Chapter 1 — Weight
The first lesson every child of House Gravitas learned was that weight did not care how tired you were.
My father had apparently decided I needed a reminder.
"Again."
I looked over my shoulder at the block of black iron sitting behind me.
It was almost as tall as I was, twice as wide, and connected to my waist by a chain thick enough to anchor a ship. Violet inscriptions crawled across its surface, glowing whenever I pulled hard enough to make the thing move.
Calling it a training weight was generous.
Calling my father a loving parent was beginning to feel equally generous.
I turned back toward him. "My legs stopped working ten minutes ago."
Lord Aaron Gravitas stood at the edge of the training yard with his hands folded behind his back. The morning sun had already climbed over the manor walls, catching the gray beginning to show through his dark-violet hair. He had been watching me suffer for nearly three hours and somehow hadn't acquired so much as a wrinkle in his coat.
His eyes dropped to my knees.
"They're shaking."
"Exactly."
"Then they're working."
I stared at him.
There were people who claimed my father had a sense of humor.
I had never met them.
Behind me, the chain gave a small metallic rattle as I shifted my footing. My palms had gone from sore to numb somewhere during the second hour, my shirt was stuck to my back, and every breath scraped through my lungs like I had swallowed sand.
Tomorrow was my Awakening.
Most families celebrated that sort of thing with relatives, expensive food, and encouraging speeches.
House Gravitas had apparently chosen attempted murder.
"Again, Astri."
I considered falling unconscious.
Unfortunately, Father would probably turn that into a lesson too.
With a sigh, I wrapped both hands around the chain and leaned forward.
Nothing happened.
The iron block sat exactly where it had before, half-buried in the dirt from three hours of being dragged across the yard.
I pulled harder.
My shoulders tightened. The chain bit into the leather around my waist. One boot slipped backward, tearing a shallow groove through the ground.
Still nothing.
"Come on," I muttered.
The block had moved before. There was no reason it couldn't move now.
Except, apparently, for every muscle in my body.
I tried again, this time putting everything I had into it. My arms trembled, my back screamed, and for several long seconds I achieved absolutely nothing.
Then Father spoke.
"Why isn't it moving?"
I nearly laughed.
"Because it's heavy."
"That wasn't the question."
Of course it wasn't.
Nothing could ever be that easy.
I let the chain slacken and sucked in a breath. Father had been doing this since I was old enough to hold a practice sword. If I failed at something, he rarely told me what I had done wrong.
He asked why.
Usually until I wanted to throw something at him.
I looked at the block again.
The problem wasn't its weight. It had been the same weight fifteen minutes ago, and I had moved it then.
So what had changed?
I looked down at my feet.
My right foot had slowly crept forward as I tired. My body was almost upright now, which meant every time I pulled, part of the force went upward instead of backward.
I adjusted my stance, widened my feet, and lowered my hips.
The chain tightened.
This time the block scraped forward almost immediately.
Only an inch.
Maybe less.
But it moved.
I couldn't stop the grin that appeared on my face.
Father gave a single nod.
"Again."
The grin vanished.
"You could at least pretend to be impressed."
"If praise is what moves the block, I'll try it."
"You're doing wonderfully, Astri."
His voice was completely flat.
I narrowed my eyes. "You know, somehow that's worse."
"Again."
I pulled.
Another inch.
The strange thing was that I wasn't any stronger than I had been a minute ago. My arms still felt ready to fall off. My legs still shook.
I had simply stopped wasting what strength I had.
That thought stayed with me as I reset my feet.
Pulling harder hadn't worked.
Changing how I pulled had.
The next attempt moved the block farther.
Then the next.
My vision had started to blur at the edges by the time my body finally gave up. My knees struck the dirt, and a second later I was flat on my back, staring at a painfully blue sky.
For a while, I simply breathed.
The manor rose around the training grounds in white stone and violet crystal, all clean lines and polished towers. Somewhere beyond the walls, bells chimed the hour.
I had never hated bells before.
Footsteps crossed the dirt.
Father stopped beside me.
"Better."
I turned my head toward him. "That's all?"
"You corrected the mistake yourself."
"I was hoping for something more emotional."
"Why?"
There it was again.
I closed my eyes.
"I walked into that one."
"Yes."
A metallic click sounded near my waist.
The pressure around me suddenly disappeared.
My eyes opened.
Father had unlocked the chain.
For one glorious moment, I understood true freedom.
I spread my arms across the dirt. "I forgive you."
"Get up."
"I take it back."
"We're going hunting."
That got my attention.
I pushed myself onto my elbows. "Today?"
Father was already winding the chain around the iron block.
"We hunt every week."
"Not today."
I frowned.
There was nothing unusual about hunting itself. The forest surrounding the Gravitas estate supplied game, medicinal plants, Mana materials, and more than a few creatures that liked eating people who wandered too deep without permission.
Father had taken me into it since I was a child.
But there was something different in his tone.
"What are we hunting?"
He finished securing the chain and started toward the manor.
"Clean yourself up. Bring your bow and sword."
"That isn't an answer."
"I know."
"Are you going to give me one?"
"In an hour."
I watched him walk away.
"That's also not an answer."
He didn't turn around.
I remained there for several seconds, then looked at the black iron block beside me.
Three hours.
All so I could move a piece of metal slightly more efficiently.
I kicked it.
Pain shot through my toes.
"...Fine. You win."
My bed was the greatest achievement of modern civilization.
I decided this approximately ten seconds after reaching my room and collapsing face-first onto it.
The mattress accepted me without judgment. It did not ask why. It did not tell me to adjust my footing. Most importantly, it was not enchanted to weigh several times more than it should.
I could have stayed there until tomorrow.
Probably longer.
Someone knocked.
I ignored it.
Another knock came a moment later.
Still ignored it.
The door opened.
"Astri?"
I buried my face deeper into the pillow. "He's dead."
A brief silence followed.
"Can I have his room?"
I lifted my head.
Bella stood in the doorway, holding a book against her chest.
My younger sister was sixteen and had somehow inherited all of Mother's neatness while avoiding every trait that might have made her tolerable before breakfast. Her dark-violet hair fell neatly past her shoulders, tied back with a white ribbon, and her dress looked untouched by dirt, sweat, or suffering.
In other words, she looked offensive.
Her eyes moved from me to the bed.
Then widened.
"You got dirt on the sheets."
"I nearly died."
"Mother is going to finish the job."
I let my head fall back down.
"Then tell her I loved her."
Bella stepped inside. "The block?"
"Three hours."
For a moment, her expression softened.
Then she said, "Maybe Father is worried Temperance won't accept anyone who loses a fight to a stationary object."
I reached for the nearest pillow.
She moved before I threw it.
"Don't."
"You deserve this."
"And you don't have the strength."
I threw it anyway.
She ducked.
The pillow struck the door.
Bella smiled.
I hated how easily she had predicted that.
"You're supposed to be preparing for tomorrow," she said.
"I am preparing."
"By trying to cripple yourself?"
"That's Father's contribution."
The mention of tomorrow settled between us.
My Awakening.
For years, it had been something distant enough to imagine without worrying about. Every child knew what Awakening meant. Mana existed everywhere—in the soil beneath the estate, in the crystal lamps hanging through the manor, in the beasts wandering beyond the walls.
Most people could live their entire lives surrounded by it without ever truly controlling it.
Awakening changed that.
Tomorrow, if everything went correctly, I would form an Inherent Core and discover what kind of Mana my body actually accepted.
What Pathway would be mine.
House Gravitas had spent generations mastering Gravity.
That didn't mean I would.
Father had repeated that often enough.
Blood could influence an Awakening.
It couldn't command one.
Bella watched me for a moment. "You're nervous."
"No."
"You took too long to answer."
"I'm tired."
"You're nervous and tired."
"Thank you. Very helpful."
She walked toward the door, then stopped.
"Mother wants everyone at dinner tonight."
"We eat dinner together every night."
"Not after you leave."
I looked at her.
Temperance Academy was only three days away.
That still didn't sound real.
"I'll come home."
"I know."
"You say that like I'm being shipped across the ocean."
She shrugged without looking at me. "You'll probably annoy everyone there so badly they'll send you back."
"There we go. That's the sister I know."
She smiled slightly.
Then her gaze landed on my sheets again.
"Change those."
"No promises."
"I'll tell Mother."
"Traitor."
The door closed behind her.
For a few moments, the room was quiet.
I rolled over and stared at the ceiling.
Tomorrow I would Awaken.
Three days later, I would leave home.
And apparently, somewhere between those two things, Father wanted to take me hunting.
I had the uncomfortable feeling those facts were connected.
An hour later, I stood before the gates of the family forest with a bow over one shoulder and a sword at my hip.
Father was already there.
Obviously.
He pulled a silver pocket watch from his coat, checked it, and looked at me.
"Two minutes late."
"I considered not coming."
"That would have been three."
I adjusted the quiver across my back. "You trained me for three hours this morning."
"Yes."
"I can barely walk."
"You walked here."
"You're remarkably difficult to argue with."
"So I've been told."
He slipped the watch away and turned toward the gate.
Unlike most of the estate, there was nothing decorative about the forest entrance. Thick black bars separated the manicured grounds from the wilderness beyond, and warning inscriptions had been carved directly into the stone posts on either side.
The Gravitas forest wasn't simply woodland.
The Deepwell beneath our territory saturated everything around it with Gravity-aligned Mana. The effect was weak near the manor, but the deeper you traveled, the stranger things became.
Father opened the gate.
Before stepping through, he looked back at me.
"Stay alert."
That was all.
I followed him inside.
The first half hour passed quietly.
The path narrowed as we moved deeper, until eventually there was no path at all. Violet moss grew over exposed roots. Tiny glowing insects drifted between branches. Once, something resembling a rabbit leapt from a bush and remained in the air a second longer than it should have before floating gently back down.
I watched it disappear.
"Still strange."
Father didn't look back. "You've seen float hares before."
"Doesn't make them less strange."
"They're rabbits."
"They're flying rabbits."
"Floating."
"That distinction does not help."
The corner of his mouth moved.
I saw it.
"I saw that."
"No, you didn't."
"You smiled."
"Watch the trees."
I grinned and kept walking.
Another twenty minutes passed before Father suddenly raised one hand.
I stopped.
His entire posture had changed.
The casual pace disappeared. His steps became silent as he moved toward a ridge ahead of us and lowered himself behind a thick cluster of roots.
I followed, careful not to let my sword scrape against the rocks.
"What is it?" I whispered.
He pointed.
Beyond the ridge, the forest opened into a clearing.
Something large stood beneath a tree with golden leaves.
At first glance, it looked like a bear.
At second glance, I realized normal bears did not have glowing violet lines spiraling across their bodies.
The creature was enormous, with thick brown fur stretched over shoulders nearly level with my chest even while it stood on all fours. White markings ran along its legs and converged beneath its ribs, pulsing faintly with each breath.
A cluster of pale fruit hung above it.
The bear lifted its head.
The markings flashed violet.
Several fruits trembled on their branches.
Then they tore free and flew sideways into the beast's waiting paw.
I stopped breathing.
I knew what I was looking at.
Every Gravitas child did.
"Gravibear," I whispered.
Father nodded.
My mouth went dry.
Gravibears were Mana Beasts.
Awakened ones.
Their bodies developed naturally around Gravity Mana, granting them strength that ordinary animals could never reach.
And I was still a Normie.
Until tomorrow, there was not a single speck of Mana in my body I could consciously control.
I slowly looked toward Father.
"You didn't bring me here to watch it, did you?"
"No."
Of course not.
I kept my voice low. "You're fighting it?"
"No."
For several seconds, I said nothing.
Then I pointed at myself.
Father nodded.
I looked back at the Gravibear.
It tore one of the fruits apart between claws larger than my hand.
Then back at Father.
"Just so we're clear, I don't have a Core."
"I know."
"That thing does."
"Yes."
"Glad we're establishing the facts."
Father's expression remained calm.
I waited for the explanation.
Nothing.
"...Why?"
That finally earned a response.
"Because tomorrow you'll gain power."
He looked toward the Gravibear.
"I want to see what you can do before you have it."
Something cold settled in my stomach.
Not panic.
Not quite.
Fear, certainly.
But beneath it—
excitement.
Father reached toward my shoulder and removed the bow.
For a heartbeat, I thought he'd changed his mind.
Instead, he placed it properly into my hands.
"Your hunt."
I stared at him.
"Any advice?"
"Yes."
I waited.
Father turned his attention toward the clearing.
"Don't miss."
The Gravibear's head suddenly lifted.
Its nose twitched.
Then its eyes turned directly toward us.
I slowly pulled an arrow from my quiver.
"...That was going to be my plan."