# Chapter 1: The Unwelcome Vision

Elara shot up from her bed, panic gripping her chest. The clock on her nightstand showed 8:47. Professor Silvanus's Arithmancy exam started at nine sharp.

"No, no, no," she mumbled, throwing off her blankets.

Her roommate Mira was already gone, probably enjoying breakfast in the dining hall while Elara's enchanted alarm clock sat silent on her desk. She grabbed it, shaking the small brass contraption as if that might explain why it had failed her.

"I set you for seven-thirty!" she hissed at it. The clock's face remained impassive, its magical gears clicking softly as if mocking her.

Elara dropped the useless thing and scrambled to get ready. She yanked her uniform from the wardrobe - a deep blue robe with the silver emblem of the Academy of Eldoria embroidered on the chest. She pulled it over her head, grabbed her worn leather satchel, and rushed to the bathroom.

There wasn't time for a proper shower. She splashed water on her face and tried to tame her unruly dark hair, which seemed determined to stick out in every direction. After a futile minute of brushing, she gave up and tied it back in a messy knot.

"Professor Silvanus is going to kill me," she muttered to her reflection. Professor Silvanus never tolerated tardiness, especially not on exam day. The old wizard believed punctuality reflected a student's respect for the arcane arts.

Elara grabbed her wand from her nightstand and shoved it into her satchel along with her Arithmancy textbook and a handful of quills. As she reached for her inkwell, she knocked it over, spilling black ink across her desk.

"Perfect. Just perfect." She pulled out her wand and quickly cast a cleaning spell. The ink retreated back into the bottle, though a faint stain remained on her wooden desk.

She glanced at the clock again: 8:52.

The exam hall was on the other side of the Academy, and the ancient building was notorious for its shifting corridors and temperamental staircases. Elara bolted from her room, racing down the spiral staircase of the dormitory tower.

The common room was empty except for a couple of first-years playing Wizard's Chess by the fireplace. They looked up as she sprinted past them and through the arched doorway.

Outside, the corridor stretched in both directions, lined with portraits of distinguished alumni who watched with varying degrees of interest as Elara ran past. She took a right, heading toward the central courtyard. If she cut across it, she might make it to the West Wing before nine.

"No running in the corridors, Miss Thornwood!" called the portrait of Headmistress Valerica, a stern-faced witch who had governed the Academy two centuries ago.

"Sorry!" Elara called back without slowing down. She burst through a set of double doors into the morning sunlight of the courtyard.

Students lounged on stone benches or strolled along the cobblestone paths, enjoying the spring morning. Elara darted between them, earning annoyed looks as she nearly collided with a group of younger students practicing simple levitation spells.

She reached the western corridor and checked the time: 8:56. If she hurried, she might just make it. The West Wing housed the more advanced classrooms, and the Arithmancy exam was being held in the largest lecture hall on the third floor.

Elara took the main staircase two steps at a time, weaving around slower students.

"Late again, Thornwood?" called out a familiar voice. Darius Blackwood leaned against the banister, his perfectly pressed uniform and slicked-back blond hair making Elara feel even more disheveled.

"Not now, Darius," she shot back, too focused on her destination to engage with her longtime rival.

He smirked. "Good luck explaining to Silvanus why you can't be bothered to show up on time for the most important exam of the term."

Elara ignored him and continued up to the third floor. The corridor ahead was less crowded, most students already in their classrooms. She glanced at the large clock on the wall: 8:58. She might actually make it.

Rounding the corner at full speed, Elara slammed into something solid. The impact sent her stumbling backward, and she fell hard onto the stone floor. Her satchel flew from her shoulder, spilling its contents across the corridor.

"I'm so sorry!" she gasped, looking up to see who she had hit.

A tall figure in a dark hooded cloak stood before her. Elara couldn't make out their face in the shadow of the hood. The stranger didn't speak, didn't move to help her.

"Sorry," she repeated, scrambling to gather her scattered belongings. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

As she reached for her wand, she noticed something on the floor that wasn't hers – a small object that seemed to pulse with a faint blue light. It must have fallen from the stranger's possession during their collision.

"You dropped something," Elara said, picking up the object. It was a strange artifact, about the size of her palm, crafted from what looked like polished obsidian. Intricate silver runes were etched across its surface, and it felt unusually warm to the touch.

The moment her fingers closed around it, the world around her seemed to shift. The corridor blurred, and suddenly Elara saw—

*A city engulfed in emerald flames. Buildings crumbling as people ran screaming through streets clouded with ash and smoke.*

*A towering figure shrouded in darkness, raising a staff toward a blood-red sky. Lightning crackled from its tip, striking the earth and splitting it open.*

*A symbol carved into stone – a circle bisected by a jagged line, surrounded by three stars.*

Elara gasped, the visions vanishing as quickly as they had appeared. She blinked, disoriented, her heart pounding in her chest. The corridor came back into focus, but the cloaked stranger was gone.

"Hello?" she called out, looking around. The hallway was empty.

The distant toll of the Academy bell jerked her back to reality. Nine o'clock. The exam was starting.

With trembling hands, Elara stuffed the rest of her belongings back into her satchel. She hesitated, looking at the strange artifact still clutched in her palm. She should try to find its owner, but right now, she had no time. Making a split-second decision, she slipped the object into her pocket and raced toward the lecture hall.

Professor Silvanus stood at the entrance, his tall, thin frame blocking the doorway like a sentinel. His long silver beard was tucked into his belt, and his pale blue eyes narrowed as he spotted Elara running toward him.

"Miss Thornwood," he said, his voice as dry as parchment. "How generous of you to join us."

"I'm sorry, Professor," Elara said, trying to catch her breath. "My alarm didn't—"

"Spare me your excuses," he interrupted, consulting the pocket watch that hung from a chain around his neck. "You are precisely two minutes and seventeen seconds late. Enter quietly and try not to disturb your classmates who managed to arrive on time."

Elara nodded and slipped past him into the lecture hall. The room was arranged in ascending rows of desks, most already occupied by students bent over their exam papers. She spotted an empty seat near the back and made her way toward it, feeling the weight of stares following her.

Mira caught her eye from a few rows down and mouthed, "What happened?" Elara just shook her head slightly as she slid into her seat.

A piece of parchment materialized on her desk along with a sealed inkwell. Professor Silvanus had returned to the front of the room, watching as magical quills distributed themselves to each student.

"You have exactly two hours to complete the exam," he announced. "Any attempt to use unauthorized magical assistance will result in immediate failure and possible disciplinary action. Begin."

Elara took a deep breath and tried to focus on the parchment before her. The first question asked her to solve a complex arithmantic equation involving the magical properties of prime numbers. Normally, this would be straightforward for her – Arithmancy was usually her best subject – but she found it hard to concentrate.

The visions she had experienced kept intruding on her thoughts. That burning city... the shadowy figure... and that symbol. Where had she seen it before? It tugged at something in her memory, like a word on the tip of her tongue.

She pressed her fingers against her temples, trying to force the images away. The exam. She needed to focus on the exam.

Elara managed to work through the first few problems, though not with her usual confidence. As she started on the fourth question, a flicker of movement caught her eye. She looked up, expecting to see another student, but instead saw a shimmer in the air near the front of the classroom.

The shimmer coalesced into the same hooded figure she had encountered in the hallway. It stood beside Professor Silvanus, who continued to monitor the class, apparently unaware of the presence.

Elara blinked hard, but the figure remained. It raised a hand, pointing directly at her.

*The city burns. He returns. The bloodline awakens.*

The words echoed in her mind, though the figure hadn't spoken aloud. A chill ran down Elara's spine.

"Miss Thornwood?"

Professor Silvanus's voice snapped her back to reality. The hooded figure was gone. The professor stood beside her desk, frowning down at her blank parchment.

"Is there a problem with the fourth question?" he asked, his tone suggesting there couldn't possibly be.

Elara realized she had been staring into space, her quill dripping ink onto the parchment, creating a spreading black stain.

"No, sir," she said quickly. "I just... needed a moment to think through the approach."

His eyebrows rose skeptically. "Indeed. Perhaps thinking might be more productive with your quill not hovering over your paper."

Elara nodded, embarrassed, and set her quill down. As Professor Silvanus moved away, she tried again to focus on the exam, but the visions kept interrupting her concentration. The artifact in her pocket seemed to grow warmer, as if responding to her distress.

Time passed in a blur. Elara worked through the problems mechanically, making careless errors she would normally catch. By the time Professor Silvanus announced the end of the exam period, she had barely completed two-thirds of the questions.

"Quills down," the professor commanded. "Your parchments will come to me."

The exam papers rose from the desks and floated toward the front of the room, arranging themselves in a neat stack on Professor Silvanus's desk. Elara watched hers join the pile, knowing she had performed poorly.

As students began to file out of the lecture hall, Mira made her way to Elara's side. Her friend's curly red hair was pulled back in a practical braid, and concern showed in her freckled face.

"What happened to you?" Mira asked in a low voice. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I overslept," Elara replied, gathering her things. She wasn't ready to tell Mira about the strange encounter or the visions. Not until she understood them herself.

"That's not what I meant," Mira persisted. "During the exam, you kept zoning out. Professor Silvanus noticed too. He kept watching you."

Elara sighed. "I just couldn't concentrate. Bad night's sleep, I guess."

They walked together toward the exit. As they passed Professor Silvanus's desk, he called out, "Miss Thornwood, a moment."

Elara froze. Mira gave her a sympathetic look and whispered, "I'll wait for you outside."

Once the other students had left, Professor Silvanus gestured for Elara to approach his desk. He had already begun marking the exams with remarkable speed, his enchanted red quill flitting across the parchments.

"I couldn't help but notice your unusual behavior during today's examination," he said without looking up. "Your work is... disappointing, to say the least."

"I'm sorry, Professor," Elara said. "I wasn't feeling well."

The professor's quill paused, and he finally looked at her, his piercing blue eyes seeming to see right through her excuse.

"Miss Thornwood, you have consistently been one of my top students. Today, however, you performed as if you had never encountered Arithmancy before." He held up her exam paper, which was covered in more red marks than she had ever received. "What is the meaning of this?"

Elara shifted uncomfortably. "I really am sorry, sir. I had a... distraction this morning."

"A distraction?" He leaned back in his chair. "What manner of distraction could possibly justify this level of failure?"

The artifact in her pocket seemed to pulse, as if urging her to speak of it. But something held her back. The visions felt private, personal in a way she couldn't explain.

"It won't happen again, Professor," she said instead.

Professor Silvanus studied her for a long moment, then sighed. "Very well. But I expect better from you, Miss Thornwood. Much better. You may go."

Elara nodded and turned to leave, relief washing over her.

"And Elara," he added, using her first name for once, "if something is troubling you, my door is always open."

The unexpected kindness in his voice almost made her turn back, almost made her confess everything. But the moment passed, and she simply nodded again before exiting the lecture hall.

Mira was waiting in the corridor, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. "Well? How bad was it?"

"Bad," Elara admitted. "I failed."

Mira's eyes widened. "You? Failed an Arithmancy exam? That's impossible."

"Apparently not." Elara started walking, wanting to get back to her room as quickly as possible. The artifact in her pocket felt heavier with each step.

"Are you going to tell me what's really going on?" Mira asked, falling into step beside her.

Elara hesitated. Mira had been her best friend since their first day at the Academy five years ago. They shared everything. But how could she explain what had happened when she didn't understand it herself?

"I need to figure something out first," she said finally. "I promise I'll tell you everything later."

Mira looked hurt but nodded. "Okay. But remember, whatever it is, you don't have to deal with it alone."

They parted ways at the central courtyard, Mira heading to her History of Magic class while Elara returned to the dormitory. The corridors were quiet now, most students in their afternoon lessons.

When she reached her room, Elara locked the door behind her and sat on her bed. Carefully, she withdrew the artifact from her pocket and placed it on her blanket.

In the dim light of her room, the obsidian surface seemed to swirl with shadows, the silver runes catching what little light there was. Elara reached out tentatively, running her fingertips over the strange markings.

As soon as she touched it, the artifact began to glow with a soft blue light. The runes brightened, and the same visions from before flashed through her mind – more vivid now, more detailed. The burning city. The dark figure. The symbol.

The symbol. Now she remembered where she had seen it before. In an ancient history text, discussing the Dark Ages of the magical world. It was associated with a powerful dark wizard who had nearly destroyed the magical realms centuries ago.

The artifact grew warmer in her hands, the blue glow intensifying. And then, to her shock, it began to whisper. A single word, repeated over and over, in a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"Awakening... Awakening... Awakening..."

Elara tried to drop the artifact, but it felt as if it were adhered to her palm. The blue light enveloped her hand, then her arm, spreading throughout her body.

"Awakening..."

The word echoed in her mind, and with it came a sudden, terrifying certainty that whatever was awakening, whatever these visions were warning her about, it had something to do with her.

The blue light pulsed once more, then faded, leaving Elara alone in her darkened room with the now-silent artifact still clutched in her trembling hand.