The entrance to Solis Castle was nothing like the warm welcome a survivor might have hoped for. Walking behind Elara and the Royal Mage, Nameless felt minuscule beneath the immense golden-decorated vaults. Every echo of his boots on the marble floor seemed to scream his illegitimacy.
In the Great Audience Hall, dozens of nobles dressed in precious silks had gathered. Their whispers sounded like the hissing of serpents.
"Is that him? The 'monster' of the desert?"
"Look at his gloves... they say they're to hide his claws."
"He doesn't even have a name; he's just a hollow shell."
The King, seated on a throne of white stone, signaled the Royal Mage to speak. The latter bowed: "Your Majesty, after testing at the Academy, this boy shows no detectable magical affinity. The desert incidents seem to be anomalies... or a tragic fluke."
The nobles' contempt exploded. If he wasn't a useful weapon, he was merely a burden. It was then that Prince Alaric stepped forward from the ranks, his armor shimmering and his arrogant smile defying the assembly.
"A fluke?" Alaric sneered, circling Nameless like a predator. "Father, one does not massacre a legion by chance. This kid is hiding his game. Magic is like blood: it only comes out when you open the wound."
He placed a heavy hand on Nameless's shoulder, squeezing until the bone creaked. "If he can't use magic in an exam room, it's because he's too cowardly to let it out. Put him on the training grounds. Faced with a real blade, we'll see if he remains 'void'."
The Queen added in a calm but cutting voice: "If he fails, he will be banished or locked away for the rest of his days. Solis has no room for useless mysteries."
The Duel of Dust
The knights' training ground was surrounded by stands where the nobility of Solis had massed, curious to see Elara's "toy." Prince Alaric, a golden-haired force of nature, wielded his two-handed sword with disconcerting ease. Opposite him, Princess Isolde observed the scene from the royal box, her silver eyes showing no emotion.
The duel was a slaughter. Nameless, armed with two daggers too heavy for his frail arms, couldn't even graze Alaric's armor. The Prince laughed, punctuating every dodge with a kick or a hilt-strike to the boy's ribs.
"This is the great mystery of the desert?" Alaric spat, crushing Nameless's cheek into the sand with his boot. "You're nothing but a mistake of nature. A failure born in the mud who will end in the dust."
Under the Prince's foot, Nameless heard nothing anymore. He only felt black lava boiling in his veins. His vision turned red. Every insult from Alaric acted like a hammer blow to the seals of his gloves.
Alaric raised his sword for the finishing blow. "Die, you failure!"
The sword fell with enough force to split a rock. But metal did not meet flesh. Nameless had seized the blade with his bare hand. Blood flowed over his glove, but he didn't seem to feel the pain. With a sudden jerk, his daggers on the ground flew up via Telekinesis, lunging at the Prince's face, forcing him to drop his weapon to parry.
"What?!" Alaric roared.
Nameless stood up. His blue eyes had become vertical slits, burning with a wild glow. He took a deep breath, his chest swelling unnaturally.
"FLAMETHROWER!"
It wasn't an incantation. It was a roar. A torrent of pure fire erupted from his mouth—an incandescent column that was not magical, but biological. The flame slammed into the Royal Mage's high-ranking protection barrier and shattered it like fragile glass, continuing its path until it vaporized the courtyard wall in a deafening explosion.
The silence that followed was absolute. Nameless collapsed into the sand, unconscious, his lungs wheezing.
The Consequences: A Blood Pact
The verdict fell, dictated by fear as much as fascination:
Elara's Guardianship: She keeps the boy, as she is the only one capable of understanding his magical structure.
Total Surveillance: Nameless will be watched 24/7. A "Monitoring Collar" linked to the Royal Mage is imposed on him.
The Sword of Damocles: At the slightest sign of loss of control, the order for immediate execution will be activated. Without a trial.