It didn’t take long for my friends to arrive at the mess hall.

  “Well?” Kolo asked, her impatience evident. “What happened?”

  “I was called to the headmaster’s office, as I’m sure everyone knows by now. I have been instructed not to discuss the details of that meeting with anyone.”

  Kolo groaned. “Come on! It’s us! Can’t you tell us anything?”

  “The commodore was clear that I wasn’t to speak of what happened to anyone, including my friends.” I was secretly enjoying this little bit of teasing I got to do.

  “But—”

  Gathrok interrupted before she could keep going. “Rumor has it a black dragon was carried out of the administration building a short time ago, and they were in dragon form at the time. Would you happen to know anything about that?”

  I smirked. “As I said, I cannot speak to events that may or may not have occurred in the headmaster’s office earlier today.”

  Kolo gave me a playful smack and a mock glare. “So it’s over? We’re safe?”

  I shrugged. “Let’s just say I feel safe taking a walk through the gardens on my own.”

  Kolo made a sort of excited squealing sound that was unique to felids, and I saw smiles on the faces of the others, including Valissa.

  “I, for one, am glad that you feel safe and won’t be coming home covered in barely-healed bruises,” she affirmed.

  “Yeah!” exclaimed Delroy. “I’m glad none of us will be doing that.”

  As much as I enjoyed their excitement, I felt it important to temper it a little. “While I definitely feel much safer on campus now, we should remember that powerful people have powerful allies. In general, that is. Completely unrelated to anything that may or may not have happened today.”

  Everyone gave a slightly more somber nod at that, but overall, the mood was still upbeat. Lunch even tasted better than usual, probably due to my somewhat lower stress levels.

  It didn’t take long for the rumors to start flying, since the academy kept quiet about the events. Some of the rumors were pretty close, but others got increasingly outlandish. They ranged anywhere from “he murdered an instructor and ate his liver” to “he got picked for the spooks and is now at a secret training academy.” One rumor even stated that he was the missing princess who had undergone a gender swap procedure in order for the imperial family to truly see what life was like at the academy as part of checking that everything was on the up-and-up, and now that the work was done, he was supposed to undergo the process to change back but had found that he preferred being a man and would shortly be reintroduced as a prince.

  I had no clue who came up with that story, but I found it hilarious. I was quite happy being female, and the idea that my father would have trusted me with anything important was comical.

  With the major concern of Torlan out of the way, things settled back into a comfortable routine. Delroy no longer needed to worry about being sabotaged in class, and I could go for walks again for the first time in close to a cycle.

  Once midterms were over, we were introduced to a new building on campus—the zero-g hall. Technically, it was named after an admiral or something from over a century ago, but everyone just called it “the zero-g hall.” It was a large, multistory space filled with an obstacle course and manatech to negate gravity.

  “While all our ships have artificial gravity, there are situations where you will need to be able to move around without it. Occasionally, technical issues can cause malfunctions that disable the gravity generation. As well, extravehicular activities, while rare, are always in zero-g. Lastly, partial ship damage can take out the gravity generators. Because of this, you need to practice moving around without gravity using both your body and the Telekinesis spell I’m certain you all have been practicing.”

  Most of our PTT sessions after that took place in zero-g. At first, we simply practiced moving around, but after two days we started working on the obstacle course. I quickly rocketed up to top of the class in that, routinely having the fastest time thanks to my obsessive practicing with Telekinesis. Our instructor was impressed and occasionally had me explain what I was doing at various points to the others, though only some really understood it.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  At one point, I asked the instructor if the zero-g could be turned off. He told me it could, usually for certain kinds of maintenance, though he expressed confusion as to why I cared. When I explained that I hoped to try the course with gravity, he seemed concerned.

  “The course is not designed for gravity. It would be extremely difficult and risky. I know you are skilled with Telekinesis, but I can’t in good conscience risk you messing up and falling on your head.”

  I sighed, admitting he had a point, even if I was disappointed. He then paused for a second before speaking. “I shouldn’t do this, but I’m curious. Maintenance has some antigrav belts for safety purposes when working high up. They are remote-controllable by a spotter and are designed to lower you to the ground slowly. If you wear one of them, I could activate it if you seem to be falling. It’s still risky, but probably safe enough. We can do it next class.”

  I knew I had a beaming smile on my face, but I didn’t care. “Thank you, sergeant!”

  “Yeah, yeah, thank me when you survive. Get on out of here.”

  Sure enough, the next day, when we entered the zero-g hall, there was gravity. Everyone except me was understandably surprised by this, and there was a lot of confused mumbling as we moved to a clear space in the center of the room.

  “Okay, everyone. We have a… unique… demonstration today. Cadet Juniper is going to attempt the course under gravity. She’ll be wearing an antigrav belt for safety’s sake, but I will only activate it in case of an emergency. Cadet, if you would.” He handed me the belt, and I strapped it on. He then activated it and had me jump up. I jumped much higher than normal and slowly floated down, showing the belt was working.

  With that, it was time. I got into position, and the sergeant called out the start. Immediately, I activated Telekinesis and shot into the air. It was extremely difficult. I couldn’t just negate gravity—I had to constantly adjust my spells to account for my shifting position and direction. It was especially complicated when I was moving with gravity because my instincts from flying the course so many times were to accelerate myself, but I actually had to oppose gravity. I didn’t think I could have managed before the mental improvements from ascending to Tier 2.

  As it was, I barely managed. By the end of the course, it had taken me nearly twice as long as my usual time, and I was drained mentally and magically. Nevertheless, I knew my excited smile reached cheek to cheek, and I was proud to see the others staring at me with varying degrees of awe.

  Someone started clapping, and soon, everyone except the sergeant joined them. He merely looked at me, gave a very subtle smile, and nodded. I handed back the belt and joined the others to a series of back pats and congratulations.

  “That’s enough,” commanded the instructor. “We’ll be turning the gravity negators back on and resuming our normal activities.” With that, things went back to normal.

  More time passed, and soon the term was ending. We discussed whether Kolo and I would visit Valissa’s family again over the break. While the original need to stay safe was gone, we had gotten used to visiting and decided to continue it, even if it wasn’t strictly necessary.

  As usual, Yandar was stoic and merely gave us a sedate welcome, while Vaeli was exuberant and excited to see us all. I was glad for the rare opportunity to sleep as a dragon, making sure my door was locked each time and not worrying about the shared bathroom since only Kolo would be coming in that way.

  The break passed quickly, and summer term started. They explained to us that we would start going out on practice cruises with our new cadre around the system beginning in a few weeks. My group was assigned the first half of the third week, and I was looking forward to it. They told us that we would do this every term until we graduated, albeit with a new cadre each time, so we’d get plenty of opportunities.

  That term, none of us were in the same cadre, though I still had a class with Valissa as part of the leadership track. That said, I knew quite a few people in my cadre by that point, and most of them were friendly, even if we weren’t exactly friends.

  There was one woman in particular, an engineering-track gnome named Yulitarana Esvar, who frequently approached me. She was very noticeable with her neon-yellow hair, and over the next few weeks, we became sort of friends. She insisted I call her “Yuli.”

  “My full name is a mouthful,” she explained one day. “And that’s saying a lot for a gnome!”

  Indeed, gnomes had proportionately wider faces than most other elvenoids, albeit not by much. It still meant that when they smiled, it seemed to go on forever.

  One day after class on a Masday, I asked her what her plans were for Polday. She shrugged. “Studying and cultivating, mostly. I feel like I’m getting close to Tier 2.”

  I hesitated for only a moment before speaking. “Well, my friends and I are playing wallball in the afternoon, if you want to join us. We allow Telekinesis as both practice and a greater challenge. It’s usually pretty laid back and fun, though we can really get into it sometimes.”

  She gave me a contemplative look. “I’ll think about it, despite my obvious height disadvantage.”

  I laughed. “It’s probably not as much of a disadvantage as you might think. Kolo is a felid, and she’s the best player out of all of us. Granted, she had a lot of practice, but still. Besides, Telekinesis helps even the playing field and make it more interesting.”

  She nodded. “Like I said, I’ll think about it. Thanks for the invite.”

  “Of course. I’ll see you on Loreday, if not sooner. Have a good one.”

  “You too.”