Morning came quietly, but not peacefully.
The cottage walls held the night's tension like a memory. Even the air felt charged, thick with the echo of the Primordial's call. Rafe didn't sleep much — every time he closed his eyes he felt that presence behind him, watching, patient, waiting.
But dawn broke anyway.
And with it, training began.
Selene gathered them outside the cottage, where the forest opened into a small circular clearing. The ground was soft with moss, and the sunlight filtered through the ancient branches like threads of gold.
Mara stood beside Rafe, arms crossed, jaw set.Lyn hovered close behind him, fingers lightly gripping his shirt.Rafe stood in the center, tense but ready.
Selene faced them with her staff planted firmly in the soil.
"Today," she said, "you learn the first truth of Awakening."
Rafe met her eyes. "Which is?"
"That Awakening has nothing to do with mana."She tapped her chest."It begins here. In the mind."
Mara frowned. "That sounds… too simple."
"Good," Selene replied. "Because the simple part ends now."
She pointed at Rafe.
"You will not awaken by wishing for power. You cannot awaken because danger is chasing you. You cannot awaken because you are marked."
Her voice sharpened.
"You will awaken only when your mind crystallizes into one, unbreakable truth about yourself."
Rafe stiffened.
"What truth?"
"You must answer," Selene said softly, "the question that defines your existence."
The ground beneath them trembled slightly — not from magic, but from the weight of her words.
Rafe took a breath. "What question?"
Selene closed her eyes for a brief moment. When she opened them, they glowed faintly blue.
"Who are you?"
Rafe blinked.
"That's it?"
"That's everything."
Mara stepped forward, confused. "He's Rafe."
Selene shook her head.
"No. That's his name. A label. A surface identity."She touched her temple."Awakening requires truth deeper than memory, deeper than fear, deeper than the future fate is trying to force on him."
She turned to Rafe again.
"You were supposed to die. And you didn't. That means you must decide who you are now… before the world decides for you."
Something cold moved behind Rafe's ribs.
"But I don't know who I am yet," he said quietly.
Selene nodded. "Then today, we begin finding out."
She lifted her staff.
The runes beneath the moss glowed faintly, forming a circle of shimmering light around Rafe's feet.
Lyn gasped. "It's like yesterday… but gentler."
"It's meant to be," Selene said. "This is the Circle of Reflection. It won't hurt you. It will show you what you're running from."
Rafe's heart kicked.
"I'm not running."
Selene raised an eyebrow. "A child who defied fate is always running."
The circle activated.
A soft white mist rose from the ground, curling around Rafe's ankles, swirling up to his knees. Mara stepped closer instinctively, but Selene placed a hand on her shoulder.
"He has to do this alone."
Rafe stiffened as the mist reached his chest, then his throat, then wrapped around his head like a whisper.
His vision blurred—
And then—
He was somewhere else.
He stood inside a vast, shadowy expanse, like a world without walls. A single light illuminated him from above. No sun. No sky. Just a spotlight in infinite darkness.
A figure stepped out of the black.
Small.Fragile.Familiar.
Rafe's breath stopped.
It was him.
A younger him.Wounded.Barefoot.The version of himself who had nearly died the day fate tried to erase him.
The child stared at him with hollow eyes.
"You weren't supposed to be here," the little Rafe whispered.
Rafe took a step back. "I know."
The child tilted his head.
"So why are you alive?"
Rafe swallowed hard. "Because someone saved me."
The child's expression didn't change.
"So who are you now?"
Rafe tried to answer.
But no words came.
His throat closed. His chest tightened. Every part of him froze.
The child stepped closer, shadows dragging behind him like ink.
"Who are you?"Another step."Who are you?"Another."Who are you now that you survived?"
Rafe gritted his teeth.
"I'm…"His voice failed.
The little version of him reached out with a trembling hand.
"If you don't know," he whispered, "then fate will choose for you."
The circle around Rafe flared.
Outside, Mara panicked. "Selene, he's struggling!"
Selene kept her voice firm. "He must. This is part of the test."
Inside the vision, the child touched Rafe's chest.
A cold shock ripped through him, pulling at his memories, his identity, the cracks inside his heart.
Rafe's eyes widened.
He saw flashes—The orphanage.The night of almost dying.Selene's arrival.Mara's hand grabbing his.Lyn glowing in the dark.The Shadow's final words.
Live.
Rafe clenched his fists.
"I don't know who I am," he said sharply.
The child stared.
"But I know who I'm going to be."
The darkness trembled.
Rafe stepped forward.
"I'm someone who survived."Another step."I'm someone who refuses to disappear."Another."I'm someone fate could not erase."
The child's eyes widened.
"And I'll become stronger," Rafe continued, voice rising. "Strong enough to protect Mara. Strong enough to guide Lyn. Strong enough to face whatever that Primordial wants from me."
Light exploded outward.
The shadow-child dissolved like smoke.
And Rafe's voice echoed one last time through the void—
"I am the one who lived."
The circle shattered.
Rafe collapsed to his knees in the clearing, gasping.
Mara sprinted to him, dropping down and grabbing his face between her hands.
"Rafe! Hey—look at me! Are you okay?!"
He exhaled shakily.
"…Yeah."
Lyn hugged his arm tightly, tears in her eyes. "It looked scary…"
Selene walked forward slowly, expression unreadable.
"You touched the truth," she said.
"Did I… awaken?" Rafe asked.
Selene shook her head.
"No."
Mara's face fell. "What? Then what was the point—?"
"But," Selene continued, "you took the first step. You faced the version of yourself that fate wanted. And you rejected him."
She knelt beside him.
"That means your Awakening is no longer fate's to control."
Rafe breathed out slowly, the weight shifting inside him.
For the first time, he felt it.
A spark.
A seed.
Something inside him waiting to grow.
Selene rose.
"Tomorrow," she said, "we push deeper."
Rafe stood with Mara and Lyn helping him.
But as he did…He looked at the trees.
Something vast stirred in the shadows.
Watching.Waiting.Approving.
The Primordial's presence pulsed faintly in the air, like a heartbeat.
Rafe clenched his fists.
"Let it watch," he whispered.
"I'm not the child it expected anymore."