The Infinite Ascent
Chapter 3: The Weight of a Name
The sun had barely begun its climb when I stepped into the yard, the dawn air sharp and cold against my skin. My shoes, worn thin and split at the seams, did little to shield me from the bite of the earth beneath. Around me, the orphanage stirred awake, not with joy, but with the weary rhythm of survival.
Children in tattered rags shuffled about, their small frames bent under burdens too large for them to bear. Some struggled at the well, pulling water with trembling arms, while others dragged bundles of firewood that threatened to crush their fragile bodies. The sound of strained breaths mixed with the caw of distant crows, a chorus that spoke of hunger and exhaustion.
This was life at the edge of Veyrith, the city that gleamed for nobles and Pathwalkers but left the rest of us to rot.
I tightened my cloak around my shoulders, though the frayed fabric offered no warmth. My eyes drifted toward the older boys brawling near the wall, their shoves and snarls more about dominance than play. And there he was, Marik. Broad-shouldered, scarred, a brute who ruled this yard like a tyrant. His fists were law, his laughter cruel, and at his side skulked his shadows: Joren, wiry and sly, and Talla, always grinning with venom.
In the world beyond these walls, they would be nothing. But here, among gutter-born orphans, they were predators.
"Nameless!" Marik's voice cut through the yard the moment his eyes locked on me. A grin split his scarred face. "Did you finish scrubbing the pots, or did you break another one with your useless hands?"
Laughter erupted around him, his lackeys cackling as if the insult were a feast. The word clung to me like a brand, Nameless. A reminder that I had no lineage, no worth, nothing that bound me to this world but suffering.
But last night had changed everything.
The memory burned fresh: words not spoken by man but etched into my mind by something greater. A whisper of the Path itself, ancient and undeniable.
[Name Registration Complete.]
[Koganenosora.]
Golden Sky.
I felt the syllables roll in my thoughts, weighty and strange. This was no gutter-child's name. It belonged to legends, to Pathwalkers who carved their steps across the heavens. And yet it was mine. Given, not taken. Bestowed, not begged.
At the well, I pulled a bucket of water, staring at my reflection in its rippling surface. My face was as hollow as ever, pale and marked by exhaustion. But the name… it hung in the air around me, as if waiting for me to claim it.
"Do you… really have a name?"
The voice was soft, hesitant. I looked down to see Liora, one of the younger girls. She clutched a cracked bowl in her tiny hands, her wide eyes fixed on me with something I hadn't seen in years, hope.
For a moment, I hesitated. To speak it aloud was dangerous. Names had power, and to wield one in this place was to invite scorn, envy, or worse. But silence was no longer an option.
"Yes," I said, my voice steady despite the tremor in my chest. "Koganenosora."
The name carried out across the yard, slicing through laughter, chatter, and caws. Children froze. Heads turned. For once, no one laughed. Their eyes widened, not with mockery, but with something sharper. Confusion. Curiosity. Fear.
Even Marik faltered. His grin cracked for a heartbeat before he spat into the dirt. "Golden Sky, is it? Sounds like a fool's fancy. Don't think a name will save you from a beating, Nameless."
But I caught the flicker in his gaze, the unease he couldn't mask. He felt it too.
The overseer appeared then, his staff cracking against stone as he barked for order. His gaze swept the yard, pausing when it found me. From his belt hung a chipped jade talisman, and for the briefest moment it shimmered faintly, as if stirred awake by the weight of my name. His eyes lingered on me with suspicion… and interest.
The morning resumed with its grind of chores and cruelty, but I knew something had shifted. The children still whispered, Marik still glared, the overseer still cursed, but beneath it all, a seed had been planted.
I was no longer just an orphan, no longer Nameless.
I was Koganenosora.
And someday, they would all remember it.
To be continued…