The meditation room hummed softly.
Two dozen children sat cross-legged on the warm stone floor, knees knocking, backs straightened by effort rather than discipline. Some peeked through their lashes. Others scrunched their faces as if concentration itself were a spell.
Kal sat among them, legs folded neatly, hands resting on his knees just as he had been shown.
Above them, the instructor drifted, her white robes floating like mist over water. Her voice was calm, measured.
"Breathe in. Feel the shimmer. Let your mana answer you."
Kal closed his eyes tighter.
He breathed.
At first there was nothing. Just warmth from the stone beneath him, the faint hum in the air.
Then his cheek prickled.
"It's… hot…" he whispered, turning his head.
A warm glow spilled across his lashes. When he opened his eyes, tiny beads of fire danced lazily in Virelle's palm, casting orange light over her proud smile.
On his other side, a sudden breeze tugged at his hair. Lucien leaned back, laughing as air spiraled around him in playful swirls.
Above him, wings fluttered.
Miles hovered awkwardly, translucent wings beating too fast, too excited. He wobbled, then dropped beside Kal, grinning ear to ear.
"Kal! Look!" He flared them again. "Isn't it amazing? Mine's wings. What's yours?"
Heads turned.
Eyes searched Kal.
Silence stretched.
Caelan snorted. "He didn't awaken anything."
Lucien's smile sharpened. "Ohhh, look. The one with no attribute."
"No attribute at all," Aaxina echoed, tilting her head. "Poor boy."
Laughter burst through the room, sharp and careless.
Kal's chest tightened. His lips trembled. Tears slipped free, darkening his pants as they fell.
"You fools..." he whispered.
His shadow twitched.
Miles stopped laughing first. He took a step back, wings folding in tight.
"K‑Kal… your shadow…"
Kal blinked. "What?"
"It moved."
Hope flickered.
"That's a lie," Charles muttered, adjusting the book tucked under his arm. "There is no such ability."
Aaxina scoffed. "And wings on a boy? Shameful."
A flash of warm light cut through the noise.
"Enough."
The instructor stood between them.
"Aaxina. Lucien. Caelan." Her voice did not rise. "Apologize."
"Sorry," they mumbled.
Their smirks returned the moment she turned away.
She knelt in front of Kal, her hands gentle as she cupped his cheeks.
"It's alright," she said softly. "You awakened something. It just hasn't shown itself yet."
Kal nodded, wiping his nose with his sleeve.
"Watch carefully."
She rose, and closed her eyes.
Mana rolled outward in a warm wave. Glass pieces placed on the floor lifted together, hovering in a perfect ring.
"Focus," she warned.
"Because if you lose it, then.."
The glass shattered as it fell.
"Miles," she said. "Try."
Miles's piece sprouted tiny wings and flapped upward.
Sonia's glass rose, wrapped in trembling bubbles of water.
Kal swallowed.
I have something.
He reached for the glass,not with his hands, but with his breath, his chest, the quiet place inside him.
The air shimmered around him.
The glass lifted.
He opened his eyes.
A black hand rose from his shadow, fingers closing around the glass.
Gasps spread.
"Did… did his shadow move?"
Miles laughed and threw his arms around Kal. "See? I told you!"
The instructor stared, breath caught. "I've… never seen this."
Miles's glass drifted closer to Kal's shadow.
"I'll grab yours too!" Kal lifted his hand.
His shadow lifted its own.
Miles's focus broke.
The glass shattered.
Evenings settled into routine.
By the time Kal no longer had to stand on his toes to reach the table, dusk meant warm milk and his mother's humming. Sophia placed the pot down with care.
"Sit quietly," she said over her shoulder. "I'll bring the sweets."
She turned toward the stove.
Kal smiled.
He stepped forward without a sound, breath held tight, excitement buzzing in his chest.
Excited to surprise his mother, he failed to notice that he was standing in her shadow
and in that moment, his mana suddenly activated.
The floor darkened beneath his feet.
The world slipped.
"Ah...!"
Sophia jumped, spinning around.
"Kal?"
The room was empty.
"Kal!" Her voice sharpened. "Come out right now."
She checked under the table. Behind the door. Her steps quickened.
"If you don't come out, you won't eat!"
No answer.
Her breath hitched. "I sensed his mana a moment ago… but now it's gone. How?"
Sweat beaded on her forehead.
Inside the darkness, Kal floated.
No floor. No sky.
Shadows pressed in.
Images flickered,blurred shapes. A woman by a river. A baby in her arms.
"M‑Mommy…"
His cry broke through.
Sophia froze.
She looked down.
Her shadow wavered.
"No…" She dropped to her knees.
"Wait—don't tell me he's inside my shadow. I know his attribute is shadow, but I didn't know he could do that."
Sophia gulped.
"Wait… did he fall inside it? And does he not even know how to come out?"
"Kal, stop using mana. Calm down."
The shadow trembled.
"Listen to me," she whispered. "Just breathe."
Kal was still crying, but the moment he heard her voice, relief washed over him.
Hearing that, he turned off his mana.
The darkness loosened.
Kal fell back into her arms.
She crushed him to her chest.
"It was scary," he sobbed.
"I know."
Behind her, the milk pot rattled.
She turned just in time to see it tipping, about to fall.
Before it could hit the ground, a shadow
completely detached from Kal's body
caught the pot midair.
Sophia gave an awkward smile, then gently kissed her baby's hair.
The whispers about Kal's ability never stopped at school. Some were scared, some were envious, but Miles never left.
Beneath the old olmar tree, Kal sat alone.
Leaves shifted. Shadows stretched.
His shadow reached farther each month
smoother, quieter.
Lucien watched from a distance, arms crossed.
"Showing off," he muttered.
Kal didn't look up.
By the time his voice steadied, he could lift objects heavier than himself.
Others gathered in bright flares of fire and wind.
Kal practiced in silence.
The distance grew.
So did the bond beneath his feet.
High above the Commoners' reach, towering shelves formed a fortress of knowledge.
A boy sat alone, a little older than Kal,his fingers stained dark, tracing words written in blood.
On the book's cover, a dark silhouette writhed _a devil's hand clawing upward, its fingers entwined with twisting shadows that devoured a man and woman caught in eternal grasp. The image pulsed with a quiet menace, as if the shadow itself reached beyond the page_whispering a warning only those touched by darkness could understand.
The heavy door groaned open.
Boots echoed sharply against the cold stone floor.
A man in white stepped through, his pale hair barely moving as his breath hitched. Knights followed close behind.
The boy's eyes flicked up from the page, blue and sharp beneath tangled blonde strands.
He slid the forbidden tome shut, careful—this knowledge was for the king and his trusted alone.
Outside, the protective field flickered and faded. The siege had tightened; no way out remained.
The boy's gaze hardened. Trapped.