Silence came first. Then the hum of broken power lines, a soft metallic rain of shattered glass falling through smoke.
The simulation dome, once pristine and silver, lay fractured. Segments of the floor had buckled as if something beneath had pushed upward, cracking steel like thin ice. A haze of white light bled from the center, pulsing to a rhythm that was not electrical.
Cadets crawled from the wreckage, coughing, clutching their heads. Some shouted names that vanished in the ringing air. Others simply stared, frozen by what they thought they had seen, a figure levitating for a heartbeat, wrapped in a storm of blinding radiance.
Juno Kai stumbled forward, half-blind, blood at his temple. "Eli! Elias, where are you?"
He found him near the epicenter. Elias lay sprawled on the ground, breathing shallowly, eyes open but unfocused. The air around him shimmered, distorted, as if heat waves rose from his skin. A faint pattern crawled across his forearms, light that came and went, curling like runes that no one could read.
"Hey...hey, stay with me!" Juno dropped to his knees. "Someone get a medic!"
No one moved. Even the instructors, scattered and shaken, hesitated to step closer. Every few seconds the lights overhead flickered, syncing with the slow beat of Elias's pulse.
Dr. Rion Sava was the first to cross the threshold. His coat was torn at the sleeve, one lens of his glasses cracked, but his voice held steady authority. "Move back," he ordered. "Now."
"But sir...." a cadet began.
"Back!" Rion's tone silenced them. He knelt beside Elias, scanning him with a small handheld device that sputtered, overloaded by interference. The readings jittered between impossible numbers.
He turned it off. Useless. Whatever energy had filled the dome wasn't electrical, chemical, or biological. It was something older.
Elias's eyes fluttered. "It's… loud," he murmured.
Rion leaned closer. "What do you hear?"
A pause. Then, softly: "Everything."
The words chilled the air.
Juno touched his shoulder. "Eli, it's okay. You blacked out, that's all"
Elias's head jerked, a tremor running through him. His muscles tensed like wires about to snap. For a second, Juno thought he was seizing then realized the movements were deliberate, practiced. Too controlled.
He rose to his knees in one smooth motion, eyes unfocused yet alert. His right hand lifted, fingers curling as if grasping a weapon that wasn't there.
A whisper moved through the dome. It wasn't sound; it was vibration inside the bones. Words half-remembered, half-felt: Stand. Remember the rhythm of death.
Elias obeyed without knowing why.
The floor shuddered beneath his feet. Lights sparked. In the mirrored walls, his reflection multiplied, one image showed him as a cadet, trembling; another, as a soldier in black armor, face streaked with ash. The reflections did not move in unison.
Juno stared. "Eli… what's happening?"
"I...." Elias's voice broke. "I don't know."
He took a step forward. The ground split, hairline cracks chasing outward like lightning. Blue-white energy traced the fissures.
Rion's heart hammered. "He's not controlling it," he whispered.
Then the energy collapsed inward. The light winked out, leaving only smoke and the echo of static. Elias stood in the dimness, chest heaving.
The whispers returned, closer now, almost gentle: You survived the fire once, shadowborn. Learn again to breathe.
He fell to his knees, choking, his hands shaking violently. The glow on his arms faded, leaving faint, pale scars that weren't there before.
Rion reached for him. "Easy. Don't fight it. Whatever this is, resisting could...."
The floor vibrated again. For an instant Rion thought he saw shapes in the smoke figures, tall and faceless, like silhouettes carved from the air itself. They loomed behind Elias, dissolving when the emergency lights came back on.
Tasha Cobham was the first to speak. "He did that," she said. Her face was blood-streaked, eyes bright with fear and fascination. "He caused all of this."
"Shut up," Juno snapped. "You saw the blast....it wasn't him!"
"Wasn't it?" She pointed. "Look at him."
Elias lifted his head. His pupils were silver again, faintly luminescent in the gloom. The sight silenced everyone.
Rion said quietly, "Get him to isolation."
Two medics moved hesitantly forward. The air crackled when they touched Elias; static crawled up their arms, making them flinch. Somehow they managed to carry him out.
The remaining cadets backed away, whispering. The story would spread within hours: that Elias Torvic had glowed like lightning, that he'd whispered in tongues, that the dome had bowed around him.
Outside, rain began to fall, a sudden, electric storm drawn to the academy as if summoned.