"In a world built on resonance, being powerless is the greatest sin."
Kaen didn't remember walking from the fence to the fountain. His hands moved.His feet obeyed. But his mind stayed somewhere between the dream and daylight.
Children played nearby, tossing flat stones into shining water. Ripples wavered like tiny worlds falling apart and stitching back together.
Liora leaned against the fountain rim beside him, basket of herbs nudging her hip.
"You're quiet," she said lightly.
"I'm always quiet."
"Not like this."
She tilted her head, listening to something only she could hear—his breath, his heartbeat, the way silence gathered around him.
"When you lie," she said softly, "your voice gets small."
Kaen looked away. He didn't want her seeing the fear behind his ribs.
Before he could respond—a familiar laugh sliced the calm.
"Well, well," Rellan Veyra called out,"If it isn't the boy the Source forgot to design properly."
Kaen's jaw locked.
Rellan and three others swaggered toward them:clean tunics, polished boots, their resonance pendants glowing faint blue at their throats.
Blue. The middle rank. Enough to earn them respect, stable futures, doors that opened when they knocked.
Kaen's pendant? Nothing. Wood. Dead.
Rellan tapped his own pendant so it chimed against his chest.
"Most of us show signs by thirteen," he said."Fourteen if you're slow. Sixteen if you're pathetic."
He grinned, bright and cruel.
"But sixteen and still no resonance? That's a new record."
Kaen tightened his grip around the rim of the bucket.
In this world, resonance was everything:
Red — low rank, manual labor, survival scraps
Blue — most citizens, modest but respected lives
Purple — rare, selected for leadership and military power
Gold — one-of-a-kind, blessed with a unique ability chosen by the Source itself
People without resonance?
They weren't even on the ladder.
They were dead weight.
"Must be hard," Rellan continued,"knowing your future is cleaning latrines while the rest of us fly airships."
His friends laughed like they practiced it nightly.
Liora stepped forward, cane planted like a barrier.
"Leave him alone, Rell."
Her voice didn't rise—yet it cut sharper than any shout.
Rellan arched a brow.
"Careful, sis. Spend too much time with defects, and people start thinking you're one too."
Kaen's grip slipped on the bucket handle. Water splashed over his boots.
"Say that again," he muttered.
Rellan smirked, taking a step closer."Defect. Broken. Freak—"
"Don't," Kaen snapped, louder than he meant.
The air above the bucket shivered. Water rippled in a perfect ringlike gravity forgot which way was down.
Liora's eyes widened—she felt it.
Kaen swallowed the panic rising up his spine. His nightmare clawed at his throat.
Not here. Not again.
Rellan noticed only that Kaen flinched.
He leaned in, breath warm and rancid with arrogance.
"Tonight the Source will reveal who matters."His grin stiffened into something venomous."And we all know it won't be you."
He shoved Kaen back. Kaen stumbled, nearly losing the bucket.
Rellan walked away with his entourage—their laughter echoing like broken bells.
Liora exhaled slowly.
"Don't listen to them," she said.
"It's hard not to," Kaen answered, "when every word feels like the future."
She turned toward him fully then, fingers brushing his wrist with a soft certainty.
"Just make it to tonight," she whispered. "No one's future is decided before the light touches them."
But Kaen remembered the dream. The eclipse. Her dying breath.
"The light doesn't touch everyone," he said."Some of us were born in the dark."
Liora's grip tightened.
"Then let the dark fear you."
Kaen stared into the fountain water. His reflection stared back—pale eyes flickering like they remembered a world ending.
And for the first time that morning,he wondered if Rellan was right about him.
"Tonight, the Source will judge him in the open…But the darkness already chose him in secret."