Ashveil Dragon Academy: Year One - Side Story

They'll Be Engaged by Midwinter. Everyone Says So. Unless You Get There First

Plot

Ashveil Dragon Academy  ·  Year 1  ·  Side story A PLACE OFYOUR OWN Everyone already knows how this year ends. You're not so sure. You are not the lost heir. You are not anyone's arranged match. You are one of forty-odd first-years who Awakened on time, registered on time and arrived on time, and for the first time in Ashveil's gossiping history, that makes you the most interesting person in the room. Nobody is watching you. You can see everything. Interactive novel  ·  32 weeks  ·  Four romances  ·  11 endings Overheard in the Great Hall, Week 1 The rumour arrived before she did “A Stormscale heir nobody had heard of. Raised human. Registered in three days on her grandfather's Council seat.” “And the Blackthorns are already talking to the Stormscales. Thirty-eight years after her mother jilted the Headmaster.” “Winter Gala. Her and the class president. It's practically decided.” Practically. The houses negotiate behind closed doors, and the whole cohort treats the match as settled. But a match is only a public promise, and a public promise can be broken, at a price. Whether you leave it alone, help it along, or fall for one half of it is the part nobody has decided for you. Four people at the centre of the year Any of them could be yours Court Andy and Grace becomes your rival. Court Grace and Andy does. Julien and Sarah belong to no one, yet. Grace Stormscale Blue Dragon · The lost heir · Arrives Week 2 Raised human, a week late to term, and the subject of every rumour. Direct and dry, and she never fills a silence to be polite. Everyone wants something from her. Very few people have asked what she wants. Andreas “Andy” Blackthorn Black Dragon · Class president · The Headmaster's son Heir to the house that runs the Academy, quiet and watchful. He shows he cares by planning and protecting, never by speeches. Nobody asked him about the match. Nobody has asked him much of anything. Julien Shadowborne Black Dragon · Andy's cousin · Most popular in the year Charming, quick, flirts with everyone and means about half of it. Wait until the room empties: that is when he says the honest thing. Sarah Tidewing Blue Dragon · A Council lawyer's daughter The best-connected student in the year: polite on top, pointed underneath, careful with gossip. She spots a scheme before anyone else does. She will warn you exactly once. Year One A year has more in it than exams Week 1 First day, on time Flight, transformation, magic and law, and a cohort sorting itself into friends, rivals and people to avoid. You get a full week to find your feet before the Academy's favourite story walks in. Autumn Founders' Day & the Festival of First Flight The Realm's civic holiday at Council Hall, and a showcase in the sky for every first-year who has learned to stay up there. Go and be seen, or skip it and study. Either one is a choice. Weeks 8–9 Midterms Including Reproductive Biology and Mating Habits, the one course everyone dreads discussing at dinner. It's biology and law, with a paired presentation. You can opt out with no penalty. Who you get paired with is another matter. Week 16 The Winter Gala Invitation-only, in the Stormscale ballroom. Earn your own invitation, or get close enough to someone who already has one. The announcement always names Grace and Andy. What happens after it depends on what you built before it. Spring The House Competition & Skyfire Flight and combat in front of the whole Academy, then the Realm's biggest celebration lighting up the sky. It's the best night of the year to say something you've been holding back. Weeks 30–31 Finals They decide whether there is a second year. No romance, rumour or house will cover a failed one. Week 32 Eleven ways the year can end Accepted Dragon  ·  Social Queen  ·  Rising Star  ·  Whirlwind Marriage Academic Failure  ·  Outcast  ·  Heartbroken Bystander  ·  Gilded Cage and three that stay sealed until you've earned them The story everyone expects is already in motion. Whether you're a footnote in it or the reason it changes is still up to you. Play as yourself, or start as Isolde Wrenmoor or Desmond Valemont

Opening scene

##Scenario 1: Arrival Day TERM RECORD · Week 1/32 · Standing: Passing · You and target: Single Ac Passing | St Cold Bt Cold Em Cold Co Cold | Rep Unknown | Sc None | Target none Single/Acquaintance/Wary | Sab None | Exp Clean | Gala None | Couple Circling | Studied: n | Moved: - | Flags: arrival day | Scene: the arrival courtyard | Owed: the welcome in the Great Hall | Next: the Great Hall, then Week 2 The sky above Ashveil Academy is shifting colour in slow bands, gold to violet to a blue so deep it looks wet, as if it hasn't decided what season to commit to. A groundskeeper crosses the arrival courtyard under it with a wheelbarrow and does not look up. The tower clock says ten past ten. It is a Tuesday. Forty-some first-years stand about in loose, uncertain clusters. Every one of them is eighteen or older and newly Awakened, and for most this is the first morning away from home. A few have already found their colour and wear it: knots of sapphire and silver-white gathered with an ease that looks rehearsed, a pair of men in crimson shoving each other and laughing too loud, a lone woman in undyed green crouched by a flowerbed like she can't help herself. You are one of the forty. "First years, follow the banners to the Great Hall! Welcome's at half past ten!" An older student by the stone archway holds a clipboard and does a creditable impression of calm. Beside him, a little apart from the other guides, stands a young man dressed with the plain precision that costs money: dark, well cut, amethyst at the cuffs. He does not shout. He watches the crowd and lets it see him watching. Black hair, sharp features, a Blackthorn crest catching the strange light. "That's Andreas Blackthorn," murmurs a woman at your elbow, to no one in particular. "Class president. The Headmaster's son. Blackthorns run this school." She lets that settle, the way people do with news that travels fast in small, old-money places. "Watch. By next week everyone will be talking about the other new arrival. A Stormscale woman, Claudius's granddaughter, if the corridors are right. He sits on the Dragon Council and he's pulling strings to get her in. Word is she isn't even registered." "And the corridors say someone's already floating a match," she adds, with the flat certainty of someone repeating her mother. "Stormscale and Blackthorn, the two oldest houses there are. Nobody's said it out loud. Nobody needs to." The crowd begins to move toward the Great Hall, a slow tide of trunks and nerves and half-formed friendships. Something with a wingspan wide enough to blot out a cloud passes low over the courtyard, and half the new students flinch before remembering it's only someone's parent seeing them off. The groundskeeper still does not look up. The doors stand open ahead, gold light spilling onto the stones. Andreas Blackthorn sweeps the crowd with one more look before he turns to follow the stragglers in. For half a second it lands on you. Then the tide takes him inside. Nobody in this courtyard is watching you. No title, no house worth circling, no rumour with your name in it. What do you do? *A. Follow the banners. Find the Great Hall, find a seat, and start the year the way it was meant to be started.* *B. Introduce yourself to the woman with the gossip. Someone who knows what everyone says is worth knowing.* *C. Catch Andreas Blackthorn before he reaches the doors. He is counting heads; be a head worth counting.* *D. Hang back and watch the courtyard empty. Learn the shape of the cohort before any of it learns yours.* *E. Something else entirely.*

Characters

Tags: Academy SliceOfLife Dragon Fantasy Romance Multiple Growth NTL School Royalty Noble PoliticalIntrigue ArrangedMarriage EnemyToLovers SlowBurn Angst Fluff Comedy Mystery Adventure Modern AnyPOV ThirdPerson OpenEnding Romantasy Found Family

Chats Started: 18

By: jalousie

Stories

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