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Chapter 3 - Chapter 2: The Day After

Wei Chen woke to silence.

Not the comfortable silence of early morning, when the world was still deciding whether to wake up. This was the heavy silence of avoidance. The kind that pressed against walls and seeped through windows.

He lay in bed for a moment, staring at the ceiling. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the wooden shutters, painting thin golden lines across the room.

Yesterday's events felt distant. Unreal. Like something that had happened to someone else.

But when he flexed his fingers, he felt it. That cold presence coiled inside his chest. Patient. Waiting.

The magic was real.

 

Wei Chen sat up and dressed quickly. His clothes were the same as always—rough-spun cotton, dyed brown, patched at the knees. His mother's handiwork.

He could hear movement from the main room. The soft scrape of pottery. His father was already awake, working in the attached workshop.

When Wei Chen stepped out of his small bedroom, he found his mother at the table, hands wrapped around a cup of tea. She looked like she hadn't slept.

"Morning, Mother."

She turned, and her expression softened. "Wei Chen. You're up early."

"Couldn't sleep?"

"Not much." She gestured to the seat across from her. "Come. Eat something."

 

Breakfast was simple. Rice porridge with pickled vegetables. Wei Chen ate slowly, aware of his mother watching him.

"How do you feel?" she asked finally.

"Fine."

"No... strange sensations? Nothing unusual?"

Wei Chen considered lying. But what was the point? "I can feel it. The magic. It's there, inside. Like... like something sleeping."

His mother's grip tightened on her cup. "Does it hurt?"

"No. It just... is."

She nodded, though she didn't look reassured. "Elder Shen will come today. He said he'd bring the training documents and explain what happens next."

Wei Chen finished his porridge. "What do you think happens next?"

His mother hesitated. "I think... I think your life just became much more complicated."

 

After breakfast, Wei Chen stepped outside. The morning air was cool, carrying the smell of woodsmoke and baking bread from the neighbors' ovens.

Or it should have.

Today, the street felt wrong. Empty.

Normally, this time of morning, the neighborhood would be alive. Children running errands. Women chatting while hanging laundry. Men heading to workshops or fields.

But today, the street was deserted. Doors were closed. Windows shuttered.

Wei Chen walked to the edge of their small yard and looked down the dirt road. In the distance, he could see movement—people going about their business. But none of them were close.

It was as if an invisible line had been drawn around his house. A boundary nobody wanted to cross.

So this is how it starts.

 

"They're afraid of you."

Wei Chen turned. A girl stood at the edge of the property line, arms crossed, head tilted in curiosity.

She was maybe six years old, with dark hair pulled into a messy ponytail and a smudge of dirt on one cheek. Her clothes were worn but clean. Wei Chen recognized her—Lian Xiu, from two houses down.

Her father had died in a farming accident two years ago. Her mother worked at the market, selling vegetables.

"You're not afraid?" Wei Chen asked.

Lian Xiu shrugged. "Should I be?"

"Everyone else is."

"Everyone else is stupid." She stepped across the invisible boundary and walked right up to him. "You got Darkness magic, right? That's what people are saying."

"That's what the stone showed."

"Cool."

Wei Chen blinked. "Cool?"

 

"Yeah. Cool." Lian Xiu looked him up and down like she was evaluating livestock. "I mean, it's better than nothing. And you're intermediate level, same as that Yun Hao kid. Except he gets a parade and you get... this."

She gestured at the empty street.

"Doesn't seem fair," Wei Chen said.

"It's not." Lian Xiu sat down on the ground, cross-legged, and looked up at him expectantly. "So? Can you do magic yet?"

"I don't know how."

"Try."

"Try what?"

"I don't know. Make a shadow or something. Isn't that what Darkness does?"

 

Wei Chen glanced back at the house. His mother was still inside. His father was in the workshop, the rhythmic sound of the potter's wheel spinning faintly audible.

He looked down at his hand. Flexed his fingers.

Make a shadow.

He had no idea how. Nobody had taught him. Elder Shen hadn't explained anything yet.

But the magic was there. He could feel it. Cold and patient and waiting.

Wei Chen closed his eyes. Reached for that presence inside his chest.

It responded.

 

The sensation was strange. Like pulling on something that didn't have weight or shape. He tugged gently, and the magic shifted, flowing up through his body and down into his hand.

When he opened his eyes, his shadow had grown.

Not much. Just a few inches longer than it should be, stretching across the dirt like it was reaching for something.

Lian Xiu gasped. "Whoa."

Wei Chen stared at his shadow. It looked wrong. Too dark. Too sharp-edged. And it moved slightly out of sync with his body, like it was deciding for itself where to go.

He let go of the magic. The shadow snapped back to normal.

His hand tingled. His chest felt hollow, like he'd just run a long distance.

"That was awesome," Lian Xiu breathed.

 

"That was reckless."

Both children jumped. Wei Chen turned to find his mother standing in the doorway, arms crossed, expression somewhere between anger and fear.

"Mother, I—"

"Inside. Now."

Wei Chen obeyed. Lian Xiu scrambled to her feet and made herself scarce, vanishing down the street like a rabbit fleeing a hawk.

Lin Mei closed the door behind them and turned to face her son. "You can't just... just use magic like that. Not out in the open. Not where people can see."

"Nobody saw. The street's empty."

"Because they're watching from their windows." His mother's voice was tight. "Wei Chen, you have to understand. Darkness magic makes people nervous. If they see you using it carelessly, they'll think you're dangerous."

"I am dangerous. That's what magic means."

His mother flinched. "That's not—" She stopped. Took a breath. "Just... be careful. Please."

 

Elder Shen arrived an hour later.

The old mage walked with a staff, though Wei Chen suspected he didn't actually need it. His blue robes were immaculate, and his presence seemed to fill the small house the moment he stepped inside.

"Chen Bo. Lin Mei." He nodded to Wei Chen's parents. "And Wei Chen. May I sit?"

"Of course, Elder." Wei Chen's father gestured to the table.

They all sat. Elder Shen produced a rolled parchment from his robes and set it on the table. The seal was already broken.

"This is the registration document," Elder Shen said. "Wei Chen is now officially recorded as an intermediate-level Darkness mage. The records will be sent to the capital and logged with the national registry."

Wei Chen's father frowned. "What does that mean for him?"

"It means he's eligible for magical education. It also means he's now subject to certain laws."

"Laws?" Lin Mei's voice was sharp.

 

Elder Shen's expression didn't change. "All mages are required to register. Unregistered magic use is illegal and punishable by imprisonment or death, depending on severity."

The room went cold.

"He's five years old," Wei Chen's mother said.

"And he has intermediate-level magic. That makes him more dangerous than most adults." Elder Shen's tone was matter-of-fact, not cruel. "The law exists to protect people. From rogue mages. From accidents. From those who would misuse their gifts."

He unrolled the parchment. Wei Chen caught a glimpse of dense text, official stamps, and his own name written in elegant script.

"Wei Chen will attend basic instruction twice per week at the temple. I will teach him control. Foundation. Theory. This is mandatory for all mages under twelve years of age."

"And after twelve?" his father asked.

"After twelve, he'll need to choose a path. Join a sect. Enlist in the military. Become an independent mage. Or renounce his magic and live as a civilian."

Wei Chen spoke for the first time. "Can you renounce magic?"

 

Elder Shen looked at him. Those sharp eyes pinned Wei Chen in place.

"Technically, yes. There are rituals that can sever a mage's connection to their element. But they are... unpleasant. Permanent. And few choose that path."

"Because they don't want to give up power," Wei Chen said.

"Because power, once tasted, is difficult to abandon." Elder Shen leaned back. "But we're getting ahead of ourselves. For now, Wei Chen, your only responsibility is to learn. To control what you've been given. Understood?"

"Yes, Elder."

Elder Shen stood. "Your first lesson is tomorrow. Dawn. Come to the temple. Don't be late."

He left as abruptly as he'd arrived. The door closed behind him, and the house felt smaller somehow.

 

Wei Chen's father was the first to speak. "Well. That was... informative."

"He threatened our son," Lin Mei said quietly.

"He stated facts. There's a difference." Chen Bo rubbed his face. "Wei Chen has magic. Magic comes with rules. We knew this."

"We didn't know the rules included death penalties."

"For misuse. Not for existing." His father looked at Wei Chen. "You heard him. Learn control. Stay within the law. You'll be fine."

Wei Chen nodded. But something about the conversation bothered him.

Stay within the law. You'll be fine.

The assumption being that the law was fair. Just. Applied equally.

But yesterday, Yun Hao had manifested Water magic—intermediate level, same as Wei Chen—and people celebrated. Today, Wei Chen manifested Darkness, and people hid.

Same power. Different element. Completely different treatment.

Fair, his ass.

 

That night, Wei Chen lay in bed again, staring at the ceiling again. But this time, he wasn't thinking about magic.

He was thinking about Lian Xiu. The only person who hadn't looked at him with fear. Who'd sat down, asked questions, and called his magic cool.

She had no magic. No special skills, as far as Wei Chen knew. Just a six-year-old girl with a dead father and a tired mother.

And yet she'd crossed that invisible line without hesitation.

Maybe the people without power are braver than the ones with it.

Wei Chen closed his eyes. Tomorrow, he'd go to the temple. Learn what Elder Shen had to teach.

Learn to control the shadows.

And maybe — just maybe — figure out how to use that control to climb out of this small, suffocating town.

Because if yesterday had taught him anything, it was this:

The world didn't care about fairness. It cared about power.

And Wei Chen intended to have plenty of it.

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