JUNE ZEILRAN knows one thing: he is destined to live a quiet life in the servant's quarters as a half-blood in a territory of fairies. When the Imperial High Queen offers him a job he cannot refuse, he is thrown into a world of secrets and murder t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
2402 Qintax 11, Briss
June chewed on his lip as his footsteps echoed across the deserted hallway. It had taken him every excuse just to get away from Skalis and Relius without revealing too much. Like all the times he was summoned by the High Queen while staying in the Academy, he had glimpsed the red coat hiding around in inconspicuous corners and hallways and always in places June was sure to notice them.
They had just come out of their Starsighting classes with Skalis complaining that it's just too hard to remember names for shiny blobs in the sky. Relius teased her and even added that he failed the first test Scholar Gise had given them for midyear. "It'll be fine, Skalis," Relius had assured the girl but even his tone sounded hollow.
If they don't pass the final trench exam for Starsighting, they would have one chance to repeat it next trench and after that, they would have to face demotion or getting kicked out.
Thankfully, they were so absorbed in their failing remarks that they forgot to ask June what he got. He aced the test mostly because he spent countless hours staring up at the sky, trying to memorize the course of the moons and the paths of the stars. As to memorizing and predicting which moon or star would come on the said date, June had devoured Starsighting tomes in the Academy's library in his spare time so that answering the test came naturally to him.
He had also been excelling in his magic practice classes considering the High Queen had been coaching him more during the past summons since the first year started. "Magic is all around us," the High Queen's voice rang in his head when he's not on guard. "Sense it."
His teeth crunched against each other. There's no use dwelling in that now. His job was to learn all he could about magic, combat, and how the world works. That's what the High Queen said to him during his first day.
Still, he couldn't erase one small thing in his intuition. Something about this summon was different. It was something to set dread in his gut and wring his throat until it's hard to breathe. Summons never came during the middle of the day. They had never occurred when he had a class after the meal break.
So why did it happen now?
He tucked his hands into the pockets of his trousers and came across a familiar corner he had gone through several times. It led to one of the hidden passageways inside the campus. He pursed his lips at the unscrubbed walls and patches of mud and dust staining the white canvas. Unlike the hallways teeming with activity, these forgotten corridors told June how the Academy looked like behind the curtains.
The smell of damp leather permeated in the air. It wasn't something June wanted to sense every time he came down here but he could tolerate it. He strode past the unattended busts of some nobles and ominous arches now beige—a far cry from their stark white brothers in the main lobby. His eyes flitted here and there, taking note of every detail, trying to commit them to memory. Should he need to fight something in these halls, he should be familiar with the lay of land.
