Chapter 45| Back To Normal

Chapter 45: Chapter 45| Back To Normal

Zane stood up from his bed and grabbed his bag.

"See you later Dex," he said.

Dex raised a hand without looking up from his laptop.

Zane headed out.

He wasn’t planning to pass through the training grounds.

It was just the natural route between the dormitory building and the academic block if you took the east side path instead of the main corridor. Slightly longer, considerably less crowded at this hour, and the morning air was doing what morning air did when it hadn’t been ruined yet by forty two first years moving through it simultaneously.

He heard the activation before he saw her.

The familiar burst sequence. Short duration. Cut before the fatigue window. Re-engage.

He stopped at the edge of the training grounds.

Maren was on the far pad. Full training gear. The slim fitted kind that had no business fitting that well and showed no signs of becoming less of a problem for his focus. Hair tied back. Running burst sequences with the focused efficiency of someone who hadn’t registered that the trials were over and the building had collectively decided to exhale.

He checked his communicator.

8:20 AM.

He walked over.

"You know we’re late for class right," he said.

Maren stopped mid rep. Turned.

"Hey Zane." She looked at her own communicator. Then at the training grounds. Then back at him with the specific expression of someone who had lost track of time completely and was processing the gap. "Oh. I forgot. I was a bit too focused."

"You think," Zane said.

She picked up her water bottle. Drank. Set it down.

"You can chill out a bit you know," Zane said. "We’re done with rank trials."

"I know," she said. Not defensive. Just being Maren.

They started walking toward the academic block together. The campus moving around them at its post-trial pace. Much quieter than trial day, more settled than the weeks before it.

"What was your ranking," Zane said.

She glanced at him sideways.

"Don’t be shy," Zane said. "I’ll tell you mine first." He looked forward. "I ranked eleventh."

She was quiet for a second.

"That’s great Zane," she said. And I mean it no performance in it, just the direct acknowledgment of someone who understood what eleventh from a Sigilless student actually represented.

"You?" Zane asked.

She looked at him with the specific expression of someone who was deciding how much to say.

"Uhm," she said.

"Maren," Zane said.

She looked forward.

"Eighteenth," she said quietly. ℯℯ𝘭.

Zane nodded once. Didn’t push it further.

"At least you tried your best," he said. "That’s what matters."

She almost smiled at that. The corner of her mouth doing the thing it did when she’d decided to let something go.

They pushed through the academic block entrance together.

The joint session was already running when they arrived.

Not their usual section split. Both first year sections combined in the largest classroom on the second floor. Which explained the noise level filtering through the corridor before they even reached the door.

They pushed through.

Instructor Vael was at the front. But she wasn’t alone. Two instructors Zane hadn’t seen before stood on either side of her. A man on the right with the compact, efficient posture of someone who moved like a former field operative, and a woman on the left with a measuring tape around her neck and a tablet in her hand that she was already using.

The room was mid-conversation when Zane and Maren walked in.

Vael looked up.

"And look who decided to join us," she said.

The room reacted. A few laughs. Someone said something Zane didn’t catch. The specific energy of forty two students who had survived rank trials together and were now comfortable enough with each other to find lateness funny rather than embarrassing.

"Seats," Vael said. "Now."

They found spots. Zane middle row. Maren one seat over.

Vael waited until the room settled.

"For those just arriving.." she looked at Zane specifically "I’ll do a short recap. These are two instructors who will be joining this class going forward." She gestured right. "My assistant, Instructor Bryne. He’ll be handling practical session support and field simulation coordination." Bryne nodded once from the right side of the room. Clean. Efficient. The nod of someone who had already assessed every student in the room and filed what he found."And on my left — Instructor Mori. She’s in charge of instrumentation and costume design." Mori gave a brief wave without looking up from her tablet. The measuring tape around her neck swayed slightly with the movement.

The room took that in.

"Yesterday was rank trials," Vael continued. "I know most of you did your best. Some of you exceeded what I expected." She paused. "The top three students..."

She looked down at her folder briefly then back up at the room.

"Vane, Theo. Ellis, Marco. Dunne, Sera."

Three students stood. The room gave them what they’d earned real applause, not polite. The specific reaction of forty two people who had watched the bracket run and knew exactly what top three meant in a field that included A-rank and B-rank students.

Zane glanced along the rows.

Theo Vane — first place. Tall, composed, the kind of stillness that came from knowing you’d won before the results were posted.

Marco Ellis — second place. Broad shouldered, easy smile, acknowledging the applause without making a performance of it.

Sera — third place. Green hoodie today somehow despite the occasion. She caught Zane’s eye briefly across the room. The corner of her mouth pulled into the slow smirk he’d seen over stolen fries too many times to count.

’Wow,’ Zane thought. ’Sera got third place.’

He almost smiled across the room at her.

She was already looking back with that slow smirk like she’d been waiting for him to clock it.

The three of them sat down.

"Now," Vael said. Her voice shifted into something that carried more weight than the usual session register. "You have officially survived your first rank trial. Which means as of today you are no longer students in the traditional sense." She looked across the room. "You are young heroes of this academy. And it’s time you started looking like it."