“You look beautiful,” said Ellabell, speaking the words the boys couldn’t.
“Thank you.”
“How come you’re so dressed up?” asked Alex.
“Questions again?” she teased. “I told you—you have arrived at a very exciting time at Stillwater House!”
“What’s going on?”
“Tonight is the Ascension Ceremony,” she announced.
A chill ran down Alex’s spine. It didn’t sound particularly exciting to him at all. In fact, it sounded an awful lot like ‘graduation.’
“What’s the Ascension Ceremony?” he asked, dreading the answer, though he tried to keep his voice calm.
With a gleeful smile, Helena gestured for them to follow her up to a higher floor. She held the front of her dress so as to not trip as she skipped up the staircase. Gracefully, she moved across to the far side of the third floor, to the window set within the masonry. With an elegant hand, she gestured out toward the amphitheater Alex had seen earlier. Except now, instead of being empty, it was beginning to fill with row upon row of people. Huge fires raged in broad, basin-like torches at various intervals around the amphitheater and up the raked seating, lighting the place with a warm, enticing glow.
For the first time, Alex noticed a large, elaborate chair in the very center of the amphitheater’s seating, almost throne-like. He wondered who had the honor of sitting there.
“The ceremony is when the final-year students at Stillwater House get to test their mettle against one another—a competition of sorts,” Helena elaborated, gazing out upon the scene. “The Headmistress chooses the students at random from a scroll of names she has. She sits there.” Helena motioned toward the throne Alex had noticed, answering his silent question.
“Who are they?” Natalie asked, pointing at the people filling the seats of the amphitheater.
Helena grinned. “They are the families of the students. They all sit in the audience and watch, hoping their child will be Ascended,” she said wistfully.
“Ascended?” prompted Alex.
“Oh, yes—sorry, I was getting distracted.” She chuckled lightly. “The students fight, and the victor is congratulated with the title of ‘Ascended.’ It is the highest honor that can be bestowed on a student. If a student wins, they get to go home with their families and take their rightful place among the magical elite, moving back into society to find a partner and a role among their people in order to prolong the magical lineages.”
Alex sighed, feeling unsettled. “And the loser?”
“The loser is taken away to perform the Gifting Ceremony,” she replied simply.
Horror gripped him. “What’s that?”
“It is where the student’s life essence is extracted and used for the benefit of their magical betters—a gift from the loser to those they have disappointed by failing their final test,” she explained, so matter-of-factly that Alex worried she didn’t even realize what she was saying.
The others stared at her in utter shock, as understanding dawned. Even Jari’s admiration had morphed into an expression of abject horror.
It was graduation, though there was one subtle difference—these students knew what they were getting into, and, bizarrely, they didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they seemed thrilled at the prospect of such a great ‘honor’.
He wanted to shake Helena and make her understand what she was really saying.
“Are the students scared?” he asked instead, hoping to spark some human emotion in her.
Helena pondered the question. “I suppose they are,” she muttered with a shrug. “But they know they have to bring their best on the day of the ceremony. You have to understand, we train for this day for years. If we don’t bring our absolute best to our last match, the consequences are what they are. It is drilled into us from an early age: we must honor our families and win, or pay the price for our failure.”
To Alex’s disbelief, a smooth mask of calm still lay across her face. She could not hear the chilling message in the words she spoke—he was certain of it.
“Doesn’t anyone try and escape the Gifting Ceremony?” he pressed, hating the term. It wasn’t a gift. Gifts were things that were willingly given, and Alex was pretty sure life essence didn’t fall under that category.
She nodded. “Some have. There is sometimes one in a class who will try and run.”
“What happens to them?” Ellabell spoke up fearfully.
“They are sent somewhere else, to receive the help they need,” Helena replied with a sad smile. “I know how it must sound to you, but the Gifting is seen as an honor here. It is the price for losing, and we all understand it.”
Silence fell. Nobody could quite believe it.
“It doesn’t always end in Gifting, though. Sometimes, a pair can tie, and then both get the title of Ascended,” she added, filling the deathly silence.
Suddenly, music started up across the field as drums began to pound in a rhythmic, tribal beat. Helena smiled, clapping her hands in delight. Alex’s stomach sank.
“Okay, I’ve got to go or else I’ll be late, but enjoy the show—you have a great view from here. My friends and I used to sneak out and watch it from this window when we were first-years,” she said. “It’s always an amazing spectacle. I promise you won’t be disappointed!”
With that, she disappeared in a whirlwind of shimmering gray and sweet perfume.
Despite the horror of the show that was about to take place in the arena, the compulsion to go to the window was like the urge to watch a car crash. It was impossible not to look. There was a morbid curiosity that the whole group seemed to share as Alex and Ellabell went upstairs to the bell tower itself, while Natalie and Jari stayed put at the window Helena had brought them to.
Aamir had missed all of the drama of the evening and was still sleeping off the effects of his broken curse. Although he had yet to fully awaken, his fever had subsided and he slept more peacefully, without twisting and turning beneath the agonizing pain of the curse. With it gone, it was simply a matter of recovery.
As Alex and Ellabell gazed out toward the arena, the music thudded loudly in their ears, the bass shaking the very foundations of the tower. The sight before them was undeniably beautiful, in the most picturesque setting. It looked like something pulled straight from the legends of ancient Rome. So much so, Alex half-expected a chariot to appear and go tearing around the pitch. The stars glittered overhead as fireworks rocketed upward from behind the amphitheater itself, lighting up the night sky in a sparkling array of rainbow colors. A collective “ooh” went up from the amassing crowd, as a particularly bright spray of vivid red pinwheels exploded brightly in the darkness.
“Beautiful!” exclaimed Ellabell as the fireworks reflected in her eyes.
Alex wanted to make a smooth comment, but he held his tongue. It was too cringe-worthy. “I love fireworks,” he said finally, smiling as she stood closer to him for a better view.
Watching the mages continue to arrive and take their seats, Alex wondered where they had come from and how they had arrived at Stillwater House. Their presence made him ponder the strange mechanics of portals.
Are there portals in the House, or do they just get conjured for special occasions, like this?
As the latecomers filed in, Alex thought he saw Helena slip among the crowd and up into the seats, taking her place near the top-center with a large group of similarly clad, similarly beautiful individuals. Beside them, to the right, sat another group all dressed in golden clothes. To the left, they were all dressed in bronze. Alex guessed they must be students from the older end of the school, sitting in their year-groups.
Just then, trumpets pierced the air in a brash heralding. An exquisite creature had appeared on the field. A wispy dress of fine, gauzy gold flowed from her body as diamond-encrusted vines twisted among the curling tresses of her beautiful, almost white hair. She seemed to float across the grass, moving with an unearthly grace and elegance. Her face was striking and had
an ethereal, otherworldly quality, yet it was familiar somehow, stirring something up in the back of Alex’s memory. The image of the young woman in the portrait in the abandoned ballroom at Spellshadow came rushing back to him, only the woman before him was slightly older than she had been when it was painted.
An announcer stood up, and his voice echoed across the arena.
“Please rise for the Crown Princess Alypia!” the man demanded.
The congregation stood immediately in the presence of the hypnotic, golden woman, as she made her way toward them, heading for the throne-like seat in the center of the amphitheater. Gracefully, she stood in front of the throne, gesturing for everyone around her to be seated. They obeyed without a word.
She must be the Headmistress of this place, Alex realized, noting how the students watched her with bated breath.
“It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the annual Ascension Ceremony,” she spoke, her mesmerizing voice both booming and delicate in some defiance of vocal physics. “Without further ado, as I know we are all eager to begin, I declare the ceremony OPEN!”
In her hands, she unfurled a long scroll that Alex guessed bore a list of the students who would be undertaking the ceremony that year.
“Orpheus Llangollen and Mirabelle Scavo!” she bellowed.
Music erupted as two students sprinted out from twin tunnels set in the base of the amphitheater. A girl and a boy, each around eighteen, ran into the painted circle of the pitch and turned to face Princess Alypia. They were both clad in tunics of pure white silk, with thin plates of painted leather armor on top, one set colored red for the boy, the other set colored blue for the girl. They bowed toward their princess, waiting for her signal. As she raised her palms upward, the two students ran to opposite ends of the pitch.
Twisting her hands, Alypia raised a glimmering golden shield between the four posts with their bird of prey statues on top, creating a barrier around the battle arena. Alex guessed it was to protect the spectators from anything the students might do, as well as keep the duelers from escaping.
For a moment, nothing happened as the two students faced off. Seconds later, a fiery flare erupted from Alypia’s hand, prompting the two to begin the duel. Instantly, streams of magic, color-changed red and blue by the battling students, twisted and turned in the air. Wave after wave of sharp-edged weapons were thrown on both sides as they ducked and dived, weaving in and out of complex spells sent in their direction.
Most of the magic, Alex had never seen before—the duelers were using spells he had only dreamed of. The boy sent a shiver of magic down into the ground, only to have it split the earth and shoot up close to his opponent’s legs, trying to drag her down into the ground. In retaliation, the girl sent two crackling balls of energy after her combatant, which chased him around the pitch, firing arrows at him in rapid succession until he was forced to hide in the very crevasse he had made in the ground.
They were both skillful and agile, and seemed evenly matched. Alex watched the faces in the crowd, trying to make out which ones might be the parents of these two. There were too many worried faces to mark any of them as family, but there were eager faces too, spurring on the warriors.
The duel raged on, with spell after spell shivering through the air, until both combatants seemed exhausted. The arena glittered with spent magic. For a second, the boy seemed to pause, giving the girl the opportunity she needed. Swiftly, she sent an attack toward the boy that hurled him back against the golden barrier, his body crumpling against it. He slid down the shield and collapsed in a heap on the grass, unmoving.
The suspense was terrible.
Ellabell gripped Alex’s arm as they waited for the boy to move.
Eventually, he stirred and looked up toward Alypia as he dragged himself up onto his knees, bowing his head and placing his palm flat on his heart in a motion of surrender.
“Mirabelle Scavo is the victor of the first battle!” she announced, firing a blue flare into the air as a cheer went up from the crowd.
Although she looked exhausted, the girl was grinning with pleasure as she punched the air and set off across the grass toward the raked seating. She sprinted up into the audience to find her family, who waved eagerly to her from their seats. They embraced her warmly, but Alex’s attention was distracted by the scene below, on the field, as two assistants ran on to pull the boy away. He watched as they dragged Orpheus Llangollen back through the tunnel on the right. Looking back up into the audience, Alex examined two adults as they stood up from their seats and made their way slowly down the stone steps, their shoulders hunched, their faces hidden, before disappearing into the same tunnel the boy had been taken into. Sorrow twisted in Alex’s heart as he heard the names of the next two duelers being called. After tonight, those parents would never see their son again.
He could not understand, for the life of him, why they allowed it. Why anyone here allowed it.
He and Ellabell continued to watch the events for as long as they could stomach it. It was difficult to stop watching, as sick as it made them feel. Alex felt as if he almost owed it to them, to watch, though he couldn’t rationalize it.
Pair after pair ran onto the battlefield, brimming with enthusiasm, until there were no pairs left. The crowd had thinned after each pair had fought, with parents of the losers disappearing into the tunnel.
He and Ellabell had watched the death matches of fifteen pairs. Sixteen had survived after one tie, with fourteen hauled away to their Gifting Ceremony. All that work, all that strain, all that suffering, rounded off with the agony of having their life essence torn away from them. He wondered, with horror, if the parents stayed to watch. It was a no-win situation, and Alex wasn’t sure which scenario was better—for them to stay and watch and have to see that, or for them to leave their child to suffer it alone.
Music pulsed through the night sky as the after-ceremony celebrations began, toasting the victors of the evening. Alex didn’t need or want to see any more.
“I’m done,” he whispered, turning away from the window.
Ellabell nodded, leaning into him. “Me too.”
He glanced down at her, seeing the unexpected shimmer of tears in her sparkling blue eyes. She quickly brushed them away.
“Let’s see what the others are up to,” she suggested, her voice thick.
Alex wanted to stop her, but she was already at the top of the staircase leading down to the lower floor. He followed close behind, wandering back down to the other room.
Below, Jari was sitting beside Aamir, whose eyes were open, talking to him softly as he trickled water into his friend’s mouth. Natalie was still by the window, entranced by the view. She turned as they entered, her eyes aglow with awe and envy at the power she had just witnessed. The sight disturbed Alex, knowing what that look usually meant, but then everything he’d seen tonight had disturbed him.
It was all horrifying, filled with nasty surprises, to the point where Alex began to wonder if this place actually was any better than Spellshadow Manor, or if it was merely dressed up in prettier packaging.
Chapter 11
Helena didn’t return to the tower after the festivities that evening or appear the next day, though when Alex wandered down to the bottom floor he found a box of food waiting by the front door with a note on it:
My sincerest apologies for being absent, but my training schedule has notched up a gear today and is likely to remain that way for a while. It is always the same after an Ascension Ceremony—we have all learned new things and want to test them out! I will visit as soon as I am able. In the meantime, even if I can’t hang around to chat properly, I will leave food and supplies. I hope you enjoyed the spectacle last night! See you soon. H.
Carrying the box of food back up to the main room, Alex could feel the tension in the air. After the events of the previous night, a feeling of awkward anxiety had spread through the group. Nobody could quite believe what they had witnessed, or that they had actually stayed to watch i
t. It seemed as if nobody knew how to put into words what they had seen.
The only person who appeared slightly more understanding about the whole thing was Jari, who shrugged off the horror of the ceremony as best he could. “I don’t know why you’re all so bothered about it—at least they know what they’re in for. It’s not like it’s this big shock at the end of four years, like at Spellshadow. If it doesn’t faze them, why should it faze us?”
His logic was sound, and yet Alex couldn’t bring himself to agree.
“People died, Jari. Even if they knew what they were getting into, they’re still dead. I think that’s something to be bothered about, regardless of how—I mean, they just walked to their deaths like it was nothing! Don’t you think that’s a little weird?”
“If it’s not weird to them, why should it be to us?” Jari replied.
“You don’t feel anything toward those poor souls?” asked Alex sternly.
Jari sighed. “It’s bad, of course it’s bad, but what are we supposed to do about it? There’s no use moping over it. It happened, it was very sad, but there is nothing we can do to change it.”
Alex didn’t say another word as he mulled over Jari’s point of view. Whether the blond-haired boy was right or not, Alex wasn’t ready to accept that verdict. People had died, and that always mattered.
Natalie was strangely silent on the subject, standing by the window looking out at the field beyond.
“I wonder how long they study for the ceremony,” she said quietly, her eyes transfixed on the painted pitch.
“Eight or nine years,” replied Alex, remembering what Helena had told them about students arriving at nine or ten. The students last night had looked to be about eighteen.
Natalie didn’t respond, making Alex wonder if she had even meant to say the question aloud, as she retreated back into her daydream. There was still a glitter in her dark brown eyes that he didn’t like. It made him think of the pink-tinged magic that had surged from his friend’s hands as she had stolen away the portal, and the price she had paid for it. He was certain she imagined herself invincible, though there was no such thing.
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