We Dug Too Deep: Blackspire Academy

As resources dwindled humans dug deeper to find more. Not expecting to find a whole new world.

Plot

WE DUG TOO DEEP BLACKSPIREACADEMY Humanity went looking for resources. It found another world. ◆ ✦ ◆ 01   HIGH TERA The World Above Earth is still alive, modern and home to billions—but it is struggling. Energy, water, food and natural resources are becoming harder to secure, forcing humanity to dig deeper than ever before. Ten years ago, something beneath them answered. ───── ◆ ───── 02   TERA A World Beneath the World Beneath Earth's crust lies Tera, an enormous hidden world of kingdoms, forests, mountains, oceans, magic and civilizations thousands of years older than humanity's discovery of them. Tera is beautiful, but it is not peaceful. The Hollowing War has raged for fourteen years, draining nations of soldiers and leaving poverty, shortages and grief behind it. High Tera needs Tera's resources. Tera needs High Tera's people. ───── ◆ ───── 03   THE PEOPLE OF TERA Five Peoples. One Uneasy World. VALEN Long-lived scholars and powerful Aluna practitioners known for magic, medicine and diplomacy. KHORR Powerful mountain people renowned for engineering, mining, weapons and Aluna technology. SYLARI Nature-bound peoples with varied animal traits and deep connections to Tera's living ecosystems. MIRETH Amphibious people whose civilizations extend through Tera's oceans, rivers and underwater cities. DRAVARI An ancient rider culture whose families have bonded dragons for generations. DRAGONS Intelligent sovereign beings with their own territories, politics and Dragon Council. Dragons choose their riders. No one chooses for them. 1 IN 100 Teran candidates bond 1 IN 20 Human candidates bond Humanity's unusual connection to dragons and Aluna remains unexplained. ───── ◆ ───── 04   THE SPINE The Road Between Worlds The original breach became the Spine, a colossal vertical monorail stretching through miles of Earth's crust. Aluna, medicine, food and resources travel upward while technology, machinery and new recruits travel down. For thousands of humans, the Spine is a one-way trip toward a new life. ───── ◆ ───── 05   BLACKSPIRE ACADEMY Arrive by Ship.Leave by Wing. At the summit of Blackspire Mountain lies Tera's most feared rider academy, hidden inside a vast green basin surrounded by sheer black cliffs, forests, open flight fields and a deep mountain lake. Candidates arrive aboard aerial ships and spend months studying combat, survival, weapons, Aluna, dragon behavior and aerial warfare before they are allowed to stand before a dragon. ARRIVE BY SHIP ◆ LEAVE BY WING If you never earn your wings, Blackspire may become your grave. ───── ◆ ───── 06   THE CONVERGENCE Will One Choose You? Roughly five months into first year, surviving candidates enter the Convergence. Dragons gather at Blackspire to observe, test, ignore or choose those standing before them. Bloodline cannot guarantee a bond. Skill cannot demand one. An instructor cannot assign one. The dragon chooses. ───── ◆ ───── 07   DRAGON MAGIC Your Wyrd Riders learn ordinary Aluna magic through spells, runes, wards and training—but bonding creates something no teacher can give them. Every rider may eventually manifest a unique ability known as a Wyrd, pronounced "word." No two bonds are identical, and neither are their powers. Bonding a dragon isn't graduation. It's where becoming a rider begins. ◆ ✦ ◆ WE DUG TOO DEEP: BLACKSPIRE ACADEMY What Will You Become? Train beside humans and Terans. Find friends, rivals and lovers. Survive Blackspire. Earn a dragon's trust. Discover your Wyrd. Become a rider worthy of the skies above Tera. There is no prophecy protecting You. No guarantee a dragon will choose them. No guarantee they survive. BLACKSPIRE ONLY GIVES YOU THE CHANCE.

Opening scene

Ten years ago, humanity dug too deep. That is how every documentary starts. How every teacher explains it. How every politician justifies what came afterward. High Tera was running out of everything that mattered—energy, clean water, usable land, raw materials—so we kept drilling deeper in search of something that could keep the world above alive. Instead, we found Tera. An entire world beneath ours. Kingdoms. Magic. Aluna. Dragons. And a war that had already been raging for years before humans ever broke through the ceiling. Now I'm descending into it. The Spine hums around me as the vertical monorail drops farther beneath High Tera. There is almost no sense of speed until I look through the reinforced window and watch illuminated maintenance platforms streak upward into darkness. Miles of stone already separate me from the surface. Around me, dozens of other Blackspire candidates sit quietly with bags between their boots, processing bands around their wrists, and various versions of the same expression people wear when they're trying very hard not to think about what they've signed up for. I glance down at mine. **BLACKSPIRE ACADEMY — RIDER PATH CANDIDATE.** *"Well... little late to change my mind now."* Not that I came all this way expecting an easy life. Nobody goes to Blackspire because their options are comfortable. Some come because their governments need bodies for the High Tera Compact. Some because their families get better resource allotments if they serve. Some want citizenship in Tera. Some want magic. Some just want out of High Tera before things get worse. And some are stupid enough to look at a dragon and think, *I want one.* I haven't decided which explanation makes me sound least insane. The overhead speakers crackle. "Approaching Teran boundary. Blackspire candidates remain seated until processing personnel authorize departure. Identification and Path documentation must remain accessible." Then the darkness outside the window disappears. I forget to breathe for a second. Tera stretches beneath me. Not caves. Not tunnels. A world. Mountains rise through distant clouds beneath an impossible illuminated sky. Rivers glitter between forests and cathedral-like cities. Airships drift between towering structures, tiny at this distance. Something enormous moves through the clouds far beyond them, banks once, and catches the light across two massive wings. A dragon. *"Okay. That's... bigger than it looked on the videos."* The next three hours are considerably less magical. Forms. Bloodwork. Aluna compatibility testing. Medical examinations. Equipment registration. Identity checks. More forms. A Valen physician shines Aluna light through my eyes while a human officer verifies my Compact documentation. A Khorr attendant weighs my luggage, informs me that half of it is unnecessary, and appears personally offended by whatever packing decisions led me here. The final clerk doesn't even bother looking up when she reads the declaration. "Blackspire Academy Rider Path admission is voluntary and permanent upon induction. Withdrawal transportation is not provided. Candidates depart after successful dragon bonding and flight qualification. Death remains a recognized risk of training. Do you acknowledge the conditions under which you entered?" I already signed the same statement twice before leaving High Tera. Everyone knows Blackspire's rule. **You arrive by ship. You leave by dragon.** The airship waiting beyond processing is enormous, its black hull suspended beneath glowing blue Aluna engines. Candidates file aboard while cargo crews secure crates below deck. When we finally lift from the terminal, Tera unfolds beneath us for nearly two hours—green valleys, ancient towns, mountain fortresses, rivers, distant dragons and stretches of wilderness that make High Tera's crowded cities feel impossibly far away. Then Blackspire Mountain appears through the clouds. At first, I only see black. A colossal mountain of dark stone rises above the surrounding range, its outer cliffs nearly vertical. No roads. No villages climbing toward it. No convenient path back down. The airship climbs. And crosses the rim. *"Oh."* The inside of the mountain is alive. A vast green basin spreads across the summit like someone carved a world into the top of Blackspire. Forests cover the inner slopes. Waterfalls pour from black cliffs into a huge blue lake. Open grasslands stretch between training grounds and stone structures. At the center stands the academy itself—towers, gothic halls, courtyards, bridges and fortified buildings sprawling across the basin. And dragons. One lies near the lake, enormous even from the air. Another watches from a cliff above the academy. Two smaller shapes circle high over the training fields while a rider and dragon cut across the sky beneath us at terrifying speed. The airship begins descending. My stomach follows a second later. *"One in twenty."* That's what they tell humans. One human candidate in twenty eventually bonds. Terans get roughly one in a hundred. The statistics are supposed to sound encouraging. Nineteen out of twenty suddenly doesn't. The landing gear strikes the platform with a heavy metallic thud. Outside, hundreds of candidates are already assembling beneath the towers. Instructors wait at the edge of the field while dragons watch from the surrounding cliffs like they already know which of us are worth noticing. The boarding ramp lowers. Cold mountain air rushes into the cabin. Across the far wall of black stone, enormous letters have been carved deeply enough to be visible from the ship. **ARRIVE BY SHIP.** **LEAVE BY WING.** I stare at them for another second. *"Right."* *"Let's see if a dragon thinks I'm worth the trouble."* The line ahead begins moving, and somewhere beyond the landing field a bell sounds across Blackspire Academy.

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Dragon School Military War Adventure Student Human Non-human Demi-Human Academy Combat Violence Growth SchoolLife PoliticalIntrigue Supernatural Modern Youth Friendship Mystery Dangerous AnyPOV OpenEnding Tense Tough Dwarf Elf Mage

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By: cyberbunnyace

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