---
"Every myth begins with silence. The loudest ones—begin where no one dares to look."
—Academy Script Vault, Unauthenticated Fragment
---
Floating Veil was not a planet. It was a phenomenon.
Once every thirteen years, the cradle of Apex Terra rose into visibility across the lesser galaxies, cloaked in ancient mist and system encryption. Then, like a secret whispered too loud, it opened.
The last time it did, war nearly followed.
This time, it opened to selection.
A single academy—drifting just outside the planetary veil—began to summon. Prodigies, nobles, Heaven Sons and Daughters, scions of fractured dynasties, holders of legacy keys. Each called to the altar of myth advancement.
And amid them—a name that never appeared.
A face that wouldn't register.
A myth that refused to begin.
---
He arrived in smoke. Not literally.
Just that the voidship manifest logs never showed a name, and his presence didn't disturb the landing matrix. Yet he was there.
Kairo Vale.
A man in a grey coat, age unreadable, eyes always a little too steady. Not the kind of face you noticed in crowds. The kind that vanished just before you realized it was watching.
He carried no lineage seal. No family tether. Not even a crest.
But something followed him.
It wasn't an aura. It wasn't an artifact. It wasn't belief.
It was absence.
And the moment he passed the registration column, the System flinched.
---
Somewhere in the unseen script-layer, the world stirred. Not in warning. In confusion. An echo without a name. A weight, unbound by blood or prophecy. Something had arrived... that should not exist.
---
The Entry Courtyard, Floating Veil Academy
The plaza buzzed. Highborn students descended in formal regalia, surrounded by their minders and retinues. Spirit beasts roared overhead, casting illusions of dominance as young talents practiced spiritual pressure games.
A Heaven Son from the Scorch-Soul dynasty erupted into the air, his bloodline dragon coiling behind him in translucent red.
"Make way! The Flame Oath Lineage arrives!"
Applause, posturing, hushed admiration.
Kairo Vale sat on a bench nearby, sipping tea from a paper cup. Someone bumped his shoulder. They didn't notice.
His presence didn't resist. It redirected.
---
Nearby, a cluster of instructors met.
Instructor Lorien, robed in moonlight patterns, frowned.
> "Someone triggered a belief echo. But no myth-seed activated."
> "Coordinates?" asked another.
> "Cross-referencing now."
Kairo stood and walked away before the search protocols completed. He passed through the edge of their sensor grid and left no trace.
Only a whisper remained.
"There was someone on that bench."
---
Dorm 0 - Abandoned Tower
Most new students were assigned dorms by bloodline prestige or recommendation letters.
Dorm 0 didn't receive visitors. It was structurally incomplete, built from rejected spatial frames, and prone to collapsing in minor dimensions.
Which is why Kairo claimed it.
He didn't ask.
He walked in, swept dust from the window, and stared into the clouds.
"They built this place to shape gods," he muttered to himself, voice like stone smoothed by rain. "But even gods forget who they were before their name meant something."
His reflection in the window didn't match. It smiled before he did.
He ignored it.
He unpacked one item from his travel case: a saber hilt, wrapped in black leather. No blade. No power signature.
Just silence.
---
That Evening - Observation Deck East
The instructors gathered again. This time, for announcement rites.
Head Instructor Kael pronounced the list of recognized entrants.
"Selan Myris. Heaven Daughter of Frost Lineage." "Vaik Talon. Ember Crucible Holder." "Yulan of Seven Wills."
As names echoed, sigils glowed in the sky. Each name etched into belief-layer script.
The crowd cheered.
And yet—
In the far east, a silent myth-thread stirred.
A presence shimmered at the edge of the world's awareness. No name. No lineage. Just a weight—like a myth refusing to be born. Belief twisted. Recognition failed. Something moved beyond the veil.
Someone tried to trace it. They failed.
"The node corrupted." "Impossible."
---
Nightfall
Kairo Vale sat alone on the edge of the roof. The mist parted slowly over the academy grounds. Below him, myths were being born. Rivalries staged. Factions formed.
He hadn't joined any. He hadn't introduced himself.
"Because the moment I do," he said aloud, to no one, *"the story begins without me."
He reached into his coat. Drew out a folded note. Unfolded it carefully.
A single sentence written in sharp red ink:
"Don't let them remember you. Not yet."
He burned it.
---
Somewhere far above, a black-gloved woman sat in a myth observatory. Her screens showed nothing.
But her instincts screamed.
"Find me the myth without an origin," she said. "He's here."
Her aide blinked.
"Ma'am, the myth-net is clean. There are no anomalies."
She didn't respond.
She stared into the dark.
And smiled.
"Then he's already writing it himself."