The silence that followed the shattering test was unnatural. Not the awe of greatness—no, this was something else. As if the crowd was too unsure whether to fear Nocth or revere him.
Nocth stood still on the smooth glass platform, the shattered fragments of the testing orb glittering at his feet like broken stars. Its usual clear surface, meant to reflect the number of awakened celestial veins, had instead exploded in a brilliant flash of blue-gold—before dissolving into quiet dust.
He hadn't moved. Not when the orb had cracked. Not even now.
But his heartbeat was thundering.
Why… why did it break? I just touched it… it felt like it wanted to peel me apart.
He felt exposed. Eyes burned into him—curious, analytical, or envious. He could hear whispers, suppressed gasps, even a few fearful murmurs.
Among them, a figure stood without speaking: Shae, the veiled girl. Her eyes, behind the thin black silk, were impossible to read. But she hadn't flinched when the orb shattered. Instead, she stepped forward slightly, unnoticed by most.
---
Up on the marble balcony overlooking the testing ground, Elder Iruan of the Skywatch Pavilion whispered hoarsely to his colleague.
"This isn't possible. The orb is attuned to detect up to 999 veins… and it doesn't break even when a Class-1 prodigy touches it."
The other examiner, a stern man with gray hair and runic tattoos spiraling across his neck, shook his head. Master Huvan, the academy's bloodline examiner, narrowed his eyes.
"Unless… the veins he awakened aren't normal. That wasn't just a surge of vein resonance. That was something else entirely. Did you see the pattern the light formed?"
Iruan nodded gravely.
"Like an incomplete Dream Spiral…"
Their voices faded as they stepped into the council chamber behind the platform—leaving behind silent chaos.
---
Elsewhere, sitting on a stone ledge with arms crossed and one leg swinging casually, Imius let out a soft whistle.
"Well, I'll be plucked and baked. That kid's more trouble than I thought."
He wasn't jealous. Not yet. But interest sparked in his eyes. He liked wild cards. Dangerous ones.
---
Shae stood beneath the willow-trees skirting the edge of the courtyard. Nocth was led away quietly by a small envoy of robed attendants. She didn't follow him—but she didn't leave either.
It begins…, she thought.
Her heart beat a single tempo slower.
The dream awakens.
---
That night, in the private halls of the academy, scrolls were burned. Reports were sealed. The orb's remains were sent to the central archive.
But in a room deep underground—lit only by suspended glyphs—a hidden council of academy elders gathered.
At the center of the stone table floated a projected diagram. It showed the fragmented remains of the shattered orb… and a spiraling glyph made of starlight, barely visible at the moment of destruction.
The projection pulsed with unstable energy. It didn't match any known celestial pattern.
One elder finally spoke.
"Is it true… that the Zyreon Founder himself warned of a day when a child would awaken a law never meant to be touched again?"
Another elder leaned forward, face in shadow.
"We must observe. And protect him… or contain him."
But one voice—cold and bitter—cut through them all.
"He should not exist."
---
Meanwhile, in the dormitory they had assigned him, Nocth sat on the edge of a bed he did not recognize, surrounded by silence.
He raised his hand and stared at it.
What… am I?
Just before the orb shattered, in that split second, he had felt something. A great silence in his blood. A quiet hum, like a vast voice too ancient to speak yet.
The veins hadn't just awakened. They had watched him back.
He gripped the bed, confused, trembling.
But somewhere in the night, not far away, a girl stood beneath moonlight and whispered to the wind.
Shae.
"I will protect you… until the dream remembers."