The morning mist clung stubbornly to the courtyard stones as Kael left the dormitory, tugging his coat closed against the cool bite in the air. The academy grounds were waking slowly—torchlights dimming, instructors trading quiet nods, and first-year trainees stumbling out with the half-delirious exhaustion of another long night.
Kael, however, moved with a clarity that didn't belong to the early hour.
Not today.
Today, something felt different.
He could feel it pulsing beneath the earth—faint, like a heartbeat trapped under layers of stone.
The Hollow Veyra inside him stirred.
1. The Gathering in the Glass Hall
Rienne was already waiting at the entrance of the Glass Hall, arms folded, the morning light refracting through the crystalline walls behind her. Her sea-gray hair shimmered like a blade.
"You're early." She arched a brow.
"You're earlier," he replied, offering the barest hint of a smirk.
Rienne frowned, but a faint flush crept into her cheeks—barely noticeable, unless someone had trained themselves to catch small shifts. She stepped closer, lowering her voice.
"Try not to provoke the Head Examiner today, Kael. These combat evaluations aren't flexible."
Kael shrugged. "I don't provoke people. They provoke themselves."
"That's not—"
Before she could finish, footsteps echoed behind them.
Marin approached, her auburn ponytail bouncing lightly. Unlike Rienne's sharpened presence, Marin carried warmth—even in her annoyance, which was aimed squarely at Rienne for being close to him.
"Morning, Kael!" she said brightly, stepping in front of Rienne with a smile that was a little too wide. "Ready for the exam?"
Rienne's jaw tightened.
Marin kept smiling.
Kael stared straight ahead.
The slow-burning tension between them was becoming its own element—one he had long learned to ignore, yet one he could never truly escape.
Before either could escalate, another voice cut across the hall.
"Oh, look. The prodigy trio. How nauseating."
Talyssa.
The woman he both liked and hated.
She strode past them with her usual effortless superiority—dark cloak sweeping the polished floor, amethyst eyes capturing every insecurity in the room and twisting it like a blade. She didn't glance at Rienne or Marin.
Her glare was reserved entirely for him.
"Try not to embarrass the academy today, Hollow-blood," she whispered as she passed.
Kael's fingers twitched.
The Hollow Veyra inside him stirred again.
He exhaled slowly. "Good morning to you too, Talyssa."
She didn't turn back, but he saw her shoulders stiffen just slightly.
2. The Hidden Depths of the Arena
The Glass Hall shifted as they entered. Transparent panels rearranged themselves, lowering into the floor to reveal a spiraling descent lit by floating shards of light. Today's arena wasn't the usual platform.
It was deeper. Older.
Whispers drifted among the students:
"Is this the Subterrane chamber?"
"I thought it was sealed after the collapse."
"Why would they test us down there?"
Kael knew why.
Something beneath the academy had awakened.
Something only the instructors could sense—
—and something the Hollow Veyra inside him responded to.
As they descended, the air thickened with ancient weight. The walls transitioned from glass to layered strata of silver-blue stone, veined with faint runes pulsing like sleeping eyes.
Marin leaned toward him. "Are you… sensing that?"
Rienne did too. "It feels wrong. Like pressure."
Kael didn't answer, because the pressure wasn't external.
It was inside him, echoing.
Calling.
3. Trial of the Forgotten Pulse
The arena floor was a vast circular pit lined with broken monoliths. Instructors stood at its edge, cloaked in authority.
Head Examiner Vaaris stepped forward. His voice resonated through the chamber.
"Today's trial will test your instinct, control, and adaptability. You will face constructs drawn from the academy's earliest archives."
At his gesture, the ground cracked.
Stone figures emerged—towering, hollow-eyed colossi carved from ancient mineral deposits. Their runes flickered with forgotten power.
Around Kael, students whispered nervously.
But inside Kael, the Hollow Veyra murmured back.
These things were not awakened by the academy.
They were responding to him.
Vaaris continued, "Pair formations. Three per group."
Rienne and Marin closed in immediately, shoulders touching his on both sides before they even realized they had flanked him. Their rivalry quieted for the moment—battle had a way of doing that.
Talyssa watched from across the arena, irritation sharpening her features when she saw Kael wasn't alone.
Vaaris raised his arm.
"Begin."
4. The Awakening Beneath the Stone
The colossi surged forward, their footsteps shaking the arena floor. Rienne drew her twin spectral blades, Marin summoned her spiraling water sigil, and Kael—
Kael let the Hollow Veyra whisper through his veins.
He stepped forward, placing himself directly in the path of the largest construct. Rienne shouted his name, Marin extended a hand to pull him back—
—but Kael's hand rose first.
A pulse erupted.
Silent.
Invisible.
Devastating.
The nearest colossus froze mid-charge, runes flickering wildly like a failing heartbeat.
Then it knelt.
A giant of ancient stone, bowing its head as if submitting to the force within him.
Gasps filled the arena.
Rienne's blades dimmed.
Marin's spell faltered.
Talyssa's eyes widened in a rare moment of unguarded shock.
Head Examiner Vaaris stepped forward abruptly.
"That—should not have been possible."
The colossus trembled again, this time not with obedience—
—but with resonance.
It was reacting not to Kael's power, but to something beneath the arena.
And suddenly, the floor cracked open.
A deep, echoing rumble shook every pillar, every rune, every stone. Light burst from the fissures as though a second heartbeat had awakened.
Kael felt his own heart stutter.
The Hollow Veyra wasn't whispering anymore.
It was answering.
5. The Echo Calls His Name
As the arena fractured, a shockwave swept outward, knocking students off their feet. Instructors scrambled to erect barriers. Rienne grabbed Kael's arm; Marin clung to his other side; Talyssa braced herself with a curse.
Kael didn't fall.
He stood perfectly still as a voice—deep, ancient, hollow—rose from the fissures below.
"Kael."
Everyone froze.
Because they had heard it too.
The light from the cracks surged upward, swirling around Kael's feet like tendrils trying to reclaim something lost. The colossi all turned toward him at once, their runes aligning to a single pattern—
—a sigil he had seen only once before, in his earliest memory.
Rienne whispered, horrified, "It's calling to you."
Marin took a shaky breath. "Why? What is under there?"
Talyssa, for once stripped of her mockery, whispered the truth no one else dared voice:
"That chamber was sealed centuries ago. Whatever is beneath us… it shouldn't be awake."
Kael stared into the abyss forming beneath the arena.
The Hollow Veyra whispered a final certainty:
It is not awakening.
It is remembering.
And it is remembering you.