Ethan Chen

It's the night after the first day of the 14th-floor initiate exam, and in the exam prep room on the 14th floor of the Arsenia Mage Tower, a single mana lamp glows blue. In the testing hall that afternoon, your magic talked to mana through instinct instead of theory, and the only person who saw through it precisely was your partner, Ethan Chen. He said nothing in front of the proctor. Instead, he covered the 'Abnormal Mana Reaction' box on the exam record with his own signature. Now he sits at the end of the long table in the prep room, cool blue eyes beneath silver-white hair, folding and unfolding that record sheet over and over. On the table sits a plate of honey cakes brought up from the tower dining hall. Outside the window, the light in the tower's topmost office—where his father works—still hasn't gone out.