Morning did not arrive with brilliance, but with a slow unveiling—light seeping through the gauze of dreams, soft and unhurried; a pale glow crept across the windowpane, tinting the air with a fragile gold, as though the world itself were hesitant to disturb the hush and the quiet of the estate was an old friend, one that clung to the corners of rooms and the edges of thoughts.
Kai stirred in the worn reading chair where he'd spent most of the night, his limbs stiff and aching from the unnatural stillness, but his mind far from rested; he had not slept—at least not in any way that could be called peaceful; his eyes had closed, yet his thoughts had kept spinning, unraveling, tangling into threads of confusion. The faint hum of memory lingered, like a shadow that danced just out of reach; faint flashes of faces, voices, and places that seemed both foreign and intimately familiar.
The world around him felt off-kilter, as though reality itself were holding its breath. The shadows along the wall stretched longer than they should. The ceiling, the corners of the desk—everything looked subtly misaligned, like a piece of artwork that had been hung slightly crooked. The air felt charged, as if something were about to shift and no one but him could sense it.
The shimmer of the Status screen had vanished from his mind's eye, leaving only a faint, lingering echo. His gaze wandered back to the mirror that hung on the opposite wall; in its polished surface, a young man with disheveled hair and eyes that seemed far older than they should met his reflection. There was no magical display this time, no burst of runes or glowing figures; just him—and yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed within; that something deeper than sight had been unlocked within him.
He didn't fully understand what had happened in the moments after he'd awakened. His Talent—he knew it was there, hidden somewhere within him, though its full meaning was still elusive. The shimmer of his awakening remained, and he was certain that it would manifest soon enough, but whether it was power or curse, it was something he would need to unravel; the feeling of something otherworldly, something beyond him, clung to him now, and it made the space around him feel foreign.
The estate had always been a place of quiet contemplation, filled with rows of shelves laden with scrolls and books, each one a potential key to understanding the mysteries of the world; and yet, as he'd sat there last night, rifling through pages that should have offered insight, nothing had clicked into place, the lore was dense, ancient, and yet it did little to clear the fog clouding his mind.
He hadn't expected answers, but he had hoped for something more.
The knock on the door broke his reverie, soft yet deliberate.
Once
Then twice
Polite, but expectant
Kai rose slowly, his limbs stiff from the long hours in the chair. He moved to the door with the weight of something pressing deep in his chest; a question—No it was more a gnawing uncertainty. He opened the door to find his sister standing there, her presence like a familiar anchor in the shifting sea of his thoughts.
Ren Lian was, as always, poised and assured, despite her youth, he remembered her to be Sixteen, but she carried herself with a quiet authority that belied her age. Her long, dark hair was woven into a loose braid, strands of silver woven through the black, as though to mark the passage of time in some subtle way; with her violet eyes, cool and unreadable, regarded him with quiet assessment.
"You're awake," she said, her tone matter-of-fact, as though she had expected it.
Ren Kai nodded, offering her a half-hearted smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Sister.."
For a brief moment, she looked at him—really looked—before stepping inside without waiting for permission. Her eyes roved across the scattered scrolls and books, taking in the disarray of his efforts from the night before and seeing this her gaze softened, just slightly, though she said nothing.
"They said you might sleep for a week," she remarked, almost absently, as she took in the room "You were fevered when they brought you in; muttering something.."
Ren Kai's heart tightened. "What did I say?"
Her eyes met his, steady and unblinking. "Names I didn't know; pieces of things that weren't connected, but you kept calling for someone.. A child to be exact"
The words hit him like a weight in his chest, a cold knot settling deep in his ribs. He turned away, unable to meet her gaze"It's strange then, because i don't remember"he said with an akward laugh.
She didn't press further, though he could feel the question in the silence that hung between them, instead, she moved to the desk, her fingers brushing along the edge of an opened letter; the seal, broken just the night before, was a faint imprint on the wax.
"You've read this," she said, It wasn't a question, but a statement; a recognition.
He nodded slowly"Yes"
"Then you know what today is"she said; with an expectant look
He hesitated for a moment, the words coming out in a breath that felt too heavy for his chest. "The thirteenth day of the Silver Veil"
Ren Lian's expression remained neutral, but something in her eyes flickered—something like the quiet acknowledgment of a shared truth. "Two days until the deadline"
He felt the weight of those words settle over him like a stone. There would be no second invitations from Aetherion Academy. The letter was clear; he had to present himself before noon, or the opportunity would be lost.
"You're going" she said, her voice calm and certain, as though she had already accepted it. "Whether you remember it or not, whether you want to or not"
He opened his mouth, then closed it. There was no argument to be made, no refusal left to voice. It wasn't fear that kept him quiet—it was the feeling of something else within him stirring. Something pressing, pulling him toward an uncertain future.
"I think I am" he said softly, his voice almost a whisper, unsure of the certainty behind the words.
Lian's breath escaped in a long, slow exhale. Her shoulders, which had been held taut with anticipation, seemed to relax. "Good! I was going to drag you there if you refused"
He found himself chuckling despite the weight of everything pressing in on him. "You could try"
Her gaze didn't shift, though her lips quirked, a faint trace of amusement breaking through the usual calm. "Don't mistake me for kind, brother. I protect what's mine, and you are part of that—whether or not you remember why"
Her words didn't strike him like a warning; rather, they settled on him like a vow—a quiet promise woven into the air. Her tone left no room for argument, but there was no cruelty in it either; just an unyielding certainty that he didn't fully understand.
Lian turned toward the door without another word. "Get dressed and come down; breakfast is ready, and remember that we leave at noon. The carriages will take us to the Skyport; After that…" She paused, turning back to face him with a small, inscrutable smile. "Aetherion."
He opened his mouth to ask—but she answered before he could.
"Not yet. My next term doesn't start for weeks, because i'm still recovering from my last Trial; but I'll meet you there."
And then she was gone.
The room felt different in her absence—emptier, but not hollow. Her presence had left something behind. A thread of memory, or maybe just a thread of meaning.
He turned to the mirror again, searching for that glint of silver that had stared back the night before. It was gone; but he no longer needed to see it to know it was still there.
He stood for a long moment, then reached for the cloak folded on the chair.
He would go, but not because the letter demanded it or given that Lian expected it.
But due to the fact that something inside him had already begun to move.
That Talent… he's sure of it. There's something wrong about it, something more profound than just its power. It feels like a thread pulled too tight, humming beneath his skin, stretching somewhere unseen—into depths he can't yet name. It's not just unfamiliar. It's off. Like a half-remembered melody played in reverse, or a dream that doesn't fade even after waking.
And yet… it fits
Perfectly
Terrifyingly
As if it had always been a part of him, just waiting for the right moment to surface.
He decided to dress himself with methodical care, though he hardly remembered owning the garments he chose. Each piece felt selected by another version of himself—an echo of the boy who'd once lived here; dressed with: slate-gray tunic, reinforced with a weave of mana-thread that pulsed faintly beneath the surface, Charcoal trousers and soft boots that muted his steps, tailored for travel and finally, a dark cloak fastened with a silver clasp in the shape of a rising star—the mark of House Ren.
As he moved, the fabric responded to him. Lightened. Shifted. A cloak meant for a mage, then—though he didn't yet know what kind.
The estate was awake now, alive with quiet motion. Servants passed in swift silence, each nodding with deference but keeping their eyes averted; because they knew who he was or who he had been. Kai could feel the weight of their expectation pressing in from every glance not taken, every whisper not spoken.
Down the spiral stair, through the hall lined with moonlit crystal sconces, to the dining chamber.
Lian; his sister, was already seated at the head of the long table, legs crossed, a steaming cup of bitterroot tea cradled between her hands. She looked up as he entered and gave a single approving nod, it was the closest she came to praise.
Breakfast was laid out in careful order: smoked skyfish, three types of fruit—one native, two imported from the Cloudreach—isles—and a modest portion of honeyed grain bread. He ate more out of necessity than appetite, trying not to notice how each bite turned to dust in his mouth.
"You don't trust it" Lian said, watching him from across the table.
He raised a brow, reaching for the bread basket "The bread?"
She didn't smile "The future"
He stilled, fingers brushing the crust before pulling back.
A beat passed and then "Should I?"
Lian sipped her tea, eyes calm but distant, like she was listening to something just beyond the walls "Trust is a luxury: You act and then you adapt."
He leaned back slightly, arms folded "Spoken like someone who's seen what happens when you trust the wrong thing"
She didn't answer right away, instead, she set her cup down gently, the soft clink unnervingly final "I've seen what happens when you trust anything too much. Even yourself"
That drew his attention: he studied her now—not as the sister, who was funny and joked about everything through the halls of their estate, but as someone older, harder and with not a look of pity, nor warning—just understanding.
The kind that doesn't come from watching someone fall, but from falling yourself.A person who understood, not just by observing it, but by living it.
"…Is that what the Trials taught you?" he asked quietly
"No" she said. "That's what surviving them taught me"
It sounded like something their mother might've said, but he didn't remember her voice well enough to be sure.
When they'd finished eating, a steward appeared at the doorway and gave a low bow.
"The carriage is ready, Master Kai"
Master
The title hit him strange, like a coat that didn't quite fit.
He stood and Lian was already ahead of him.
Outside, the estate grounds shimmered under the mid-morning sun. Towering trees with blue-veined leaves swayed gently in an unfelt breeze. The sky was a soft lavender, streaked with gold mist—a sign of aetheric shift, if he recalled his old studies right. The kind of thing most couldn't see.
But he could
Now
A sleek, obsidian carriage waited at the gate, sigil-lit and drawn by two cloudmanes—beasts halfway between lion and wind, their manes trailing mist that sparkled faintly in daylight. One of them glanced at Kai and gave a low chuff, its gaze lingering longer than mere instinct should allow.
Lian noticed "You're already changing"
He looked at her
"You couldn't have seen them before" she said. "Not clearly. Cloudmanes only reveal themselves to those attuned to the Veil"
He wasn't sure how to feel about that.
They stepped into the carriage; then the doors sealed with a hiss and a faint hum of activated runes. As the carriage lifted from the earth and began to glide toward the distant spires of the Skyport, Kai allowed himself a single breath.
And then, for the first time, he asked the question out loud.
"Why me?"
Lian didn't answer immediately. She watched the shifting trees, the fields blurring past, the distant silhouette of the Academy airships waiting above the clouds.
At last, she said, her voice low and measured, "The world is changing. My teacher said this kind of shift hasn't happened since the pre-Schism age. Something—no, someone—caused it. And whoever it is… they don't have good intentions"
She looked away for a moment, as if watching something distant through the window. "It might not even be a power we can classify. Not B-Rank and Not A. Maybe not even just one person. My teacher thinks it could be someone of Legendary Rank; an S to be precise"
Her gaze returned to him, sharp now, searching. "And if that's true… we're all walking into something far bigger than we're ready for"
With a sharp breath she added,"The fact that you awakened right in this moment is also a fortune—besides i never talked about what happened in your awakening; the fact that you passed out about the same time that change occurred was suspicius.. Have you dreamed anything?"
Ren Kai didn't answer right away. He turned his gaze to the sky, to where Aetherion hovered at the edge of vision. Floating - like a ship trapped in calm waters, vast and waiting for the sailor to open his sails.
"No" he said at last
He didn't have answers yet.
But he had a path. Something that he will follow; even if abstract and sometimes never ending.
The hum of the carriage lulled him into silence. Lian had grown quiet, too, her gaze steady on the shifting skyline ahead. They passed through veils of cloud, the magic-wrought glass of the carriage shifting to clarity each time, offering glimpses of the world below—forests like green fire, rivers that ran silver in the light.
But Ren Kai's eyes were growing heavy.
The first pull of sleep felt sharp, like falling—but sideways, into a place where time no longer cared for sequence or order. He resisted at first, but then let go.
Darkness.Then light.Then—
A voice. Not his. Not Lian's.
"The time isen't right yet. Only when the fus— of the —— happen will he be able to—"
A hand—his own, but younger—reached into the earth. Something pulsed beneath his fingers. A beat. A rhythm. Like a heart buried in stone but filled with nothing
"He's not ready."
The voice again. Female. Ageless. Gentle—but not kind.
He tried to turn toward it, but the world twisted before he could.
Space folded like cloth being drawn through a needle. Worlds shimmered in the air around him—glimpses of impossible landscapes blooming and dying in an instant. Galaxies spun like coins on a glass table, colliding, merging, vanishing. Entire universes twisted inward and imploded, only to bloom outward again, like lungs struggling to breathe.
Gravity broke. Direction lost all meaning. Up bled into down. Light fractured into languages he couldn't read.
Time cracked like ice beneath his feet.
Colors streamed past him like smoke and memory, forming towers of shifting architecture—castles built of thought, cathedrals of flame and whispering glass. They grew and collapsed all at once, spiraling into a sky that folded over itself like parchment burned at the edges.
And somewhere in all that chaos—
Someone was screaming.
Not falling, not rising. Just… unraveling.
And then came the cold.
Not the kind that touches skin, but the kind that sinks deeper. It moved through him like a whisper, scraping across the edges of his name—peeling him away, syllable by syllable.
"Kai."
The voice called him back.
But he didn't answer.
Because suddenly, he was standing in a courtyard made of glass under a sky that didn't belong to anything he knew. Stars burned unfamiliar shapes overhead. Around him—mirrors. Dozens—Hundreds..
No, they coulden't be counted.
And in each reflection, he was not only someone else; but also with other exapressions and emotions.
Older
Younger
Laughing
Bleeding
Burning
Glowing
Gone
One mirror cracked as he neared it. The figure inside smiled—and Kai's breath caught in his throat. The smile was wrong. Wrong in the way a shadow bends where light should fall.
Too wide
Too knowing
Full of teeth that weren't his
"They'll find out, you know" the reflection said.
"That you're already started to remember."he added with a knowing smile.
He turned away, heart pounding—but the voice followed him, threading itself into the walls of his mind.
"You think this is the beginning? No, little ghost. This is the second chapter. And the page is already stained; but this will probably be one of the last Stories"
A burst of wind howled through the courtyard. The mirrors screamed as they shattered, shards spinning outward like falling stars.
And then—he was falling again.
Kai awoke with a sharp inhale, cold sweat clinging to his skin like frost
Lian didn't even look up
"You were talking in your sleep," she said, casually. "Something about chances?"
He didn't respond.
The carriage had stopped. Outside the window, the Skyport stretched like a spire made of light and bridges. Beyond it, some kind of structure, layered by some kind of magic system and symbols; shaped like a winged crescent floated in wait—emblazoned with a glowing sigil:
Aetherion
He swallowed
And stepped out into his future.