Nerena Corvantis
Knowledge is important.
And I wanted more of it… I needed more of it.
In all of my classes, I made it apparent that no one would know more than me. It didn't matter which Truth Seeker class I was in; it could have been history of the astral realm, archaeology, anthropology, religious studies, cartography, geology, or even the cosmic energy classification—my hand would be up first to answer any question.
"Now, can anyone tell me the classification of Astral Behemoths in ascending order?"
The professor acknowledged my raised hand, "Yes, Professor Durn; Star Spawn, Void Born, Stellar Fiend, Nebulord, Cosmophage, and lastly Eclipser."
"Good, now can anyone tell me the strength difference between each stage?" Professor Durn asked.
This time, the Morzeth girl raised her hand, and the professor intentionally ignored her and picked me again.
"Go ahead, Nerena,"
"It's simple. Each stage multiplies the last by ten, just like Starbound's celestial cores." Groans rippled through the room. I ignored it.
"Hey! Truth Seekers don't conduct themselves in that manner. You'd better start taking your studying seriously. Otherwise, you will be to blame for your team's failure. It's a Truth Seeker's job to be well-versed in these subjects. Rifts are a mixture of the astral realm and physical; you must be knowledgeable in both. The unprepared die." Professor Durn said, slamming her book on her desk.
Turning to me, she smiled, "Correct, Nerena."
"Now, can anyone tell me what the physical differences are in Astral Behemoths cores?"
Like normal, only a few raised their hands. A kid from the Shademaul clan was called on this time,
"Inside the shell of a Starspawn's core, it looks gaseous and cloudlike. Inside the core of a Void-born, a change takes place. A small ball that visually resembles fire forms, surrounded by large rings of gas. A Stellarfiend's core becomes more solidified, taking the form of a yellow star, losing its rings, and the ball of fire grows while becoming brighter. The core of a Nebulord grows larger and turns red, with smaller gas rings surrounding it. But a cosmophage, the inside of the core turns into a gigantic gaseous cloud, it takes the shape of a skeletal mouth belonging to a beast with razor sharp fangs."
"That's not a confirmed fact," Kori Morzeth said, interrupting the Shademaul student.
The Shademaul shot a glare at Kori, "How come it isn't?"
"Because that information is based on a myth. No one has actually seen one; all the information regarding a cosmophage has never been properly recorded in the Starchieve. All of the info we have comes from auditory stories passed down through generations. It's like playing a game of telephone; things are bound to get changed or falsified." She had a smug look on her face. Knowing she had just got one over on our classmate.
She didn't.
But I did start to wonder whether any of the books I read back home were wrong, or if we all had slightly different records.
This irritated me for the rest of class. I needed to figure out who had the correct information.
Class was dismissed. But I chose to stay back. After all, our classroom was a magnificent library, and I had extra reading I wanted to get done.
"They are talking about you," the voice in my head said as I walked toward the escalator.
"It's fine. No one likes a know-it-all. I would dislike myself too, if I constantly showed them up."
"Would you rather I not give you knowledge in class?" the voice asked.
"To be honest, at times it does take away the excitement of discovering new things for myself. But why would I turn down the clear advantage I have been given?"
"I see. When will you share what I have given you?"
"I have yet to find anyone worthy."
"Or is it you don't trust me?"
"I trust you. You haven't led me down the wrong path yet. I trust that you wanted me to attend this school for a reason. It's just that this place is new and takes some adjustment."
"I see."
I stayed on the fourth floor and found some books on the Era of Man. Growing up, this had always been my favourite part of history to study. It was the part in history my family spoke fondly of.
History was obviously my favourite subject, but what I liked most was understanding the context that led to it.
The books here at school weren't a hundred percent correct.
History was always skewed toward the victor's bias.
But I had the advantage; I knew someone who could fill in the missing pieces.
After rereading a passage in the Era of Man textbook regarding cosmophages, I saw that the book did call them myths. Which I knew wasn't true. But had no way of proving it to others.
I closed the book shut and raised my hand in the air.
"Bring me books on Truth Seeker tools," I shouted out to the library. In a few short moments, the books I commanded flew into my raised hand. This was one function I absolutely loved about the library; it was like the library had its own consciousness.
I placed the books on the table. Truth Seekers needed to understand how to navigate the Starchive, which is an open-source digital archive created by the Rift Defence Association and the Guild Committee Organization.
Truth Seekers also had to be proficient with a compass, drones, and the live digital map of the astral and physical realms.
We had a test coming up on the tools, and to get access to them, I had to pass.
Hours passed, and I left the library. I needed to simmer my irritation at the books constantly flying off my table, which made me spend more time than I needed studying.
So I decided to go to my favourite spot at the academy. The Waterfall.
Walking across the astral chain bridge, I'm amazed at the size of the academy. There were nine floating isles. Six of which circled and connected by astral chains to the main central isle, and were the residences of the houses we were put into.
But two of the floating isles were not connected to the central one. One was the isle that catered to the second years, whom we never see. The last belonged to a training facility where the totem games were held.
The Waterfall was located on the main central isle.
The concept that shouldn't work this high up in the sky. But somehow, the school figured out how to use the clouds as a water source to create the artificial pond.
It was appreciated, but it was a poor attempt at inclusion and worse at understanding marine ecology. Despite it, this was one of the few spaces at Xhatal Academy that reminded me of home.
Being born and raised in the sea. My body longed for water. Without swimming, I felt sluggish and easily agitated. But when I reached the waterfall. I noticed several groups of students.
One group was made up of students from house Chakana, and the other from house Bronzard.
Concordants and Armament techs.
They were dumping some waste into the pond.
Furious, I camouflaged my body among my surroundings and stormed up to them. I slapped the bucket out of the armament tech's hand.
"Yo, why did you do that?!" He shouted back to the Concordant next to him.
"I didn't do anything. Hurry up and finish dumping that thing." The armament tech lifted the bucket again, and I slapped the bucket out of his hand again.
"Ok, dude, it's not funny anymore."
"I swear it wasn't me. I don't want to be here anyway. Doesn't that weird Corvantis girl hang out here?" the concordant said
The armament tech looked back at him as he finished dumping the rest of the horrible oil.
"She does. That's why we are pouring this in here. So she won't come here again. We could use this pond to test our hydroelectric pump, but she sits in here for hours on end hoarding the thing."
"But how does polluting it help us, though?" the concordant asked.
"Well, I made something that could purify it in minutes. And once we're done using the pond, we just pollute it again afterwards."
"Bro, you're a genius."
That's when I had enough.
I commanded my tentacles to pin them to the ground.
Deactivating my camouflage, I stood over them. "Say that again."
"Get her," the armament tech yelled out. But the others were frozen in place.
I guess my reputation from the Totem games carried some weight.
"Jace, do something!" the concordant yelled up to the sky above.
Looking up, I saw a boy floating on a nimbus, analyzing the clouds used to create the waterfall.
I was shocked to see Jace up there.
I had never seen him so focused, either. He shifted his head, peering over the edge of his cloud.
"I'm busy."
"You said you would help!"
"Oh, did I? I must have been sleep-talking. I just wanted to look at the clouds. Squiddy is your problem, not mine."
I hated that name.
But I was glad he wasn't joining the fight.
Turning my attention back to the group of students. "I'm going to give you one chance to make up for what you did. Hand over the purifier, and I'll let you off easy."
"Never," the armament tech said, throwing oil on my uniform.
I had half a mind to drown them in the water they polluted.
Instead, I threw the two kids I pinned down at the other students, forcing them to leave. They ran away, their bucket in tow.
They were gone, but my safe place was ruined at least for the day.
Then a cloud lowered above the pond. It was Jace laughing at the event.
"Squids, you really are terrifying."
I ignored his comment. The only thing that was on my mind was getting that purifier.