Page 21 of Trivium

The room was so quiet, Ahmina swore she could hear her own heart beating.

“Creatures have repeatedly breached the Great Wall, which means we need you to train faster, harder, and become skilled at defense more quickly. Therefore, your skills will be tested more frequently.”

“We picked a good year to attend,” a student beside them whispered, and Rory grunted.

“The first assessment is only weeks away,” Adeyemi confirmed, their head held high. “You are all about to start on a journey that will change your life forever. But tonight,” they said, raising their hands, palms facing the crowd, “we celebrate your arrival!”

Cheers erupted as second and third years clapped each other on the back, smiling confidently. Like Ahmina, most of the first years looked around, their smiles tight.

“Throwing first years out beyond the wall weeks into their education, what could possibly go wrong?” a voice said behind them, and Ahmina turned around to find a short, slender man with medium brown hair and light brown skin smiling at her.

“Is that what they do during assessments?” she asked. “They just send us… out there?”

“How else will they assess us?”

“Right. Yeah,” she said sheepishly.

“I’m Artie,” he said, offering a wave.

“Ahmina.”

“Rory.”

“Nice to meet you. First years, I’m assuming?”

“Yes,” they said in unison.

“Me too.” He grinned. “I just found out the headmaster is gender non-conforming; can’t believe I didn’t know.”

“Isn’t that like common knowledge?” Rory said and Artie shrugged.

It wasn’t uncommon. In fact, many Jarrians celebrated diverse expressions of gender and romantic preferences. Unless you were a noble. They never said it outright, but everyone knew nobles were expected to marry in pairs of male and female to produce children. To keep their position of power, of course—hard to do that if your bloodline dies from a lack of offspring.

Adeyemi’s voice carried through the crowd again, but this time it took minutes for the students to fall silent. “Your initiation Gala is this evening in the courtyard. Dress is formal. All of you are to immediately report to your Trivium where you will be given your schedule and dorm information.”

“Eeeee,” Artie whispered, grabbing Ahmina’s wrist, which startled her since she just met him. “We get to actually dress up! I didn’t think I’d ever see a gown again.”

“This will be your only event of the year until graduation, so make the most of it!” Adeyemi yelled over the chatter while professors hushed the crowd from the sidelines. The headmaster picked up their skirt, stepped off the small platform and melted into the crowd. As if responding to a wave, it shifted and flowed around them as they moved through it.

Ahmina, Rory, and Artie stood, looking as confused as every other first year, while second and third years began to exit the hall.

“How are we supposed to know where to go?” Ahmina asked, brow furrowed as the crowd of first years closed in around her, seemingly going nowhere.

“I’m taking you.” She turned to find Lennox standing behind them. He read off a list of names, before beckoning them to follow. “Trivium, tour, then Gala.”

14

LOVELEENA

“This is the squad you will complete your three critical assessments with. The squad that will be by your side as you train. I would also advise that this is the squad you eat, study, and celebrate with.”

Loveleena blinked. That meant she would be stuck with Kumani—a lot. Not that Kumani was difficult to be around. She wasn’t difficult to be around, like at all, which is why Loveleena needed to avoid her. It would be way too easy to fall back into things with her just because it was comfortable.

A man with tawny blonde hair had called out twenty of their names one by one (including Kumani, which was the worst-case scenario in her opinion), before bringing them to a small classroom for Trivium in the east wing of the castle—which despite being beautiful, looked ancient. There were stretches where you could tell it had been re-done, strengthened and sculpted with newer materials. However, most of the wing looked like it would crumble if you even slightly bumped into it. Despite her questioning, the man assured them the castle was sturdy.

When they arrived at the classroom, she spotted Ren and breathed a sigh of relief. He had slipped away at some point in the middle of the headmaster’s speech, and despite his intense nature, a small part of her was happy to see him. At least she knew someone other than Kumani.

The students quickly introduced themselves to each other, before the professor cleared his throat, requesting their attention. He had introduced himself as Professor Cade Barrow, Trivium instructor and Head of Combat, before launching into a lecture on the importance of their Trivium squad.