Ten Minutes to Midnight - Rank Two and the Snicker of Nobles
The stone under
The stone under
Felix’s fingers felt like frozen slate.It wasn’t cold in a way that made a man shiver, but in a dull, hollow way that seemed to suck the moisture straight out of his palm.
Felix held his breath, leaning his weight forward against the granite altar.
The grey-robed examiner leaned over his parchment ledger, quill poised, three drops of black ink already drying on his thumbnail.Five seconds passed.
Then ten.A low, murky hue began to crawl through the hairline fractures of the stone orb.
It wasn’t the brilliant, blinding violet that
Gideon had sparked moments ago, nor was it the crisp, royal red that
Vance had drawn out of the rock.It was yellow.
A pale, muddy, grease-candle yellow that looked like old lard left out in the sun.The stone didn’t hum.
It didn’t vibrate the floorboards.
It just sat there, sickly and dim, casting a faint jaundiced light over
Felix’s knuckles.”Candidate
Lin,” the examiner muttered, his quill making a dry, scratching noise as he checked the ledger.
He squinted at the seal on the boy’s papers, then at the dull yellow sphere. “Felix
Recommendation…
Marches.”The examiner shook his head, a small, weary breath puffing from his nostrils.”Rank
Two,” he declared, his voice dropping into a flat, practiced monotone that barely reached the third row of candidates. “Sub-Standard.
Aether capacity minimal.
Pass to the secondary holding tent for administrative processing.”A ripple of sudden, quiet laughter broke out from the noble queue near the carved railing.Julian
Vance stepped out slightly from the shadow of the golden-threaded banners, his silk handkerchief folded neatly in his palm.
His pale, arrogant face split into a smooth, sharp grin.”Rank
Two?” Julian said, his voice carrying easily over the quiet plaza. “The
Secretariat issued a high-grade recommendation for a lad who can barely light a tallow stub?
Someone in the governor’s chancery must have taken a very large sack of turnips for that seal.”A few of the high-born candidates behind
Julian snickered, their gold-trimmed cuffs rustling as they nudged each other.”Look at him,” another noble boy scoffed, eyeing
Felix’s frayed linen sleeves and muddy boots. “Took a spot meant for a true house-line, just to go home on the evening barge.”Felix didn’t answer.
He lifted his hand off the stone, feeling the faint, lingering numbness in his fingertips.He didn’t yell, and he didn’t glare at
In truth, he was far more fascinated by the stone itself than by the snideness of fifteen-year-old aristocrats.
His mind—the mind that remembered modern physics lectures and high school entrance exams—was already ticking through the mechanics.The stone reads the density of the
Aether flow, Felix thought as he stepped down the granite stairs, his boots squelching slightly in the damp gravel. If my
Core is like a container, it’s not that it’s empty… it’s just not letting the energy out all at once.
Or maybe the fusion of two souls makes the walls too thick for a simple diagnostic rock to read.“Felix!”Gideon was waiting near the edge of the secondary holding tent, his round face flushed with a mixture of immense relief and sudden, intense worry.
Felix by the arm, nearly knocking his own paper bag of dried persimmons into the dirt. “Rank
How is that possible?
I saw your eyes back at the inn—you didn’t even blink when
Barnaby broke that driver’s face!
You’ve got more nerve than half the
Vanguard kids!””Nerve doesn’t make a stone turn purple,
Gid,” Felix chuckled softly, shaking his head.
He looked over his shoulder at the main pavilion, where
Vice-Principal
Artie was leaning heavily on the wooden table, his single grey eye watching the queue move with unreadable patience. “Besides,
Two just means
I’m below average on the diagnostic.
It doesn’t mean they’ve thrown me out yet.””Not yet,” a cold voice sneered from the holding flap.Julian
Vance walked past them toward the inner tent, flanked by two other noble examinees.
He didn’t stop, but he slowed his stride just enough to cast a disdainful look at
Felix’s boots.”Enjoy the waiting room, peasant,” Julian said quietly. “When the practical exams start this afternoon, they won’t be testing you with soft rocks.
They’ll be testing you with iron and poison.
Try not to embarrass your governor too much before they pack you onto the river boat.”Felix watched the boy walk away into the shaded pavilion.”He’s really asking for it,” Gideon muttered, chewing his lip anxiously. “If
Four red light,
I’d at least have the sense not to piss off a guy whose driver carries a trench blade.””Let him talk,” Felix said, adjusting his canvas shoulder bag and stepping into the holding tent. “People who spend that much energy telling you how important they are usually get very quiet when the actual work starts.”