⚔️ Chapter 17 Fragments of the Present
The light in the dormitory was pale when Rian woke, the kind that made even metal seem tired. His palms ached. The ache wasn't from wounds — it was memory. The muscles remembered movements he hadn't yet made in this life.
He sat up. His breath clouded faintly in the cool air. The Moonlit Seed on his chest flickered once, like a sleeping heartbeat.
He flexed his hands.
Faint lines of silver light shimmered beneath his skin, vanishing as quickly as they came.
"Still there," he murmured.
Since the last dream, his body hadn't felt the same. His reflexes were sharper, his balance effortless. When he walked, the floor seemed to breathe beneath his feet.
But more than strength, something else had changed—his restraint.
---
The Training Yard
By sunrise, he was already in the academy yard, facing the old training dummies. Lyra spotted him from the corridor window. "You're up early again," she called, half-teasing, half-concerned.
Rian only nodded. He wrapped his hands in coarse cloth and took a stance that his muscles remembered but his mind did not.
The first strike cracked the dummy's chest clean in two. Splinters flew.
Lyra flinched. "Rian— what—?"
He looked at his hands. No blood. No magic glow. Just raw control.
"I… think I used to know this form," he said quietly.
"That wasn't a form. That was a weapon."
---
Internal Conflict
For the rest of the morning, Rian tried to copy what he'd done — slower this time. Every move felt like walking on the edge of an echo. Every breath summoned fragments of rhythm that weren't from this life.
He sat beneath the old tree behind the yard, sweat glistening, heart steady.
"Why do I remember pain that's not mine?" he whispered.
The Moonlit Seed pulsed again — a single cold thump — as if answering: Because it is.
He gritted his teeth. "No dreams today. I'm staying awake."
---
Visit from the Instructor
At noon, Master Kelvar found him still training. "Rian, the council wants to test your affinity again. Word spreads fast when a student shatters an iron dummy before breakfast."
"I didn't mean to—"
"Intent doesn't change fact. You'll learn that soon."
The instructor's tone wasn't scolding — it was heavy, the way old soldiers speak when they see a storm coming.
"Your aura's shifting," Kelvar added. "Not upward, not outward — inward. Like you're folding something back into yourself. Dangerous talent, if you don't understand it."
Rian bowed. "Then I'll learn."
---
Afternoon — The River Trial
The test site lay beyond the academy walls — a quiet river where students trained to control energy flow. Most used small sparks of essence to part water or guide pebbles.
When Rian stepped to the edge, the others watched.
He knelt. Closed his eyes.
The Moonlit Seed stirred.
The air thickened; ripples spread without wind. The entire river curved slightly toward him, bending like a living thing.
Gasps followed. "He's not channeling… he's drawing."
Rian opened his eyes — silver for a heartbeat — and then it all snapped back to normal.
Water stilled. Birds sang again.
Kelvar's voice broke the silence.
"Stop before you forget who you are."
Rian exhaled. "I already did once."
---
Evening — Quiet Resolve
Back in his dorm, Lyra left a folded note on his desk.
'You're changing fast. Just don't disappear again. Some of us need you awake.'
He smiled faintly, setting it beside his notebook.
Then he began to write— not dreams, but facts:
Every sensation, every spark, every pulse of the Seed. If he couldn't remember the past, he would study the present.
For the first time, he didn't fall asleep.
He meditated until dawn, feeling the universe breathe in rhythm with him.
And somewhere deep inside, beneath the calm surface of his heart, a voice whispered—not from dreams this time, but from within his own consciousness:
> "Good. Now you're finally learning to live."
TO BE CONTINUED