Amberine forgot to breathe for the half heartbeat after Chancellor Lisanor said the na.
"Professor Draven Arcanum Drakhan."
The words struck the amphitheater like a gavel. Amberine’s throat tightened first, then her ribs followed—as if her chest had decided it was suddenly too small to contain a living heart. Her palms were slick inside her gloves. She tried to flex her fingers and found the movent stiff, like her nerves had turned into damp rope.
Under the sweep of the crystal do, the ocean light shifted. Bands of refracted blue slid over the crowd and the floating platforms, and for a mont Amberine felt as if she were seated on the floor of the sea itself.
Ifrit, tucked under her robe like a secret coal, twitched against her skin.
"Too much water," his voice rasped in her mind, irritated and low. "It presses. It mocks."
Amberine swallowed. The pressure in the hall was real—Aetherion’s mana was a living thing, thick and disciplined, like soone had poured a whole ocean into the air and then told it to behave. Two months ago, the fortress had bled in front of the entire continent. Today, it was trying to look invincible again.
And Amberine—just Amberine—was supposed to present later, with Elara and Maris, as if she belonged in the sa sentence as war heroes and royal blood.
She stole a quick glance left.
Maris stood close enough to brush shoulders, steady as always, chin slightly lifted. There was worry in her eyes, but it was the kind that made her kinder, not smaller. Elara was on Amberine’s other side—straight-backed, expression blank in public, but her fingers were wrapped too tight around their parchnt bundle. Amberine saw the tremor. Elara felt it too and fought it harder.
Professor Astrid hovered behind them like a careful shadow. The professor’s posture was firm, but her thumb kept finding the edge of her badge as if it might slip away.
This wasn’t the academy stage.
This was the world.
Aetherion’s opening spectacle had already pulled applause from the hall, and Chancellor Lisanor’s voice had called Draven’s na like a bell. Now the chamber settled into sothing colder: anticipation with teeth. Amberine could feel it in the way conversations died mid-breath, in the way even the floating platforms seed to steady themselves, as if the fortress core wanted no wobble when the keynote began.
A new chi rang—bright, crystalline, precise.
The constellation sphere above the central dais shifted. Its prismatic glow dimd, then the light reorganized into a map-like lattice. Dozens of points appeared and clustered into constellations, each cluster connected by thin silver threads. The image wasn’t decorative—it was a seating diagram laid over a ley-map, every delegation marked like a star in a political sky.
A voice spoke from nowhere and everywhere at once. Not a person’s voice. A curated one: chi-etched and calm, built to carry without effort.
"Dignitary recognition sequence engaged. Priority delegations confird. Security protocol level: Sapphire."
Amberine’s stomach lurched.
Elara’s mouth barely moved. "They’re doing the roll-call now."
Maris’s hand found Amberine’s wrist for a second—warm, grounding—then released.
The sphere’s first cluster brightened. A line of light traced from the central dais to a section of floating platforms near the front.
"Regaria Kingdom delegation acknowledged."
Amberine’s heart kicked.
The cluster flared brighter and nas appeared like liquid silver lettering, hovering above the platforms.
"Aurelia Thalassia Arctaris Regaria."
Amberine’s eyes latched on as if pulled by a hook.
The queen sat with a stillness that didn’t look practiced. It looked natural, the way fire pauses when it has already decided it will burn. Her hair was fiery red—not the polite auburn Amberine had imagined from portraits, but the kind of red that looked like it could bite. A mantle draped her shoulders, dark and regal, threaded with faint gold that caught the ocean light like embers trapped under glass.
Her gaze lifted toward the dais with the weight of a decree.
Amberine’s mind supplied the rumor she’d heard in corridor whispers and lecture footnotes: the sovereign who rebuilt policy after the last succession fracture. The genius with the temper. The queen who swore like a dockworker and still outplayed councils.
She’s real. Like... actually real.
Aurelia didn’t look impressed by the spectacle. She looked bored by it—like the whole fortress could’ve done better.
The constellation sphere pulsed again.
"Caelum Aurelian Drakonis Regaria."
Amberine’s gaze shifted to the figure beside the queen.
Prince Caelum’s posture was clean and militarily precise, the kind that made you think of maps and exits. He didn’t lean; he didn’t fidget. His eyes scanned the hall not like a spectator, but like soone counting threats. He wore a formal uniform—tailored, immaculate—yet there was sothing about him that felt like armor anyway.
Amberine’s fear spiked for no good reason.
If I stutter, even the prince will hear it.
Another na flashed.
"Duchess Malesya Nortuis von Blackthorn."
Amberine found her without aning to. The duchess sat a half-platform away, head slightly tilted, blackthorn-thed jewelry gleaming at her throat and wrists. Her smile existed, but it never reached her eyes. It was the kind of smile that belonged to contracts and knives.
Amberine rembered what older students said about her: sponsor networks, political predator, the woman who could make research disappear or explode.
That’s the kind of person who funds people like ... or destroys them.
The sphere continued, each announcent a hamr on Amberine’s nerves.
"Duke Lancefroz von Icevern."
A tall man in ice-blue trim turned his head just enough for the light to reveal frost-white hair and a calm, heavy gaze. He looked like a blizzard that had decided to be polite for an hour. His presence didn’t shout. It weighed.
Elara stiffened beside Amberine. It wasn’t obvious—Elara never made anything obvious—but the tension ran through her shoulder like a tightened string.
Icevern na carries weight.
"Earl Roberta Laios von Falken."
A hawk insignia caught the light. The earl’s eyes followed movent in the hall with predatory patience, the way a hawk watches grass for the smallest betrayal. Amberine rembered a lecture line: Falken never attends unless it matters.
"Count Ken Arbantilus von Valen."
Amberine’s breath caught. Gold-accented signet. asured smile. Hands too clean for politics.
Valen buys stability.
Elara’s jaw tightened, subtle and fast, like a reflex she didn’t want anyone to see. The golden mana in her blood—her origin attribute—was not just talent. It was history written into veins. And Valen history was sitting right there, watching.
The constellation sphere shifted to a smaller cluster.
"Sophie von Icevern."
Amberine recognized her from rumor and one grainy spell-recording: armored elegance, posture upright, eyes honest. A royal knight-captain. The kindhearted one. The one who’d been shunned by rumor and still kept standing because her squad stayed loyal.
Sophie’s uniform looked ceremonial, but her hands rested like she was ready to move. She didn’t look like a court ornant. She looked like soone who had bled for the capital.
Then the last Icevern na made Amberine’s skin prickle.
"Annalise von Icevern."
A younger girl sat close to Sophie, bright-eyed and smiling too sweetly. When Sophie adjusted her gloves, Annalise watched like the world itself had just perford a miracle.
"Sis," Annalise whispered—fond, sharp, almost hungry. "Big sis is so cool."
Sharon stiffened as if she’d heard a threat. Sophie, blissfully unaware or pretending to be, patted Annalise’s hand.
Amberine swallowed again. Even the little sister feels like a blade.
The constellation sphere didn’t stop with Regaria.
It rotated, drawing thin threads between far clusters as if to remind everyone this wasn’t one kingdom’s party. This was the continent’s heartbeat.
"Aradia delegation acknowledged. Archmage Samira Qadira."
A woman in desert-toned robes sat with her chin raised, eyes like heated glass. Her presence carried the dry authority of a fire that didn’t need fuel—only permission. Amberine rembered the rumor: burned a curse out of a city. Not fought it. Burned it out.
"Frostmarch Coalition acknowledged. High Marshal Varkun Greymantle."
A war hero with a cracked spearhead pinned to his chest, as if it were a dal and a warning. He sat like a mountain that had learned to breathe.
"Andria Republic acknowledged. Lady-Archivist Thessa Mirell."
Ink-stained fingers. A smile like she was already writing history in her head. Amberine imagined how dangerous that was—soone who could turn today’s words into tomorrow’s laws.
"Vaylen envoy acknowledged. Prince-Envoy Lioren."
Too calm. Elven grace without softness. Amberine couldn’t explain it, but his presence felt like being judged by moonlight.
"Guild Concord acknowledged. Grandmaster Oren Halvyr."
An older man with an artifact-keeper’s stillness, head tilted as if listening to the hall itself. Rumor said he authenticated relics by hearing them. Amberine didn’t know if that was taphor or nightmare.
The roll-call continued for a few more nas—just enough to widen the world without drowning it. A stormcaller envoy. A sea-blooded scholar from the Pelagic Colleges. A masked necromancer representative whose presence drew cold whispers.
Each na struck Amberine like a hamr.
I’m a student.
I’m a nobody.
I’m about to present in front of them.
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