"We get our ability readings immediately?" Lena asks, incredulous—but also nervous.

She doesn't know what to expect, since it's her first time.

There's also the excitement of being ranked for the first time. And yet, it is equally mixed with a level of buried fear.

"Yes," Roen replies. He sits casually, leaning back against a columned spire of one of the many walkways across the courtyard of Arcane Academy. He stretches his long legs over the artificial grass bathed in sunlight, squinting against the five-dimensional space. "You know, technology."

There are students duelling at—literally—180 degrees above them, the flash of powers prominent. As Lena hangs her head back, she is unsettled to find the constant exchange of raw skills and weapons directly above her as she is trying to relax during their break among classes. Occasionally now she finds herself getting accustomed and easily disregarding the chaos of academy grounds; but today, it is disorientating not only because of the strange dimensional gravity Lena still isn't used to—the fact that a duel is taking place directly above them as they lounge so casually without any of her friends pointing out is highly concerning.

However, whatever law of physics governs this place, it doesn't seem to bother anyone except Lena.

Further beyond, around 30 degrees from the duel, a vast field stretches out, and students are playing ability-driven game sports. Some students from Lena's class are active in these games, and are competitive against other classes.

"Technology," Lena echoes. "But what exactly do they read within our system?"

"I can't be bothered with this question, malady," Roen apologises unsympathetically. He winks at a cluster of girls passing across the courtyard where the fountain stands, waving toward some of them. "But you may ask me about soccer."

Neesha scoffs to his left. "It's all about soccer to him, even if we do have different type of sports that require using our abilities. Hard to fathom he's grown up here."

"I like soccer!" Roen argues, ready to fight for his mundane sport of choice.

"No one's going to take that away from you," Neesha says, laughing with Lena. "Anyway, I can't answer your question either, Lena. Just like yesterday's trials, we barely know what they measure or see when the authorities are testing us. Just go with the flow and show your abilities; the technology of this city will do the rest."

It's already the fourth day of the week-long trials. Somehow, with only three days of unknown left, Lena is still doing fine—even if she has no idea what part of her system or abilities is being measured and tested. She hasn't been called out as an oddity, and Caelus hasn't been seeking her out to give her advice, so she's figured she can begin to relax a little. It's not that bad, after all.

As the trials go on, the groupings get more specific and specialised—but the authorities who are the ones doing all the testing and classifications are all giving the students easy to follow instructions. All Lena has to do is to follow obediently and perform as she's told, even if she doesn't know how or why they are being grouped as such.

"What was yesterday's one for?" Lena asks anyway, hoping her friends, being more experienced in this city than her, have some explanation.

Right after the four general groupings, the students are further branched out into two classifications for the next stage. Azure Dragons are divided into mind-states and physical-states. While all Azure Dragons require an object for the activation of their abilities, some do not need to physically touch them to make them work—just like Lena, who found out recently she can alter her 'visions' to different places and time periods of her command. These students are put into the mind-states.

Lena passed her second stage easily two days ago. Like the first, she did the same trick she discovered, and the device flashed a green light for her in passing. This time though, government representatives were watching the students so that these so called mind-states did not physically touch anything whilst managing to activate their abilities through the wristband. They did have their objects nearby, for them to be used as a medium, but not for them to manipulate in a physical sense.

Neesha, who needs to come into contact with an object to activate her power of destruction, had told her after that she'd had government representatives watching her group—the physical-states—throughout, making sure they had direct contact with the objects they were manipulating. In their case, the authorities were in charge of whether or not they passed, making sure their abilities did have an effect on the objects they are supposed to be manipulating.

That was easy enough to understand. Yesterday's test objective however, is still unclear to Lena. It was a strange one—or as strange as this world's normal can get. Lena is only commenting that it's strange because she didn't exactly comprehend what happened.

Lena's group was taken into a room, and one by one they were led into smaller sections of the space to be equipped with a different kind of ability detector. At least one government representative were in every divided cubicle, and each section was already prepared with the object related to the student's abilities. It was a plain room with a single corridor as the walkway to the exit on the other end, and each side was further divided into four semi-transparent sections—totalling to eight inner rooms for students to enter one at a time.

Assigned to her own space, Lena followed the clear instructions for groups of eight students at a time to enter and went to her assigned sub-room: number 6. The order was systematic, and all eight of the narrow, automatic doors opened only as all students were ready.

Lena had found glass related objects scattered across the single plain desk of the test space when she entered. The door slid close after her, and she was faced with a government representative sitting across the desk. He merely gave her the wristband and inputted some settings into his own tablet, and informed her the test was already going on.

It was over within 5 minutes—the beep sounded, and Lena's wristband was shown a hue of purple before she returned it. The students were told to exit at the same time just as the next batch entered.

Lena is still confused and surprised at the low effort she put in for yesterday's set of trials.

"My wristband flickered purple yesterday—a different colour than the usual green of passing—but it was over within a few minutes," Lena explains now. "What were they testing?"

Roen sits up straighter, immediately turning his attention to her. "You got a purple code?!"

"Code? I mean, it was purple—"

"That's awesome!" Roen finishes, leaning back against the column. "Caelus' got a purple."

"Roen," Neesha chides, "other students' information is strictly confidential—and that includes our best friend's. How did you even know about Caelus, anyway?"

Roen huffs. "You were the one getting confused about this stage last year, remember?"

A slight flush forms against Neesha's dark skin. She clears her throat. "Well. Care to explain then, Roen?"

"Caelus asked the exact same question, you know," Roen begins, grinning. "Neesha was new to this city, of course, but it was Caelus' first time taking the trials too last year. Both of them were as confused as you are, Lena.

"The trials may vary each year, but the processes for the first few are always similar. They sort students into their ability types and subgroups to understand the nature of every ability. Yesterday's one was one of the usual testings each year. It's done under five or so minutes because they merely check if you have a passive talent accompanying your abilities."

"Passive talent?" Lena asks.

"Exactly," Roen continues. "When you pass these tests on the first few days, it's always green, right? It should have been green yesterday too, but if you're flagged with a purple for yesterday's trials stage, that means a passive talent is present in your abilities. A passive talent is exactly what it sounds like—something you do not have to purposely activate as part of your abilities but instead appears to you naturally. In other words, part of your abilities is constantly 'turned on' even without the user having to do anything.

"Caelus asked the same question when we reached this stage last year. You should've seen Neesha's confusion"—Neesha glares at Roen, and he corrects himself—"I mean, I was the most informed, having done the trials all of my life, so I explained. I'm not too familiar with your abilities, Lena, but in Caelus' case, the invisible barrier he has around him even without having to conjure an atmospheric space is his passive talent—anything within range, he's able to detect even with eyes closed. Something like that.

"And that's how I know about Caelus," Roen clarifies to Neesha innocently. "You knew about it too!"

A nerve popping in Neesha's forehead, she smacks her friend's shoulder. "I remember now. But I'm sure it's nothing we should be shouting about to everyone in the open."

"Ouch. Yes, yes," Roen complies.

"Anyway, that's really awesome," Neesha says to Lena. "I've heard that students with passive talent to their abilities tend to have higher affinity or raw power, thus ranking higher in ability class. Passive talents are not exactly common."

Lena isn't sure if that's good news. She doesn't want to be ranked higher or have a higher ability class; she needs to stay low.

But then Neesha adds, "Not everyone who has passive talents are ranked high, though. There are so many types of abilities in this City; some passive talents are not that useful or powerful. It's just an increased affinity to your original abilities. Similarly, people without these passive talents show a different kind of potential. Let's not forget that Roen's already an A-Class."

Heaving a sigh of relief, Lena admits, "I just want the trials to be over. You were saying we get our abilities read instantaneously?"

"Technology," Roen repeats. "But you'll see—in a few days. I think the system will be refreshed with our new rankings, ability class and all that the moment the authorities announce the end of the trials."

"In just two to three days time," Neesha confirms.

"Too bad for half day lessons—I'm gonna miss this relaxing timetable, even if we've got some weirdos on our campus," Roen comments.

The three of them burst out laughing, but they are soon interrupted as a scowling Casper strides over and stands over them at the arched walkways, a gloomy presence in their wake. Lena can see he's annoyed to be here, but Casper says, "They are asking for the class representatives."

Reluctantly, Neesha stands to greet him. "They have our schedules?"

"Yes, and we're supposed to make sure everyone's back to classes to receive them."

"Sure," Neesha says, then indicates to Roen and Lena. "I'll head on first; you two get to class too. Let's go, Casper."

Casper crosses his arms and begins mumbling something inaudible. And as both the class representatives of Aquila and Corvus head inside the academy building, the two begin a series of bickering and an exchange of insults.

"Everyday, those two," Roen remarks, chuckling.

"Come on, let's head back too."

Lena and Roen do as they are told and return to their homeroom, where the latest schedule of the trials have already been embedded in their own systems on their desks. Students are slowly filing back in from their break, with Neesha busying herself to gather their classmates back.

Powering up her digital desk, Lena finds her schedule different than usual. There are no groups or subgroups or numbers this time, only a single: Precision Room, 1.00pm.

That's... immediately.

Lena stands, scrambling to the exit as other students begin heading to their own destinations too. The hallways are cramped with students milling about, chatting excitedly as if they aren't undergoing a compulsory government-run exam. Familiar faces greet her on the way, but Lena merely stops for a simple greeting before her muscle memory works its way to where she's been practicing almost everyday. She reaches the hallway that will take her to where the secluded room is, and she slows her pace, turning the corner.

A group of gathering students are already outside the room, and Lena halts, surprised. She isn't sure which is more shocking: the fact that she recognises quite a number of them in the small group of less than 20 students, or that two usually absent classmates of hers—Caelus and Fai—are actually present.

Well, she supposed this is a compulsory trials. And while she's been seeing more of Caelus than the always absent Fai, she's still surprised to see Caelus blending with the other students here. Still, to see so many familiar faces...

From her class, there's Caelus and Fai; she recognises two other from Corvus: Arven and Renault. She doesn't quite know the other faces, but it's a group of students from every year of Arcane Academy, because then she spots Azalea, who smirks at her.

Lena swallows, exchanging a brief eye contact with the third-ranked who seems unbothered by this gathering and is instead watching her closely, curiously.

The door to Precision swings open suddenly, and a government representative reveals himself. He scans the students, and instructs them inside. Viktas himself, apparently the head of the team of authorities sent to Arcane Academy, greets them in the empty room.

"That should be everyone with a purple code from yesterday," the man says to his earpiece, nodding to Viktas.

Lena feels a chill travel down her spine, and as the door shuts close, merging with the wall, she can't help but think how out of place she is.

Viktas eyes the small group of students. "Let's begin."