already hanging at some wooden racks or being neatly folded in the inside drawers. I wondered how did they know which things to get and how did they even track it down. Were they following us or something? Which was weird. Really creepy but cool, I guess. I never really had real pyjamas. Always used an oversized T-shirt with shorts, maybe cotton pyjama pants if I managed to save money to buy one, or just the T-shirt during summer, so I just searched for one of my favourites and changed from this attrocious graduation dress I was wearing while hiding behind the door of the wardrobe. I never really minded to change clothes in front of people but these two were strangers so at first I wanted to get to know them. The girls also changed into sleeping clothes which were more cuter and girlier than mine. One of them had some light blue silk night gowns on straps looking more mature than my „local eboy outfit" and the other one had a baby pink pyjamas, matching her top that was a shirt you could close up with small white buttons and shorts falling down to her knees. We each lay down on our beds and played on our phones for a while. Then from the corner of my eye I could see three envelopes drop out of thin air right on to our desks. I throw my phone on my bed and sit up. Looking at the girls first I stare into their eyes and they seem to understand what I wanted to ask: if it's safe to pick it up. They both nodded at me and we all stood up from our beds to get those envelopes. We get up and get one envelope each. I opened mine and took out the folded paper in it. It was my class schedule. I checked the time of the first class and set my alarm on 2 hours before it, then went to bed.

I couldn't fall asleep so I was tossing in the bed for another hour. I was thinking about the whole situation. How did this thing even happen? One day I was just finishing high school and minding my own business, just trying to get a job and move places, and then suddenly I find myself at an academy that teaches magic. That magic is real. That I am supposed to have magic! I started to piece together some puzzles of the incidents that happened in my life which awarded me with the nickname demon child, but the exhaustion of the day finally caught up with me. My eyelids became heavier and it was tiresome to roll on the bed from one side to another so I tried to sleep. When I was finally falling asleep I started dreaming about that blue light and the shadow, a nightmare I kept having since I was little. The person in the dream was walking towards me but I still couldn't see their face. I've never really figured what this thing is.

Is this a dream or a memory?

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A/N - content notes

• Aveus program = Aveus academy - part of the academy for magicians

 Aveus (pronounced in latin, Ah - ve - uhs)

• Umbras program = Umbras academy - part of the academy for demigods

Umbras (pronounced in latin, Um - bras)

• Inyll - name of the gate Kaitlin saw in the 1st chapter