The sun was setting when I heard the knock on the workshop door.
Three quick taps, one slow.
Only one person knocked like that.
I opened it.
She stepped in like she owned the light—hair the color of burning copper, eyes glowing ember-red even before her core awakened. She didn't need an introduction.
Rena Vermillion.
The girl born of fire.
And the only person who never laughed when I spoke of buildings that breathed, or stones that whispered.
She glanced around my half-built rooftop lab, boots clinking against the floor tiles I'd carved by hand.
> "You still work in the dark?" she asked.
> "Only when I'm building something that shouldn't see the light yet."
She smirked, flicking her fingers. A small flame danced on her palm.
> "You got the letter too, didn't you?"
I nodded, pulling mine from the shelf. She held hers up next to mine—both sealed with the crest of the Nine Pillars Academy.
> "I knew you'd make it," she said, serious now. "Even when the others said you were just playing with dirt and junk."
I didn't reply. I didn't need to.
She already knew how deep that hurt used to cut.
We stood in silence for a while. The city below us buzzed with ordinary people. All of them chasing the same path: become a mage, awaken their mana core at 17, master their single element… and if they were lucky, earn a spot in the lower courts.
But Rena… she wasn't ordinary.
She had already begun training at 12. Her fire obeyed her voice. Her flames could twist into ropes, scatter like dust, even vanish on command. Some called her prodigy. Others whispered royal-blooded—even though her family wasn't.
Me?
I wasn't anything yet.
But that was going to change.
At the Academy, all first-years were brought before the Elemental Core Crystal—an ancient structure designed to awaken the dormant mana within each student.
Fire. Wind. Water. Earth. Light. Lightning. The six known forces.
Royals awakened two. Sometimes more.
No one had awakened Shadow in over a century.
Because Shadow wasn't considered a blessing.
It was a curse.
A dead-end. A madness. A path that devoured its user in the later stages of growth. Its wielders became unstable. Lost. Dangerous. Eventually erased.
And yet…
Late that night, while I stared at the old parchment etched with breathing runes…
the shadows in my room shifted.
Not from the moonlight.
From me.