It was snowing out, lightly snowing, but snowing nonetheless. Around me were buildings made from stone and wood, the doors inlaid with metal. Behind me was a clocktower over 100 feet high. In front of me was a stone castle, while being not as high as the clocktower it still soared high above every building.
Amber, the tour guide, started speaking, "Welcome to Hearth City, the home of Hearthflame, the fallen academy of the Nix Concilium Empire. Here, in this city is where you will spend most of your time. That castle over in the distance is the academy. All the stores here only serve one purpose, to sell the greatest goods to the fallen and their extended families.
Since no one but the fallen and those associated are even let in the city." I had to interrupt, "No one but the fallen and associates? So everyone I see here is at least related to the fallen?" Amber responded, "That is correct." I then posed a second question, "Can I know some fallen's names and authorities?"
Amber smiled knowingly, as if he predicted this question, "Sadly, that is one of the only things I can't tell you. Only really famous fallen have public names, and no fallen has a public authority." I looked at him puzzely, then stated a contradiction, "What about Leonard Caelum then?"
Amber stopped walking and I followed suit, he turned to face me with his hand on his harless chin, seemingly contemplating something when he let out a sigh, "He does SAY his authority is stasis doesn't he?" Then Amber turned around and continued walking as I followed suit, with an understanding look on my face.
Amber won't say it directly to my face, but he suspects Leonard Caelum's authority isn't stasis, and the whole him revealing his authority thing might be a ruse to trick other fallen into revealing their authorities.
Amber continued with his tour, "As I have said before, these shops and restaurants are for fallen and associates, which some you may meet soon. Although, we have cut this tour short because you actually have an orientation speech thingy with the headmaster in an hour, So i'm forced to give you just the major rundown."
He pointed to the collection of buildings around us, "These are shops, in particular, these are goods shops." He pointed behind me, "That's the clocktower, it rings every hour, one ring for each hour, in a cycle of 24 hours. He then pointed to the left of the castle,
"Over there and food shops and restaurants" He then pointed to the right of the castle, "And over there is the mercantile hub, typically used by fallen to sell stuff and is the location of financial institutions such as banks." He then pointed at the castle and bent his pointed finger a bit, "Behind the castle lies a massive area where events are hosted."
He took a deep sigh, "Alright now, follow me to the academy." I then followed silently, we didn't go far, the city wasn't that big, but it was powerful. Just looking at the items these shops were selling, they are either made by really professional craftsmen or the greatest con artists I've ever seen.
It wasn't long until we reached the main doors of the academy, when I felt I needed to ask Amber about a question nagging at my heart, "With all this treatment, what exactly do you even expect from me?" Amber looked stunned once again, he spoke,"I don't expect anything, venerable vanitas."
You might not, but I'm sure I'll find out what's really expected soon enough. We then walked through the doors, surprisingly with no sort of verification. We found ourselves in a tall and wide hallway with a pair of iron inlaid wooden doors standing in front of us, with two armed guards guarding the entrance.
As we approached they said, "Name?" I looked at Amber and his eyes encouraged me to answer, so I did, "Vanitas Valentine" I answered curtly, but only I was allowed in, Amber had to stay behind. After the doors closed behind me, I had a thought: If servants must stay behind in that hallway, why was there no other servants there, it was a one-way hallway, where did they all go? I hope nothing bad happens to Amber. Ehh, I'm probably overthinking it.
Through those double doors there was a hallway with a pair of identical doors on the other side. I was starting to get tired of these types of hallways, so I just ran to the other side and opened the door. I saw the same scene. It was at that moment, that I felt that something was wrong, very, very, wrong.
I ran to the door again 3 more times, and entered to the same scene. Until I had a thought. I turned around and opened to the door right behind me and was greeted by a 20-something year old man, grinning ear to ear atop a wooden podium with young men and women decking the halls, he looked down to me and spoke, "Welcome, Vanitas Valentine, to Hearthflame Academy! It seems like you enjoyed my prank, it only took 5 tries to figure it out! Others were, well let's say, not so lucky. Talk around, get to know your fellow fallen. Have fun."
He then looked away from my position and set his gaze back towards the giant wooden door. I followed his advice, and looked around. When viewing the people around me who were supposedly fallen I realized there was only 20 including me, so it probably isn't hard to learn some of their names, as I was having this thought, I heard a scared and squeamish voice behind me, "Please! Please, believe me!"
I was shocked, and was reasonably so, but I still choose to indulge him, "No. I'll believe you. No matter how crazy it sounds." He looked kind of relieved yet also annoyed and spoke zealously, "There's a wraith, specter or maybe banshee here! A soul has its blade on my neck! Please! You have to help me!"
I stared at him confused, his face was in a weird state, so I decided to talk to some other people.
I was met with a girl with red eyes and purple hair who called herself Anastasia, Ana for short. She apparently had no parents when she transmigrated, which saved her a lot of trauma honestly.
I told her my transmigration theory, she thought it as bullshit and said, "Even if you think that's what happened, you are wrong. Transmigration is not something can be understood by the human mind, or at all" I refuted that statement saying that everything can be understood, and how that's how humans better themselves.
She looked at me with a disapproving nod, almost as if saying, 'you've strayed from the wrong path child'. I didn't have the time or mental energy to argue against someone so pessimistic of human potential, so I walked off, to find a second person to talk to.