In the bleak and clouded October morning, our class B gathered on the road cutting across the green fields behind the school facilities. The students' ranks tried to wear brave faces, but the nervous tension in the air was palpable.

  The day of our very first forest excursion had come. Our trial by fire, or not. The more you knew about the destination, the less you wanted to go there. But surely there was no fool among us who had chosen to enroll in Belmesion, of all the academies in the world, without knowing what to expect.

  Power and knowledge couldn't be acquired without risks.

  Meanwhile, the school’s chief arborist, Professor Fawkes, was all smiles as he faced us.

  “Good morning, class B! The big day is finally here! The day you’ve all been restlessly waiting for—and me too! I so wish I could go back in time and experience stepping into the Wood's embrace for the first time again. You don’t know how lucky you are!”

  Only Rupert Meldow seemed to actually consider himself fortunate, his eyes excitedly shining behind his thick goggles. A few others made an effort to trust in the Professor's word on it, but the majority gave up trying to understand.

  It was just a forest. What could be so great about it?

  “As discussed before during the lecture,” the professor spoke, “the Wood lies divided into zones we call Domains. Each Domain expands around a singular host tree, which serves as a sort of magical pillar to support the artificial environment. This mechanism opens up some interesting possibilities for us humans too! You see, the Domain we’re about to enter is sustained by an Elder Tree we’ve named as ‘Grand Maple.’ The Grand Maple is actually not an ordinary tree of the Wood, but one we humans planted and have nurtured since the early days of Belmesion! It’s quite about four hundred years old today! Through generations of meticulous work on this particular tree, we’ve managed to establish a territory within the Wood that doesn’t consider humans as an outside menace! Hence, it’s quite safe for us to be there.”

  The tension eased considerably.

  Why didn’t he tell us that before in class but kept us in suspense for a whole week? Professor Fawkes was pretty mean-spirited. Come to think of it, the A-classes of every department had been through this same trip last week and nothing bad happened to them either.

  “Well, there’s no such thing as ‘perfectly safe’ when it comes to the Wood,” Professor Fawkes continued, wiping the smiles off the students’ mugs. “This Domain, labeled as Greenfall Dale, may be largely indifferent to human presence, but that doesn’t mean it will tolerate just about anything. The trees there are still relatively young and can only summon weaker hellions, but nothing prevents monsters from other regions from wandering in. Hellions are generally reluctant to leave their native Domain without a good reason, but what counts as a ‘good reason’ for them is often less easy for us ordinary mortals to tell. We carry out regular patrols in the area and have set up safety wards here and there, but do keep your wits about you. Anything can happen! That said…”

  The professor gestured at the robust figure of a man standing next to him, arms crossed.

  “Instructor Howard will be accompanying us today, alongside the capable class B of the second year Sword course!”

  “Glad to be here,” said Instructor Howard, looking anything but glad. He’d had to guard class A’s survey last week, and who knew how many other student trips over the years, and I got the impression it wasn’t his favorite event.

  Behind the former mercenary stood a group of stone-faced apprentice fencers in two evenly spaced rows of ten. Most of them were strangers to me, except the fellow prefect Tom Harding, who discreetly winked at me when our eyes met.

  “However!” Professor Fawkes raised his voice. “Our heroes are there only to keep an eye on the forest, in case of an emergency, and will otherwise maintain a generous distance with you. It wouldn’t be much of a learning experience for you guys, if your elders took you by hand all the whole way out there and back again. Oh no! You are to navigate and solve any minor problems that come up primarily on your own. Apply the knowledge and skills you’ve gained thus far!”

  Seeing the deflated expressions around, class B didn’t have too many aspiring adventurers or war mages. Only walking the distance was challenge enough for most of them, surviving any natural hazards that might pop up along the way was asking too much.

  Ignoring the sour faces, Professor Fawkes turned towards the treeline and pointed at an unseen destination in its evergreen confines.

  “We’ll keep today’s introductory tour very simple! Your goal is to reach the host tree, the Grand Maple itself, standing at the heart of the Domain, roughly four miles in. The trail there is clearly marked, and we’ll give you a map, as well as a compass. Don’t leave the trail. For your own safety’s sake. The trees like to move about! We have ways to block out stable routes, but if you decide to get adventurous…Well, it may not be so easy to find you again.”

  The class shook and shuddered at his ominous tone. Quick to smile again, the professor resumed,

  “Before we take a step in any which way, let’s go over the three golden rules of surviving in the Wood, one more time. There, Ms Canth. Please say one!”

  “Eh? Huh? Me? Umm, n-no fire?”

  “No fire! Yes! That’s one. Then, Mr Raynold, please give us another one.”

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  “No loud noise.”

  “No loud noise!” the Professor yelled, very loudly. “Yes. And third, how about Ms Dillon?”

  “Uh, don’t cut the trees?”

  “Why do you intone that like a question? That should be a given! Do not cut a living tree! No fire, no screaming, no destruction! There, you’re golden.”

  The professor leaned closer towards us and brought his voice down, an eerie glint behind his glasses, and said,

  “The whole day’s lesson is just this: respect the Wood! As long as you keep a humble attitude and mind your manners, no harm shall befall you out there. But mess with the wild, and it will show you no mercy.”

  He held us with his intense stare for a silent, heavy moment, then withdrew and slapped his palms lightly together.

  “Okay! Going in as one big, noisy mass would be liable to draw the monstrous kind of attention, so we’ll have to pace ourselves accordingly. I’d like you to form pairs and line up here along the road. We’ll enter the Wood one pair at a time, in five minute intervals. Passing others is fine, if you walk faster, but avoid forming larger groups. A simple precaution, that’s all. Okay. Pair up! Pick somebody you know and trust!”

  My classmates had no trouble quickly tagging a friend. In a few popular cases, the couplings took some negotiating, but we were all mature, sophisticated students of magic, not kindergarteners anymore. The aristocrats in particular knew how to be tactful and not tear each other’s hair out.

  Alas, I had no friends in this class. I watched the students flow past me at a respectful distance. Nobody approached me and carefully avoided looking my way at all.

  As expected. I never spoke to anybody, never participated in quizzes, and got friction with every professor. The story about me dueling Silla had spread like wildfire too, of course. Despite her insistence that nothing unusual occurred in the match, she was a pretty bad liar, and people could smell that the incident had an unpleasant side to it. It was commonly agreed that I had to have fought dirty.

  Which was true, I guess.

  I couldn’t have fought much dirtier if I tried.

  Mages were beings of both logic and instinct. And my classmates’ fledgling senses were telling them I was bad news and better avoided. How could I blame them? You could leave a war, but the war would never leave you. And I was war itself.

  Whatever. I just had to pick whoever else got left over.

  I’d imagined the headmaster’s granddaughter would make a good pair, as another unsociable odd duck, but she was unexpectedly absent today. Did she catch a cold over the weekend, or did the forest scare her that much? Maybe the overprotective headmaster forbade her from participating? That threw a wrench in my plans…

  “Hm?”

  As the crowd thinned, I caught sight of another unexpected recluse. It was Alice Silla. How wretched she looked, face downcast, while those around her were snatched away by others, one by one. She made no move to approach anyone of her initiative, and no one had the courage call out to her either.

  That was weird. I’d assumed the best novice in the class would’ve been anyone’s top partner on a trip into a monster forest, but it seemed my opinion wasn't shared.

  Talent, when taken too far, could become an isolating element, I suppose. Add to that her sharp, domineering personality, and general lack of hobbies, and you had a girl all-around difficulty to approach. Right, she was a noble too. Too many things could go wrong when associating with her to make it worth it for most.

  Well, she wasn’t altogether unwanted.

  Her beauty could make the other issues seem unimportant. One of the less popular boys in the class, a thick fellow of likewise aristocratic roots, was aiming cautiously optimistic looks Silla’s way, though he hadn’t the courage to make a move yet. She was clearly out of his league too.

  “Tch…”

  I’d meant to avoid any further contact, but something about the arrangement chafed me immensely. I strode over to Silla and said,

  “Hey. Pair up with me.”

  The girl spun around to me, startled. “What?”

  “Were you waiting for someone else?”

  “No, but…”

  “Then you’re with me. Come on.”

  I turned to head over to the end of the forming line. After slight hesitation, Silla followed furtively along.

  “...I thought I wasn’t supposed to notice you,” she mumbled.

  “Ignoring each other in a situation like this is more unnatural than anything.”

  Maybe working together on a class assignment would end the silly rumor about a blood feud between our houses. The less my name came up in day-to-day gossip, the better.

  Yes. It was a purely rational decision, not by any means an emotional one.

  In a moment, the queue of pairs was completed. With an even number of students, nobody was left out, and Professor Fawkes nodded approvingly. He handed each pair a map of the forest trail, while Instructor Howard followed along with a box full of old brass-shelled compasses.

  The red needle under the glass didn’t point northward, but at the destination marked on the map with a red dot. The items were paired. By clicking the button on the side of the compass, the needle switched to point back at the school, and the dot on the paper shifted as well. Getting lost seemed difficult with tools like that.

  “Should you run into any trouble,” Instructor Howard explained and held up his compass for everyone to see, “open the glass with this switch here, and press the big red button in the middle. That will send us an alarm, together with your position on the map, and we’ll come to your rescue as soon as we can. If you hold down the button and speak to the compass, your voice will carry to our receivers. Avoid casting disruptive spells that make a lot of noise and mayhem, even if only to indicate where you are. Only use the compass! Loud sounds and flashing lights irritate hellions. Makes them aggressive. Even more so than usual.”

  The students kept glancing around, as if we were already surrounded by fiends in the green school plain. Their wary reactions made Professor Fawkes smile wider.

  “Very good! Then—unto the breach, dear friends!”