The cold, metallic ID card felt heavy in Aether's small hand: It was a shimmering piece of enchanted alloy, marking him as a "Student"—a status that stood as a thin, fragile line between him and the collar of a slave.
He clutched it so tightly the edges bit into his palm.
"That is your life," the Scholar Elf hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "Lose it, and you'll be pulling carts in the mines before sundown."
Without another word, she snatched a ring of heavy iron keys from her desk and hurled them at him. They struck Aether in the chest with a painful thwack before clattering to the floor. "Room 404. Lower Tunnels. Get out of my sight, human."
Aether scrambled to pick up the keys, his eyes stinging with fresh tears, and stumbled out into the hallway.
The Utopia was even more terrifying from the inside; The hallways were vast, carved from pearlescent stone that seemed to pulse with a faint, rhythmic heartbeat.
But the beauty was lost on him. Every few steps, he felt the weight of a thousand hateful eyes.
Elves in silken robes stepped aside as he passed, pulling their skirts back as if his very presence was a stain on the floor.
Daemons with curving horns and eyes like smoldering coals leaned against the pillars, licking their lips as they watched his pulse thrum in his neck.
Faeries, tiny and glowing, zipped overhead, hissing insults in a language that sounded like breaking glass.
Aether kept his head down, trying to remember his father's words. "You are a man. You are a man."
Suddenly, the light was blocked out.
THUD.
Aether hit the floor hard as two large bodies slammed into him—his keys skidded across the marble, ringing out like a death knell. Standing over him were three Beastmen children.
Though they were only six or seven, they were already twice his size, their arms covered in thick, coarse fur and their teeth sharpened into points.
"Watch where you're going, hairless," the leader growled, a boy with the ears and snout of a hyena.
He stepped on Aether's keys, grinding them into the marble with his heavy boot.
"I... I'm sorry," Aether whispered, reaching for his keys.
The Hyena-boy kicked Aether's hand away and leaned down, his hot, carnivorous breath smelling of raw meat.
He grabbed the ID card hanging from Aether's neck and yanked it, the cord straining against Aether's throat.
"Look at this," the Beastman sneered to his friends. "They gave the monkey an ID. They think it can learn." He looked back at Aether, a cruel glint in his yellow eyes. "Hey, monkey. Let's see your Spectrum. Do you even have a spark, or are you just a walking piece of meat?"
One of the other boys, a stout rhino-like kid, cracked his knuckles. "I bet he bleeds just like the pigs we hunt in the plains."
The laughter of the Beastmen echoed off the high, vaulted ceilings, a sharp and jagged sound that felt worse than the physical pain.
As they walked off, one of them spat near Aether's hand, leaving him curled on the cold marble floor.
He waited for a hand to reach out.
He waited for a teacher to shout, for a guard to intervene, or for anyone to show even a flicker of justice.
But the crowd simply flowed around him like water around a stone.
To them, a human being kicked was no more significant than a leaf falling in the forest.