While we had been the center of attention previously, having almost been crushed by an incoming ball of fire from a raging beast, we quickly faded into the crowd. My mother firmly tugged on my arm and kept me close to her side. Eyes trailed after us as we went, but they were soon diverted elsewhere more interesting—namely the guy named Leiran and the flying dragons.

A man came forward clad in a blue longcoat. He stopped before us, holding out a hand as though to welcome my mother warmly. He had the classic blond hair and blue eyes and was quite short for a man. Despite the baggy silhouette of his clothes that perhaps attempted to broaden his profile, the hollow flare of the fabric gave hints of his thin and willowy figure.

“Hellen!” he greeted.

“Laksa.”

“It’s a good thing you’re alright. Did you get caught up in that trouble?”

“We’re fine,” she told him. “Meet my daughter.”

Laksa knelt so that he was at my eye level.

“What a beautiful child,” he said. “Your mother did not lie to me when she said you were exquisite.” His vibrant and kind smile made it all seem like a compliment—if it was any other person, they would just sound like a creep.

“Thanks, you’re pretty too,” I blurted unwittingly.

His face burned hot. Laksa reached up to comb through his blond locks, laughing like a flustered goose. “She wrote to me and said it more than a couple of times, but I still can’t figure out how to say it right—how is it? Ehvahyuuhn?”

I nodded.

“Hm.” He put on a thoughtful face. “A Western name. I did a research in advance. Interestingly enough, it means maiden of the river. Did you know that?”

I shook my head.

“Come this way,” Laksa said as he stood. He motioned for me and my mother to follow him, leading us around the crowd and towards a back entrance.

“Thank you so much for this, Laksa.” Hellenia sighed softly.

“It is no trouble to me, Hellen,” he told her endearingly, opening the door to reveal a corridor doused in warm, golden light.

There was nothing insincere about the way he moved. He exuded a calm yet enthusiastic grace that spoke of no ill-intention. Even my mother seemed relaxed, as though she let this tide in the form of this man guide us. They must trust him so.

My mother looked around and lowered the hood of her cape.

This was the first time I had been in any other place other than the House. Contrary to the ostentatious exterior, there was an odd minimalism. It was clean with little to no lines as much as possible. We walked down the marbled floors—they were an immaculate, slate blue that it almost felt like I was walking in the sky. I caught something embedded on the floor—a coiling dragon. My eyes lingered on it for a time until I walked over and past it.

What was this place and why was it so beautiful? In fact, everything I had seen so far nearly resembled a utopia.

“Tell me, Evyionne,” Laksa began.

I broke free from my reverie and looked at him.

“What do you think?” he asked, guiding my eyes around the corridor.

“About the place?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Erm…it’s nice,” I said in a low voice, noticing how the sounds tended to echo. It was a little quiet around these parts, but there was a faint buzz of chaos from a distance, maybe on the other side of the wall. I was guessing that that was where everybody was.

“Surely you have more words than that,” he stated. “With how deep you seemed to be in thought, it seems to me that you’re painting a world of your own in your mind. Let me in on them, little one.”

I stayed quiet for a moment, not really sure what to say. I had such wonderful ways of describing this place, but now that I had been told to speak, I was quite speechless. Also, I didn’t want to talk too much. I had the tendency to forget my age, after all. Staying quiet was the better option if I didn’t want to be found out or be found weird. I reached up to scratch my head with my free hand as I shifted my grip of my mother’s hand with the other.

“Um…” I moved around in my robes. “Is it really okay?”

“Give me two words then.”

“Sunset,” I said instinctively. “And…uh…clean?”

He nodded. “You are a bright, young lady. We call this the Sunset Corridors.”

“That’s not very creative,” I said, grinning sheepishly.

Laksa laughed. “It is a somewhat obvious, distasteful name. But it lives up to it.” He gestured towards the arching, stained glass windows. The sunlight funneled down and blinked in a rainbow of colors—mostly in the shades of the sky during sunrise and sundown. “Come, this way.”

I looked around curiously. “Sir Laksa,” I said.

“Just Laksa is fine,” he told me.

Hearing his name, why did I suddenly feel hungry?

“Can I ask what this place is? And what does that dragon symbol mean?” I paused. “I mean—I saw it before in some of the books I read. It’s supposed to represent the Emperor, I think. Why you would have that here? Are you related to him?” I fired a bunch of questions nonstop. Even I was a little surprised at how seemingly childishly persistent and curious I was being—at least I had the privilege of not being judged for it. If I was my previous age, they would think I was just an annoying woman.

“Mm. Good question…or questions,” he said. “Well, that man who saved you outside—he’s a paladin. It’s a term for the royal knights. This place is Dragoon Academy. It’s where they’re trained. The one who saved you is a captain of the First Dragoons.”

“That’s right,” Hellenia told me.

“Every year, we put out a test to determine your three fates,” Laksa said.

“My three fates?”

“Of the three dimensions—of mind, of body, and of soul,” he told me. “Everyone is born with qualities that make them unique. This pretty much hammers down the path they have ahead of them. We have a way of determining that.”

Back on Earth, these unique qualities were left to people to find out about by themselves. Even so, some would go their entire lives not knowing it at all because they were too busy trying to survive life that they could never actually live it. There was no special technology to tell them what they did best. I spent quite a while trying to find out what I was good at. My path had been one of confusion and, like everybody else, frustration.

We came to a stop before doors. Daunting doors. Large slabs almost three men high of well-polished, black glass. I didn’t know if it was glass, but it sure had the appearance of it. It didn’t seem to be tinted, though.

My eyes zeroed in on my reflection. I caught them—a glowing amaranthine pair staring through the shadows of my hood. To an outsider, I wasn’t any more than six years old—barely past my mother’s waist with small hands clasping around two of her fingers. The barest of the golden light shone up on my face, highlighting the button tip of my small nose. It had never really occurred to me until then how young I was.

“This is the testing room we use to serve…select people,” Laksa said.

He opened up the doors.

“The test is really simple.” He pointed to the middle of a domed room. “Come here.”

He led me to a pedestal. On it was a round table with a strange centerpiece that had very intricate metalwork flying from the surface. Upon nearing, I saw symbols carved right onto the surface. I wasn’t able to make much of them at first sight, but there were eight slabs in total. I managed to count them by sectioning off each side.

I didn’t have time to examine each one as Laksa’s hands came around my head with a dark cloth. He covered my eyes with it and tied it firmly before stepping back. I still could see a bit of light tunneling down the edges.

I could not be more disappointed when another cloth—with the texture and thinness of a veil—was lain above my head. It was weird. It felt like I would go trick or treating.

“Feel free to go around the table,” he told me. “Go with the feeling, Evyionne. You will be called to it.”

I pursed my lips, moistening the dry, chapped corners. I bit down on the flaking skin as I breathed in trepidation. “Can I ask a question?”