The headmaster's office reeked of fear and cold sweat.
Kael Voss sat across from the man behind the massive desk, his fingers tapping slowly on the armrest of a leather chair. Aurion Vex, director of the prestigious Stellaris Academy, was trembling literally. His twitching hands betrayed a nervousness he was clearly struggling to hide.
" So? " Kael's voice was slow, deliberate, slicing through the silence like a blade.
" Are we going to talk, or should I tell everyone what really happened fifteen years ago? "
Vex straightened in his chair, trying to regain his usual composure. The effect was pitiful—his hands still shook, and a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
" I don't know what you're talking about, kid. The guards will..."
" The guards? " Kael chuckled, joyless and sharp, making Vex flinch.
" The ones with powers? Do you really want me to touch them? Show them what I can do? "
The headmaster paled even more, his skin turning an unhealthy gray. Kael leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk. Vex instinctively recoiled, as if pushed back by an invisible force.
" Tell me, Aurion..." Kael savored each syllable of the name.
" How does it feel to pretend you still have power, when it's been gone for so long? How does it feel to lie every day, to perform for an audience that doesn't know you're empty? "
" How do you... How could you possibly know that? "
" Witnesses. Lots of them." Kael slowly pulled a thick envelope from his worn-out jacket.
" Want me to read their statements? Aurion Vex, once able to bend gravity, to make objects fly, to fold space at will. Reduced to nothing after crossing the wrong heir. Forced to hide, to lie, to act for years..."
Vex shot up, knocking over his chair with a loud thud.
" Shut up ! You know nothing ! You don't understand ! "
" Oh, but I do." Kael didn't even flinch. His voice was calm, cold.
" I know shame. I know what it's like to be nothing in a world where power is everything. The only difference is—I never had to lie."
The headmaster came around the desk, closing the distance between them. His eyes burned with desperate rage. Kael remained perfectly still, his ice-blue gaze locked on Vex's.
" You dare come into my academy and threaten me? Do you have any idea what I can do to a street rat like you? To people like you? "
" Yes." Kael stood slowly, his right hand reaching toward Vex's.
" You can beg me not to expose your secret."
Vex recoiled as if Kael's hand were aflame, his eyes locked on the approaching fingers.
" Don't come near me ! Don't touch me ! "
" Why not ? " Kael smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
" Afraid I'll prove there's nothing left to take? That your whole persona is just a house of cards? "
Silence fell again, heavy and suffocating. Vex slumped into his chair, suddenly ten years older. His shoulders sagged as he buried his face in his hands.
" What do you want? " he asked, voice broken.
" Money? Connections? What? "
" A place. Here. At the Academy."
Vex's head snapped up, eyes wide.
" That's impossible. You have no lineage, no recommendation, no noble blood, no...."
" I have this." Kael waved the envelope.
" And I also have this."
He rolled up his sleeve slowly, revealing a deep black scar in the shape of a shattered star etched into his forearm, as if it had been burned into the flesh.
Vex stared at it, mouth opening and closing without sound.
" That's impossible. That mark... it hasn't been seen since...."
" It belongs to the Nullified, yes. Those who touched power and erased it forever." Kael pulled his sleeve back down with measured precision.
" Except I didn't touch. I was touched."
" What are you talking about? Explain ! "
" Someone tried to steal my power. A talent thief, you know the type. But instead, I took his. Permanently." Kael's smile didn't reach his eyes.
" Now imagine what happens when I touch someone on purpose."
Vex swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.
" You're saying you're..."
" A Nullifier. The first in centuries." Kael sat back down, crossing his legs.
" Now, tell me how one enrolls at this academy."
" The parents will object. The board will..."
" You'll come up with something. You're good at that, aren't you? After all, you've lied about your abilities for fifteen years. One more secret admission won't kill you."
Vex was silent for a long time, staring at his hands like they held answers. When he finally looked up, something had changed in his eyes. The fear was still there, but now it shared space with something else. Resignation? Hope?
" You have no idea what you're walking into, kid. "
" Kael. My name is Kael Voss. And I'm seventeen, not five."
" Kael, then." Vex stood, moving toward the large window that overlooked the academy's floating gardens.
" This academy... it's not what it seems."
" No academy ever is. Especially the ones for the rich."
" No, you don't understand." Vex turned around, and Kael was surprised to see genuine fear in his eyes.
" There are things here... old things. Dangerous things. Once you set foot inside these walls, you might never leave. Not intact, at least."
" Trying to scare me off? You're wasting your time."
" I'm trying to save your life."
Kael stepped closer to the window. Below, students in gleaming uniforms practiced their powers in the gardens. One boy levitated stones in a perfect circle. A girl danced with multicolored flames. Another molded shadows like they were clay.
" Look at them," he said softly, his voice tinged with sadness.
" They don't even know they're prisoners."
" What do you mean? "
Kael placed his hand on the glass. Instantly, cracks spiderwebbed from his palm, forming strange patterns—like broken chains spreading from the point of contact.
" Their power... it's not really theirs, is it? "
Vex staggered back, shocked by what he'd just seen.
" How do you know that? How can you even feel that? "
" Because when I touch someone, I don't just sense their power. I feel what binds it, what cages it, what makes it a parasite instead of a gift. " Kael turned to face the headmaster, his blue eyes burning with unsettling intensity.
" So tell me, Aurion Vex. What's really hidden in this academy? "
Vex opened his mouth, then closed it. He shuffled back to his desk, pulled out an enrollment form, and placed it in front of Kael with trembling hands.
" You really want to know? Then enroll. But never say I didn't warn you. Never."
Kael took the pen, but before signing, he looked up.
" One last question. Why are you really agreeing to this? It's not just the blackmail. There's something else."
Vex smiled sadly, and for the first time, Kael saw the man he must've been before losing his power.
" Because I've been waiting fifteen years for someone like you. Someone who can break the chains. Someone who might finally free this academy from its curse."
" What chains? What curse? "
" You'll see. Oh, you'll see soon enough." Vex turned back to the window, eyes fixed on the students below.
" Sign the paper, Kael Voss. And may the gods have mercy on us both."
Kael signed with a firm stroke. The moment the ink touched the page, something shifted in the air. As if the academy itself had become aware of him. As if something ancient had just awakened.
He handed the form back. Vex took it without looking, eyes still on the horizon.
" Welcome to Stellaris Academy," the headmaster whispered.
" May your stay be... enlightening."
Kael moved toward the door, but Vex's voice stopped him.
" Kael? "
" Yes? "
" The mirrors. Avoid them until you know what they hide. And whatever you do, don't trust them."
Kael frowned, but Vex had already turned away.
Out in the hallway, Kael passed an ornate mirror framed in gold. His reflection stared back—but something was off. Just for a second, he could've sworn there was another figure behind him. Smiling. With eyes that glowed in a way no light ever should.
He stepped closer, but the reflection was normal again. Almost normal.
" Interesting," he murmured.
Then he heard it—a laugh. Light, crystalline, coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. A laugh that seemed to echo from the mirror itself.
Kael smiled. This academy would be more fun than he'd imagined. And far more dangerous.
But as he walked away, he didn't see the words that briefly appeared on the mirror's surface, written in an ancient, invisible hand :
[ Welcome home, Nullifier. We've been waiting. ]
The message vanished, but the echo of that laughter lingered in the empty hallway, long after Kael had disappeared.