Conscription day

*Isla*

My heart pounds against my ribs, trapped and frantic. The registration desk glows softly in the torchlight of the Great Hall, its dark wood scarred by years of eager hands. Behind it sits Master Goran, a warrior so ancient that he probably trained my grandfather. His face is a rugged map of past battles, one eye a milky white, the other sharp and flinty gray.

I stay close to the edges of the crowd, blending into the shadows cast by the stone pillars. The air is thick with the smell of anxious sweat, worn leather, and the faint metallic tang of blood spilled during earlier practice bouts. My pack members surge around me, a wave of strength and confidence. Torven, a hulking figure with shoulders as broad as I am tall, slams his fist onto the table. "Torven of the Stonefang line!" he bellows. "Warrior trials."

Goran grunts, barely glancing up. "Name." He dips a quill into an inkpot that looks like a petrified heart.

He scratches down Torven’s name before calling the next. A girl strides forward, pure power in her movements, her name ringing out clear: "Runa of the Shadowtail." Another scratch, and she’s off, her back straight and her future accepted. They embody everything expected of us. I do not.

My father, General Fenrir Ulvehjerte, would be furious. My mother would weep. Ian, my brother, would probably find it amusing. And Iliana... Iliana would simply look at me with those gentle, pitying eyes and suggest a calming cup of tea. My leg aches, a dull throb reminding me of why I’m here and why others believe I shouldn’t be.

The crowd begins to thin, and time stretches like a taut string. This is it… the point of no return.

I push away from the pillar, my limp more pronounced with each step. I don’t bother to hide it. Hiding would only be a lie, and I refuse to start this journey with deception. The few remaining applicants turn to watch me, their faces a mix of surprise and scorn. I catch a snicker. “Lost, little healer?” someone whispers.

I ignore them. My focus is locked on Master Goran. I stop before the desk, the cool wood grounding me as my fingers tremble.

“Isla Ulvehjerte,” I say, my voice softer than I meant but clear nonetheless. “Warrior trials.”

The scratching of the quill halts.

Slowly, Goran lifts his head. His good eye narrows on me, then drops to my leg, and finally returns to my face. There’s no pity in his gaze—just a cold, clinical assessment, like a butcher sizing up a cut of meat. He lets the silence stretch, heavy and suffocating. The whispers behind me fade away.

“The cripple?” he rasps, the word heavy in the stillness of the hall.

I lift my chin, meeting his gaze. “Yes.”

He holds my stare, and for a moment, the world around us fades. Then, with a careless shrug that feels more insulting than any words could convey, he dips the quill again. The scratching on parchment rings out like a thunderclap in the quiet hall. “Don’t waste my time,” he grunts.

He doesn’t need to tell me twice.

The obstacle course looms ahead, a chaotic blend of jagged rock, twisted steel, and ancient magic. Known as the walk… which makes it sound almost nice, it is anything but. It feels almost alive under the watchful half-moon, which casts a silvery glow on the sweat-soaked faces of the first group. They’re a blur of motion… climbing, swinging, leaping. I watch as a guy named Torven gets clipped by a swinging log of ironwood. He stumbles and lets out a string of curses, but then he recovers, roaring defiantly into the night. But not everyone is as lucky. A girl cries out as a bladed pendulum catches her arm, the dark stone splattered with crimson. Healers rush in, their urgency palpable.

My stomach tightens. This is the moment where most who aren’t cut out for this crumble. I can feel the weight of skeptical eyes on me, the unspoken question hanging in the air: how will she even get over the first wall?

When my group is called, I step forward alongside a hulking boy from the ginger pack and a wiry girl whose knuckles are taped. The horn blares… a guttural sound that vibrates through my bones.

The ginger launches himself at the twenty-foot stone wall, scaling it with sheer brute strength. The wiry girl scurries up a series of hanging ropes, moving with a grace that seems almost effortless.

But what they don’t know is that I have one thing in abundance: I’m tired of being underestimated.

Ignoring the wall, I spot a series of narrow, jutting ledges beside it… designed to deceive, to trip the slow. They’re slick with night’s dew, barely wide enough for the ball of my foot. I take a deep breath and run. My good leg propels me forward, bursting with energy honed from years of pushing my limits. My fingertips catch the first ledge, and I don’t stop to think. I swing, my body light and quick, finding the next hold and then the next. The pain in my bad leg feels like a distant fire, igniting my determination. I haul myself over the top just a heartbeat after the ginger, and his face is a mask of disbelief.

The wiry girl has already reached the next challenge: a series of spinning logs suspended over a pit of thick black mud. The ginger barrels through, using his bulk as a shield. The girl dances through them with fluid grace.

I watch closely, searching for a pattern, a rhythm. I don’t try to match their speed; instead, I wait. When the gap opens, I make my move… not through, but under. I drop to the ground, sliding beneath the lowest log, mud splattering across my back. I’m up and running before it even passes. The wiry girl glances back, a flicker of respect in her eyes.

The course becomes a symphony of calculated risks. I leap across balance beams over spikes, my bad leg buckling slightly but absorbing the landing. I tackle the climbing wall with shifting grips, using my momentum to my advantage, moving faster than the mechanisms can adjust. I might not be the strongest or the most powerful, but I’m a puzzle this course hasn’t figured out yet.

As I near the final stretch, a wide, open field leading straight to the finish line, I see him standing there. Ian. My brother. He’s not here to cheer me on; he’s here to savor the spectacle of my failure.

His arms are crossed, a picture of casual authority that makes my teeth clench. He’s the epitome of a warrior heir: tall, strong, perfect. He watches me approach, one eyebrow raised, a slow smirk creeping across his face. He knows what this means for me… the shame I’m about to face. He’s come to witness it.

Ahead of me, the ginger and the wiry girl are almost finished. I can see the glow of the finish line, and the whispers from the crowd are a swarm of irritation.

"Is that an Ulvehjerte?"

"The cripple?"

"Why is she…"

I push their voices away, focusing only on the packed earth between me and the end. And on Ian, blocking my path.

He doesn’t move as I draw closer; he just waits, letting his presence loom over me, the weight of his gaze heavy.

“Well, well,” he drawls, his voice smooth like silk as I near, the scent of leather and steel wafting off him. “Little sister. Decided to crawl out of the healer’s tent?”

I don’t answer. My lungs burn, my muscles scream… words are beyond me.

“Father will be so proud,” he continues, shifting just slightly to the left, forcing me to navigate around him. “When he hears you made a fool of our name. That you let them all see the weakness.” His eyes flick to my injured leg, and the smirk deepens. “Did you think they’d forget? Did you think they’d look at you and not see the rogue’s teeth?”

I refuse to swerve. Instead, I run straight at him, a reckless burst of speed. He expects me to flinch, to dodge at the last moment. I don’t. I brace for impact.

He’s faster than I am. As I approach, his arm snaps out… not to block, but to shove. His palm connects with my shoulder, a brutal dismissal that sends me spiraling. My bad leg gives way completely, and I hit the ground hard, the air knocked from my lungs. The dirt tastes gritty between my teeth.

A collective groan ripples through the crowd. Some snicker. The finish line glows ahead, a taunting beacon just twenty yards away.

For a moment, I lie there, the world spinning. Ian’s shadow looms over me. “Stay down, Izzy,” he murmurs, the nickname like poison on his tongue. “Know your place.”