Passed

It took a while for Jayde to calm everyone down. Sitting cross-legged on the grass, with Takara on her lap, she gently stroked him while she spoke with Isha, Yinxin, and Reiko.

[Isha what the hell happened?]

[Jayde I am sorry, I messed up. I didn't expect that the Lower Realm would have such a complex magical rune system set up.]

Isha felt really guilty that he hadn't taken the time to investigate the runes written upon the stone platform. He had been scared out of his mind when he had felt the contract with Jayde unraveling.

[Not your fault Isha, but I would like to know what happened?]

[There was a mental fortitude test built into the assessment test. A person is confronted with their greatest fear, the whole test it to see if you can overcome that fear,] Isha explained.

[So everything I went through was some sort of illusion?] Jayde asked.

[Yes.]

[Isha could anyone see what I was going through?]

Jayde was now worried that somehow the teachers at Damonia could have seen everything.

[No Jayde, everything was only an illusion in your mind, if your mental shield hadn't been destroyed during the battle with the Demonic Nematomorpha, you most likely wouldn't have been affected at all.]

Relieved that at least her past was still a secret, Jayde asked Isha what would happen to the testers who couldn't break out the illusion.

[Once the test is over, the casters will end the spell, which will break the illusion.]

Emotionally and mentally wrung out, Jayde didn't quite know how to deal with what she had just been through, right now she just wanted to get as far away from this place as possible. Later she would deal with what she had gone through.

Standing up, still cuddling Takara, Jayde stepped through the doorway. No one would know just how much courage it took Jayde to step through that doorway as she was terrified that she would find herself locked into another illusion.

Subconsciously Jayde squeezed her eyes shut as she stepped through the doorway.

"Congratulations on passing our assessment, you are number forty-eight," a jovial voice said.

Opening her eyes, Jayde looked up. The man standing in front of her had dark hair threaded with silver, deep furrows bracketed his mouth, his straight teeth showed clearly through his bright smile, an aristocratic nose, and trimmed beard gave off a noble air, while his plump body attired in a comfortable looking brown robe made one feel as though he was a kindly grandfather. His intelligent dark eyes looked at Jayde expectantly as if waiting for some sort of response.

"Um, thank you," Jayde said.

The old mage handed over a wooden disk with the number forty-eight printed on it. Then pointing to a small group of youngster over to the side, he said.

"You can wait over there with the rest of your classmates, once the last two students have been selected, the college will provide you with temporary lodging for the night. Tomorrow you will all be enrolled and assigned to your dorms and classes."

Nodding Jayde thanked the old mage before strolling over to the group of teenagers standing around.

"Hey, Jayde over here."

Glancing in the direction of the voice, Jayde was surprised to see Raven, Ash, and Nova. Raven was waving her over. Jayde ambled over to the small group.

Smiling slightly she said: "It's great to see that you all made it."

Raven grinned with delight. "I can't believe that we all made it in," she said.

Ash and Nova were also grinning but both seemed a lot paler than before.

"You two okay?" Jayde asked them when she noticed how pale they both looked.

"Yeah they fine, it just both didn't have a good time with that last test, it was horrible," Raven said.

"Horrible," Nova croaked out, "It was a bloody nightmare."

Shuddering, Nova said, "Gods there were so many dire-spiders, I don't think I am ever going to sleep again."

Covering her mouth Raven giggled, "Oh come on it couldn't have been that bad."

"Not bad!" Nova squeaked, "They had twelve legs, who has ever heard of a twelve-legged dire-spider, gods eight legs are bad enough, why did mine have to twelve legs."

Frowning at his brother Ash said in a reproachful tone: "Stop being such a baby."

"But brother, they were huge with big, hairy legs," Nova wailed.

Snorting Ash turned to Jayde.

"How was your final test?" he asked.

Shrugging Jayde said casually, "Just a couple of strong beasts."

"What? Gods that is so unfair," Nova complained.

"And yours?" Jayde asked Ash.

"Same as you," Ash answered, but the haunted look in his eyes betrayed him. Seeing that look made Jayde curious about what Ash had gone through.

"Damn I want to report the unfairness of this test," Nova grumbled.

"Brother and Jayde get a couple of stupid beasts—"

"Hey my test wasn't a walk in the park," Raven interrupted him.

"What you got chased by some stupid old farts," Nova said resentfully, "While I got hundreds on dire-spiders."

"Unfair. It's plain discrimination," Nova mumbled.

Raven's eyes narrowed as she stared at Nova in disgust.

"Hey Nova?" she called.

"What?"

Pointing to his shoulder, "Is that a spider on you?"

A high pitched girlishly scream pierced the air, as Nova started jumping around hitting his shoulder. Raven doubled over in laughter. Tears streaming down her face.

Ash and Jayde smiled at the two antics, while the rest of the students threw them weird looks.

Soon the last two students joined the group, with the arrival of the last student, one of the teachers arrived to show them to their temporary lodgings for the night. The boys and girls were separated in their own dorms.

After everyone was settled, the teachers gave each student a small package of food. Inside were two sandwiches, fruit, and some cupcakes.

Jayde and Raven sat together eating. After the late night dinner, the girls bid each goodnight. Raven quickly fell asleep. Jayde, on the other hand, sat against the headboard of her bed and replayed the last test in her mind, she spent the whole night thinking over what she had gone through, analyzing her reactions and trying to come to terms with what she had experienced.

Jayde came to realize that ever since she had arrived in Doha, she really hadn't taken everything seriously, she had just been going through the motions. If she had been in the Federation she would never have just relied on someone else for information, but here she was continuously relying on Isha to provide her with Intel.

It was time to change her attitude, she thought. I need to start taking things seriously. She had purchased the library in the Protoss artifact, but she hadn't really spent any time researching magic or the situation on Doha.

She knew she had enemies on this planet, but she hadn't really thought of a plan on how to deal with them. Before she would never have been this passive about things. Seeing Eden destroyed had struck her hard, she never wanted to see anyone she cared about hurt like that again.

Up until now, she hadn't really taken Doha as her new home. In a way, she had been treating her life here as some sort of temporary waypoint. During the long night, Jayde came to terms with the fact that she didn't want to return to the Federation, that part of her life was over. This was her new home, and by the gods, she wanted to protect it.

She loved Reiko, Isha, Yinxin and the wyrmlings, they were her family, and she wanted nothing to harm them. It was time to get serious about getting stronger. No one was going to harm her family — not while she was alive.

She also needed to create her own force, she wouldn't be able to take down the Freeholds or even her enemies alone. Since Lawrence's betrayal, she had been going at it solo. She trusted Reiko and Yinxin because of her contract with them, which had given her access to their deepest thoughts and feelings, but she needed a human force as well. Thinking of Raven, Nova, and Ash, she figured they wouldn't be a bad start.

Jayde spent the night making plans when the sun started to peek over the horizon Jayde climbed off her bed determined to take her own destiny in her hands, she was willing to do whatever it took to stand at the pinnacle of this world.

--

Quote of the day

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." -Aristotle