"Oh," was all Lyr said. She gave a quick glance to Aine and then walked away without another look at him.

"She was not a good friend to you, from what I gathered." Caedra said watching Lyr walk away. "Now, Aine, why don't you just come sit with me and my friends." She tilted her head and then walked into the classroom. Aine hesitated but had no choice and followed her in.

"Aine?" A voice called from the hallway and he saw a scholar standing in the doorway.

Aine looked at Caedra who nodded. Aine walked over to speak with the scholar in the hall.

"I am only delivering a message. The Lataro and your Masters have come to a decision of where you will be going after Saziel. In a few days everyone in your year will be receiving the life cards with your next steps. You will also receive one."

"Do you know what is going to happen to me?" Aine asked. It was hard to keep alarm from filling his voice.

"I was not told the details, only to tell you a decision had been made," the scholar said. "I will be on my way now."

Aine watched the back of the scholar as he walked away. After a moment Aine went into the classroom to sit with Caedra who turned to him with an eager look.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"The scholar said we'll be receiving our life cards soon," Aine said.

"Do you have an idea of where you'll be placed seeing how you're... sick," she said looking around the room as if the word was plastered to the wall.

"Sick? I'm not sick," Aine said.

"I meant, with how... you don't have any powers."

"Oh, well no. I'm not sick and I don't know why I don't have my powers. I am a Sagittarius so I believe they'd send me home. I don't know where else they would send me." A part of him feared what would happen if they didn't send him home.

"What if they treat you... like an," she lowered her voice and moved to whisper in his ear. He knew she even feared the word. "An Ophiuchus?"

Two of her friends who were sitting behind her overheard her even as quiet as she made herself and leaned forward.

"Caedra, be careful, I just heard you," she said and looked at Aine with tension creasing her eyes. She glanced at Caedra and then sat back.

"Try not to draw any attention about that right now, I heard there was something going on with those... things," her other friend said, his voice deep and low.

"That was just a rumor," Caedra said and waved it away but Aine noticed how she avoided looking at him and turned back to the scholar speaking at the head of the class. And for the rest of the lesson Caedra didn't pursue anything more from Aine.

He sat there and wondered what they had been talking about, he had an inkling they had been talking about Ophiuchus, but as to why, Aine didn't know.

That night Aine stood by his bed, pulling the blankets back before getting in when he heard a sound behind him that made him jump. He turned and saw one of the other boys had stubbed their toe on the foot of their bed and was cursing.

Aine breathed out a sigh of relief not sure why he had jumped and looked over the boy's shoulder to the window behind him. His heart began to pound and he felt his hands clam up.

A full moon blazed in the dark blue sky. It was the last new moon of his year at Saziel and that meant he only had twenty-eight days left at the academy.

Soon he would be finding out where he would be spending the rest of his life and he turned back around to climb into bed. His lips moved in a rapid movement as he whispered a simple prayer to the heavens that the decision was to send him home to ShynCity.

The next morning Aine awoke to horns bursting through the halls. He nearly fell out of bed from the arupt awakening. The other boys around him too all jerked awake and they found a parade entering their long room. Horns, cymbals, and different sized bells, played together with high and low notes ringing through the rafters. Aine watched wild-looking humans in animal pelts leap and holler around the room with their loud instruments banging down the isle between the beds.

Barking, screeching, and bird calls rang through their room, at first sounding what the jungle has been said to sound like at night, but then the voices making the strange noises brought their voices together in a celebratory conjunction.

If they weren't taught the Leos were as animal-like as the wild beasts in the jungle, Aine would have been frightened out of his night clothes. But he knew they must be from the Leo clan. There were no others who would act in such a way.

One of the men launched himself onto the nearest bed and landed with perfect ease that only came from living long hours in the wilderness. He put his hands to his mouth and gave out a long, loud howl.

The other Leos stopped and did the same howling to the ceiling even though there was no moon in the rafters, nor was it night out. The sun was beginning to stream through the windows and it would be time to venture to the Au Bay Stage for Morning Prayer soon.

"Here we roar!" the man shouted. He had wild red hair that resembled the mane of a feline and the way he held his hands, curled, looked like clawed paws. Whoops and dog sounds echoed through the room. Aine put his hands to his ears the noise was so loud.

"Today is the day, young fellows, that we begin the countdown. You are in the phase of the last moon, which!" He held up a finger dramatically, Aine could see the tendons stretching in the long fingers he was holding it so tight. "Means," the man twisted on the heel of his foot as he looked around at the slack-jawed and suddenly alert faces. "We will all be having a festival down at The Camp!" The Camp was what the Leos called where they lived. They were a simple and unimaginative bunch when it came to naming things.

"So, grab your things, pack what you need for a few nights! Get up! Get up! Get up!" He clapped his hands together loudly, "Let's go!"

Aine jumped out of bed and went to the small wardrobe that only stood at his shoulder and pulled out his clothes for the day and dressed quickly. He pulled out a couple outfits to bring with him and rummaged at the bottom of the closet for a bag he could throw everything in.

Noise around the room started as the Leo party exited the room to allow the boys to dress and gather what they needed. Mutters amongst pairs were low at first until the voices rose to excitement and even yelling as some called across to their friends at the other end of the room. It was a boiling pot of noise as Aine's dorm joined the others of his class in the halls.

Once they were outside on the trail down to The Camp, there was still the noise of excitement, yells and shouts, and some even ran with eagerness to get down the mountain. The path they followed was cut out of MountOdonn by the Capricorn Clan. They were the ones tasked with creating structures and pathways from the land.

Commotion ahead created a blockage on the path as students and scholars stopped to crowd around something. The scholars were trying to move the students along but were having trouble forcing them to keep going.

As Aine got closer he saw someone peek out from the crowd and dread flooded his body. Aine looked around quickly trying to find a way around but Vhagn stepped out and came up to him almost running to meet Aine before he could slip into the crowd and away from him.

"There's Aine!" Vhagn said with a toothy grin and scrunched eyes. His cheeks were pulled back to his eyes with excitement written all over his face.

Vhagn grabbed Aine's arm before he could avoid Vhagn and was dragged to the crowd. Vhagn kicked the back of his leg dropping him to his hands and knees. His bag slipped from his shoulder and fell beside him. The flap opened and some of his clothes tumbled out.

It wasn't until he was at the front of the crowd that the smell hit him.

Vhagn put a hand to the back of Aine's neck and pushed his face through a wall of bodies so Aine had a full view of what everyone crowded to look at.

He heard a couple of the scholars call over the ripple of heads but their voices fell beneath the wave of excitement flooding through those who were standing there and the ones coming down the path, meeting up with the group of students.

A wall of dirt had fallen and caused a pile to build on the pathway, but it was what had been revealed when the wall had slide that everyone gawked at. An exposed, half-decayed skeleton hung out of the side of the mountain. Two men in shabby grey clothing used shovels to chip away at the hard, rocky dirt holding the rest of the body.

"That must be your cousin," Vhagn said with a loud laugh.

It took a moment for Aine to realize what Vhagn meant by that.

Burnt into a part of an intact shoulder was a brand. The symbol was a circle with a line cut through the middle. It was the brand given to Ophiuchus's when their year at Saziel was over. Vhagn made a poor joke.

Vhagn bent down so his mouth was close to Aine's ear. Even with his regular tone Aine would've had a hard time hearing him, but he knew Vhagn wanted only he to hear what he said. "Get a good look, Ophi. I have a bet going this will be your future."

Vhagn pushed Aine down and moved away and for a moment disappeared in the crowd.

Aine knelt on hands and knees, his eyes glued to the partially decomposed body. The smell hung in the air like a thick cloud, baking in the heat, and stinking worse than anything he had ever encountered before.

The only time he could recall that might have been similar, had been once when they were at Vilago Fields, learning how the land was cultivated and the Virgos' purpose to the kingdom. He had unearthed blackened fungi that weren't supposed to see the light of day. It was a type of plant that grew in the ground and smelled worse than any form of defecation.

But, the body smelled much worse than the disgusting fungus. Like it was fermenting and once released to the air, expelled spores more horrendous that sulfur.

Returning, Vhagn appeared with a few others. Aine saw Erol and Garren, but also two other boys as well. One was a Scorpio and another, an Aquarius. All five of them had stones in their hands. Vhagn threw the first one.

It sailed over the students' heads and smacked one of the men in grey clothing. The man dropped his shovel and turned around. A spot of red appeared at the back of his head where the stone had cut him.

"Nelee!" Garren yelled and threw the next stone, and then the other three boys joined in. They called the men in grey names and how they had no powers and were considered worthless, less than nothing.

The raining of rocks caused the crowd to scatter. The scholars started to direct the students away, which many were all too happy to get away with the hailing of stones and sprinted down the path.

Aine grabbed his bag and shoved his things back inside. He jumped to his feet to follow the others but Vhagn appeared in front of him.

"Where are you going?" Vhagn said. Puffing up his chest he tried to make himself as big as possible, but even without doing that Aine didn't have a chance against him. While Vhagn was only an inch taller than Aine he was bigger. He was big and meaty and would need to be when he joined his fellow Leos on their hunts.

"What do you mean?" Aine asked.

"Help your brothers," Vhagn said and pointed to the men pulling the corpse from where the land had intended to swallow its remains.

"I don't know those men," Aine said slowly unable to get around Vhagn and the other four.

"They'll be your brothers very soon," Vhagn said and pointed to the men. "Go help them."

"Vhagn," a voice called from behind him.

Over Vhagn's shoulder Aine saw Master Lucette standing with her hands on her hips and the flowered robe shifted around her.

"Let's keep moving," Master Lucette said and waved for the other four to also.

When Aine didn't move she waved for him to come forward. "You, too."

She fell in step behind them and was a slight relief. Vhagn joked ahead of him with the other four as if neither Aine nor Master Lucette was behind him.

From the height they were at on the path down to The Camp Aine could see what looked like the whole world to him, but he didn't even see a fraction of it. The sky stretched overhead in every direction in shades of blues with thin white clouds, streaking in the upper atmosphere.

Below, Aine could see the tip of The Camp, more emerging as they followed the curve of the mountain. The path the Capricorn had cut out of the mountain side ended on Aine's right, dropping straight off. He was glad at least Vhagn had not thought to push him off the trail. A fall from there was as guaranteed as a fall from out of one of the windows at Saziel.

A breeze blew over him a welcome relief from the hot air that sat stagnant around him. He moved closer to the edge and looked down. He saw on the lowest loop around the mountain bringing the path near Vilago Fields to The Camp, the top of Lyr's head as she walked with a couple of her friends. They were only a few feet from The Camp's entrance leaving the fork in the dirt path that led from the different clans.

A sour taste filled his mouth and he moved away from the edge of the path. Since Caedra had sent Lyr away he'd wondered how the Lataro had found him on the night he was in the kitchen. He'd made sure to move as silent as a mouse, and it had been right after Lyr found he had lied that the Lataro had been there. It was a feeling that had settled in the pit of his stomach and now he couldn't shake the sense she had told on him. He didn't know what she was going to get out of it, other than it could have led to him being expelled if the Lataro hadn't chosen to help him.

The past few days had been stranger than his whole time at Saziel. Making a decision for himself when he found the book and planned to perform Ezlar's Theory. Finding out his friend couldn't see how important it had been for him to try it, and also the fact that Caedra, the Arie's princess, had suddenly taken an interest in him, right at the end of their time at Saziel. He'd never had much contact with her, being at the top of the social ladder, and most of their classes were different.

Aine thought back to the body in the side of the mountain and a flood of questions surfaced across his mind like a waterfall. Just falling, all the tons of water, how fast it fell, like the many questions he had.

How the body had ended up there and what had happened were the two he was thinking about most. But he didn't have to think about it if it was an Ophiuchus involved. They were simply cast aside when not needed, thrown away like trash. After all, Ophiuchus's shouldn't be born in the first place.

He was lucky he was a Sagittarius, but he was worried with his lack of powers what the decision about his time after Saziel, where it would send him. He desperately wanted to be sent home. He would be with his mother, and he would be with the other Sagittarius. That was where he should be going, but a nagging feeling in the back of his mind told him otherwise, that they would send him somewhere else; especially, if he couldn't contribute to the kingdom like a normal, true Sentien.

He felt heaviness flow down into his legs as the pressure in the air around him pushed him down. The angle at which the path had changed was steeper and he felt he was walking on his toes. It put a strain on his leg muscles and a burning sensation pulsed through his calves and thighs, but they were near the bottom. It was ease up once they were on flat ground.