Chapter 129: Training [4]

"I see." Alden walked beside him, turning all of it over.

Then something occurred to him. He slowed slightly. "That student you brought. Severian." He glanced sideways. "He’s a Primordial, right?"

"Yes."

"If I’m the only human you’re training, why didn’t you pair me with another human? Someone who fights the way I do?"

Ulvakor looked at him. "What would that change?"

"Understanding. A human knows how another human’s body works. How our mana output compares. What techniques actually translate when we train. A Primordial at the same stage as me isn’t actually the same stage as me."

"That’s a fair observation," Ulvakor said. He tilted his head with the expression of someone about to say something they already know won’t land well. "Unfortunately, you’re the only human cadet in my sector."

Alden stared at him. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

"Just me?"

"Just you."

Alden looked in the direction Severian had disappeared and let out a slow breath through his nose.

"Actually," Ulvakor said, something in his tone shifting slightly, "Today, there was a second opportunity during the Grand Selection."

Alden looked at him. "Another student for Windsky?"

"She ended up going to Celestial instead."

Alden’s expression shifted. "She?"

"A student from Astral Academy." Ulvakor added it casually. "Not human, though."

Something clicked.

"A Vampire?" Alden said.

Ulvakor looked at him, mildly surprised. "Yes. You knew? Anyways, she apparently disguised herself as a human while she was in the Lower Academy. But the moment she entered the Grand Selection chamber, there was no way to hide her vampire presence. The Four Lords and the other Primordials could identify her true nature immediately."

The thought had arrived before he could stop it.

Seris.

’So Seris finally arrived here.’

He had been so deep in the chaos of Rai and Ulvakor’s explanations and Severian’s contempt that it had slipped completely from his mind. She was supposed to arrive today. Darius had said so. She would be discharged and sent to Apothesis and—

But something didn’t make sense.

’If they knew she was a Vampire, why did they allow her into the Upper Academy?’

Alarion had even explained that Vampires were considered dangerous because of their aggressive nature.

"And she was accepted?"

"Celestial claimed her."

Alden stood with that for a second.

Then the question that had been sitting underneath it pushed itself forward. "But how? Alarion said Vampires aren’t welcomed in Apothesis. He said their behavior is why Primordials reject them. So how does a Vampire walk through the Grand Selection and get chosen by an Assembly?"

Ulvakor considered him for a moment before speaking.

"I think you misunderstood what Head Chief Alarion explained," he said, not unkindly. "He said we wouldn’t interfere in the war between Humans and Vampires. He said most Vampires throughout history have been violent and aggressive, which is why Apothesis never openly welcomed them."

"Right."

"What he didn’t say is that every Vampire is forbidden from existing here."

Alden frowned. "But Vampires declared war on humanity."

"Yes."

"They’re killing people."

"Yes."

"So how are they not your enemies?"

Ulvakor stopped walking and turned to face him properly. "Think about what you’re actually asking. You’re asking whether an entire race is our enemy because some of them did something."

Alden opened his mouth.

"We don’t hate Vampires because they’re Vampires," Ulvakor said. "We dislike behavior. That’s a different thing. Most Vampires throughout history have caused violence, treated humans as prey, started conflicts that weren’t theirs to start. That behavior is why Apothesis has kept its distance from the Vampire race as a whole."

He continued walking, slowly now.

"But that girl lived among humans at Astral Academy for years without harming anyone. She came here under the same conditions as the human cadets. She didn’t attack anyone when her identity was revealed in the Grand Selection chamber. She didn’t try to deceive the Four Lords, which would have been impossible anyway since they saw through her the moment she crossed the threshold." A quiet pause. "She came here to learn. That’s what she showed them."

Alden was quiet.

"We don’t choose cadets by race," Ulvakor said. "We choose them by what they can become. A Vampire who shows the willingness to cooperate, follow the rules of this place, and not threaten anyone living here has no logical reason to be turned away. Just as a Human who attacked a Primordial would lose their welcome immediately."

"So the standard is behavior," Alden said. "Not origin."

"Exactly."

"And the war between Humans and Vampires—"

"Is between Humans and Vampires. Not something that automatically drafts us into one side or the other. We told you we wouldn’t interfere, and that means we don’t take sides. Not for you and not against them."

Alden looked down at the ground. ’Thank God she’s safe. I was worried they’d catch her.’

The logic was cold. It was almost uncomfortably neutral. But it was consistent, and once he followed it through to the end it made a certain kind of sense that the furious, wounded version of the argument didn’t have.

And underneath all of it, quieter than everything else:

’Seris is here.’

The training ground, the white marble, Ulvakor’s voice, all of it receded slightly. He had been trying not to think about the weeks of distance. The infirmary room, her sleeping face, the door he had pulled closed. The one thing he had left unfinished on purpose because finishing it in an infirmary at five in the morning felt wrong.

She was here. In Apothesis. In the Celestial Skyland.

He turned toward Ulvakor. "Can I go see her?"

Ulvakor raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Seris. The Vampire."

"Oh." Understanding arrived on his face. "You know her name as well? Maybe because you’re from the same academy."

"Yes. Can I go?"

"No."

Alden’s face dropped. "What?"

"No."

"Why not? I go to the Celestial Skyland, I say hello, I come back."

"No," Ulvakor said again, with the peaceful certainty of someone who has answered this question many times even though this was the first time. "First week of training means you stay in this sector. Every Assembly runs the same way."

"I’ll be fast."

"No."

"Trainer—"

"Alden. No."

Alden looked away with the expression of someone who has lost an argument but is not emotionally prepared to accept this yet.

Ulvakor watched him. Then he stepped forward and put a hand on Alden’s shoulder, heavy and warm. "I don’t know how close you two are. But if she matters to you, she will still be here after the first week. You have my word on that."

Alden said nothing.

"And you won’t just be waiting." Ulvakor’s hand dropped. His tone changed, taking on a different quality, the casual ease going somewhere and something more deliberate arriving in its place. "After the first week, there’s a tournament."