Chapter 14
The day before the Maze, Professor Veyra dedicated her entire lecture to what came after.
"For those who survive tomorrow," she began, her sharp eyes sweeping across the nervous first-years, "you will have exactly seven days to prepare for the Ember Veil. Seven days to build endurance, strengthen your will, and decide if you have what it takes to walk through fire."
She gestured, and the illusion above her desk shifted—the familiar phoenix wreathed in flames, diving through walls of heat that would reduce a normal person to ash.
"The Ember Veil simulates phoenix trials specifically. Not because all of you will bond with phoenixes—most won't—but because phoenix trials test something universal: the ability to endure pain for a purpose. To walk toward something that hurts because your will demands it."
A boy raised his hand. "What if we're not trying to bond with a phoenix? What if we want a griffin or basilisk?"
"Then the Ember Veil teaches you that physical trials exist in all bonding experiences.
Griffins test courage, which often involves physical danger.
Basilisks test endurance, which means pain sustained over time.
Even if your goal isn't a phoenix, learning to push through physical barriers will serve you.
" Professor Veyra's voice hardened. "Besides, you don't choose your creature.
It chooses you. Better to be prepared for any trial than assume you know what's coming. "
The lecture continued with detailed analysis of heat endurance, pain management techniques, and the psychology of pushing past physical limits. I took notes mechanically, but my mind was already on tomorrow.
The Maze first. Survive that, then worry about fire.
After class, Brooke grabbed my arm. "Come on. Caleb's running a special training session in the restricted yard. He got permission from Master Wren to use the advanced equipment."
"Brooke, the Maze is tomorrow. I should rest—"
"You've been resting for two days. Your body is as ready as it's going to be. Now you need to remember you're not doing this alone." Her grip tightened. "Please. Just for an hour."
I let her drag me to the restricted training yard—a section of the grounds normally reserved for second-years and above. About a dozen first-years had gathered, along with Caleb, Torin, and a few other upperclassmen I didn't recognize.
"There she is!" Caleb called out when he spotted us. "The girl who's been keeping half the first-years sane. Get over here."
I approached warily. "What is this?"
"Study group. But for physical training instead of Mental Defense.
" Caleb gestured to the assembled students.
"Tomorrow, you all face the Maze. Next week, the Ember Veil.
Most of you are terrified. All of you are underprepared.
So we're going to spend the next hour teaching you techniques that might keep you alive. "
Torin stepped forward, his expression serious. "The Maze is mental, but your body will react to the illusions. Your heart will race. Your muscles will tense. You might hyperventilate or freeze up. These are physical responses that can break your concentration."
"So we're going to teach you breathing exercises," Caleb continued. "Grounding techniques. Ways to manage physical panic while maintaining mental clarity."
For the next hour, they ran us through drills I'd never seen in Master Wren's classes. Controlled breathing while running. Maintaining focus while experiencing physical discomfort. Techniques for staying present when your body was screaming at you to flee.
It was brutal in a completely different way than normal training.
"Your turn, Serenya," Caleb called.
I stepped forward, and he handed me a weighted vest. "Put this on."
I did, nearly buckling under the added weight.
"Now run a lap. While you run, I'm going to describe a scenario, and you're going to maintain your breathing pattern no matter what I say. Got it?"
I nodded and started running.
"You're in the Maze," Caleb's voice followed me. "The walls are closing in. You can feel them pressing against your shoulders, crushing the air from your lungs. Your chest is getting tighter. You can't breathe. The weight is suffocating you."
My breath hitched. The weighted vest suddenly felt like iron bands around my ribs.
"Breathe," Torin's voice cut in. "Four counts in. Hold for four. Four counts out. Your body is lying to you. The weight is real, but the walls aren't. Focus on what's real."
I forced my breathing to steady. Four in. Hold. Four out.
"The floor is dropping away," Caleb continued, merciless. "You're falling. There's nothing beneath you. You're going to die—"
"Real," I gasped out. "Ground is real. Feet are real. Gravity is constant."
"Good!" Caleb jogged beside me. "Keep going. The Maze will do worse than this. It will convince you you're dying, drowning, burning alive. Your body will believe it. Your job is to remember what's real."
By the end of the lap, I was shaking and drenched in sweat. But I'd maintained my breathing pattern.
"Again," Caleb said.
We ran three more laps, each with increasingly disturbing scenarios. By the end, I was beyond exhausted, but I'd learned something valuable: physical sensations could be managed even when your mind was being assaulted.
"That's what you need tomorrow," Torin said as I collapsed onto a bench, gasping.
"The Maze will make you feel things that aren't happening.
But if you can control your physical response—your breathing, your heart rate, your muscle tension—you can maintain clarity long enough to break the illusion. "
"Why are you helping us?" I asked between breaths. "You don't owe us anything."
Caleb and Torin exchanged glances.
"Because we almost didn't make it through our own Maze trials," Caleb admitted. "And nobody warned us about the physical component. We want you to have a better chance than we did."
"Also," Torin added quietly, "you've been helping other first-years prepare mentally. This is us returning the favor."
After the session ended and most students had left, Caleb lingered.
"How are you doing?" he asked. "Really."
"Terrified. Exhausted. Ready to get tomorrow over with." I met his eyes. "Your brother hasn't spoken to me in over a week."
"I know. He's..." Caleb sighed. "He's getting worse. The shadows are almost completely out of control now. He's spending every waking moment fighting them. Terrance said yesterday Kairen collapsed during training—just passed out from exhaustion."
Despite everything, concern flared in my chest. "Is he okay?"
"Physically? The healers cleared him. Mentally?" Caleb shook his head. "I don't know. He won't talk to anyone. Just keeps pushing himself harder, like if he's brutal enough with his own training, he can force the shadows back in line."
"That's not how it works."
"You know that. I know that. But Kairen's too stubborn to accept it.
" Caleb's voice dropped. "Serenya, I know you're done trying.
I know he doesn't deserve another chance.
But if you survive the Maze, if you make it through the Ember Veil...
maybe consider talking to him again. Before the Wilderness.
Because I'm genuinely afraid he won't make it that long. "
"Why would he listen to me? He's made it clear I don't matter."
"Because his shadows disagree. And lately, they're winning." Caleb stood. "Just think about it. After you survive tomorrow. After you prove to yourself and everyone else that you belong here."
He left, and I sat alone in the restricted training yard as evening fell.
Tomorrow, I'd face the Maze. Seven days after that, the Ember Veil. And beyond that, the Wilderness where everything would be decided.
Kairen Draxen and his shadows weren't my responsibility. I'd tried to help, and he'd rejected me. Brutally.
But I couldn't stop thinking about Caleb's words: I'm genuinely afraid he won't make it that long.
That night, I packed the small bag we were allowed to bring to the Maze—water, a single meal bar, nothing else.
The Maze trial started at dawn and could last anywhere from one hour to eight.
Most students finished in three to four hours, but those with particularly stubborn fears sometimes took longer.
Brooke was pacing our room, full of nervous energy.
"I can't sleep," she announced. "Every time I close my eyes, I see the Maze. What if I fail? What if I'm one of the thirty percent who doesn't make it through?"
"You'll make it through."
"How do you know?"
"Because you're too stubborn to fail. Just like me." I sat on my bed. "What's your worst fear?"
"Failing my brothers. Letting them down. Coming home without a bond and seeing disappointment in their eyes." She stopped pacing. "What's yours?"
I thought about it. Really thought about it.
"Being exactly what everyone thinks I am," I said finally. "Too weak. Too sick. Too broken to matter. Dying without ever proving I was worth the effort it took to keep me alive."
"That's dark."
"That's honest." I lay back on my bed. "The Maze will show us those fears. Make us believe them. All we can do is remember they're not the whole truth."
"Are you scared?"
"Terrified."
"Good." Brooke finally sat on her own bed. "I'd be worried if you weren't."
We lay in the darkness, neither of us sleeping, both lost in thoughts about what tomorrow would bring.
At some point past midnight, I felt it—that familiar cold presence at the edge of my awareness.
The shadows had come one last time.
They didn't touch me. Just pooled at the foot of my bed, dark and restless and somehow... apologetic.
Through them, I felt Kairen. Not his usual carefully controlled emotions, but something raw and desperate. He knew about the Maze tomorrow. Knew I'd be facing it. And some part of him—the part he kept buried under ice and control—was terrified.
Not for himself. For me.
The shadows pulsed once, twice, then retreated.
And I understood the message: Don't die. Please don't die.
It wasn't the declaration I'd wanted. Wasn't the conversation we needed to have. But it was something. A crack in the walls he'd built so high.
Proof that beneath all the cold and rejection, some part of Kairen Draxen still cared.
Whether that would be enough to change anything, I didn't know.
But it was enough to help me sleep.
Dawn came too quickly.
Brooke and I dressed in silence, gathered our small bags, and joined the stream of first-years heading toward the underground chamber where the Maze trial would take place.
The corridor was packed with nervous students, some praying quietly, others holding hands, a few looking like they might be sick. I spotted Petra ahead, her face pale but determined. Several students I'd helped prepare for Mental Defense nodded at me as I passed.
We gathered in the antechamber—a massive stone room lit by floating orbs of cold white light.
Professors lined the walls, watching with expressions ranging from encouragement to clinical assessment.
Master Wren was there, arms crossed. Professor Kaelith stood near the entrance to the Maze proper, her pale eyes tracking each student.
Professor Veyra watched from a raised platform, her face unreadable.
And in the far corner, partially hidden in shadow, stood Kairen.
He looked worse than I'd ever seen him. Dark circles carved beneath eyes that held too much void. His shadows writhed constantly around his feet, barely contained. His hands were clenched at his sides, and even from across the room, I could see them shaking.
Our eyes met for one brief moment.
His expression was ice. But his shadows reached across the floor toward me before he forcibly yanked them back, the effort making him visibly flinch.
Then Headmistress Thorne stepped forward, and everyone's attention snapped to her.
"First-years," she announced, her voice magically amplified. "Today you face the Maze. Some of you will succeed. Many will fail. All of you will learn something about yourselves."
She gestured to the dark doorway behind her.
"You will enter one at a time, alphabetically by surname.
You will have eight hours to reach the center and claim your marker.
If you wish to withdraw, say the word 'mercy' three times and you will be removed immediately.
If you collapse or suffer severe psychological trauma, we will intervene. "
Her eyes swept across us. "This is your last chance to withdraw without penalty. Anyone who wishes to leave may do so now."
No one moved.
"Very well. When your name is called, enter the Maze. May you find the strength to face what waits within."
She began calling names.
Students disappeared into the darkness one by one. Some walked in confidently. Others had to be gently pushed. A few were crying before they even entered.
The names crawled forward alphabetically. Past the As and Bs and Cs. Through the Ds and Es and Fs.
Closer and closer to V.
"Serenya Vale."
My name echoed through the chamber.
I stood on legs that trembled. Clutched my small bag. Took one last look around the room.
Brooke squeezed my hand. "You've got this."
Petra gave me a shaky smile. "Remember what you taught us."
And Kairen—Kairen was staring at me with an expression that wasn't quite ice anymore. Something desperate and terrified lurked beneath the cold.
His shadows strained toward me one last time before he forced them back.
Don't die, they seemed to say. Please don't die.
I turned and walked into the Maze.
The darkness swallowed me whole.