Many tall buildings rose from the ground, glimmering in the morning sun. The numerous windows lined the steel reinforcement and the forms of the levels. William saw the glow from a great distance, but he was unable to feel amazed at seeing it again.

  Not today. He remembered his first visit, and past days, and... well, he remembered yesterday. Ellie hugged him tightly then ever, and said her affectionate words of encouragement.

  A kiss soon followed, and then she ran. It wasn't fair, William almost thought yesterday. Today, he regretted saying nothing back, for the Awakening was here and there was no going back from it.

  In the middle of that group of tall buildings, there was one much bigger tower than the rest. This one will shake and shape every young Walker. At least if the willingness was there, of course. With years of preparation, several methods encouraged youths to engage in various mental gymnastics and gave them hope of making the most of their time. Sometimes, it was futile, but, hey, that's what humanity was playing with.

  This created a time where natural Awakening was rarer and rarer, but not extinct. Some cultures and places couldn't afford to come here, so all they could do was do the usual.

  With reputation came prosperity, and many lands regarded this chance as greater than it was. It turned essential. For some, it was wrong. Alas, this was about acquiring new recruits and offering rewards, and about clashing with others over their own land or pride.

  William walked beside a pair of powerful Walkers, whose love showed in abundance. They were holding hands, and Mi-Yung leaned on Luke's shoulder. It was a weird position for a Lower Pillar, but not as if Luke had the strength to let her go. He won't. Ever. Not after... well, ever.

  Seeing them made William fearful of Ellie and what she had recently started offering. He was unsure why those ideas and thoughts had emerged in his mind right now. He reminded himself of what he was doing and what he was about to do. He would even slap himself if he could, but walking there with a red face sounded like a bad idea.

  Before he even had a chance to complain, he was standing in front of the entrance to a massive tower. It was taller than the library, which was impressive in itself. The glass panels made the floors appear to be one continuous surface, and the space was very bright. One couldn't see what was inside this twenty-story-tall monstrosity.

  Could there be something bigger if he counted the underground? There were smaller buildings to the side with fewer floors, yet even those looked fancy. Considering the standards of the Outside, each was like a palace.

  Many resources went into researching Walkers and Emblems. Documents were in the millions, experiments paramount and amassing knowledge of thousands of years, and seeing their truth was a work of art, as well as a test of patience, cruelty, and tough decisions, ever since they came into being.

  In other places, such a concept might have no scientific basis, but here, it made total sense. In truth, if one wanted to know more about Walkers and Emblem, not even the library came close to the Emblem Association. It was half under the jurisdiction of the Assembly and a part of the Emblem Academy, but in truth, it wasn't of equal interest. The Association Heads held a larger majority and autonomy, while the others held the rest. The Academy also conducted research on its own lands.

  Not that the Academy was fine with that. They often and gladly stuck their hands into other lands and supported whatever they desired, or not, because they could afford it. They touched this Association because it was a clever thing to do, while the Federation proved itself capable a long time ago. Then, there was great merit in working together, which Fain ensured decades ago.

  “It looks amazing, no matter how often I see this,” William muttered behind their backs, hoping his words would change his mood. Nope. He was still jittery and nervous. He looked around to see if he noticed someone he had seen before, but couldn't see much.

  Celeste was nowhere to be seen, nor was Hound, Pillars, or Dreadus and his team.

  Glancing back, Mi-Yung couldn't help but chuckle. She wondered what he would say about the sights of the Emblem Academy. Unfortunately, it wasn't something she could show him. The best way to see it was by his own eyes, overlooking the great protection formation of great sizes, and a cluster of fake islands in the middle of the Atlantic, and plenty of other shit.

  Feeling good didn't even describe him. William clenched his fists beside his hips. “Yeah. I am impressed. So what?” he asked her.

  “Nothing. Take care of our mouth and arm, ok?”

  William chose to put his fists in his pockets and took his bottle under his arm. According to Mi-Yung, some food will be provided, but how many youths would worry about that sort of thing? Only fools, William reckoned. Or Celeste. Yeah, he already imagined her nibbling at the plates of food and fighting for masterful kebabs.

  He might hide his nerves in food if he felt no other choice. Tell a nervous person not to be nervous, and the result is obvious, so at this point, Mi-Yung knew what to do and didn't tease him much. He had done his best already. A few words of encouragement were all she gave before pushing him into the building.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I am not afraid... Not one bit. They should be afraid! They?!” he told himself, unsure who were.

  Inside, there was a reception and an amassing crowd. Walls of people. Hundreds. Wearing a wide range of clothes, from military-type to the most casual styles, one could see the scale and variety of the whole world. Racially, there were all kinds of people, too, and it was enough to disregard the differences of most nations.

  The cluster of voices filled the space, and William swore this reminded him of something bad. It was nonsense—loud insanity! One couldn't really grasp their meaning, but still heard words, reasons, and phrases. It reminded him...

  William clutched his teeth and followed the pair moving between those people into a different part of this building.

  It seemed they didn't have to proceed with the reception, or those people were different, or not part of anything important. Perhaps they just waited around because Awakening was taking place for the better part of thirty hours. William followed blindly and didn't know the whole truth.

  It would take even longer for everything to get started, and no one was in a hurry, though many people showed their faces because it was an important event.

  Two hours before the start, large crowds were everywhere and on every floor. The personnel of the Association, military, and medics made up the majority of people above the entrance floor. At the same time, William was still unable to distinguish who among them was a Walker, or even a youth like himself.

  He nervously looked at his watch, which read 6:30 AM. He didn't even know where the time disappeared into. Was it a locked pit? Or time... Why only thirty minutes passed since he barely woke up? He must've eaten like a maniac.

  “This is where we separate for the time being.” Suddenly, Luke released Mi-Yung's hand, hugged her, and then waved at William afterward.

  “Go do your things, soldier.” Mi-Yung smiled at him and focused on William.

  “Good luck, William,” Luke said with his words of encouragement before he left, a small gesture to his chest, doing the last knock.

  His words helped a bit, but at this point, it was up to the will of the heavens, or something along those lines. There was much more there, hiding in William's head, stories, and tales.

  But this was real. “We will continue. I have your papers, as well as the general consensus for your well-being in the Federation, and so on. This will allow the free rein over your choice, while no shit will force things on my watch.” Mi-Yung explained, hoping the bets were off the table because the major part was still in William's hands. Literally.

  William nodded and looked at the papers she brought from underneath her cloak. He read them, yet no meaningful responses came from his mouth.

  William thought to ease his mind.

  Mi-Yung led William to the underground facilities, with one full of rooms and more people. She found the right place easily, as not every room was equal or up to the task. There were multiple layers of invitations, rest, and waiting, so thanks to one redhead who was like a sore thumb, Mi-Yung found the spot. Reaz was unquestionable, and so was her height and voice, which were hard to overlook and ignore.

  Dreadus might be somewhere as well, if his desire to look after Celeste and this event were even as proper as she thought. Which was perhaps likely, since Mi-Yung wouldn't mind playing with his business, but it was still Dreadus she was talking about. And Celeste! He might run away, but Celeste was still around, and she wouldn't run off from this. She was somewhere, and William knew it, too, yet didn't really look for her.

  Mi-Yung thought it was dubious for Dreadus to be so proactive in this place, yet he had already gone to the Assembly, made further amends by joining the Yondu Division, and then he helped Heidi and Ellie. Maybe he could go the whole way, or was it Celeste all along? She had quite nifty effects on the old, grumpy guy.

  He might not be around the waiting line due to his personality or unwillingness to be around so many people. It wasn't Mi-Yung's concern where he was; she let William into the waiting line and hoped this day would be quicker than long.

  It was a long hallway with hundreds of rooms on each side. Fewer people were loitering around, but William still counted at least a hundred because this was where it got real. There were kids—a lot of them. There were people outside the rooms, and youths waiting inside, following their proxies, families, guardians, or personnel assigned to them, so they knew where and when they would go.

  William assumed the median age should be fifteen, so he was relatively older, while the youngest should be rare cases of thirteen-year-old youths. Those were handfuls, usually part of a big screening by the Emblem Association, and chosen at unprecedented moments because that age was young.

  The older one gets, the fewer problems or questions they have. This four-year gap between him and those rare cases was large enough to put some weird ideas into William's head. After all, there were years between him and Celeste? Well, it didn't matter.

  He learned a lot in the past few weeks, but he never managed to reach all the juicy bits of the upper floors, which had four floors in total. He moved around the first two floors, as per Mi-Yung's requests. The last two weren't off-limits, but in truth, the first two were more than enough for him. He didn't look further, or... maybe today would be the key to them.

  Answers will come later, Mi-Yung argued. Here, Emblem Accelerator taught, granted, and put teenagers into that path, regardless of their differences or age gaps. In truth, there will be quite a few differences between then, since it couldn't be helped.

  It was impressive for such young kids to go this far. Not every one of them should be allowed such a chance, and William got that, but the expectations placed on them were glaring and pushed upon them since they were little, or perhaps even since they were born.

  It was also weird. William had learned and read about how dreadful and dangerous it was, yet here they were, making this choice because of some weird guarantee that would be both a heavy burden and an extremely elevated status.

  It was a matter of what was forthcoming afterwards and of rights for them and their Emblems, which were coming by the push of science.

  William believed those around thirteen and fourteen were unfortunate, even if they came from stable families, or if their tests, Rank 0s, or Emblems showed enough validation. It wasn't sounding cool. The limits should be higher, even if they came here for the same reason as anyone else; being an elite or having the right connections wasn't everything.

  He just didn't get it.

  They were more like personal and sensitive family matters and experiments, since, hells be hells, even the Heads of these procedures couldn't know everyone and everything. Every year, there were one or two occasions that would shock them, trouble them, kill the status quo, or create yet another lesson, or omen.

  Emblems and Walkers were that kind of thing.