By morning, the Academy was buzzing.
No one said my name out loud, but they didn't have to.
"The boy dragged out before his test."
"The one with no element."
"Archlord Kael's disgrace."
I heard them all.
They didn't know I had awakened.
Didn't know that something had answered.
Didn't know that I didn't walk alone anymore.
The shadow inside me was calm now. Still. Settled beneath my skin like ink pressed between stone layers. It didn't move unless I asked it to.
And I didn't—yet.
I sat beneath a hollow arch near the old dorm walls, away from the main plaza where nobles laughed and compared cores. Above them, mana lanterns floated lazily in the air, reacting to fire, light, or wind essence. Mine didn't respond at all.
That's when I heard her footsteps.
Confident. Even. Flame in her presence before it ever touched her hands.
Rena.
She dropped beside me without asking.
"You disappeared," she said.
"So did everyone else."
"You didn't awaken?"
I hesitated, then gave a single nod.
She narrowed her eyes. "What element?"
"...None of the six."
"That's not funny."
I didn't laugh. I didn't need to.
A flicker of flame sparked at her fingertips—habit, not threat. She always did that when unsure, or worried.
"You alright?"
"No," I answered. "But I'm still here."
She didn't ask again. That's why I trusted her.
The ground trembled suddenly. Barely. A soft shiver through the stone. But I felt it—deep, like a signal through the bones of the Academy itself.
Not an earthquake.
Not natural.
Something had shifted.
We both turned toward the western wing of the campus.
The ruins. Sealed. Guarded. Off-limits to all students.
And from deep below, something called out. Not with sound.
With design.
With a pattern left unfinished.
Rena stood slowly beside me.
"You felt that too?"
I nodded, my voice low.
The blueprint inside me—the one I never asked for—had begun to stir.
"I don't know what it is," I said. "But it's starting."
Rena didn't flinch.
She simply said, "Then we find out."
And together, we walked toward the silence beneath the stone.