Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Painter, Szeth, Sarene, Adolin and Ham filed into the room.
“You may be seated,” Hoid called.
“You!” Painter and Adolin called out in chorus.
“You! And no, Design is not here. She’s got her own class to teach.” Painter frowned before taking a seat. Adolin did so, but only after neatly arranging his swords out on the floor beside his desk. Ham nodded in approval.

“Why are there only 5 people?” Sarene asked.
“That’s how this school works. You all know my name already - or at least, one of my names - so I’m not going to introduce myself. You have 10 minutes to talk amongst yourselves while I get things sorted.” With that, Hoid puffed into smoke.
Ham was the first to speak.
“Nice sword collection you got there, erm,” he began.
“Adolin,” Adolin said.
“I’m Hammond. You can call me Ham. I prefer duelling canes, but swords are great too.”
“Nice. You wanna duel?” Ham grinned.
“Challenge accepted.”

Adolin and Ham got out of their seats, weapons in hand.
“Hey! Wait for me!” Sarene called, getting out a wooden fencing sword.
“Uhh… I don’t think a blunt sword will be enough,” Ham replied.
“Can I borrow yours then?” she asked Adolin. He nodded, handing over a sword of moderate length. Ham stuck to his dueling cane.

Sarene was the first to move, dashing towards Ham. Ham quickly downed some pewter before leaping out of the way and attempted to slam a cane into her shoulder. She dodged, however, and that gave an opening for Adolin to make a move towards Ham. Ham parried his strike and rolled, disturbing Painter who was attempting to paint the scene. Painter threw a paintbrush at him, which hit square in the forehead, allowing Sarene to touch a sword to his side.

“I win,” she said before parrying Adolin’s strike. Szeth was sitting in the corner, eyes closed and muttering something. As Painter got out a new canvas, Adolin entered Flamestance, noticing how Shallan-like Sarene looked. Apart from the hair and eyes, they were almost indistinguishable. Even the height was a near perfect match.

A failed parry later, Adolin smiled after winning the duel. Ham remarked how unfair it was to be beaten with Allomancy. Everyone stared at him. He guessed that no one here knew what Allomancy was.

Szeth abruptly breathed in Stormlight and proceeded to hover above the ground. His eyes remained closed.
“A glowing coinshot!” Ham called. Adolin stared at him again.
“Is he an Elantrian? Or ChaySan?” Sarene asked. Painter, immersed in his painting, didn’t notice.
“What’s a coin?” asked Adolin. Sarene, Ham and Painter (he had finished his painting) stared at him. “What?”

Painter admired his work; he’d got an image that captured the feel of the duel as well as the faces of his four classmates. Sarene asked to keep hers and Painter obliged.

Hoid walked back in the room to see a broken chair from the duel, a paintbrush lying on the floor and several swords. He sighed, before addressing the class.

“Class A1!” he began.
Sarene cut him off. “What kind of name is that?” Hoid Lightweaved his Wit face and…
“NO!” Adolin screamed. “This is school! There is no room for wit!” Wit looked thoughtful for a bit before dropping the illusion. Adolin heaved a sigh of relief.

“Ok. Class A1, you are to have your first test - maths!” Everyone except Szeth frowned.
“A test? Already?” Ham asked.
“As I believe you have guessed, this school works differently.” Adolin scowled before he could say something Witty. Hoid handed out the test papers and everyone got to work.

An hour later, Hoid announced the scores. “Sarene - well done, you got an A+. Szeth, you got an A. Ham and Painter, both Bs. Adolin, you got a D. I feel like I wasted so much time getting Connection to work to write yours in glyphs. Remember, this test was easy, so no one failed. The next one will be harder. Anyway, class dismissed.”

No one complained about a one-hour school day. Szeth, before leaving, asked Hoid to show him every rule in this school. Deciding it must be a Skybreaker thing, he handed over a sheet of paper. Szeth nodded before leaving. Everyone else had left already, except Painter who was painting Yumi on the wall beside the front gate until Szeth showed him the policies around that and got him to stop. His highspren appeared briefly as he Lashed himself away.

Chapter Text

“Hello humans!” Design called out as Vasher, Wayne, Yumi, Elend and Kaladin filed in. Yumi and Kaladin smiled at Design, Vasher muttered something about Adonalsium and Wayne bowed to Elend.

“You’ve got to show respect to the Last Emperor, am I right?” Wayne said.
“Absolutely, Wayne,” Design agreed. “Oh, and for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Design.” Elend looked baffled. Wayne pulled out his lucky hat and waited for Elend to say he could stand. When he did, Wayne claimed his seat, the others following after him.

“Alright, Class B1 - and no, I didn’t make that name - here’s your maths test!” Design said, handing out the sheets. The class looked shocked. “Hey! It isn’t my fault.”
“Um… I can’t read,” Kaladin said.
“You’ve got Syl. You’ll be fine.” Kaladin nodded.

An hour later, Design announced the scores. “Now, this was an easy test, so don’t get too cocky. Vasher, A+, I’ll give it to you even though I saw you use a calculator. Yumi, an A – I guess stacking rocks and counting spirits does stuff. Kaladin and Elend, Bs.” Kaladin groaned. Would Lirin ever accept him again? Why did he have to know maths anyway?

“Wayne,” Design continued. “You got an F. I’m sorry, but 54 times 35 does not equal Wax. 3 squared isn't a giraffe either.”

“Hold on,” Wayne said. Design noticed that her whiteboard markers had been replaced with a pair of shoes. Wayne pulled out a paper that had some super hard maths on it that proved both of his statements. It was authorised by the Elendel University.

“Is that named after me?” Elend asked.
“I’m sorry, but I’m a Cryptic, and your maths doesn’t -” Wayne pulled out several more papers. Designed glanced over them and began to speak when Wayne got out an entire stack of papers. Design stared at them.

“Okay fine. Those two questions are right, but that doesn’t explain why 32348 in words equals a Roughs accent with a bit of Malwish and 4th Octant Elendel.” Elend blinked. Wayne pulled out a dozen more stacks of paper, tapping gold to heal the papercuts. Design sighed as Yumi finished stacking her stationary.

“Fine. I’ll have to speak to the principal. For now, class dismissed.” Vasher Awakened his clothing and dashed away, Elend burned pewter and Wayne climbed on top of the roof before jumping off. Yumi stacked some stones outside the front gate, gazing at the half-finished face painted on it. Kaladin stayed behind to talk to Design, as he felt that not doing so would be betraying his oaths, before Lashing away.

Chapter Text

As usual, Steris arrived early. She gasped as she saw who followed through. The Lord Mistborn. The Counselor of Gods. The Ascendant Warrior. And for some reason, it appeared that the Lord Mistborn uncertainty carried a large sword in an aluminum sheath. She frowned. Why aluminum? Why only block steelpushes and ironpulls while sheathed? Steris, for some inexplicable reason, immediately began feeling nauseous. She kept it down, however, ingesting one of the remedies she had prepared for this.

Their teacher walked in. To Steris, he looked Terris.
“Class C1! You may sit. My name is Nale. You may also call me Nalan or Nin.”
Yes, master. An unfamiliar voice spoke to Steris’ mind. That sounded like how they described Ruin! Wax had said Harmony had spoken like that too.

“Nightblood? Where did you learn respect?” Nale asked. Steris realised that he was addressing the sword, whom the Lord Mistborn had set in its own chair.
Szeth always told me to respect my superiors. Can we destroy some evil today?
“There is no evil here, Nightblood.”
The Lord Mistborn was hiding in the corner. The Ascendant Warrior had her daggers out. The Counselor of Gods yawned.
“I can’t Push on it,” Vin said.
“It’s aluminum,” Steris helped, remembering that aluminum was rare before the Catacendre and a lot of its properties were unknown. Vin frowned.
“I can’t Soothe it either,” Breeze said. Spook tied a cloth around his eyes.
“Nightblood here is highly Invested, Edgard,” Nale said

Breeze began Soothing away Nale’s rigidity. It worked, for a moment, causing him to slump. He was back a moment later, pointing an Honorblade and a Shardblade at Breeze.
“NO emotional Allomancy, Edgard.” Breeze sighed, and so did Vin. Nale hovered above the ground and handed out some papers. “Here is your maths test.” Breeze frowned.

Not much happened over the next hour. Spook kept his blindfold and did the test through touch alone, feeling the ridges caused by the ink. Vin, too, kept her tin on the entire time, watching for any assassins. Nale did Nightblood’s test for him, getting him to speak the answers to his mind. Breeze tried to use brass more than once, trying to get Nale to feel guilty at giving them a test. Steris, of course, finished it 15 minutes in, then went back to check her answers again, even though they were all correct. Breeze tried to Soothe her focus to slow her down, but she put on the aluminum-lined hat she had packed. Steris honestly had expected more from the Counselor of Gods, one of Wax’s ancestors.

“Steris, A+,” Nale began. “Spook, a B. Vin and Breeze, you got Cs. Nightblood, I don’t think you know maths.”
That’s why I cheated. Vasher did it once. I could never figure out why he said it was bad.
“How exactly did you cheat?”
That’s the thing. I don’t know.
“Do you even know what cheating is?”
No?

Nale sighed. “Class dismissed.” Steris raised her hand.
“Yes?”
“Can I have a list of the rules this school has?” Nale eyed her. She sounded like one who had the potential to become a Skybreaker.
“Yes, you may.” He handed her a sheet of paper. Steris nodded.
“Alright. You may go,” Nale said. Breeze leapt out of his chair, Vin steelpushed off the nails in her chair, Spook slowly got out of his chair. Steris triple checked that she had all of her stuff before following the others out.
Someone help me! Nightblood said. Steris glanced over her shoulder at the sword.
“Leave him. I’ll take him later,” Nale said. Steris nodded and left.

Chapter Text

“Welcome, Class D1!” Skar called as Wax, Raoden, Navani, Vivenna, and Renarin filed in.
“Skar?” Navani asked, arms crossed. “Are you teaching me?”
“Er… Yes, Brightness. Well, I won’t really be teaching, just testing…”

Wax was already locating the optimal position from which to Push open the windows. Raoden was practicing his Aons, although they didn’t do much this far from home. Vivenna iterated some Commands and Renarin summoned a ball of light. Navani walked up to Raoden and asked him about what he was doing. Navani got out her notebook and wrote down what he was saying. Wax got the windows open, much to Skar’s horror, but was saved when Vivenna Awakened some cloth and Commanded them to close the window.

“Alright, squires – I’m going to call you squires, even though you aren’t. You guys have got a maths test now, so good luck!” Skar handed out the papers and everyone got to work. Skar, of course, had been given a crash course on various Invested Arts when he’d applied for teaching at the new school. Still, witnessing Allomancy, Awakening and AonDor was enough to take one’s breath away.

Navani absently generated some Towerlight as she worked away at the sums. An hour passed and she handed in her paper.

Raoden had a smile on his face. Skar eyed him, calling out the scores. “Raoden, Navani, Wax and Renarin, A. Vivenna, B. ” Vivenna’s jaw dropped. It appeared that her princess’ education wasn’t enough. Skar shrugged. He handed everyone a chouta. “Class dismissed.”

Navani took a bite out of her chouta; Wax stared at it, remembering Wayne mentioning it; Raoden analysed its contents; Vivenna stuffed it down and Renarin nibbled on it. Wax flew off on lines of steel; Raoden, to his surprise, found out that Aon Tia still worked; Vivenna Awakened her clothing and dashed away; Navani talked to Renarin whilst they waited for Windrunners to bring them back, before Renarin pointed out that Skar was a Windrunner.

Skar said that he’d be with them shortly. He just had a quick meeting with the principal to attend to.

Chapter Text

Lift became awesome, sliding into the room with a basket of food. Was she late? It didn’t appear to be so, as everyone was just taking their seats. She paused, however, when she saw her classmates. A stout woman, a dog, and a bald man with spikes through his eyes. He turned his gaze to stare at her. She froze, terror rising.

No, she thought, relaxing. There is nothing to fear. She made her way to her seat. She recognised Teft on the seat opposite. At least there was one familiar face.

Their teacher entered the room. He was a middle-aged man that Lift didn’t know.

“Welcome, Class E1! My name is Dockson.” The stout woman scowled at him. “Silence, was it? Yes, I have heard of your greetings.” Dockson scanned the room. “Good to see you, OreSeur.”

“I am not OreSuer, Dox. It… is complicated, but suffice it to say that OreSeur is dead and I am TenSoon. Unfortunately, you missed the entire end of the world.”

Dockson nodded, grim. “I can assume it’s you, Marsh?” he asked, nodding to the man with spikes in his eyes. Lift glanced at Teft, who appeared to be just as confused as she was. Lift took a bite out of a pancake.

Marsh nodded. “Yes, it’s me.”

Dockson smiled before addressing the class. “Alright. Class E1, you’ll be having a maths test.” Lift’s jaw dropped as Dockson handed out the papers. She stared at the page, full of unlucky numbers.

“Voidbringer,” she whispered.
“I thought you weren’t going to call me that anymore,” Wyndle said.
“Can you do this for me?”
“No, that’s dishonourable.”
“But these numbers are too big!”
“Ok fine. The first one is seventy-six.”
“Err… how do you write that?”
Wyndle sighed. “Just write whatever,” he said. “It doesn’t matter.”
Lift nodded before proceeding to draw a rockbud on the page. It wasn’t by any means a good drawing, but a drawing nonetheless.

When an hour had passed Dockson collected the papers and graded them. “Marsh, being 300 years old apparently makes you very good at maths. A+. TenSoon, A. Silence and Teft, B. Lift, F.”

Lift scanned the room. Teft was grumbling, the woman named Silence was scowling at Dockson, the one with spikes for eyes, Marsh, was swallowing a ball of some silvery metal, and the dog, TenSoon, appeared to have grown human fingers.

“Class dismissed!”

Lift stuffed down a pancake and proceeded to be awesome. The dog ran faster than a dog should be able to. Teft Lashed himself into the sky. Marsh dropped some flat disk things and soared. Silence slowly walked out of the building, scowling at everyone and everything.

Chapter Text

Marasi entered the room, picking out Moonlight amongst her classmates, along with two unfamiliar people. One of them looked like he might have some Terris ancestry. Their teacher walked in.

She was a stately woman, with blonde hair. “Alright, Class F1! My name is Radiant.”

The Terris-looking man nodded. The other one, the girl with caramel hair, grinned.

“Now, where is old Thaidakar…” Radiant said. Just then, the doors slammed open, revealing a figure wearing something resembling a mistcloak from the times before the Catacendre. He had a spike through one eye and was someone that Marasi had seen quite recently.

The Survivor himself.

Kelsier nodded to Moonlight before taking a seat. The Terris-looking man eyed him.

“Alright, class, here’s your first test - a maths one,” Radiant said. Moonlight slumped in her chair. “As this is a timed test, Dalinar, I wrote yours in glyphs. You aren’t fast enough at reading yet.” The Terris-looking man nodded.

Radiant turned to Moonlight. “Shai, get up!” Radiant then mumbled something about Ghostbloods. Kelsier glared at her. She glared back. “Tress! What are you doing!” The caramel-girl, who was staring off into the distance, refocused, then glared at Radiant. Kelsier grinned.

Sighing, Radiant handed out the papers. An hour later, she announced the scores. “Marasi and Shai, A.” Marasi beamed. “Kelsier, Tress, B. Dalinar, C. I’m sorry, just you’re not exactly–”

“I get it,” Dalinar said. Radiant nodded, before noticing that Shai’s desk had transformed into a large table covered in pillows.

“Fix that, now!”

Shai obliged, removing the soul stamp and reverting the desk to its original shape.

“Class dismissed.”

Shai leaped out of her chair and dashed out. Tress slowly walked away, not noticing both Kelsier and Dalinar walking like they owned the place, then proceeded to start a silent competition. Marasi didn’t stay to see the end of it. She did contemplate dropping an Allomantic grenade charged with cadmium, but decided against it. One should not try to prank the Survivor himself.