"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
~Lisa Mantchev, Eyes Like Stars

I followed Caleb to yet another massive building. Upon entering, I was greeted by a girl landing next to me out of nowhere. I jumped back, looking up to see where she'd just come from. All I saw was a seventy-foot atrium. Had she dropped all the way from there?

"Hey! Sorry! Didn't see you there!" the girl exclaimed.

"No problem," I replied. "Just wasn't expecting it."

"You're new here, aren't you?"

"What gave it away?"

"Most people know to look up when entering this building. Caleb, forgot to tell her that did you?"

"In my defense, I didn't see you coming down either," he said. "I thought I'd mention it later."

Iris shook her head. "Rule number one for the training building: whenever you enter, always look up. If you don't, you might get squashed. I'm Iris Martin, by the way. I'm one of the trainers here."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Lilly Snow."

"Welcome to Vasileia! Have you discovered your power yet?"

I shook my head. "No, not yet. What's your power?"

"Don't worry, it'll come when you and it are both ready. I have Telekinesis. I can make most things levitate, including myself. It's pretty cool. Are you here to sign up for lessons?" I nodded. "Then allow me to be one of your tutors. There are five different sections in this building that you'll learn: weapons training, hand-to-hand combat, stealth training, strength and endurance, and last but not least, my personal favorite because I teach it: terrain training. Caleb's brother teaches weapons training, my brother teaches hand-to-hand combat. My friend Ella teaches stealth, and another friend of mine, Killian, teaches strength and endurance. His superpower is super-strength. His arms are like... twice the size of my head. You'd love training with him. Of course, there are tons of people that teach each course, and we try to put you with the people that will suit you best although I have to admit, I'm pretty good at telling who will work well with whom. Come with me. We'll go sign you up."

Iris walked over to a desk where an older man sat typing away at a computer. The resemblance between him and Iris was startling, leading me to believe he was either her much older brother or her father. On this planet, it could be either.

"Lilly, this is my dad, Joe Martin. Dad, this is Lilly Snow," Iris introduced. Joe smiled at me as he stood up. "He's the head of security for Alexandria. He's a bigshot around here."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lilly. How are you liking Alexandria?" He inquired.

"It's really nice, but a lot to take in," I confessed.

"She did only wake up about two hours ago," Caleb added. "I'm taking her to her room once we're done here, so she can rest."

"You poor thing!" Iris exclaimed, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Let's hurry and get you signed up. I don't want to keep you waiting. First, you'll need to come in for an assessment to see where you are at the basics and get an idea about your personality, so we know which teachers to partner you up with. Would you be up to coming in tomorrow at ten?"

"Yes," I agreed.

"Great! I'll meet you here. Eat a good breakfast. We'll be here a while. But be careful not to overeat. We don't want you getting sick."

"I have a pretty strong stomach. The only time I was ever sick like that was when I had the stomach flu."

"Good, you're tough. All right, well, get some rest, and I'll see you tomorrow. It was a pleasure meeting you, Lilly!"

I waved goodbye at Iris and Joe before following Caleb back to the main building. He led me to a set of glass elevators. When we stepped into them, I stuck close to the door. This building had one-hundred-seventy floors according to the elevator, and my room was on level 165. This was absolutely terrifying.

"I take it you're not a fan of heights?" Caleb questioned, leaning against the railing with his back to the atrium.

"Not at all. Or spiders. Or space. Hence my panic attack. It was also from being brought to space by kidnappers but still."

"You'll get used to space travel. I can help you with it if you want."

"I'm not the only one that was freaked out by it, right?"

"Definitely not. Trust me, it's common for most people from Earth to be afraid of being taken into space by complete strangers. Most don't wake up before they get to the planet, though. You and Vivienne were anomalies, but that's because your bodies reacted differently to the knock out drug. That's all. Chad injected you with a different dose the second time to make sure you'd stay out."

"Being an anomaly seems to be the norm right now."

"You'll be fine, Lilly. Dylan and I are here to take care of you two. Whatever you need, just ask."

"Is there any way I can get my cats and Vivienne's dogs up here?"

"I'll work on it." The bell dinged, alerting us we'd reached my floor. "We're here."

"Wait, what happened to the atrium?" I stared at the blackness surrounding the glass elevator. I hadn't even noticed that'd happened.

Caleb smiled. "I distracted you from focusing on the height and instead on our conversation. It happened when we passed the thirtieth floor."

Caleb led me to a room at the end of the hallway. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Entering it, my mouth dropped open. The room was beautiful, to say the least. It was also bigger than my apartment back on Earth. The kitchen and living room floor was white marble. The cabinets were dark mahogany, and the countertops were sparkling white granite. There were stainless steel appliances as well. I couldn't cook so this place wasn't going to get dirty, but that was okay with me. I didn't want to ruin the beautifulness of this kitchen.

The living room had a flat-screen TV, a bookshelf filled with books, and couches covered in a plush fabric I couldn't name for the life of me. The bedroom was even more impressive. It differed from the modern kitchen. It focused more on coziness and comfort with its queen-sized bed, fluffy white duvet cover, beige walls, and stone fireplace opposite the bed with a television mounted on the stone above the fireplace. The bathroom mixed the kitchen and bedroom together, using the cabinet, floor, and granite from the kitchen but the beige walls from the bedroom. It tied everything in together nicely.

"Who's paying for all this?" I asked in awe.

"Esmeralda. Like I said, you'll meet her soon. She pays for it until you have the means to. For now, get some rest. There are clothes in the drawers for you. All brand new until you get your stuff from Earth. There should be some basic cooking stuff in the fridge for you, and you can get more tomorrow. If you want something and it's not in the fridge, call my lab. Here's my number," Caleb said, handing me a slip of paper. "I'll get you whatever you want. If you need anything else, feel free to call. I'm here to help."

"Thank you."

There was an awkward silence between us before he said, "I know you're freaked out, but I promise this will make more sense once you talk to Esmeralda. She's wonderful. You probably hate us for kidnapping you, too. Believe me, we've been trying to figure out a better way for centuries, but kidnapping seems to be the most efficient. But just... remember this to help you come to terms with it: you were chosen because there's something special about you. Truly something special. Same with Vivienne too. I know she discovered her calling sooner, but you'll find yours too, whatever it may be."

"Have you found anything from the tests you ran on me?"

"No. I'm looking, though. Sometimes even the most skilled DNA analyzer can't find it."

I smiled gratefully at him. "I don't hate you, I don't even hate Dylan or Chad, although I have to admit I don't know what to make of the latter one. You're right, I'm freaked out. Completely, totally, insanely freaked out, but you've helped a lot. Thank you for that."

"Of course. I know this can't be easy, so I want to make this as smooth as possible for you. I'll see you tomorrow. Do you want to meet me for breakfast at nine? Dylan and Vivienne will be invited, too, of course."

"Yeah. That sounds good. Meet you down at the elevators?"

"You'll be okay riding it down by yourself?"

"I have to get used to it, don't I?"

Caleb chuckled. "All right, I'll see you tomorrow at nine. Good night, Lilly."