The morning bell rang long before the sun rose over the mining village of Grey Hollow.
Kael was already awake.
He had learned years ago that sleep was a luxury for people with futures. For everyone else, morning came whether they were ready or not.
The air inside the shack was cold enough to sting his lungs. Frost traced thin veins across the wooden walls, and each breath left a pale ghost drifting in the dark. Somewhere outside, boots crunched over frozen dirt and a cart wheel groaned under too much weight.
Another day in the mines.
Kael pushed himself up from the straw mattress and wrapped a patched cloak around his shoulders. The fabric smelled faintly of ash and iron. Everything in Grey Hollow smelled like that. The village existed for one reason only: to dig.
Iron. Coal. Salt. Whatever the empire wanted.
He stepped outside just as the first strip of dawn cut across the horizon. The mountains rose like black teeth around the valley, trapping the cold and the smoke together. Thin chimneys coughed grey plumes into the sky.
Men moved toward the mine entrance in a slow, silent line.
No one spoke much in Grey Hollow. Talking wasted breath.
"Oi. You're late."
Kael turned.
Old Bren stood by the well, arms folded. The man's beard was more frost than hair now, and the left sleeve of his coat hung empty where his arm used to be.
Kael gave a small shrug.
"I'm not late. The bell rang early."
"The bell rings when it rings," Bren muttered. "Empire doesn't run on your opinions, boy."
Kael almost smiled. Bren always talked like that, rough and blunt, but he was the closest thing Kael had to family.
"Eat first," Bren said, tossing him a small cloth bundle.
Inside was half a hard loaf and a strip of dried meat.
Kael blinked. "You should keep this."
"I said eat."
There was no arguing with Bren when his voice dropped like that.
Kael nodded and bit into the bread. It was stale enough to hurt his teeth, but warmth spread through him anyway. Food always felt like a small miracle in this place.
They walked toward the mine together.
The entrance loomed at the edge of the village, a massive wound carved into the mountain. Wooden beams framed the opening, blackened by years of smoke. Lanterns flickered along the path downward, their light swallowed quickly by the dark.
Kael had spent most of his life inside that darkness.
He had also spent most of his life being reminded he didn't belong.
In Grey Hollow, everyone had a little magic. Nothing grand. Nothing heroic. Just enough to make the work survivable.
Some could warm their hands.
Some could strengthen their muscles for a few minutes.
Some could coax sparks into flame.
Kael had nothing.
He remembered the first time they tested him, when he was seven. The overseer had pressed a glowing coal into his palm and told him to channel heat away like the other children.
The coal never cooled.
Kael didn't burn either.
The overseer called it uselessness. The other kids called it curse-born. After that, Kael stopped trying.
"Stay near me today," Bren muttered as they passed the guard post. "Something feels wrong."
Kael followed his gaze.
More soldiers than usual stood near the entrance. Imperial blue cloaks, polished helmets, hands resting on sword hilts instead of ledgers.
Inspection day, maybe.
Or something worse.
Kael didn't ask. In Grey Hollow, questions rarely brought good answers.
They descended into the mine.
The tunnel swallowed the morning whole.
Pickaxes struck stone in steady rhythm. Dust floated thick in the lantern light. Somewhere deeper inside, a support beam creaked like it might give up on life entirely.
Kael took his place along the wall and started working.
Swing.
Strike.
Pull.
Swing.
Strike.
Pull.
Time blurred into the rhythm of labor. It always did.
Until the screaming started.
At first it was faint, echoing from the upper tunnels. A single shout. Then another. Then the unmistakable sound of steel ringing against steel.
The entire tunnel stilled.
Kael lowered his pick slowly.
Bren's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Stay behind me."
Boots thundered down the passage.
A miner burst into view, face white with terror.
"Soldiers— not ours— they're searching the village— they're dragging people out—"
An explosion shook the tunnel ceiling, raining dust and pebbles over everyone.
The lanterns swung wildly.
Kael's heart slammed against his ribs.
This wasn't an inspection.
This was a purge.
More shouting echoed from above. Orders barked in a voice that carried the cold authority of command.
"Search every structure. The shard is here. It has to be."
Shard.
Kael frowned.
He had heard the word only in old stories. Relics of the gods. Pieces of divine power. Things emperors killed for.
Why would one be here?
Grey Hollow barely had enough value to justify existing.
Bren grabbed Kael's shoulder.
"We're leaving. Now."
They turned toward the side tunnel that led to the old storage shafts, but before they could move far, armored figures flooded the passage behind them.
Imperial soldiers.
But not the ones from Grey Hollow.
These wore black-and-silver armor, etched with symbols Kael didn't recognize. Their cloaks bore a crest shaped like a broken sun.
Elite troops.
One stepped forward, visor hiding his face.
"Everyone stays where they are," he said calmly. "We're looking for an artifact. Cooperate, and you live."
No one moved.
The soldier's gaze swept across the miners.
Then it stopped on Kael.
For a moment, something flickered in the man's posture. Recognition? Instinct?
He stepped closer.
"You," he said. "What's your name?"
Kael hesitated.
"…Kael."
The soldier studied him like a puzzle piece that didn't fit.
Then his eyes dropped to Kael's chest.
To the rusted pendant hanging from a thin cord around his neck.
The metal glowed faintly beneath the dust.
The soldier's voice changed.
"There it is."
Kael's stomach dropped.
Bren stepped in front of him instantly.
"It's just scrap. Leave the boy alone."
The soldier didn't even look at him.
"Take it," he ordered.
Two soldiers advanced.
Kael's hand closed around the pendant instinctively.
The metal felt strangely warm.
Alive.
Something inside him stirred, deep and heavy, like a door shifting in a place he didn't know existed.
"Remove it," the soldier repeated.
Kael shook his head.
He didn't know why.
It had never mattered before. Just an old trinket Bren gave him years ago. Nothing special.
But now—
Now it felt like letting go would mean losing something he couldn't name.
One soldier reached for him.
The moment his gauntlet touched the pendant, the lanterns in the tunnel flickered.
Then went out.
Darkness crashed down.
A shockwave rippled through the air, silent but heavy, like the world itself had inhaled.
From somewhere deep inside Kael's chest, a pulse answered.
The soldier stumbled back.
"…What did you do?" someone whispered.
Kael didn't know.
But for the first time in his life, something inside him had responded.
And far above Grey Hollow, beyond the mountains and the empire and the reach of ordinary men—
Something ancient had just noticed him.