Chapter 7: Sorting Gate and Four Houses

The floating platforms lowered the carriages onto a wide stone plaza. Massive gates of black metal and glowing runes towered ahead, tall enough to swallow three carriages side by side. Beyond them rose the Higher Academy Nocturne, a cluster of spires and bridges that seemed to grow straight out of the clouds.

A stern-faced guard in silver armor raised one hand. "New students, form lines. Follow me to the Assembly Hall. No wandering."

The crowd moved. Students with high-tier Grinwores walked near the front, talking loudly and laughing. Their books floated or glowed at their sides. Tier 6 and above carried themselves like the academy already belonged to them. Lower-tier students stayed quieter, still excited but more careful with their words. Arthur walked at the very back of the group, hands in his coat pockets, the Eros Codex warm against his ribs.

Mimi’s voice piped up inside his head, cheerful as ever.

"Crowded, isn’t it? So many fresh channels. I can almost taste the potential."

Arthur kept his eyes forward and spoke in thought. Why did you tell me to turn Desire Sight off after we left the inn?

She giggled. "Why don’t you try turning it on right now and find out?"

He hesitated, then let the passive ability open.

Pink-gold threads exploded across his vision. Dozens of them. Hundreds. They leaked from girls in the crowd like colored smoke in every direction—loneliness, frustration, buried heat, quiet desperation. The sheer volume slammed into his mind at once. His step faltered. He nearly walked into the student in front of him before he slammed the ability shut again.

Mimi’s laughter rang bright and delighted inside his skull.

"Told you. Academy is full of repressed high-tiers. You would have face-planted before we even reached the door."

Arthur steadied his breathing and kept walking.

The guard stopped in front of a set of towering double doors and reached for the handles. At that exact moment Mimi’s presence flickered with sudden fear.

"Nope. Nope. Going inside. Don’t call me out."

Arthur felt her retreat fully into the book. What happened?

Her voice came smaller, almost muffled. "There’s a scary woman in there. She can see me even in physical form. The rule about only you being able to see me does not apply to monsters like her."

Before he could ask more the doors swung open.

The Assembly Hall was not a hall. It was a colosseum.

Tiered seating rose in a wide semi-circle, row after row of fixed cushioned chairs with fold-away writing tablets built into the arms. The seats were clearly divided into four colored sections. Students already filled the middle and upper rows, leaving the front clear for the new arrivals. At the center of the open floor stood a single ancient-looking gate. It was small, barely taller than a man, made of dull gray stone covered in symbols that seemed to shift when Arthur looked too long.

Mimi whispered from inside the book, "That gate is old. Really old. Some of those runes I don’t even recognize."

On the raised stage beyond the gate sat a line of powerful-looking adults. Instructors, department heads, people whose mere presence pressed against the air. In the exact center chair sat a little girl with long silver hair and bright red eyes. She looked no older than ten. A plate of sweets sat in front of her, and she was calmly eating a cake with a small fork, completely uninterested in the hundreds of students filling the hall.

Arthur glanced at the boy standing beside him, a nervous-looking Tier 3 with a plain brown book.

"Who is the little girl in the middle?"

The boy stared at him like he had grown a second head. "You don’t know? That’s Headmistress Lily Nightshade. One of the strongest existences in the entire empire. Tier 9. Don’t stare too long. People say she can feel when someone is thinking about her."

Mimi’s voice muttered darkly, "No wonder I felt it from outside. That one is dangerous."

Arthur filed the name away. Lily Nightshade. The reason Mimi had hidden.

Minutes passed. The silver-haired girl kept eating. Finally the old man seated beside her—a towering figure with a long white beard and hair that reached his waist—sighed, stood, and stepped forward. His voice rolled across the colosseum without any visible amplification.

"Two hundred of you will walk through the Sorting Gate today. The gate will read your nature, your potential, and the resonance of your Grinwore. The color it turns decides your house. Learn the colors well. They will decide your dorms, your rivals, and most of your next four years."

He raised one hand and four banners of light unfurled in the air above the stage.

"Dawn. Color: Saffron, (bright gold-orange) Symbol: the Rising Phoenix.

Dusk. Color: Plum, (deep velvet purple) Symbol: the Crescent Moon.

Star. Color: Silver, (bright metallic white) Symbol: the Four-Pointed Compass.

Nova. Color: Cyan, (electric blue) Symbol: the Exploding Eye."

The old man lowered his hand. "When your name is called, step through. Do not hesitate. Do not try to influence the result. The gate does not care about your wishes."

A proctor near the gate opened a ledger.

"Iris Blackthorn."

A ripple of murmurs ran through the new students. Arthur frowned. The name felt familiar. Then the whispers reached him.

"Youngest princess..."

"Tier 8... I heard..."

"She’s first?"

A girl with long dark-blue hair and calm violet eyes stepped out of the crowd. She walked with perfect posture, expression unreadable, and passed through the ancient gate without slowing. The stone flared bright cyan. The Exploding Eye symbol burned above it for a moment before fading.

Iris Blackthorn turned and walked to the cyan section of seats without looking at anyone.

One by one names continued to be called. Students stepped through. Gold-orange. Deep purple. Silver. Cyan. The four sections of the colosseum slowly filled with new faces.

Arthur stood near the back of the remaining group, the black book quiet against his chest, and waited. ℯℯ𝑙.

The proctor turned another page.

"Arthur Vance."