Kael Veyron had learned to survive by being forgettable. Not invisible — that would've drawn attention. Just quiet enough to be overlooked. He walked the halls of Nuvora Academy like a shadow stitched into the architecture. Teachers marked his attendance without making eye contact. Students passed him without speaking. Even the surveillance drones seemed to hesitate before logging his presence.
It was safer that way. In a city rebuilt on control, being noticed was dangerous.
---
Nuvora was beautiful in the way a scalpel is beautiful — sleek, sharp, and designed to cut. After the Collapse, the city had been reconstructed with precision. Towers of glass and steel rose like needles. Roads pulsed with data. Trees were engineered to filter toxins and hum lullabies at night.
Everything had a purpose. Everyone had a role. Kael didn't.
At seventeen, Kael was a student at Nuvora Academy — a place for the gifted, the enhanced, the genetically curated. He was none of those things.
He had no upgrades. No sponsors. No family support. Just a scar on his shoulder, a pendant he never removed, and a history no one could verify.
His classmates called him "Ghost." Not to his face — they didn't speak to him. But he heard it in the cafeteria, in the locker rooms, in the way they paused when he entered a room.
No record of birth. No known relatives. No digital footprint before age five. Just a boy who appeared one day, silent and strange.
The pendant was the only thing he had from before. Black metal. A spiral inside a triangle. It pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat — not his own, but something else entirely.
He didn't know what it was. He didn't know why it mattered. But he knew it was watching him. He never told anyone about it. He didn't want to be studied. He wanted to be left alone.
Kael's days were predictable. Wake before sunrise. Run five kilometers. Eat alone. Attend classes. Avoid eye contact. Return to his apartment. Study. Sleep.
He didn't socialize. He didn't join clubs. He didn't date. He watched. He listened.
And sometimes, when no one was looking, he tested the edges of reality.
---
On Tuesday evening, Kael was in the cafeteria, standing in front of a vending wall. He hadn't eaten all day. His credits were low. He stared at the screen, trying to decide between synthetic protein and nutrient paste.
Then something shifted.
A boy behind him named Jax shoved him.
"Move, freak." Kael didn't react.
Jax laughed. "You gonna cry?"
Kael turned slowly. Their eyes met, and the vending wall collapsed.
Not exploded. Not malfunctioned. Collapsed — inward, like a black hole. The metal folded. The lights died. The food vanished.
Silence.
Everyone stared.
Kael didn't move.
Jax backed away.
Security arrived within seconds, and Kael was taken to the principal's office.
The principal was a tall man with a synthetic jaw and eyes that flickered with data. He didn't speak at first. Just stared.
Kael stared back.
"You hacked the wall," the principal said.
"No."
"You used a device."
"No."
"You did something."
Kael didn't answer.
The principal leaned forward. "You're not normal, Veyron."
Kael said nothing.
The principal tapped his desk. "We'll be watching you."
Kael stood. "I know."
That night, Kael sat on the rooftop of his apartment building.
The city shimmered below. The stars pulsed above.
He held the pendant in his palm. And for the first time, Kael felt something inside him move — not physically, but spiritually. Like a door opening. Like a memory returning. He saw flashes. A woman with silver eyes. A cave that screamed. He also saw a boy standing alone in a storm. He didn't understand what was happening, but he knew one thing: Something was coming.
One evening, Kael wandered into the school's abandoned observatory. It hadn't been used in years — the stars were considered obsolete in a world ruled by data.
But Kael felt drawn to it. Inside, he found someone – a girl.
She stood by the telescope, her hair glowing faintly, her eyes violet.
"You're late," she said.
Kael blinked. "Who are you?"
"One like you." She said. And at that moment she vanished.
Kael was stunned and couldn't understand what the girl meant and who she was.