Chapter One: Beneath the Petals (Part Four)
Date: May 23, Year 204 PCR (Maelis 23)
Location: Celestis Veil – Heartbloom Summit / Petalwind Courtyard
Time: Mid-Morning
The name echoed not from the instructors, nor the scroll, but from the Pulse Eye Orb itself—a whisper beneath the skin of the world:
"Zephryn…"
His feet moved before his mind caught up.
The crowd fell into a deep hush as he stepped forward, past Kaelen, past Yolti and Selka, and toward the humming center of the world. The wind stirred gently behind him, as if the petals themselves wanted to follow.
Somewhere in the back, someone whispered—
"That's the boy from the Trial… the one who survived the fracture."
Another voice:
"No Veilmark. He shouldn't even be standing."
A final, sharper one:
"Watch. He'll break the orb."
But Zephryn didn't hear them. His eyes were fixed on the Pulse Eye.
It pulsed once.
Then again.
As he stepped onto the platform, the ground beneath him vibrated. Not visibly—but enough that he felt it deep in his bones. The harmonics within the stone resonated like a name half-remembered.
The moment he raised his hand—
The orb flickered.
Blue. Gold. Black. Then nothing.
He paused.
Every other candidate had stepped into their element like song into melody. But Zephryn? The orb hesitated. The light inside it seemed to search.
And then… it found him.
His palm met the glass.
The Pulse Eye didn't just react—it shuddered.
Veins of light exploded outward in spiraling glyphs—too fast, too many, their symbols untranslatable even to the Lyceum's oldest recordkeepers. A sound rang out, one that none of the audience had heard before: a deep, rising hum, like a bow scraping the surface of a celestial string.
The air bent.
His glyph appeared—not drawn, not formed, but remembered—and it didn't shape into flame, lightning, or water.
It spiraled into infinity.
A twisting loop of radiant silver cut with harmonic script, hovering midair, etched in lines that curved and pulsed with their own rhythm. Every instructor froze. Every squad leader stared.
And in that moment—
The orb cracked down the center.
A great pulse of pressure and silence erupted from its core, knocking petals in all directions. Trainees stumbled back. A few fell. Even the King raised a hand to shield his eyes.
But Zephryn… didn't move.
He stood with the glyph before him, now burning in the air like a star caught mid-collapse.
And then—just as quickly—it vanished.
Not faded. Not dimmed. Gone.
No echo. No light. Only stillness.
He turned back to the line.
Everyone stared at him. Some in awe. Others in fear. But one gaze stood out—Lumyra's.
She was no longer standing with the others.
She was watching from the base of the terrace now, closer than she had been before. The moment their eyes met, the Veil around her flinched—a ripple in the sky behind her like memory trying to scream.
But Zephryn didn't speak. He returned to his place beside Kaelen, Yolti, and Selka.
The moment his feet touched the line again, the orb shattered.
A single pulse of shattering glass rang across the platform—then reformed, instantly, in a new shape.
Not a sphere. A triad.
Three glyphs now hovered where the orb had been, each burning with a different elemental signature.
The ceremony was over.
The glyphs had spoken.
King Vaelen stepped forward, but not alone this time.
Behind him, flanking the platform on either side, stood the three squad instructors, cloaked and silent. Their names hadn't yet been announced, but their presence alone reshaped the crowd's breath.
Each took a step toward the glyphs now spinning above the dais.
Then they called the children forward—not all at once, but one by one. Not to assign them. To receive them.
And one by one… the names of the squads were revealed.
But before the first was spoken—
three new figures emerged from the shadows.
They didn't stand with the crowd. They didn't rise from the seats.
They stepped through the light from nowhere—hooded, tall, their presence bending the air itself. No names. No sigils.
Only silence.
And even the Veil… went still.