By the time Ejay reached the Academy, his body was ready to file for divorce from his soul.
Jet hadn't slowed down once since they'd left the Outskirts. She moved like she was late for the apocalypse.
"Hey," he wheezed, "next time maybe we take a bus? Or a portal? I hear those are in fashion."
Jet didn't even glance back. "Keep up, Wayfarer."
"Right, right. I love cardio. It's my favorite form of suffering."
The gates loomed up through the fog — massive, black, carved with the image of an open eye surrounded by seven rings. Just looking at it made the space in front of him ripple slightly, like his Aspect was reacting to it.
Two guards nodded at Jet and stepped aside.
The moment Ejay crossed the threshold, everything changed.
The air grew colder. Cleaner. Quieter.
The Academy spread out before him — wide courtyards, training fields, towers of black stone under the pale twin suns. Students in dark uniforms walked with purpose, their movements sharp, efficient.
It wasn't home. But it was… something.
Jet led him to a long registration table manned by a clerk who looked one bad coffee away from death.
"Outskirts find," Jet said. "Unregistered Awakened. Survived a Failed Sleeper."
The clerk blinked, surprised. "Name?"
"Ejay."
"Aspect?"
"Spatial Outsider."
The pen stopped. The man looked up. "Spatial?"
"Yup."
"That's… rare. And unstable."
"Cool, so just like me."
Jet almost smiled. Almost.
The clerk squinted. "Do you have a True Name?"
Ejay hesitated, then nodded slowly. "…Yeah."
The air in the room shifted. Jet raised an eyebrow. The clerk straightened, suddenly respectful.
"That's—unusual," he said carefully. "Do you wish to register it?"
Ejay scratched the back of his neck. "Actually, I'd rather not. I like being alive, anonymous, and not stand out too much, thanks."
The clerk stared at him. Jet snorted quietly.
"Fine," the man said. "Withheld by request."
He slid a brass dorm tag across the desk. "3-B. Orientation in an hour. Don't start a fight."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Ejay said, pocketing the tag. "I'm a lover, not a fighter."
Jet turned to leave. "Try to stay that way," she said, and disappeared into the crowd.
Orientation
The main hall buzzed like a disturbed beehive. Rows upon rows of recruits filled the seats, whispering nervously. The air smelled like sweat, oil, and adrenaline.
Ejay found an open chair near the back, slouched into it, and immediately regretted sitting next to someone who looked like they bench-pressed despair for fun.
All around him, murmurs rippled through the hall:
"Look at them""Crazy they even came back alive. Miracles do happen.""Yeah, for now."
He followed the direction of their stares — and froze.
There they were.
A small group sitting apart from everyone else, quiet and composed.
At the center was a boy with messy black hair and that dangerously casual posture that said he'd already seen more death than sleep. Sunny.
Even knowing who he was didn't prepare Ejay for the presence. The guy radiated calm, cold gravity — like he'd stopped caring whether the world burned, and somehow that made it orbit him.
And beside him—
Cassie.
She was exactly how he remembered from the pages: calm, kind, soft around the edges but built from quiet steel. Her dark hair caught the light, her eyes steady but thoughtful.
Ejay's chest tightened.
Holy hell. She's real.
His mind spiraled. That's her. That's literally her. Cassie Wren. The same Cassie who comforted Sunny in the tunnels, who… who actually exists now.
Sunny leaned slightly toward her, murmuring something. Cassie smiled — small, genuine, the kind that melted stress just by existing.
Ejay blinked.
He's already talking to her. Of course he is. Dude's got apocalypse rizz.
He wasn't mad — not really. More like… impressed.
The man had charisma baked into his trauma. It wasn't fair.
Ejay slouched in his chair, muttering under his breath. "Bro just brooded his way into her heart. I study physics and get anxiety."
The trainee next to him gave a weird look. Ejay ignored it.
He glanced at Cassie again. Seeing her alive — seeing all of them alive — it did something weird to his head. He'd read this story. He knew what was coming. The Nightmares, the suffering, the deaths.
But now he was in it.
And Cassie wasn't a name on a page. She was a person. A living, breathing heartbeat sitting next to a future legend.
He exhaled slowly, a grin tugging at his lips. "Alright, E," he whispered to himself. "Time to start plotting the ultimate rizz arc. Just gotta out-charisma the protagonist of reality. Easy."
A staff slammed against the stage, silencing the room.
"Welcome to the Academy," the instructor said, voice like a whip. "For those who survived your first Nightmare — congratulations. The rest of you, start preparing. The Spell never waits."
Ejay half-listened, mostly trying not to stare. Cassie was focused on the speech, back straight, hands folded neatly on the desk. Sunny looked like he was one existential crisis away from napping.
Ejay smirked. "Man, I'm really here."
He didn't belong in this story. Not yet. But for the first time since falling out of one world and into another, he felt something close to excitement.
A new world. A new start.And a crush that might just kill him.