Vice Principal Lyanna walks before sunrise because the Academy breathes better when the halls hold fewer feet.

She keeps one thought steady while she walks. Karma turns when you tie yourself to a rising current. It sours when you bind yourself to a stone that sinks. She wants to know which Jacob is.

She's tied herself to the boy, but she hasn't had any time until now to check on his progress.

First Elder Lioren waits in the northern yard. He stands with a stave across his back and he watches junior squads run drills that start and stop with crisp steps. His ears do not miss a cadence. His eyes do not miss a slack grip.

"Elder Lioren of the Admission Department," Vice Principal Lyanna says.

"Vice Principal Lyanna, what an honor. I was whipping into shape some of the new people in our department. We have not much on our hands at the moment and they were growing lazy with the paperwork."

"You seem in a good mood, Elder Lioren," Vice Principal Lyanna says, looking at the Elder with a twinkle in her eyes.

"This feels like a good year, Vice Principal. The Generation of Legends must have influenced my mood."

"Speaking of which," Vice Principal Lyanna smiled. "May I get your measure of Jacob Cloud? I hear that you personally administered his entrance test."

The old man seems to think for a moment.

"He is not strong," Elder Lioren then says at once. "Not in the way that matters in a test of raw force. His aura does not carry weight like any other Champion does. He does not crush. He does not bull through."

"And yet?"

"And yet he handled his tests in a surprising way," Elder Lioren says. "That boy understands something."

"What?" Vice Principal Lyanna frowns. "I don't follow, Elder."

"He's got something in his eyes. A Skill, perhaps. But also, something else. I wouldn't bet against him, Vice Principal. I suspect you're trying to understand if he's worth the position of Champion. In my opinion, for the little it's worth it, he is."

"I haven't bet against him, Elder Lioren, nor have I questioned his position. I'm just trying to gauge how far Jacob Cloud's deeds stretch. And it seems, as far as I can tell from your own words, that they may have left a larger impression than I even imagined."

"I put Cloud through unfair tests for his admission," Elder Lioren says, bowing his head. "When I saw he had been recommended by a Wandering Knight, Sir Renquell, no less, I tried punishing him for it. Yet, he blazed through my tests, milady. Jacob Cloud is a different animal."

"You put him through an admission farce," Vice Principal Lyanna says with a frown.

"I am guilty of it," Elder Lioren admits. "He faced a trapped Dungeon that should have killed him. He should have died inside those traps. He did not. He found anchors that older students would have failed to see. He broke a Heavenly Plasma arrangement in front of my eyes. He is not strong, Vice Principal. He is something else."

"What does 'something else' bring us by year's end?"

"A mess or a marvel," Lioren says. "He will either force his way to the higher Ranks without the usual dues or he will scatter himself on a wall that he cannot read. It is hard to sit between those two."

Vice Principal Lyanna nods and looks at the squads training in front of them.

She thanks Lioren and moves on because she wants to hear more about the nascent legend of Jacob Cloud.

* * *

Dean Amenotep keeps his office clean enough to shame a vault. The obsidian desk holds only two rods and a file.

"Dean Amenotep," Vice Principal Lyanna says, and she sits.

"Vice Principal Lyanna."

"Jacob Cloud," she says.

"I spectated to his admission myself before seeing him claim the spot of Champion," Amenotep says. "Yes. I know him."

"Your measure."

"He is not strong from the little I've seen of him," Amenotep says. "You'd find more information about him from my subordinate, Elder Lioren."

"I've visited him already. But you bet on the boy. Tell me more of your own impression since we haven't spoken about it."

"He is not even convincing as a threat if you close your eyes and feel the air. But he has a habit of walking into rooms where he should not walk and he has a habit of leaving them with prizes he should not earn."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Luck?"

"No," Amenotep says. "He scouts rules the way some boys scout terrain. He saw how Lioren framed the test and he turned the frame into a ladder."

"Would you back him with your name again?" Vice Principal Lyanna says.

Amenotep smiles with the flat eyes of a man who kept score for an age. "I would."

Then, the Dean looks at her knowingly.

"I think your Karma improves if you stand at the right angle to the boy," Amenotep says. "Not because he is strong. Because there's some indefinite quality to him. Luck, perhaps. Or maybe just destiny."

Vice Principal Lyanna rises because she does not like to linger.

* * *

The training arena smells like dust and old sweat. Professor Braagh stands by the weapon racks with a slate and a stick of chalk. He sees her and snorts because he does not bother to smooth himself for a Vice Principal when his class file waits.

"Professor," Vice Principal Lyanna says.

"Vice Principal."

"Jacob Cloud."

"Not strong," Professor Braagh says. "That will be the first line."

"And the rest of the lines?"

"He was able to influence Elves who hate him to the core and already made enough progress that I wouldn't be surprised if he passed the yearly test once he comes back from wherever the Champions have gone to," Professor Braagh says. "He does not panic, that boy. He's something else."

"You're the third person who said so."

"Doesn't surprise me," the minotaur shrugs.

Vice Principal Lyanna thanks him. She walks the lane behind the stands and allows herself one quiet thought while the noise of practice fades. Karma likes mysterious people like Jacob Cloud.

The boy intends to live where stronger things should press him flat. He keeps living—something else that Karma often appreciates… survivors.

Yet, part of the mystery stains the threads of fate. Threads that stain drag other threads that knot to them. If she knots to him now, the stain spreads to her line. She does not know yet if this stain helps or harms.

* * *

The Astral Library opens above her with no roof and too much sky. Pale wardens drift. The counter gleams with worn polish where thousands of tokens scraped it. Elder Karl looks up when she sets her hand on the stone.

"Elder Karl," Vice Principal Lyanna says.

"Vice Principal Lyanna."

"You have helped Jacob Cloud in here from what I've heard. Have you interacted with him long enough to form an opinion of him?"

"I did," Elder Karl says. "He came in with eyes too bright and Merits he should not have owned so early. He bought Bronze access. He stayed all night. He bought then Silver at dawn. He walked to Gold while his hands shook from the sleep deprivation."

"Your measure," Vice Principal Lyanna says.

"He is not strong," Karl says. "I do not care about his blade. I care about his hand with a quill. His eyes are something else. He is something."

Once again, someone has defined Jacob in the same way, which makes Vice Principal Lyanna think that her own bet wasn't just smart, it was genius.

"Does it frighten you?" Vice Principal Lyanna asks curiously feeling a pang of reverence from the Elder.

"It does and it does not," Elder Karl says.

* * *

Professor Veythra receives her in a side room that does not hold student chairs. The air sits cool and dry. Professor Veythra's eyes track every motion in the room.

"Professor," Vice Principal Lyanna says.

"Vice Principal."

"I want your view of Jacob Cloud."

"He is not strong," Veythra says. She does not blink. "He is insolent. He is lucky. He carries a mouth that will buy him enemies he cannot count."

"And yet you cut a contract for private instruction," Vice Principal Lyanna says with a raised eyebrow.

"I did not cut it because I like him," Veythra says. "I cut it because he tempted a risk with terms that did not suit him and he did it with eyes open. He asked for guidance as payment because he understood that his core weakness sits in knowledge and not flame."

"Did he earn your respect," Vice Principal Lyanna says.

"Respect is a wide word," Veythra says. "If you ask me whether he did a thing in hours that many cannot do in a season, then yes. He solved puzzles that I placed to wound his pride. He also uses that power to run faster than his legs support. That is not strong. That is dangerous."

"Dangerous for whom," Vice Principal Lyanna says.

"We'll see," Veythra mutters.

* * *

Lyanna leaves him and takes the long stair to the hidden gallery where she can look over the lower courts through the quiet glass.

Jacob's Karma moves like a thin wire through stone. It does not cut. It finds gaps and then it widens them. The wire glows where it touches other wires. Those other wires change color after contact. She has seen that pattern only a few times.

If she binds herself in quiet first, then she keeps her hand free when she needs to cut loose.

She makes her choice.

She sends a runner with three notes while she walks back to her own hall. The first goes to Dean Amenotep.

Change Cloud's access to the Heartspire and grant him access to the first six floors on my authority. He pays the usual rates. I accept responsibility if the Headmaster asks why.

The second goes to Professor Braagh.

Sign Cloud up to Monster Felling 301. He needs a greater challenge. This is an official order. He's to be considered promoted from your Class.

The third goes to Veythra.

I want you to push Cloud's boundaries harder. I will provide elixirs to heal him were he to be injured by harsher lessons.

She keeps the fourth note in her hand and she carries it down a side stair to the counter at the Astral Library. Elder Karl sees her token and lifts his brows.

"Vice Principal."

"I know of your conncetions to the Hidden Market," Lyanna says. "You have now my authority access to it. It's meant for Cloud, but you may use it too. Do not tell him it was me who granted him access to a wider array of connections. Has he used your access yet?"

Elder Karl shakes his head.

"Good. He won't have any idea about it, then."

Elder Lyanna steps away.

This won't influence his Karma because I'm tying his success back to mine and because these are trials, not boons. I wish I could do more without upsetting the threads of fate, but this should be more than enough. I'm providing him more hardships and tests, which will ultimately have him soar higher and higher or crash to the ground.

But if I had to guess, by the time Jacob Cloud comes back, he'll have created yet another upset during his mission.

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