Sevent and the last one was House Abyssus – Black Abyss, the Deepfolk.
A ripple spread across the obsidian floor like ink bleeding into water. The torches dimmed. From the darkness emerged a figure—Mistress Neritha, her eyes gleaming like pearls, her skin bearing iridescent scales that shimmered with otherworldly hues. She moved as though the air were water and the world obeyed her tides.
Her voice was soft, but it echoed like a song from the ocean trench.
"We are depth. Pressure. The truths that lie beneath where light cannot reach. Will you descend, little flame?"
The rune beneath Sera turned pitch black, but not with void—with depth.
The air grew heavy. Wet. Cold. The sensation of drowning pressed against her chest.
Suddenly, she was somewhere else—a world of silence and shadow, where monstrous things brushed past her unseen, ancient whispers tugging at her soul.
Surrender, they beckoned. Let go of the surface. You are already forgotten.
Sera's lungs screamed. She wanted to gasp, to flee, to rise.
But she clenched her fists and screamed back, "I have drowned before. I always rise."
The darkness parted.
Mistress Neritha stared at her for a long, silent moment.
Then gave the faintest nod. "She did not break."
She vanished back into the depths, leaving behind the echo of dripping water—and the unmistakable scent of salt.
Seven Houses. Seven trials.
None chose her.
The rune circle dimmed.
The students began murmuring. "She failed them all."
Headmaster Kael's lips parted to speak—
But the floor pulsed gold.
The chamber shook.
A new rune formed beneath Sera's feet.
Not any of the seven. This one was ancient.
A phoenix wrapped in thorned vines.
Sera gasped as the sigil erupted in flames—not burning her, but lifting her off the ground in a spiral of golden light. Her body floated above the floor, arms loose at her sides, hair whipping around her face.
She felt something crawl into her thoughts.
No—through them.
An ancient presence, colder than winter and deeper than oceans, peeling back the layers of her mind. Probing. Testing.
Her vision blurred.
She saw flashes—memories. Hers. Not hers.
A burning forest. A scream. A girl with glowing hands. A boy with white eyes. A promise carved in blood.
Kael shouted, "Astrid!"
But Prefect Astrid had already leapt into the circle.
Sera stood in a trance, glowing gold.
Astrid pressed her palm to Sera's back.
The runes snapped out.
Then the flames disappeared.
Sera gasped, collapsing forward into Astrid's arms.
A soft hush moved through the crowd.
Something was wrong.
Usually, the Trial ended with one of the House insignias glowing above the candidate's head, declaring their affinity.
Instead… the circle beneath her flickered wildly—red, then gold, then blue, then all seven at once.
Then—
Black.
The sigil exploded in a pulse of shadow and light.
Gasps erupted from the audience.
Even the House Lords and ladies shifted.
Only Kael remained unmoved.
"What… was that?" Astrid whispered.
Kael descended from the dais, his voice tight. "That rune is not of the Seven. It predates even the Draconis seal."
Astrid didn't answer him. She was staring at Sera with a strange expression.
"A new House," she said softly. "Or something older than all of us."
"No House has claimed her," the Seer Lady said sharply. "The sigil fractured."
"She fractured it," muttered the Fae Lord.
"She should not even be here," growled the Vampire Warden.
The House of Shades representative stood slowly. A tall, hooded figure whose face remained hidden in shadow.
"I felt something ancient awaken," the figure said in a voice that echoed twice. "She is not empty. She is sealed."
Sera's fingers twitched.
"What does that mean?" she asked, still catching her breath.
The hooded figure tilted their head. "You were bound. Caged. Someone locked your power away a long time ago. And now... It's leaking."
Sera's stomach dropped.
"No House may claim her," the Seer repeated, looking to Kael. "The seal is unstable. She is a liability."
Kael's eyes glowed faintly.
"She has potential," he corrected.
Astrid appeared beside him, silent but tense.
"I'll sponsor her," Astrid said suddenly.
A murmur ran through the audience.
Kael raised an eyebrow. "You know what that means."
"I do."
"She is not your responsibility."
"She is now."
Astrid turned to look at Sera, who was still kneeling in the aftermath of chaos, her breath fogging in the cold air, but her eyes blazing with defiance.
"She doesn't need a House," Astrid said, voice low. "She'll build her own."
Kael stood silent, looking at the audience, until it was finalized, he needed to place her in any one of the house present...
"Sera Vale is hereby assigned to House Umbra under the direct supervision of Prefect Astrid, pending further classification," Kael declared.
The chamber erupted in chaos.
But Sera… only stood, steady.
She'd survived.
Later that morning, Sera sat on the edge of her bed, still in her trial robes, replaying everything in her head.
The seal. The chaos. The look in their eyes—not fear exactly, but wariness. Like they'd seen a ghost.
She touched her chest. It didn't feel like anything was inside her. But then again… it never had.
A soft knock on her door pulled her back.
It opened slightly.
Astrid entered.
"You're supposed to be resting."
Sera snorted. "Didn't know existential dread counted as a nap."
The Prefect stepped inside and handed her a folded parchment. "These are your new privileges. Since you're unclaimed by any house, you're under my direct supervision and protected by Headmaster Kael's order."
"House Umbra will be your temporary house..."
"Sounds fancy. But it also sounds like a cage."
Astrid sat beside her, for once looking… almost human.
"Cage or shield—it depends on what you make of it."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Why did you sponsor me?" Sera asked.
Astrid didn't answer immediately.
Then she said, "Because I've seen what happens to the ones like you. The outliers. The unpredictable. Duskmoor is full of powerful monsters. But the ones they fear the most… are the ones they don't understand."
"And you think I'm one of those?"
"No." Astrid stood. "I know you are."
She walked to the door, then paused.
"I also know this: whatever's locked inside you… It didn't come from this world."
That night, as the academy fell into uneasy sleep, Sera couldn't close her eyes.
Not because of fear.
But because something inside her had stirred.
And it wasn't going back to sleep.
The seal, they said.
It was cracking.
Not broken yet—but soon it will be.
And when it did?
She would no longer be the girl no one noticed.
She would be the girl no one could ignore.