Moonlit Vows Of Vengeance-Chapter 57: After The Attack

We didn’t speak much after the attack.

The recruiters moved like a single body—efficient, quiet, and always aware. I followed them through a shifting landscape that refused to make sense. Trees with glass bark. Stones that floated. A sky that changed colour when you blinked too long.

I kept my distance. I wasn’t part of their world, not really. Eventually, the path smoothed. We passed between two towering statues shaped like wolves made of starlight and obsidian. The forest gave way to something grander.

A valley stretched out below us, green, vast, and humming with power. In its centre stood a structure I couldn’t quite process at first.

It was part fortress, part cathedral, part natural phenomenon. Towers of metal and moonstone spiralled toward the sky, connected by thin glowing bridges. Gardens floated mid-air. Water ran uphill. Banners flapped, but there was no wind.

The school.

It was not a building, but a domain.

"Welcome to Thenscvhal," Thalen said beside me. "Where potential becomes power or gets broken trying."

I swallowed a little hard.

Figures walked the grounds....I believe they were students? Some looked human. Others shimmered with magic that coiled off them like steam. A girl with feathers for hair. A boy with skin-like bark. A group of robed figures whose faces flickered between light and dark.

And me.

"I don’t belong here," I said immediately.

Thalen turned to me, his expression unreadable. "Neither do most of them. That’s why they were chosen."

I didn’t reply. My gaze was locked on a high platform where someone stood watching us from a distance—tall, cloaked, regal. I felt their power like a weight across my shoulders.

I wasn’t sure if I was being welcomed or being watched.

But I kept walking.

Because whatever this place was, whatever tests they had waiting for me.... freeweɓnovel.cѳm

It had to be better than being chained in a bone cage.

For now.

The inside of Thenscvhal was warmer, but not exactly welcoming. The walls glowed faintly with runes I couldn’t read, and the scent of old magic hung in the air like smoke.

Dozens of others waited in the atrium — most my age or younger. Some dressed in silks, others in rough travel gear. There were more recruits.

They all turned to look at me.

Some recoiled.

"She reeks of something," someone whispered.

Thalen stepped ahead of me and gestured to a wide platform where the others had already lined up. "The measurement begins."

A man in gold-trimmed robes emerged with a metal, a tall wand-like rod with crystal prongs that shimmered in rhythm. It pulsed as he passed it over to each recruit.

"Standard threshold. Seven-point-two," he muttered.

"Eight-point-three. Impressive."

"Six even. Nothing unstable."

He reached the girl beside me, a pale sorceress with green veins glowing beneath her skin. "Nine. High affinity."

Then he turned to me.

Paused and scowled.

"Is she tagged?"

"No," Thalen replied.

"She should be."

He didn’t wait. Just raised the device to my chest.

And the crystal screamed.

The device pulsed red. Then purple. Then black. It cracked. The glow flickered wildly and then, with a sound like a splintering bone, the meter exploded in his hands, sending shards of crystal spinning through the air.

Gasps rang out.

The others backed away.

Magic surged in the air around me. It was wild, hungry, loud.

The man stared at his scorched gloves. "That shouldn’t be possible."

The silence left by the shattered meter clung to the air like smoke.

No one spoke. The other recruits stood still, wide-eyed. The mage who’d held the now-ruined device nursed his hand, muttering in disbelief.

I stood in the middle of it, heart thudding, magic still pulsing faintly beneath my skin like it had been woken up and didn’t quite know how to sleep again.

Then—

"Well, that escalated quickly," came a familiar voice.

Valeen looked at the smoking remains of the testing rod and raised an eyebrow.

"Did she do that?" she asked.

"Of course she did," Kael said, trailing behind her. His silver-blond hair was wind-tossed, and his expression unreadable. "You drop an untethered anomaly into a resonance chamber and act surprised when it breaks."

The mage straightened, still pale. "She overloaded the reading. No amplification stone ever triggered like that."

Valeen smirked. "That’s because she’s very different."

I narrowed my eyes. "But why can’t I seem to use these powers as I wish to... This doesn’t explain anything."

"In due time, you’ll know all that is to be known," Kael said, cocking his head. "This is very interesting."

"Enough gawking," Valeen cut in. "Where’s Headmaster Sorein? How isn’t he here yet?"

Kael shrugged. "He’s currently not around. No one knows where he went to. But I’m sure he would be back soon."

Valeen cursed softly under her breath. "Okay. We shall wait for his return to do anything else again."

Then she turned to a younger person dressed in black and gold — probably a student aide of some kind.

"You," she snapped. "Take her to one of the good rooms. Don’t put her in the general dorms. When Sorein returns, she’ll be assigned properly."

The aide nodded quickly, avoiding my gaze...

Valeen turned back to me. "It will only be a matter of time."

"I’m looking forward to it," I said flatly.

Kael grinned. "Of course."

Valeen gave him a sideways glance. "Okay, okay, that’s enough talk."

They were already turning away when Valeen added over her shoulder, "Rest while you can, wolf-girl. You’ll need it."

The aide didn’t say a word the entire walk through the halls of the academy.

I didn’t press for conversation. My nerves were still crackling from the explosion — from the lingering stares, and from the way Kael had looked at me like I wasn’t quite real.

I’d seen my share of strange architecture since falling through the portal, but this place was different. The school was carved into the bones of something sturdy. It wasn’t rock, but old Godstone.

Walls shimmered with veins of silver.