The Impact

When we returned to the courtyard, the class was dirty, scratched, and much quieter than before. Holt waited at the edge of the forest. He did not ask whether we had succeeded. He looked at us as though the state of the group were the real answer.

Mara held the core in a cloth.

Mara“Found it,” she said.

Darian Holt“By whom?” Holt asked.

Several students looked at her. Some at me. The broad boy scratched the back of his neck.

Mara“By us,” Mara said.

Holt nodded as though that were the only useful answer.

Four bright lines had been drawn across the courtyard. They were made with chalk, but the chalk glowed faintly, as though light lay beneath it. A teacher waited beside each line.

Darian Holt“This is not a final assignment,” Holt said. “None of you will be made today into what you will remain forever. But the first day shows directions. Some of you reach for magic. Some place themselves between danger and the group. Some keep others on their feet. Some see what others overlook.”

He pointed to the lines.

Darian Holt“Mages. Knights. Healers. Scouts.”

The words passed through the class. Not like a cheer. More like a judgement each student examined for themselves.

The broad boy was sent to the knights and acted as though he had expected nothing else. The freckled girl joined the scouts and could not quite hide her smile. The quiet boy went to the healers without looking surprised.

Mara was called to the scouts.

She did not look proud. More relieved. As though someone had said aloud what she had known for a long time but still needed to hear.

My name was not called for a long time.

I stood with four others in the middle of the courtyard while the lines around us filled. Holt spoke quietly with two teachers. One looked at my hands. The other at my shoes, as though an answer might be written there.

Mara came over once more before she was to take the core to the chapel.

Mara“You are left over,” she said.

Elias“Thank you.”

Mara“That is not bad. It only means they are not sure.”

Elias“That sounds exactly like bad, only more politely.”

She smiled briefly. Then she became serious.

Mara“In the forest, you were not slow. You were careful. That is rare enough here.”

I looked toward the lines. “And if I do not fit anywhere?”

Mara“Then perhaps you fit where other people usually make mistakes.”

It was close to something Holt might have said, but from her it sounded less like a lesson.

She raised the cloth containing the core.

Mara“I am taking this away. Afterwards I want to know what they do with you.”

Elias“Perhaps they will throw me back onto the street.”

Mara“Then I will pull you out of the way in time again.”

Elias“That is not how it happened.”

Mara“I will tell it better later anyway.”

She turned and walked toward the chapel. On the first step, she stopped to retie her hair ribbon. I remembered that small movement without knowing that I was doing so.

Holt called my name.

I turned away.

Darian Holt“Elias Vorn,” he said. “For now, you will stand with none of the lines.”

A few students looked over. I felt heat rise into my face.

Elias“Why?”

Darian Holt“Because you react in several different ways.”

Elias“Is that good?”

Darian Holt“It is dangerous until you can control it.”

It was not an insult. It was worse. It sounded matter-of-fact.

I wanted to say something, but at that moment the courtyard fell silent.

Not because Holt raised his hand. Not because someone shouted. The silence came from above. A bird that had been sitting on the roof of the main building stopped in the middle of its call. The flags on the towers suddenly hung still. Even the students who had been whispering broke off without knowing why.

Mara stood on the chapel steps and looked up.

Then we all saw it.

The sky did not darken. A piece of light simply disappeared. High above the courtyard, a black shape pushed out of the brightness, small at first, then larger with every moment. It did not burn. It drew the light toward itself, as though fire suffocated near it. Signs covered its underside, angular and unfamiliar.

I knew one of them.

Not completely. Not properly. But I had seen it in the darkness above the map, where the chapel had been.

Holt shouted something.

The teachers moved at once. Four lines of light rose from the courtyard, not graceful or clean, but hurried and strong. Mages raised their hands. Knight instructors drove staffs into the stone. Healers drew circles around students standing too close to the open courtyard. People ran everywhere.

Teacher“To the main building!” a teacher shouted.

Teacher“No! Away from it!”

Teacher“Shields up!”

The black stone kept falling.

I ran before I knew where.

Not toward the main building. Not toward the others. Toward the chapel.

Mara still held the core. She no longer stood on the step, but below it, as though she could not decide whether to go inside or move away. The courtyard between us was full of movement. Someone struck my shoulder. I almost fell, caught myself, and kept running.

Elias“Mara!”

She heard me. I saw it. Her head turned.

The teachers threw their magic together. For a moment, it looked as though they were holding the stone back. Then its path shifted. Not enough to stop it. Enough to draw it away from the main building.

Toward the gate.

Toward the chapel.

I ran faster.

It was not enough.

Mara looked up, then back at me. She said something. Perhaps my name. Perhaps something else. The noise took it away.

The impact was not loud.

At first, it was white.

A blow of dust, light, and stone. The chapel disappeared inside it, the steps, the door, Mara, everything. The force threw me backwards. I struck the courtyard, this time with pain. Real pain. Shoulder, back, head. For a moment I was grateful for it because it proved I was still there.

Then the noise returned.

Screams. Coughing. Stone shifting somewhere. A horse, or something like one, shrieked before the gate. Someone called for a teacher. Someone called for their sister. The dust was so thick that I could barely breathe.

I rolled onto my side and spat out blood.

The chapel was gone.

Not damaged. Not collapsed. Gone. In its place lay a crater of broken stone and black dust. Remnants of light glowed at its edge, as though the teachers’ magic were still trying to hold together something that no longer existed.

I stood up.

Or tried to. My right knee gave way. I caught myself with one hand. Beneath it, the courtyard turned red.

This time, the colour did not withdraw.

It spread between the stones, slowly and darkly. I saw the crater. I saw the place where Mara had stood. I saw something black lying in the dust, half burned, narrow as a strip of cloth.

Her hair ribbon.

Everything inside me became still.

Not peaceful. Not empty. Still like a room in which something was about to break.

I wanted to go to the crater. I wanted to dig with my hands even though every part of me knew there was nothing there I could save. I wanted to touch the black stone, tear it out, break it apart. I wanted to follow the signs still flickering above the place of impact. I wanted to find someone who had a name for what had happened and tear that name out of them.

The red shadow crept farther.

An injured teacher grabbed my sleeve. I only recognised Holt when he said my name. Blood ran from his forehead across his temple. He was kneeling more than standing.

Darian Holt“Elias.”

I could barely hear him.

Darian Holt“Elias.”

I looked at him.

Darian Holt“Not there,” he said.

Elias“She was there.”

Darian Holt“I know.”

Elias“She was there.”

Darian Holt“I know.”

That made me angrier than any contradiction could have.

Elias“Then let go of me.”

He was not holding tightly enough to stop me. Perhaps he knew that. Perhaps he was only holding on so that I still had to make a decision.

Behind him, a student lay beneath a piece of wall. The quiet boy from the healers tried to calm him, but his hands shook so badly that he could hardly work. Another student sat beside them, pressing both hands against a wound in the boy’s leg. Injured people were everywhere. Everywhere, someone needed help.

The crater waited.

So did the anger.

I pulled my sleeve from Holt’s grip.

He closed his eyes as though he had lost.

I did not go to the crater.

Not yet.

I went to the student beneath the wall.

Elias“Lift here,” I said.

My voice sounded strange. Flat. But it worked.

The broad boy from the knights came at once. Two others helped. We did not lift neatly, but we lifted together. The injured boy screamed when we pulled him free. The quiet healer knelt beside him, steadier now because he had something to do.

Elias“Press on the wound,” I told the other student. “Do not let go.”

Student“I do not know if I can.”

Elias“You can. You are already doing it.”

I moved on.

A teacher shouted that all injured students were to be taken into the hall. I helped carry a boy who was barely conscious. Someone pushed a cloth into my hand. I tied it around an arm, perhaps too tightly, but the bleeding slowed. The red shadow remained beneath my fingers, but it no longer went ahead of me. It only followed.

Once the first group of injured students lay in the hall, Holt came to stand beside me. He looked worse than before, but he was standing.

Darian Holt“You saw the sign,” he said.

I looked out toward the courtyard. A remnant of it still hung above the crater, faint and breaking apart. The lines slowly dissolved.

Elias“Before this,” I said.

Darian Holt“When?”

Elias“Before I was here.”

He did not ask more. Not now.

Outside, two teachers uncovered the black stone. It was smaller than it had looked while falling, but still large enough to strike the chapel out of the world. Its surface was not smooth. Signs had been cut into it, deep and uneven. No accident. No natural object. No storm.

Someone had sent it.

I thought of Mara on the steps. Of her dry smile. Of the way she waited before speaking when she was certain. Of her hand on my sleeve in the street. Of her black ribbon in the dust.

My anger did not grow smaller.

But it found a direction.

I returned to the entrance of the hall. The courtyard was full of dust, blood, and broken-off orders. The first day of school was over, though no one said so. Not according to the timetable. Not according to the examination. It was over because something had reached into the school and taken what had only just begun.

Holt stood beside me.

Darian Holt“If all you do now is hate,” he said, “you belong to whoever did this.”

I did not answer at once.

At the edge of the crater, they found the object they had brought from the forest. It had split open. One last trace of forest light glowed inside it, faint and green, almost hidden by the black dust.

Elias“I hate them anyway,” I said.

Holt looked at me from the side.

Darian Holt“I believe you.”

Elias“But first we learn how to find them.”

For the first time since the impact, Holt did not look like a teacher judging a student. He looked like someone recognising bad news.

Darian Holt“Yes,” he said. “We will.”

I remained there until the dust slowly settled and the outlines of the courtyard became visible again. The chapel did not return. Mara did not return. Nothing in that place was healed by my looking at it.

But I looked.

At the crater. At the sign. At the injured students who were still alive. At the forest beyond the wall, which had remained silent as though it had known everything and could prevent nothing.

Then I went back into the hall and continued helping.