The dawn came heavy with storm clouds.
The Academy gathered in the Hall of Wards, a vast chamber where ancient runes glowed across the floor, woven to contain the most volatile magic. The Council had ordered it: Neel was to undergo a binding ritual — chains of fire, water, stone, and wind meant to suppress his storm until the serpent's whispers were silenced.
Students packed the galleries above, murmuring nervously. Some came to see him chained. Others to see him break. All to see if the prophecy was true.
Neel stood at the center of the runes, his wrists already shackled in glowing iron. The storm inside him was louder than ever, rattling his bones, flooding his chest with heat and lightning. His eyes burned, but he kept them down, away from the stares.
Elder Meera gave him the smallest of nods, her faith a fragile candle against the darkness. Keshav Rao raised his staff, his face carved from stone.
"Begin," Rao commanded.
–––
The Elders' staffs struck the floor. Fire, water, earth, and wind flared from the runes, weaving into chains of living light. They coiled around Neel, digging into his skin. His breath caught — the pain seared like knives.
"Hold him!" Rao thundered. "Do not let the storm rise!"
Neel gritted his teeth. He tried, gods he tried, but the storm inside roared in protest. Sparks danced across his arms. Lightning cracked against the wards.
And then the sabotage struck.
Hidden glyphs, scrawled into the ward-lines by Aarav and his followers the night before, flared to life. Instead of containing the storm, they twisted it, magnified it, turned the chains into blades.
The chamber shook. Students screamed as the runes fractured. Instructors scrambled, their wards faltering.
Neel cried out, his body arching as fire and lightning burst from his core. The chains shattered into shards of molten light.
The Whisper was no longer a whisper.
"The last chain breaks. Dawn rises. Vessel — be mine!"
–––
The storm exploded. Fire and lightning merged into a single blaze, lashing out in all directions. Stone cracked, pillars toppled, the galleries above split as students fled.
Keshav Rao roared, throwing up a wall of flame to shield the Council. Elder Meera chanted desperately, waterlight spilling from her staff, but even she staggered under the force.
Neel fell to his knees in the center of the chaos, clutching his skull. His vision blurred — and then snapped.
He was no longer in the Hall.
–––
He stood before the crystal again. The last chain stretched across it, black and massive, cracks glowing crimson along its length. The serpent's coils filled the void, endless, suffocating, its eyes twin suns of hunger.
"One chain remains," it hissed. "Break it, and the world is ours."
Neel trembled, his fists clenched. "No. I won't."
The serpent's laugh thundered. "You already have. Look."
The chain split, cracks racing like lightning. Neel screamed, trying to hold it together with sheer will — but it shuddered, weakening.
–––
"NEEL!"
The voice cut through the void. Leela's.
He turned — and she was there, impossibly, as if her waterlight had reached into his vision. Her hands glowed, her eyes burning with tears and fury.
"You're not his!" she cried. "You're mine — my friend, my Neel Sharma! Come back!"
Waterlight surged around him, cooling the fire, grounding the storm.
Another voice followed, sharp as flame.
"Don't you dare collapse now, Sharma." Shanaya's figure burned at the edge of the vision, phoenix fire blazing. Her eyes locked on his, fierce and unyielding. "If anyone ends you, it's me. Not him. Not the serpent. Me."
Her fire lashed out, colliding with the serpent's coils, holding them at bay.
Together, water and fire pushed against shadow.
–––
Neel roared, forcing his hands apart. Lightning screamed from his chest, tearing into the serpent's chains. The crystal shook. The last chain held — cracked, splintered, but not broken.
The vision shattered.
–––
He collapsed back into the Hall of Wards. Smoke rose from his skin. His eyes flickered — for a heartbeat, serpent-slitted, then back to human.
The chamber was in ruins. Students huddled in fear. Instructors whispered prayers. The Council stared at him as though he were already a weapon of war.
Keshav Rao's staff thudded against the stone. His voice rang out, cold and final.
"This Academy cannot contain him."
Silence. Only Neel's ragged breaths filled the hall.
Leela knelt beside him, tears streaking her face. Shanaya stood behind, arms crossed, her fire still burning, her gaze unreadable.
Neel lifted his head weakly. Lightning flickered across his eyes — and a shadow coiled there, faint but real.
His lips parted, his voice a broken whisper.
"Maybe… it's already too late."
–––
"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.
____