[Morning light filters through rain-slicked glass. The sound of a flame crackles softly in the next room.]
Warmth.
That's the first thing I feel when I awake. Not just the heat of a blanket, but a deeper kind. The quiet warmth that lives in the spaces between sounds. Something I haven't felt in years.
For a moment, I forget where — or who — I am. Then memory returns, slow and jagged: rain, forest, fire bending toward me, and the name that won't leave my mind.
The Aether Codex.
I sit up carefully. My body feels lighter again, energy humming quietly under my skin. My clothes — clean, simple linen — have been folded at the bedside. Whoever brought me here took care of me.
A voice drifts from the hall." Kael? You're awake?"
The door opens before I can answer. A man stands framed in the morning light — tall, broad-shouldered, with the posture of someone who's spent half his life under armour and the other half trying to forget it. His hair's black, streaked with grey, his jaw clean-shaven, and his eyes… kind, but sharp.
He smiles when he sees me. "You gave us quite a scare."
Us?
Before I can even respond, a slim figure appears behind him. A woman with the same dark hair but softer features, her hands dusted with flour, an apron tied at her waist.
"Don't stand by the door, Elias!" She scolds him lightly. "He's barely gained consciousness."
She moves past him, kneels beside the bed, and touches my forehead as if checking for a fever. Her hand is warm, her eyes gentle.
"Still cool," she murmured. "Good."
She looks at me properly, and her smile deepens. "You're safe now."
The words hit harder than they should. Safe. I've heard the phrase before, but not like this.
"Thank you," I manage, my voice hoarse.
Her smile softens. "You don't need to thank us, dear. You're home."
Home. That word again.
I'm not sure how to react, so I nod in response.
In the corner of my eye, I see Elias sitting on the edge of the bed, carrying the calm authority of a soldier. "Do you remember what happened?"
"I..." Hesitating to get the words out. "I was in the woods. I think."
The man and the woman both exchanged looks, one of worry and confusion.
"Lira found you," she says finally. "Half-collapsed near the ridge. You were burning with fever. The storm nearly took you."
Elias leans back, arms crossed. "You were lucky. The basin's storms aren't kind to travellers."
Wait.
This doesn't make sense. The last thing I remember is Edrin and his mother taking care of me inside their cabin.
But I was found outside in the forest before the ridge. Does that mean the conversation with Edrin was a dream? No. It can't be, it felt so real that even the Codex was reacting to them.
Great. Another mystery for me to figure out.
"I'm sorry," I apologised intently. "I didn't mean to worry you."
The woman chuckled — a soft, genuine sound. "You sound like you're apologising for being alive."
"I…"I almost say I'm not used to being cared for, but stop myself. Instead, I look away.
Elias stands. "We'll let you rest. Breakfast's ready when you're steady on your feet. Don't rush — you're still healing."
He moves to leave, but the woman — my supposed mother — lingers.
Her hand rests briefly against my cheek. "We're just glad you're home, Kael."
I sit there, staring at the closed door. The warmth in my chest is unfamiliar — and it hurts, somehow.
In my previous world, my parents' affection had been distant like everything else in their lives. Here, a stranger touches my face like I'm something precious. It's disorienting.
It's confusing.
Actually, now that I think about it, what were my parents like?
Later, when I finally leave the room, the house greets me with quiet simplicity. Wooden beams, polished smooth by years of touch. A single window looking out across the basin. Every inch of the space feels lived in — not just occupied.
My mother hums again while kneading dough. Elias is sharpening a knife at the table. They look up as I enter.
"Feeling better?" She asks.
"A lot better."
"Eat." Elias directed me towards the chair opposite him.
I sit. The bread is warm, the butter faintly sweet. I chew mechanically, but the texture and smell are overwhelming — real. Every sense feels sharpened, more alive.
"Kael," Elias says after a moment, tone cautious. "You've always had a way of… noticing things. Asking questions others don't. You remember?"
I shake my head. "Not much."
He nods slowly. "That's all right. Maybe it's better that way."
My mother gives him a quiet look that says Not now. He clears his throat. "Anyway. No need to burden you with old stories. We're just happy you're back on your feet."
I swallow another piece of bread, watching him. There's something deliberate about his tone — a soldier trying to sound like a farmer.
"Um... Father, are you a soldier?" I asked.
His hand stills on the blade. "Father, huh? I was a soldier, yes."
"Why did you stop?"
He didn't look up. "Because of a promise. A promise I made to your mother before we had you. To raise you as our son and not die for someone else's throne."
Damn, that was deep.
That silence again. Heavy, but not cold. The kind born of love built on loss.
My mother changed the subject gently. "Eat. You think too much when you're hungry."
I guess she's not wrong.
After breakfast, I stepped outside. The air is damp but fresh, carrying the smell of Earth and dew. The valley stretches below — lines of crops shimmering faintly, veins of faint blue light pulsing beneath the soil.
I kneel, my hand pressed to the ground. The hum beneath my palm is distinct — rhythmic, measured.
[AETHER FIELD DETECTED]
The text appears across my vision without warning, blue-gold glyphs forming and dissolving like ink in water.
I inhale sharply.
The overlay expands — tracing lines through the landscape, mapping temperature gradients, particle motion, even wind currents.
My heart races. "Codex," I whisper.
Acknowledged
"Show me… everything."
The world ignites.
Streams of colour cascade across my vision — rivers of energy flowing beneath the ground, currents of invisible light moving through trees, every object annotated with precise readings.
Every leaf becomes a formula: every breath, a calculation.
I stand slowly, overwhelmed and entranced all at once.
The world hums like a living equation.
"This world runs on laws, too," I murmur. "They just don't know them."
For a long moment, I watch.
I relocated to the stream behind the house.
"Codex," I say. "Can you show me the flow of Aether?"
Affirmative.
I can see lines appear, tracing the current. I can see the Codex's projections, speed, turbulence and pressure differential.
I found a pebble by the river and tossed it as hard as I could, the Codex recalculating impact points in real time.
[REACTION MODELED: 99.4]
Hahahaha.
I couldn't help but laugh.
Even in a world full of emotion-born magic, science still listens.
A faint ding interrupts the moment.
[ANOMALY DETECTED]
[SOURCE: USER AETHER SIGNATURE]
[DESCRIPTION: RESONANCE MISMATCH]
My smile fades.
"Codex, explain, please."
[PRIMARY AETHER SIGNATURE: UNCLASSIFIED]
[OBSERVED PATTERN: MULTIPLE RESONANCE]
Conclusion: Hybrid or latent multi-affinity trait.
"Multiple? Are you telling me I have more than one affinity?"
Affirmative.
Warning: Current bod synchronisation < 60
My pulse quickens.Multi-affinity — if that's what I think it is, then I'm not just using Aether differently. My entire existence is misaligned with the rules of this world.
"Kael!"
I turn. My mother stands at the doorway, smiling but faintly worried. "Come inside before you catch another fever."
I nod, brushing dirt from my hands. "Coming."
When I look back at the stream, the glyphs fade — but I can still feel them, ghost traces burned into my vision.
Inside, she's stirring soup while Elias carves small wooden charms by the fire. He looks up as I enter.
"Exploring again?"
"Just thinking."
He grins. "You always were curious. Your tutors used to say curiosity would be the death of you."
"Tutors?"
He pauses. "Ah. Forget I said that."
There's an awkward silence before my mother interjects softly, "You're going to be fine, Kael. Whatever happened before, you're safe now."
Safe. The word rings different this time — like a promise they can't quite guarantee.
I nod. "I know."
That night, I sit by the fire again after they've gone to sleep. The Codex hums quietly, lines of light tracing through the air.
"Codex," I whisper. "Why me? Why did I reincarnate and why this world?
There's a long pause before a faint chime.
[SOURCE IDENTIFICATION: UNKNOWN]
[SOUL SIGNATURE: NON-NATIVE]
[INTEGRATION STATUS: PARTIAL]
[ESTIMATED COMPLETION: 42]
What the hell does it mean by partial integration? Does that mean the original Kael's soul is still inside this body? What happens if Kael decides to return?
So many questions, but not many answers. A damn shame.
[COMPREHENSION + 0.6]
[TOTAL ELEMENTAL COMPREHENSION: 5.3]
[TIER PROGRESSION: IGNIS INITIATE -> 5.3]
I smile faintly. "I guess even though I'm in a new world, I'm still learning."
The Codex hums again, softer this time, sharing its warmth.
Acknowledged.
For the first time since arriving in this strange new world, I oddly don't feel alone.
The night deepens, the Codex hums softly in my mind, and a low, constant whisper, like static, is translated into language.
My curiosity burns through my sleep hotter than a sports car's exhaustion. Every time I blink, geometric traces ripple behind my eyelids, faint residues of patterns that faintly remind me of their existence.
It seems that the glyphs appear when I think about energy. They fade when I relax.
So what would happen if I pushed myself while thinking about it?
"Codex," I whispered, "can you analyse the local thermal field, particularly in this room?"
[AETHERFIELD: ACTIVE]
[FLOW STABILITY: WEAKLY HARMONIC]
[ELEMENTAL ALIGNMENT: IGNIS}
The air stirs faintly — not from movement, but response. It's as if the world itself listens.
I take a slow breath, visualising the phenomenon I've always known but never truly felt: ignition.
Back on Earth, we looked at fire as three components: fuel, oxygen, and heat. Seems like the Codex is telling me there's a fourth. Willpower.
It's not emotion, but more like an intended direction, visualising the shape of a force that can bridge comprehension and reaction.
Stimulate ignition event?
It seems like the Codex can react and respond to my inner thoughts.
"Yes."
The glyphs rearranged themselves into what looked like a small lattice, a three-dimensional circuit made of light. Elegant, self-contained and self-fueling.
[ESTIMATED EFFECT: CANDLE FLAME]
Perfect. A test spark. A suitable result for my first attempt.
As I wait in anticipation for this spark to be born. I hold my palm over the coals, visualising the lattice folding into a point, a particle accelerator of heat and pressure.
I can hear my own heartbeat. Nothing happens.
Then —
Whump
A burst of an oscillating orange light flashes across my hand, tiny embers spiralling upward. Precise, practical, perfect.
"Haha, it actually worked." I grinned.
[COMPREHENSION + 0.8]
[ELEMENTAL RESONANCE: STABILIZED]
I could tell the Codex hummed in approval.
But curiosity is a dangerous chemical, and I've never been good at stopping at "enough." I can already tell I'm gonna get myself in trouble.
"Codex," I whispered. "Increase the scale factor of the flame by five and adjust the containment ratio for laminar flow."
Warning: Containment Field Is Unverified.
"It's fine, just run it anyway."
The "small" lattice expands fivefold, and a spike in Aether density marks glowing white and blue lines. I can feel the temperature of the flame change before its physical shape even appears.
The energy stabilises. Then surges.
BOOM.
Light erupts. A jet of compressed flame bursts from my hand, slamming into the far wall. The explosion knocks me backwards, chair and all.
Smoke fills the room. Splinters of charred wood pepper the floor. When I open my eyes, there's a hole in the wall the size of a television screen, with edges glowing dimly red.
I blink.
"... Okay. WAY too much laminar flow."
[STRUCTURAL DAMAGE DETECTED]
[USER VITALS: STABLE (ELEVATED HEART RATE]
No kidding.
I cough, waving smoke away. "Containment ratio should've compensated—"
"Kael!"
The door slams open. My mother, Lira, bursts in, a small pulse of greenish light around her hands as she instinctively casts some protection charm.
Frozen at the sight of the wall, she stares at me, standing in the middle of the room, soot on my face, eyes wide, still half in awe.
For a second, she stares.
Her mouth parts, not in anger, but in disbelief. "You... did you cause this? Did you cast?"
"I— uh— technically, yes."
She glances at the scorch mark, then back to me. "Kael… that was Ignis. Fire Aether. You're—" Her voice falters, caught between pride and shock. "You've become an Initiate."
Her words hang heavy in the air.
I had seen that term in passing when I was looking at the Codex display, but hearing it out loud really puts it into perspective. It makes it feel real.
"I see. I'm an Ignis Initiate now," I repeat quietly.
Her eyes shine, and she actually laughs, the kind of bright, trembling laugh that comes from relief and wonder all at once. "You've finally awakened!"
She called down the hall, "Elias! Come see this!"
Her husband's boots thud against the floorboards. He stops in the doorway, taking in the scene. The smoke, the hole, the soot.
Then he exhaled, long and slow. "I can see that the house is still intact, which is a good sign."
"Kael did it! He actually cast Ignis!" Lira said breathlessly. "I mean, look at this level of control, the precision! I told you my baby boy would become a great mage in time!"
Elias squinted at the hole. "Control?"
She swatted his arm lightly. "Oh, hush. Do you know what this means?"
He looks at me, then at her. "That I have a wall to rebuild in the morning?"
She glared. He raised both hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. It's a miracle, our son is a genius."
I manage a weak smile. "Sorry about the wall."
He grins, tired but amused. "It's fine, son, if that wall is the price for your awakening, then it's a price I'm willing to pay."
Lira kneels in front of me, brushing soot off my cheek. "I knew this would happen one day, Kael. I just didn't think it would be this... dramatic."
"I've noticed you've been different lately. Distant, but thoughtful. But this... this is what you were meant for. What you were destined for."
Meant for. I wondered why that resonated with me so much.
I looked at my hand, and I could still feel the slight warmth flickering beneath the skin. The Codex hummed quietly.
[ELEMENTAL AFFINITY: IGNIS]
[TIER ADVANCEMENT: IGNIS INITIATE]
[COMPREHENSION: 7.1]
[SYNCHRONISATION: 61]
Finally, this is what it feels like. Not just having to see the rules in front of me, but being able to write them.
Lira cups my face, tears shining faintly. "Your father didn't want you walking this path. But maybe… maybe you're meant to change what it means to walk it."
Elias sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "If he's already blowing holes in the wall, then he's basically on his way to a scholarship."
"Scholarship?" I echo.
He nods. "Aetherion Academy. The recruiters will come soon. It's where the great families send their heirs, and where Basin kids can prove they belong."
The Codex hums.
[NEW OBJECTIVE REGISTERED]
[DIRECTIVE: SEEK STRUCTURED AETHER KNOWLEDGE]
[DATA ACQUISITION: RECOMMENDED]
I exhaled slowly. "If that's where I am meant to be, then that's where I'll go."
Both of them look up.
Lira's expression softens with pride and worry intertwined. "It's not an easy place, Kael. You'll face nobles, prodigies, people who think birth matters more than heart."
I meet her gaze. "Then I'll just have to prove them wrong."
Elias studied me. "Look, Kael, it's not all sunshine and roses people make it out to be. There will be extreme hardship, class discrimination and endless obstructions on the path that you wish to set yourself on. But. If you're set on it... We will help you however we can."
His voice lowers, almost to a whisper. "Just remember — power doesn't make you free. It makes you visible."
The warning lodges deep.
Lira hugs me suddenly, pulling me close despite the soot and ash. For a moment, I stand there — stiff, uncertain. Then slowly, I let myself return it.
When she lets go, she smiles. "Our little spark."