Sira stood beside me, while the professor was engulfing the wound of Chol by her spell and as time passed, Chol was back on his feet as if nothing had ever happened, but his shoulder left a scar, proof for his bravery.

  "Passengers, make sure to carry your luggage with yourself and don’t forget to maintain the boarding queue", no sooner did the announcer had announced than the train had arrived on the designated platform. All of us boarded the train and Ms. Cyra congratulated us on making our own way here until now.

  "Oh I forgot to give you the address of the academy.", she carried her business card even when she was on off campus, I thought about her background and where she came from to be among the few A tier awakened humans.

  "No worries Ms. Cyra, we will make our own way when we reach there.", even though I knew that we would get lost without her but I couldn’t she Ms. Cyra do us more favour anymore. We are heavily indebted to her for her gratitude towards us runaway lowly insects.

  "Anyways I will be heading to the academy itself, therefore we can keep our company till there.", she assured us as if she read my inner thoughts while I was thanking her right now.

  "As you offer ma'am.", shamelessly Chol presented while displaying his casket which still had some of the flowers from the riverside flowerbed earlier.

  "Anth ! look there is that infamous ‘ruined portal of hell’...", Chol surely was not in a state of sanity, as it were our first time being in a train and he was screaming like any infant who discovered his hands functionality.

  Fortunately, the train was boarded by few people, they too seemed like any student .

  "Ma'am, how long shall be the journey to Ether.", Sira questioned while she was glazing through the window. Sira sure acted mysterious plenty of time when we ran off from the orphanage.

  "Approximately 8 hours, I assume."

  "Thank you very much lovely lady for saving my dear life.", analyzing Chol's traits he again began flirting with Ms. Cyra, the professor of the most esteemed academy in our country.

  "What are your relations with Ms. Rin? You seem to know her."

  Chol had a depressing face after hearing those words, therefore I explained to her the whole scenario where Ms. Rin sheltered us from the nearby ground and how recently the fire had consumed the orphanage .

  "My dear god, that is why I was not able to meet up with my sister!", we also mentioned to her that Ms. Rin was in a vegetative state due to the sudden trauma and physical turmoil.

  "Yes ma'am, it was very tragic, for that sole reason we decided to set off our journey to Ether and help the needy so the others don’t lose their version of Ms. Rin……" appealed Chol, it was my first time observing him act with such high intellect maturity.

  “Losing your precious family members do haunt us till eternity”, I added when she seemed to feel down but all of a sudden I figured the wordplay that her sister was none other than Ms. Rin.

  "Sister you say????" ,all three of us yelled in unison when we finally assessed the intensity of words by Ms. Cyra and also how we didn’t catch the hint she was constantly throwing at us.

  "Yes, she is my sister, twin in fact. So I have been caught now", Ms. Cyra regained her usual self and began to comb Sira’s long silky hairs .

  "So why isn't she an awakener? and why didn’t she introduced you to us ?", I was showering her with answers when I should have been the listener instead .

  "She wanted to live a peaceful life, after all we are war orphans therefore, for that reason she established an orphanage to let the orphans like you have great company and never feel loneliness like us and yes ,also to serve the nation's upcoming talents."

  In the mean time we were served some beverage and Ms. Cyra handed us out the academy manual for understanding basic knowledge about the academy, moreover it had a variety of knowledge on the infrastructure, teachers, assessment procedure, labs and top tier students of the academy. Ms. Cyra was a proactive professor and she was enjoying her holidays until now. All she waited for was the beginning of the fresh academic batch of the 52nd generation of this holy land.

  “I question myself sometimes whether I believe in god or not, since the universe appears to be perfectly aligned with different fields, I assume there must a creator but our reason to prove his existence acts as failure”, I questioned this to Ms. Cyra and I was shook to my heart to hear her reply.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Anth, you are absolute correct and we do have a fair explanation but its classified”, suddenly Ms. Cyra leaned towards me and whispered in my ear, although the voice was not clear but I understood it a little bit and pledged to take it with my life.

  "We have arrived at Ether, kindly exit the gate with safety and with your own luggage.", a shrill but attentive voice was announced through a device known as speaker, we are known to most of the technology but leaving near the country side had put us in a technological degradation.

  As soon as I set my foot outside the train station, a pleasant feeling of freedom invoked inside me. Sira was left in care with the luggage while ,I and Chol were roaming around to feel the land which was out of reach for us earlier..

  "Kid, do you know why our capital city is called Ether?", come to think of it the answer must be because of the presence of ether in abundance in our surroundings probably ,I thought.

  "Because of ether source in the atmosphere?" I tried answering.

  "No, it's because of the fact that the mighty hero of this country, ‘The Knight of Lumen’ won over the darkness with the divine forces and holy army ,he always wielded a sword which had a blade fully made of UN LUMEN ,it was so divine that it was visible as a blue coloured translucent blade therefore, named this land after his sword ‘Ether’."

  "The sword?", Chol asked in enthusiasm.

  "Yes, it is powered by the internal UN LUMEN of the user. But remember, the sword is a picky entity.", teasing us Ms. Cyra uttered.

  "How so?" we three asked in chorus.

  “Till now only 3 wielders of this sword had roamed the earth and protected us generations after generations when darkness prevailed more than divinity on the planet EARTH. Furthermore, frequent attacks from the darkness follower countries on us costed us to lose the last wielder of the sword and the sword is kept in the academy for future instances ", upon hearing those words I jumped onto a nearby fountain in both extreme joy and undefined fear of the dark nations whatsoever, for no reason but pure instinct.

  Meanwhile, Chol had gone to book a cab for us four whereas, Ms. Cyra offered us a shelter………it was her own house, she informed in advance to us that she lived alone and it was her own trustworthy property ,maybe she caught up to the fact that we were giving her cold stares.

  The group was split for the time being to do our own deeds for instance, I was supposed to bring us snacks and carry the luggage while Chol booked us a Cab to our abode for now . Whereas, Ms. Cyra and Sira were gossiping on some random content also hearing them was no joke and dangerous too, to settle I remembered that Ms. Rin mentioned to me that young maidens do have endless conversation. The cab had arrived in the meantime and we boarded it. The cab driver happened to recognise Ms. Cyra therefore, he didn't charge us a penny, she insisted on giving him money.

  “Dear Cyra ,you are one of the heavenly awakeners of our holy land, charging you is a sin for us and its our grace to serve you for your duty”, the driver seemed to be heavily indebted to Ms. Cyra ,in the end she handed him the money and told him to give her a ride for free.

  “Ms. Cyra ,you really are a celebrity here!”, Chol spoke in utter shock while Sira had already transferred our luggage.

  We made ourselves to our new home and for payment of her gratitude, we three decided to split up the household chores to support Ms. Cyra lead a less hectic life till we accompany her. The admission procedure was to be organised within 2 weeks from today so, we had concluded the meeting and proceeded to spend most of the time to explore the city.

  After couple of days, I understood the societal position of Ms. Cyra, she was counted as one of the holy nobles among the elites of our country "Dawn". Therefore, the people high in power are often greeted as the ‘Protector of the Dawn’.

  "Chol, bring me the grocery items from this shop nearby according to the list", it was obvious that Sira had grown closer to us , Chol to be specific. Chol was exhausted earlier in his solitude and now he has earned himself a partner.

  “Kids! Here are your treats for today.”

  “Sira, could you bring the plates from the top shelf?”, Ms. Cyra pleaded Sira

  “Sure, miss.”, Sira ran to the kitchen compartment and brought the plates with a genuine smile on her face.

  “Now get yourself prepared for the admission test from now onwards.”

  “What is there to be prepared of?”, overconfidently Chol had answered Ms. Cyra.

  “Chol, my dear, as a fellow educator I can’t disclose the details—but….since my sister trusted you all therefore, I will help you a little, like the basics.”

  “Ms. Rin informed you about us?” I asked while being perplexed, only to find that she was there at Hana to assist us till here ,where we lived for the past 1 week.

  “Yes! But when I reached there, you three were not present.”

  She taunted us, but also served us delicious dumplings which were very tender.

  “First things first, after entering a dungeon, you will need to harvest the awakening stone.”

  “Dungeon? Awakening stone?”, Chol was confused and so was I, Ms. Cyra calmed us down by mentioning that guides would be present at every moment of the test.

  “They will explain there on the assessment grounds, so don’t panic, now get back to your eating and remember to brush before sleeping else I will not give you all treats again.”

  It was midnight time and I was feeling insomniac, therefore, I climbed the nearby banyan tree and looked at the night sky which was all sparkles and there I noticed the Elemental Stars too it seemed as if it were real, and then proceeded to be slept on the windy leaf bed of the higher branch.

  Rest of the remaining days passed away like the money in our savings and the day of the academy admission test arrived in a flash.

  In the last few days, I focused mostly on my physical attributes and meditative states. But now we were finally heading towards the gates of the academy. It would determine if we were meant to die trying or rather be victorious and claim the academy seat tickets……