Dawn rose slowly over the towering spires of Dawnspire Academy, the greatest center of magical awakening in the Kingdom of Dawn. Its marble halls gleamed with streaks of gold, its banners fluttered in the mountain wind, and its vast mana crystals pulsed gently with the warm hum of stored magic. Every year, hundreds of young men and women crossed its iron gates to attempt the ceremony that would determine their fate—the Awakening of Magic Veins.
For most, it would be the start of a predictable path. Some would awaken minor talents: Ember Circulation, Gentle Breeze Insight, Stoneflesh Fortitude. A few would gain rare ones: Dragon Song Resonance, Frostbound Memory. A very fortunate group would awaken nothing but their magic veins—no talent at all—yet still leave happy, for any magician could rise to great heights with dedication and luck.
But one path—one single talent—was whispered only in dread-filled corners of old academies and forgotten monasteries.
The Ominous Wisdom.
A talent said to be the closest thing mortals could touch to divine knowledge.
A talent said to drag those who awakened it into irreversible madness.
A talent that should not exist.
---
Elias Verdan, a thin young man of seventeen with ash-brown hair and gray-blue eyes, walked up the stone steps leading to the Grand Sanctum of Awakening. The cold morning wind tugged at his apprentice cloak, and beneath it, the shy beating of his heart quickened. Today determined whether he would rise from a poor villager's son to a proper magician—or return home broken.
He swallowed.
"Elias! There you are!"
A sharp voice dragged his attention back. Lena Valken, his childhood friend, rushed forward with her golden hair tied in a warrior's braid. Unlike Elias, she had the athletic posture of someone who spent her entire childhood training with a spear. Her family were minor nobles, but Lena never acted like it.
"You didn't wait for me," she complained, punching his shoulder lightly.
"I thought you were ahead," Elias answered softly. "You usually are."
"Well… I'm here now." She crossed her arms and pouted. "You look like you haven't slept all night."
He hadn't.
How could he? The Awakening determined everything.
Before he could answer, a deeper voice interrupted.
"Standing around worrying won't help."
Sir Rodrik Valen, their instructor and the vice-magus of the academy's initiation hall, approached with his cape fluttering behind him. Broad-shouldered, dark-haired, and carrying himself with a stern nobility, Sir Rodrik was the type of man every student respected—and feared.
"It's time," he said, gesturing toward the heavy adamantine doors ahead. "Elias Verdan. Lena Valken. Enter."
Elias inhaled once, forcing his trembling to stop. This was it.
He stepped forward into the Grand Sanctum.
---
The Sanctum was a spherical chamber of ancient stone runes, filled with concentric circles of mana. Twelve Awakening Crystals surrounded the center platform, each radiating a faint color—blue for mana, green for life, silver for spirit. Floating high above was the colossal Crystal of Insight, a relic said to react differently depending on the talent awakened.
Elias felt the pressure of the chamber immediately. Magic weighed on the lungs like thick air.
Sir Rodrik gestured him to the center.
"Place your hands upon the Insight Sigil," he instructed.
Elias nodded. His palms pressed against the carved stone circle. Warmth seeped into his skin, followed by a prickle along the veins of his arms. He felt as though an invisible force were pulling him apart and stitching him back together.
Sir Rodrik's voice echoed.
"Calm your mind. Circulate your breath. Let your magic veins resonate."
The chamber dimmed.
Mana gathered.
And then—
BOOM.
A deep hum shook the floor as the Crystal of Insight lit up with a pale white glow. Veins of light raced across the walls like living serpents. Elias felt his body lift slightly, his heart pounding in fear.
"His magic veins are activating," Sir Rodrik muttered. "More forcefully than normal."
Lena gasped from the side, hands clasped tightly.
Elias felt fire race through his blood. The mana circles below him flared.
The first vein awakened.
Then the second.
Then the third.
One by one, the twelve standard magic veins opened effortlessly—far easier than Elias had ever imagined possible.
Sir Rodrik blinked.
"This… this is remarkably smooth."
But then something else happened.
A thirteenth light ignited.
Then a fourteenth.
A fifteenth.
Sir Rodrik's eyes widened.
"This is—impossible."
Because humans only had twelve primary magic veins. Anything beyond that was the mark of either a chosen prodigy—
—or a cursed aberration.
The entire chamber vibrated.
Elias's body shook violently as an excruciating energy spiraled through him. His vision blurred. His mind drowned in noise. Not noise from the Sanctum.
Noise from somewhere else.
From everywhere else.
Voices layered upon voices. Thoughts that weren't his own. Knowledge that did not belong to mortals. Whispers of truths older than the world itself.
The stars are wrong…
The cycle repeats…
Wisdom must be paid in sanity…
Elias clutched his head and screamed.
"Stop! STOP!"
Lena cried out, rushing forward, but a barrier of mana prevented her from reaching him.
Sir Rodrik grimaced.
"No… this reaction… don't tell me—"
The Crystal of Insight cracked with a harsh sound.
A beam of black and white energy descended and wrapped around Elias's body like a cocoon. The runes beneath his feet twisted unnaturally, shifting shapes into glyphs no academy mage had ever seen.
Glyphs older than kingdoms.
Glyphs whispering secrets to his soul.
Sir Rodrik whispered in horror:
"This is the signature of the forbidden talent… Ominous Wisdom."
The temperature of the room dropped. Wind spiraled inward. The magic circles began to distort. Elias felt as though his mind were tearing in half—one part clinging to sanity, the other drowning beneath a cosmic ocean of impossible truths.
His perception expanded.
He could feel the thoughts of everyone in the chamber.
Sir Rodrik's fear.
Lena's desperate panic.
The crystal's ancient memories.
The runes' forgotten will.
The world's trembling heartbeat.
And for a single, terrifying moment—
Elias saw something towering above reality.
A great Eye carved into the fabric of existence.
Not watching him.
Watching through him.
His sanity flickered like a candle.
Then—
FLASH!
The light vanished.
The chamber went quiet.
Elias collapsed to his knees, chest heaving, cold sweat pouring down his back. The mana in the room dispersed violently, extinguishing the glowing runes and plunging the chamber into near darkness.
For several breathless seconds, no one moved.
Finally, Sir Rodrik spoke, voice low and steady.
"Elias Verdan…"
The young man looked up, eyes dull and half-focused.
"…you have awakened a talent that should not exist."
Lena rushed to his side as soon as the barrier faded, grabbing his shoulders.
"Elias! Elias, look at me! Speak to me!"
He tried to answer.
Tried to form words.
But behind Lena's worried face, Elias saw—
fractured echoes of her possible futures.
One where she died in battle.
One where she betrayed him.
One where she loved him.
One where she never met him.
One where she stood as queen.
One where she drowned in despair.
His breath hitched.
He blinked hard and forced the visions back with enormous effort.
Sir Rodrik kneeling beside him saw the struggle and froze.
"…you're already seeing fragments of probability?"
Elias didn't understand the question.
He didn't understand anything.
All he knew was that something had opened inside him—
something vast, ancient, and terrifying.
And it wanted to think.
It wanted to know.
It wanted to consume.
---
Two hours later, Elias lay on a soft cot inside the isolated chamber reserved for dangerous awakenings. A pair of warded lanterns flickered gently on the stone walls, giving the room an eerie stillness.
Sir Rodrik stood near the door, arms crossed, staring at Elias with a complicated expression.
"I have informed the Head Magus," he finally said. "Your awakening will be classified at the highest secrecy."
Elias sat quietly, hands trembling. "Did I… do something wrong?"
"No." Rodrik hesitated. "Or perhaps—yes. Or perhaps this talent is simply wrong by its very nature."
Lena, still by Elias's side, glared at Rodrik. "Stop talking in riddles! What does 'Ominous Wisdom' even mean? He's still Elias!"
Rodrik exhaled.
"In the records of ancient times—far older than our kingdom—there exists mention of an ability that allowed mortals to comprehend divine phenomena. But mortals lack the mind to survive such knowledge. Those who awakened it were said to either ascend or go mad."
Elias swallowed.
"And now… I have that?"
Rodrik shook his head.
"No. You have a fragment. A diluted version. And even that fragment is dangerous."
He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
"Listen carefully, Elias. You must never activate your talent without strict mental discipline. The slightest misuse can warp your sanity. There is a reason the Ominous Wisdom was forbidden. Not because its power is evil, but because human minds cannot withstand it."
Elias felt a chill run down his spine.
He remembered the visions. The voices. The distant Eye.
He felt sick.
"I didn't ask for this…" he whispered.
"No one ever does," Rodrik replied.
Lena placed a hand over Elias's.
"Whatever happens, I'm not leaving you."
He looked at her, and for a moment, she was only Lena—his friend.
Not a branching tree of futures.
Not an echo of thousands of possibilities.
Just Lena.
That small comfort steadied him.
Then the door slammed open.
A woman in long ivory robes entered, her silver hair braided with crystal threads. The air around her shimmered faintly with the authority of one who had stood at the pinnacle of magic for decades.
Magus Elowen Ardent, Head of Dawnspire Academy.
Her gaze locked onto Elias with frightening intensity.
"Elias Verdan," she said smoothly, "you will follow me."
Lena rose angrily. "He's not even recovered yet!"
Elowen raised a hand, halting her.
"For the safety of this academy—and this kingdom—this matter cannot wait."
She turned to Elias.
"You carry a talent that can reshape fate itself. And I intend to determine immediately whether you are a safeguard…"
Her eyes narrowed.
"Or a calamity in human form."
Elias felt his heartbeat slow.
Then quicken.
Then slow again.
That Eye—the one he had seen—flickered in the edge of his perception.
And for the first time, he wondered:
Was he still Elias Verdan?
Or merely a vessel for something that should never have awakened?