Zain's POV
The library explodes with light.
I'm halfway through hacking the security archives when the entire restricted section erupts like a dying star. Blue-white energy punches through the walls, shattering windows three floors up. Books fly off shelves. The floor shakes.
My first instinct: run away.
My second instinct: someone just triggered something incredibly illegal and I need to see what it is.
I sprint toward the restricted section, ice already forming on my fingertips. Three years at this academy taught me one rule—when ancient magic activates, people die. Usually the idiots who touched things they shouldn't.
But when I reach the sealed doors, they're blown open. Smoke pours out. And inside...
The F-Rank girl stands in the center of a holographic map the size of the entire chamber.
Lyra Ashford. The academy's favorite punching bag. I've seen her around—always alone, always bruised, always pretending she's fine when she's clearly drowning. She cleans classrooms for scholarship money. Tutors kids who mock her. Gets framed for theft by her own stepsister.
I never talked to her. Why would I? She's F-Rank. I'm SSS-Rank. We exist in different universes.
Except right now she's glowing.
The holographic map swirls around her—star systems, portal coordinates, text in a dead language I spent ten years learning. Starborn technology. The same technology my parents died researching.
My heart stops.
"Primary Keybearer Identified," a voice booms from the map. "Starborn Heir Recognized. True Rank: Suppressed."
Lyra stumbles backward, terrified. She doesn't understand what's happening. But I do.
Someone sealed her power. Military-grade suppression magic. The kind that costs millions and requires council authorization. They didn't just make her weak—they buried a star.
"Assembling Secondary Bearers," the voice continues.
The map explodes outward.
Magic grabs me like a fist, dragging me into the circle. I try to resist—ice erupts around me, forming barriers, shields, anything. But this isn't normal magic. This is Starborn technology mixed with something older, darker, more powerful than anything I've ever felt.
The map scans me head to toe.
"Secondary Bearer Identified: Zain Korathi. Compatible Resonance. Guardian Protocol Activated."
"What?" I snarl, still fighting the magic holding me in place. "I didn't agree to—"
Three more students materialize in the circle, pulled from different parts of the library. A shadow mage I recognize from combat class. A nervous technomancer clutching his device. A healer from the noble district.
We're trapped in a circle of light with the F-Rank girl everyone forgot.
Lyra's staring at me, pale and shaking. "I didn't mean to—I was just looking for evidence about the theft charges—I touched something and—"
"Stop talking." I study the holographic map with my parents' research echoing in my head. Star charts. Portal coordinates. Ancient warnings about bloodlines the council hunted to extinction.
This is it. The Codex of Starfall. The artifact my parents died trying to find.
And it chose her as its primary bearer.
"Team Configuration Optimal," the voice announces. "Primary Keybearer possesses suppressed SSS-Rank potential. Guardian possesses active SSS-Rank resonance. Compatibility: 97.3%."
The other students are panicking, trying to escape. But I'm staring at Lyra with new understanding.
"You're not F-Rank," I say quietly.
She flinches. "The ceremony said—"
"Someone lied to you." I point at the hologram showing her energy signature—layers upon layers of sealing magic wrapped around a core of blazing power. "You've been suppressed since childhood. That's not random. That's deliberate."
Her eyes go wide. Then they fill with tears. Not sad tears—angry ones.
"Why would someone do that?"
"Because you're Starborn." I gesture at the map. "Your DNA is the key to waking an extinct civilization. The Galactic Council has been hunting your bloodline for centuries. Whoever sealed you was either trying to protect you..." I pause. "Or control you."
Before she can respond, alarms shriek through the library.
"Security," the shadow mage—Nyx—hisses. "We need to run."
"Where?" the technomancer squeaks. "That magic signature probably lit up every sensor in the academy!"
The healer, Aria, steps forward. "The map. It's showing portal coordinates. Maybe it's offering us an escape route?"
Lyra's staring at her hands like they belong to someone else. "I don't understand any of this. Two hours ago I was about to be expelled. Now I'm supposedly some ancient heir with sealed power and—"
"Focus," I snap. Not cruel—practical. "Right now you have two choices. Stay here and let Headmaster Vorn dissect you to figure out how you activated this. Or come with us through that portal and survive long enough to understand what's happening to you."
She looks at me. Really looks at me. And I see something I didn't expect—steel underneath the fear.
"If I go through that portal, will I find out who sealed my power?"
"Eventually."
"And will I learn how to save my brother? He's sick. The academy's medical resources were my only—"
"Yes." I don't know why I'm so certain, but I am. "The Codex trials unlock sealed abilities. If you're really Starborn, you'll gain access to medical technology centuries ahead of anything the academy has."
The security doors start sliding open. Armored enforcers pour through.
Lyra makes her decision.
"I'm going."
The map responds instantly. A swirling portal opens in the center of our circle—stars and darkness and possibility.
"Everyone in. Now." I grab Lyra's wrist because she's hesitating. "Trust me or don't. But if you stay, you die."
We jump.
The portal swallows us whole, ripping us through space itself. My last thought before everything goes black:
My parents died looking for the Codex. Now it found me.
Through her.
We slam into solid ground. I roll, coming up in a defensive crouch, ice already forming weapons in my hands.
We're on a dead moon. Ancient ruins stretch in every direction. And standing in the center of the clearing...
My uncle. The man who raised me after my parents died. The man I trusted.
He's wearing the uniform of the Luminal Order.
The same organization that killed my family.
"Hello, Zain," he says calmly, like we're meeting for tea instead of on a forbidden moon. "I see you found the Codex. That makes things simpler."
Fifty armed soldiers materialize from the shadows, surrounding us completely.
My uncle smiles. "Now, let's discuss why you're going to hand over the Starborn girl. Peacefully."