The Hall of the Crystal still thrummed with the echo of Neel's awakening. Cracks glowed faintly across the Origin Crystal's flawless surface, spiderweb fractures that no hand had ever marked before. The silence that followed felt heavier than thunder.
Every eye was on him.
Neel's chest heaved, sparks flickering over his palms as he struggled to contain what burned inside him. Fire and storm — together, clashing, coiling, neither yielding to the other. He felt as though he were being torn in half from the inside.
The whispers started almost at once.
"Two elements?"
"Impossible!"
"Cursed… the Shattered Core!"
The words spread like wildfire through the hall. Neel staggered back, the labels striking harder than any blow. Cursed. Shattered. Dangerous.
Above the murmur, Keshav Rao's voice rang out, sharp and cold.
"Silence!"
The crowd hushed, but the fear in their eyes did not vanish. Keshav stepped forward, his staff striking the ground, flames sparking at its tip. His gaze bore into Neel, dissecting him with a heat sharper than any fire.
"Fire and storm," Keshav said slowly, as though tasting the words. "No balance. No harmony. Only chaos. Such a thing should not be."
Neel swallowed hard. "I… I didn't choose this."
"Power is not chosen," Keshav cut in, his tone flat. "It is revealed. And sometimes, it reveals monsters."
Gasps rippled. The word hung in the air like ash.
–––
From the crowd, Aarav Menon smirked, though his envy was etched deep in the set of his jaw. He leaned toward a nearby student and muttered loudly enough for the whisper to carry.
"Monster fits. Look at him—he nearly cracked the Crystal in half. He could've killed us all."
Students shifted uneasily, glancing between Neel and the scarred Crystal. Aarav's grin widened, but his eyes glittered with bitterness.
He had stood in the circle only minutes before, wrapped in proud flames, soaking in cheers. Now, no one looked at him. They looked at Neel. Not with admiration, but with fear, with awe, with disbelief. And in Aarav's chest, envy flared hotter than his fire.
–––
But not everyone recoiled.
Leela Deshmukh broke through the crowd, slipping to Neel's side. She placed her hand lightly on his arm, steadying him. Her touch was cool, calming against the storm raging in him.
"Don't listen," she whispered, her voice firm. "You're not cursed. You're still you. No matter what they say."
Her eyes met his, warm and unflinching, even as fear shimmered at the edges. Neel felt his breath steady, if only a little.
"Leela," he murmured, the word catching in his throat.
But before he could say more, another voice cut through the murmurs.
–––
"Or perhaps," said Shanaya Rajput, her smirk curving like flame, "he is exactly what we need."
The hall turned toward her. Shanaya stepped forward, her crimson robes blazing as if reflecting the fire still simmering in her veins. Her awakening had dazzled the hall only minutes earlier—a phoenix of flame soaring above them all. Yet she looked not at the crowd, nor the Elders. She looked only at Neel.
"Two elements," she said, circling him like a flame testing tinder. "Fire and storm. Raw, untamed. Dangerous, yes… but also powerful."
Her eyes glinted, daring. "I wonder… which will consume you first? The fire… or the storm?"
Neel flinched under her gaze. The smirk on her lips was not cruel, but it was sharp, a promise and a challenge in one.
Aarav scowled from the side, fists clenched. Even here, Shanaya's attention was not on him. Always Neel. Always the one who had done nothing to earn it.
–––
The Elders conferred in low voices. Keshav's glare lingered on Neel like a brand. Finally, he raised his staff again.
"Enough. The Ceremony is ended." His eyes swept the hall, then cut back to Neel. "You, boy, will be watched. Closely. If you lose control again, the Academy will not hesitate to act. Do you understand?"
Neel's throat felt dry as dust. He nodded.
"Good," Keshav said, though his tone dripped with doubt. "Take him away."
–––
The initiates spilled from the Hall in waves, their voices a tide of whispers.
"Shattered Core…"
"Dangerous…"
"Did you see the Crystal crack?"
Neel walked stiffly, Leela close at his side, Aarav trailing just behind with his bitter smirk. Shanaya lingered near the gates, watching him with that same daring fire in her eyes.
Outside, the sky had darkened. Thunder rumbled faintly across the horizon, though no storm should have been near. Neel froze, staring up at the clouds as the whisper curled through his mind once more.
"Awaken… break the chains…"
He clutched his chest, breath hitching.
"Neel?" Leela's hand tightened on his arm. Concern darkened her gaze, soft and close. "Are you alright?"
"I—" His words faltered. "I don't know."
–––
Behind them, Aarav snorted. "Of course he's not. He's a walking disaster. Better pray the Elders burn him before he burns us."
Leela spun on him, her calm breaking. "Enough, Aarav! Can't you see he's suffering? He didn't ask for this."
"He didn't have to," Aarav shot back, envy twisting his tone. "The world just hands him chaos, and everyone stares like he's some chosen one. While the rest of us—" He broke off, his fists trembling.
Neel said nothing. His silence was heavier than words.
–––
That night, when he lay in his narrow dormitory bed, the whispers did not stop. They coiled through his mind, softer now, but insistent.
"Shattered one… the Serpent stirs. Chains will break. Awaken…"
He pressed his palms to his ears, but the voice came from inside, deeper than bone. His chest burned with stormlight, his veins thrummed with flame. Sleep came only in fragments, haunted by shadows slithering through the cracks of the Crystal.
And when dawn broke, Neel knew one thing with chilling certainty:
His awakening had not freed him.
It had only chained him tighter.
–––