Night stepped onto the platform. Soul reading, huh? He looked around. Well, there's a first time for everything.

  The shadow of the statue cast him into dim light. The outstretched wings seemed to take up the most room out of all the statues. Night didn't know if the sculptors had deliberately made the owl-shaped thing intimidating or not, but it certainly was.

  "You'd think they'd make sure the dumb bird fits in the room, right?"

  Turning around, Night saw an old lady sitting behind a wooden booth.

  She looked like she wasn't having a great day.

  Her green glasses were pushed to the tip of her long-ish nose, exactly the way Night didn't like them. She didn't look like a very old person, yet, but the lines and creases of fatigue were beginning to show on her face.

  "Um, yeah." Night looked around. Now that he thought about it, the whole place looked pretty... Shabby. "Is this the normal place for this or-"

  "The usual building is undergoing renovations." She said, in a monotone voice. "Now, are these right?"

  After waving her hands about in a strange pattern, a series of words and runes appeared in front of her.

  I guess they do all their paperwork using magic around here. Or at least, intended to. "Uhm, I think..."

  Swivelling her chair, she stopped. "Well, that's just dumb, isn't it? We just bought a new mana-machine to power this damn thing and it acts up first time?" Muttering in frustration, she pulled out a slip of paper. "Name?"

  "Night," he said. "Notale."

  The lady paused. "Notale? Never heard that name around here. Age?"

  "Fifteen."

  "Magic type?" She actually looked up for this one.

  "...Not a clue. But they said they would check, well, later."

  She sighed. "Candidates these days..." Making a few big motions with her pen, presumably striking things out, she slapped the paper down on the desk beside her. "I'll get these to the main office 'later'. Now, you were watching the other kids doing their readings, right?" She gave him a sideways look.

  Night coughed. "Yeah-"

  "Good. Now, just do what all of those kids did and it'll be fine." She stopped for a moment. "Unless you're evil." She shook her head. "Ah, whatever."

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Copying the others, Night bowed his head and looked down. Soul reading? How the hell can I get through this test? I'm no 'pure of heart' guy that the heroes want. Night blinked. If it can see my past, I'm screwed...

  

  The statue sat, alone.

  What time was it? When was it able to return to the dazzling entrance halls it once knew?

  Even as a sentient statue, it had forgotten.

  Sighing internally-

  Wait, how does one sigh internally?

  If the statue could shake it's head, it would have. Right now, it was simply... Tired. Reading candidate after candidate, telling the human opposite it which button to press, it was a energy-intensive process. After a while, everyone's soul looked the same. Some looked bigger, some smaller, a few were strange colours. But other than these small variations there was little difference.

  The statue set its glinting eyes upon the next candidate. On the outside, this one looked different, no doubt. No fancy clothing, no clan or family emblem. It would have called this human a vagabond, if an infamous magician had not already taken that name.

  Bored, it began concentrating it's energy on the human. It bowed it's head like the others. Yes or no?

  Like so many times before, the statue saw it's vision blur, before...

  ...

  What?

  The owl looked around. Inside the soul, it had an incorporeal form. It was about to move, but it felt... Strange.

  This soul was entirely dark. Around it, black winds swirled, howling around it.

  Confused, it tried to fly higher. Normally, the actual contents of a soul only took up half the space in it. Maybe... Maybe this person just likes the colour black?

  Soon enough, it had flown as high as it could go. Still, inky darkness pervaded the entire place.

  What in Divinus's name?

  The usual areas - Happiness, sadness, anger - They were all gone. There wasn't anything there.

  Disturbed, it tried to look for the largest one. Love. Every human had a spark of it, somewhere. Usually at the heart of their soul.

  Descending, the owl-shaped apparition quickly made its way to the centre. Surely, there had to be something-

  Oh, Gods.

  Sure enough, it had found something. At the core of the soul, a massive, broken crystal-like... Thing hovered in place. From the cracks, black mist and fog and smoke flew, spreading to every corner of the soul, supressing, and sometimes, destroying the other emotions.

  The statue knew what this was. The inverted version of love. Hatred.

  But this? This was so... Massive. It wasn't supposed to be this big. Was it really just hatred? Fury? Rage?

  There wasn't a strong enough word to describe it.

  Immediately, the owl started to exit the soulspace, casting magic faster than it had for a long, long time.

  Before it left, it took one last look at the soul.

  And it trembled.

  This human MUST NOT get into Valour!

  

  Night waited.

  Nothing was happening. None of the gems on the statue glimmered. No movement. No change.

  After a minute or two, Night slowly began to turn around. "Is this..."

  "Hold on." The old lady grumbled, taking a chunk out of a sandwich she appeared to have produced from nowhere. "Sometimes they take a while."

  Nodding, Night held his patience.

  And another minute passed.

  And another.

  Just before another could pass, the old lady, wiping her hands on a napkin, tossed a clipboard down. "Alright, maybe this one's broken."

  "Broken?" Night looked around. The other people behind him didn't seem too pleased with the big holdup. "Is that even possible?"

  "Yeah, happened once before. Pretty damn rare, but I guess you're a luck sod." Tapping a few buttons on her desk, the words in front of Night changed.

  He looked the statue up and down. "So I don't have to, like, do it again?"

  The lady rolled her eyes. "Uhm, there's a big line of people waiting behind you?" She sighed. "Alright, it was nice meetin' you, and all that." Pulling a sort of lever, she gave Night a half-hearted wave. "Bye bye!"

  "Hold on!" Night quickly raised a hand as the ring below him began to glow a bright yellow. "Can you find out what magic type I am?"

  "I have no idea, kiddo!" She said. With the press of one more button, Night was gone in a flash.

  Note: I'm sorting out details and errors in previous chapters before writing new ones, so it might take a while.

  1.1: Chapters will be delayed - Christmas holidays!

  1.2: We're back in business!

  1.3: No updates for now, mock exams ongoing :d

  1.4: Okay, we're good now!