Opening up a Magic Academy at the End of the World

Tl;dr: Follow a transgender street rat in becoming a powerful mage in a secretive magic academy at the end of the world. As Sanya learns about the magic system, encounters troublesome individuals, and beats up monsters from another world, while she navigates her identity towards self-acceptance with what she has and who she is. Also, tumultuous lesbian romance that's (maybe) wholesome. Then there's Aisha, a tired temporal mage keeping a world-ending storm at bay, who wants to stop being cooped up and go adventuring. Unfortunately it reveals dangerous secrets and helps to ignite her little spark of regicidal tendencies. Synopsis: The world is tormented by a raging storm of fire and wind, leaving a lot of human civilization to live in vast caverns below ground. Yet, above, some cities have tried to flourish in canyons and craters, defying the tempest around them. Resources are few and far in between, and only animals that have adapted to the storms can survive them. There is one thing that makes civilization on the surface possible. Mages are enlisted to offer weak and fragile safety to those inside and moving between the cities. Mages who can control the winds and heat can tame the storm, while mages with temporal powers support them. In this precarious world, politics go wrong and opportunities are created. A prince's caravan goes missing, offered to the nearby city in diplomacy.  A fourth type of mage begins to emerge, with its individuals threatening to upend the system. A powerful temporal mage named Aisha wishes she could do more with her life than to write essays or to help keep the tempest at bay.  Sanya, with nothing left to lose and a budding magical ability, is given a most intriguing offer. She meets a captivating individual, and Sanya begins to change, for better or worse. Something quickly blooms between them. A magical school emerges deep in the caverns of the earth. Something sinister and scheming lurks in its endless shadows. What is the headmaster's end goal? What has Sanya found her way into? Of Aisha and Sanya, which one will end up as a heroic legend, and which one will be doomed to infamy, whispered about and mentioned only in hushed tones? And will the storm end? Or will it finally consume all of surface civilization? Important Notes:  ☆ Transgender MC (Sanya). If that's not your thing then don't read, transgender identity is a massive part of the plot. ☆ The book still gets romantically weird at times but never explicit and the deed is never done. It used to have the "sexual content" tag to be safe but I doubt it should really have it. ☆ Asterisk on the sensitive content tag. Mentions of self-harm. Dysphoria. Bullying. Mentioned/implied child murder/sacrifice. Violence and gore. Suicidal thoughts and attempts. ☆ I will never touch AI with even a ten-foot pole.  ☆ Cover made by slapping random supposedly royalty-free images from Pixabay together in Google Slides. Hopefully not AI images? . . . ☆ Also posting to Scribble Hub!