The morning sun broke through the mist, washing the forests in shades of gold and silver. Yohan stood at the edge of the cliffs beyond the Academy walls — free for the first time, but not unchained.
Freedom, he realized, wasn't the same as peace.
The air around him still pulsed faintly with power, the remnants of five forces that refused to rest. He could feel them all — the heat beneath his skin, the rush of air in his lungs, the quiet pulse of the ground beneath his feet. Every breath felt borrowed from something greater.
He walked through the woods quietly, his senses sharper than before. The leaves rustled in rhythm, the rivers whispered in tones he understood. For the first time, he wasn't merely hearing nature — he was part of it.
But there was something else too. A weight. The world itself felt… tired.
Villages he passed were silent, their wells dry, their fields sickly. Elemental imbalance — that's what the scholars had always warned of. But Yohan could feel it. The elements weren't just out of balance — they were in pain.
He stopped by a ruined shrine, its walls cracked and overgrown. Inside lay a small child, barely breathing, the air thick with smoke. Yohan knelt, instinctively placing his hand over the boy's chest.
The fire within him flared — angry, wild — but the water calmed it, the earth steadied it, the air cooled it. For a moment, all five voices aligned.
"Breathe," he whispered.
And the boy did.
Yohan stared at his hand in disbelief. He hadn't forced it — the elements wanted to heal.
But before he could think, he heard movement behind him. A group of armed men stepped into the shrine, their armor marked with the crest of the Academy's Wardens.
"There!" one shouted. "The Mirror-breaker!"
Yohan rose slowly, his cloak catching the wind. "I didn't come here to fight."
"Then kneel," the leader barked. "You are under arrest by order of—"
The man didn't finish. The ground shuddered beneath them, not from Yohan's will — but from the world itself. The trees bent, the wind howled, and a strange ripple spread through the air like reality itself had flinched.
Yohan's eyes widened slightly. He felt it — something older than him, older than the Academy. The elements inside him whispered in fear for the first time.
Aether: "It awakens."
The soldiers staggered, confused, as the sky darkened unnaturally. Yohan stepped back, his gaze fixed on the horizon where the light dimmed.
This wasn't his doing.
Something else… had begun.