This was my winning entry in the written category for the Sanctum Polis Contest that was held last month. Jace will be appearing in the game as an NPC that will be interacting with the main protagonists!

This was a really challenging bit of writing. It was difficult to touch on all the requirements of the contest in just 1000 words, while also presenting it as a journal entry.

Story by Me!

---

My name is Jace Simmons and this is a recounting of my first da –Wait, that sounds stupid. I’ve never kept a journal before, how do you start one of these things? I’m only writing this because today was my first day at Solaris Notre University, and it was so strange that I felt the need to put my thoughts down on paper.

Though I had hoped for things to be different here, it started out much as I expected; an orientation in a crowded auditorium where despite the number of people, I was surrounded by empty seats. No one wants to sit near the black cat…a Cursed One… Superstitious nonsense! It’s plagued me all my life and is what brought me to Solaris Notre in the first place, the only university that would take me. It was foolish of me to think that things would be different here…

Oh well, I’m just going to have to put up with it like always I guess. As my first sensei used to say: Endure. In enduring, grow strong. And that reminds me, I need to find out if there is a martial arts class or club here. Practicing martial arts has always helped me in the past to stay focused and not let my circumstances wear me down and it seems I’ll have need of that here as well.

Anyways, after the orientation, the new students were broken up by house, A’Risel in my case, for a tour of the facilities. This was when the day started to get…interesting. This place…this university is…odd. It’s an honest to goodness castle! Sure, a castle with electricity and plumbing, but still…a castle! It’s positively medieval! Walking through the place was incredibly surreal, like I had stumbled into some fantasy novel. And the library, my god the library! I half expected to see some old guy in a robe shuffling between the racks…and then I did!! Unbelievable!

There was only one other thing of note that occurred during the tour. Unsurprisingly, the other students were keeping their distance from me, despite the crowded halls. It’s something I’ve come to expect. At one point our group passed by another student that was being treated much the same. It was a horned lizard, an underclassman from Aquirelle based on his uniform. While it was obvious why students were keeping their distance from me, I had no clue as to why they were avoiding him. But as we passed by, our eyes met and it felt as if we shared a moment of mutual understanding. Or maybe he was just glaring at me… It’s really hard to tell with reptiles!

After the tour was over, the upperclassman who had been leading it, a fox by the name of Soul, did a once over of our attire to ensure it satisfied the uniform requirements. I’d actually been a bit worried about that bit, but thankfully the leather of the jacket I wear was a light enough brown to be acceptable for an underclassman. I was surprised though, when I expressed my…. distaste for the standard Eye of Solaris necklace, that Soul offered to help me find something different in the student store. Eventually we settled on a yellow bandana emblazoned with the Eye, tied around my forearm. Soul claimed it looked pretty cool like that, and while I’ll never admit it to anyone I… sort of agree with him! I have to give credit to Soul, as annoying as I find his silly nature, it was nice not being ignored or avoided like usual.

Once that was taken care of, I explored the castle for a while on my own, winding up back in the library…and that’s when the day really got weird! I had intended to just peruse the shelves for a while, but I happened upon a comfy looking chair in an out of the way section of the library. It was next to a window and bathed in the warm afternoon sun and as a cat, I just couldn’t resist! Needless to say, I quickly fell asleep and had the oddest dream I’ve ever had…

I was wandering around some hedge maze like garden at twilight, and being attacked by all sorts of weird monsters. I was fighting them off rather easily, it was kinda cool and itself isn’t too unusual a dream for me as I’ve had similar dreams ever since I took up martial arts. But I was doing more than just beating them down with my fists, I was also…cursing them or something, weakening them. That part wasn’t so cool…I try really hard not to dwell on those stupid superstitions that surround me and this was a rather unpleasant reminder of them…

At some point in the dream, I noticed that someone was watching me. It was a canine as best I could tell, with mismatched eyes. Based on his attire, it looked like he was an upperclassman from Terranel, but I don’t recall ever having seen him before. The way he was looking at me was… unsettling. It was like he was sizing me up, silently observing and judging. Before I could approach him though, I got attacked by more monsters and by the time I had dealt with them he was gone.

I woke up shortly after that, but as strange as the dream was, the weirdest thing of all is that even now, hours later, I can still recall it vividly! Like it wasn’t a dream at all! It must be this place… There’s something different about this university, it’s so removed from the rest of the world it feels like the rules are different here… There’s an energy in the atmosphere of this place that is both a bit unnerving and…exciting! Maybe things will be different here after all, and I have a feeling my time here at Solaris Notre will be anything but boring!