The air wavered as the transport capsule settled before Idryma's gates. Its glass dome hissed open, and Rai Varen stepped out, boots crunching against polished stone.
He didn't look up at the spires or the buzzing crowd of students. His eyes stayed low, unreadable. There was no awe in him. Only numbness.
A speaker buzzed overhead.
"New admission: Rai Varen. Proceed to Orientation Sector 3. Do not stray."
He walked forward—not out of obedience, but because he didn't know where else to go.
***
Inside Orientation Sector 3, rows of students milled about in matching uniforms. Rai's uniform looked slightly unkempt, but it didn't matter anyway.
The room hummed with motion and energy—students performing hand gestures, muttering in low tones, testing fledgling Eidons. A few cast quick glances at Rai.
None lingered.
"Hey," a voice called. A blonde-haired boy waved from across a curved bench. "You're the new guy, right? Rai something?"
Rai blinked. "Yeah."
"I'm Theo. Just got here too." The boy pushed up a pair of black goggles perched on his forehead. "People say I see too much. Could be the Eidon. Or just me."
"I don't know," Rai said simply.
"You're either very honest or very mysterious. Theo grinned. I'll take both."
Before they could say more, a tall figure entered. Silence fell like a sharp wind.
Instructor Vail stepped inside. Every pleat of his uniform lay flawless, every student's posture corrected itself before he reached the podium.
'Sit,' Instructor Vail said, and the room obeyed.
"You're here because something inside you answered a question the world never asked," Vail began. "That answer, your truth, is your Eidon."
He paced slowly, gaze sweeping the room.
"It is not power. It is not glory. It is who you are when no one else is watching."
The lights dimmed. Behind him, a luminous glyph ignited in the air—rotating lines, ever-shifting curves.
"Some of you will awaken abilities that reshape how the world perceives itself. Others… will discover what it means to vanish from it entirely."
Theo whispered, "Which kind are you?"
"You are not here to become weapons. Nor heroes," Vail continued. "You are here to understand the shape within."
He paused.
"Tomorrow marks the beginning of your Evaluation Year. You will be placed into teams of six. Each team will live, train, and be judged together. The goal is simple: pass Orientation. Prove your unity; earn the right to be selected by the Concord."
Gasps passed through the room.
"This academy exists as its gate," Vail said. "But only a handful ever reach the door."
A sharp pause followed.
"Dismissed."
After Vail's final words echoed across the chamber, he added one last instruction:
"You'll each be housed in temporary dormitories until the Evaluation begins. Get used to the air here. Most don't last long enough to breathe it twice."
As the students filed out, whispers rose behind Vail's fading presence.
"That's Zeyra Lin - from the Lin family. You know how they are. Acts like she's got a direct line to the truth."
"The quiet one in the cloak? Myren Halcross. Half the time I forget he's even here."
"Kael Yurei - see him skulking in the corner? Guy avoids people like they're carrying plague."
"And Liora Ven, the one with the braid. Rumor is she knows things she shouldn't. Things people never told her."
Rai walked quietly, the names drifting past him like shadows. He had no reputation. No power. So they would know nothing about him.
Theo nudged him. "Strange bunch, huh?"
Rai looked over, then down.
"You asked earlier what my name was," he said quietly. "I'm Rai Varen."
Theo gave a warm smile. "Nice to meet you, Rai. Looks like we're stuck together now, huh?"
He rested an arm on Rai's shoulders. "Wanna go see what the dorm looks like?"
***
The dormitories stood behind a broad stone arch, its surface worn smooth by years of use. Students passed through in quiet clusters, their footsteps echoing faintly against the high walls. Sector 3 housed sixty pupils—new aspirants whose Eidons had stirred enough to earn them a place in Idryma. And each sector had its own dorm complex, the buildings radiating from a central tower.
Theo dragged his duffel across the smooth floor, whistling. "Guess this is home for the next year."
Rai followed a few paces behind, silent. He kept his hands in his pockets, shoulders tight. He walked past the dorm—a block of uniform windows, their glass catching the afternoon light at identical angles.
Inside, a floating screen blinked to life. "Dorm assignment: Rai Varen. Suite 3, Unit 6." It repeated the same for Theo.
The door whooshed open with a soft chime.
Two beds. Two desks. One large round table in the center surrounded by low lights. It smelled like ionized air and new beginnings.
Rai set his pack down without comment.
Theo flopped onto a bed, arms behind his head. "One year. That's how long the orientation lasts, right?"
"Yeah," Rai muttered.
Theo turned to look at him. "You really think all of us are going to make it?"
"No."
Theo grinned. "Good. Me neither."
***
Orientation at Idryma wasn't a crash course in survival—it was the crucible that separated Echoes from Concord. At the end of the year, only teams who passed the final exam would be granted recommendation into Concord—the Lumen Circle that governed Eidonic balance across the known world.
It wasn't about strength. It was about understanding the truth behind one's Eidon.
And failure meant erasure from the Path.
Each student would be tested. Alone. Together. Against the impossible. And sometimes, against themselves.
***
Three days later, Rai stood in the mirror of the shared bathroom. Water dripped from his hands, the faucet groaning behind him.
He looked into his own eyes and saw no rage, no fear—just absence."
Just… a hollow.
"Why are you even here?" "He's like a blank sheet. No potential." "He doesn't feel anything. He's not real."
Voices from the orphanage clung to him, sharp and unshakable.
He clenched his fist. The mirror fogged slightly, but he didn't see himself in it. Just a faint blur.
***
Across the campus, in another dorm, Kael Yurei adjusted the dark gloves on his hands. His room gleamed like a showroom—expensive, pristine, untouched. He sat on the bed's edge, posture rigid.
He remembered the day it first happened. When he gripped the edge of the metal frame in frustration, the structure started to unravel, collapsing into rust-like dust.
Everything Kael touched… decayed. Like it wore away at structure, at coherence.
His Eidon wasn't a force. It was a truth. And he was tired of watching things fall apart.
That's why he wore gloves. Not to hide his power. But to protect what little hadn't unraveled yet.
***
In the training hall, Zeyra Lin stood with arms folded, facing a classmate who smirked lazily.
He lied. She could feel it. The moment his words crossed the air, a crackle surged through her spine.
And then the boy buckled—his knees giving out, breath stolen.
He stared at her like she'd pulled his sins from his skin.
Zeyra turned away, voice calm. "If you lie in my presence… your guilt will bury you."
She didn't need to fight to win. Her Eidon judged not what you claimed—but what you tried to hide.
***
Theo adjusted his goggles beneath the dorm's skylight. No stars tonight—just thick clouds pressing down.
He rubbed his eyes.
He'd always seen too much: the twitch of a lip before a lie, the way shadows pooled differently around secrets. Now his Eidon sharpened it all, peeling back layers most people never noticed.
Understanding came too easily.
That was the problem.
He exhaled sharply.
***
Myren Halcross walked alone, hood drawn low over his face. Others passed him in the hallway, their conversations dimming, movements slowing as if they'd forgotten what they were about to say.
He didn't speak much. Didn't have to.
His Eidon didn't speak.
It silenced.
Like a room where sound forgets to exist.
And silence followed him. Not as a curse, but as a kind of peace.
***
Liora Ven sat under one of the academy's arcanolight trees, her braid resting heavily on her shoulder.
She first noticed her gift at age six, when she suddenly knew her mother's last words—words no one had ever spoken to her. By nine, she was describing her brother's dreams before he could.
Her Eidon wasn't just memory. It was catching what others had lost—the unspoken confessions, the buried regrets, the moments too painful to share.
Time forgot nothing.
Liora simply collected what it left behind.
***
The week ended with a silent gathering in the halls of Sector 3. A large screen hovered above the platform, glowing faintly as names were drawn for the evaluation teams.
"Unit 6: Rai Varen, Theo Drayce, Kael Yurei, Zeyra Lin, Myren Halcross, Liora Ven."
Rai stood motionless.
Six students. All different. All fractured in some way.
Theo let out a low whistle. "Well, looks like we're the anomaly squad."
Kael said nothing, gloves flexing.
Zeyra's eyes narrowed.
Myren gave no sign of acknowledgment.
Liora just smiled faintly, as if she already knew this would happen.
Instructor Vail's voice echoed across the room:
"Your journey begins now. In one year, you will face the Induction Trial. Succeed—and Concord will open its gates. Fail—and fade."
Rai looked at the others, the names still swirling in his mind.
Something trembled beneath his skin. Not fear. But possibility.
Whatever came next… he was ready to find out.