Morning came quietly to Valenforge Academy.
Mist drifted through the lower courtyards, clinging to the stone bridges that connected the academy's circular towers. The campus was vast—a labyrinth of study halls, dueling rings, meditation chambers, and Flow conduits that pulsed beneath the ground like veins of light.
Every tower was devoted to a branch of mastery. The Flow Tower trained Histinak resonance. The Conduit Armory taught weapon binding and physical techniques. The Codex Sanctum taught Veyra theory and personal manifestation. Together they formed the Triad Curriculum, the backbone of every cultivator's path.
Kael walked the stone path toward the central ring, his bag slung loosely over one shoulder. His silver eyes caught the light of the morning Flow currents that rippled through the air like threads of glass.
He didn't belong here.
After the ceremony, the Grand Seer herself had pulled him aside. Officially, his "awakening" was labeled as unstable and under investigation. Unofficially, she'd whispered, "If you feel the Flow, do not ignore it. But do not let anyone see your Codex again."
So here he was—an unrecorded student allowed to stay on as a "theory observer," a polite way of saying the useless one we can't expel yet.
---
The training arena was already filled with noise. Rows of students practiced weapon resonance drills while instructors barked corrections.
Kael slipped into the shadowed edges near the back.
"Morning, Ardyn," said a voice behind him—warm, teasing, familiar.
He turned to see Lyra Valen, her copper hair braided in a loose knot, emerald eyes alight with humor. Her Conduit, a slender spear, rested across her shoulder. Lyra was two ranks above him—top of her class, talented, and hopelessly kind. Too kind.
"You shouldn't still be showing up," she said softly. "They'll just make fun of you again."
Kael shrugged. "They always do. But if I stop coming, they'll win."
Lyra smiled faintly. "You always say things that make me feel guilty for being worried."
"That's my only talent."
She rolled her eyes, but the warmth in her gaze lingered.
---
Across the field, another group of students entered—the elite division. Their uniforms bore a silver crest, marking them as part of the academy's Advanced Flow Division.
Among them walked Seren Vale, her long black hair tied high, her eyes sharp and unreadable. Unlike Lyra, Seren never smiled. Her Conduit—a black-lacquered sword—hung at her waist. Her Veyra was said to be The Fractured Moon, capable of splitting her body into mirrored projections during battle.
Where Lyra's presence felt like sunlight, Seren's felt like the stillness before a storm.
Kael caught her glance for half a heartbeat before she looked away, expression unchanged.
He exhaled, unsure why that small, indifferent look made his stomach tighten. He disliked her… and yet something about her silence always pulled at him.
---
"Training groups!" shouted Instructor Taron, a broad-shouldered man with arms like carved stone. "Flow synchrony exercises, then weapon phase drills!"
Kael joined the lowest group, where unranked and underperforming students were placed. The others gave him wary glances. He ignored them.
"Begin Histinak circulation!" Taron barked.
Kael sat cross-legged, drawing a slow breath, trying to feel the pulse inside him.
It came instantly—too instantly.
A surge of energy, heavy and violent, roared through his veins. The Hollow Veyra was awake.
His Codex flickered into view, unbidden.
> [Flow Codex - Active]
Veyra: The Hollow Veyra
Status: Unstable Resonance (Level 1)
Warning: Power Output Exceeding Safe Threshold.
"Not now…" he muttered.
The air around him rippled. The other students' Flow patterns—visible threads of colored light—began bending toward him like iron filings to a magnet.
Someone gasped. "Why is my Flow—?"
Kael forced himself to stop breathing. He slammed his hands to the ground, grounding his energy, but the pulse fought back, devouring the nearby ambient Histinak.
"Ardyn!" Taron's voice cracked like thunder. "Cut your resonance!"
"I'm trying!"
He wasn't lying. The Hollow Veyra didn't listen to commands. It hungered.
Kael felt his chest burning, the sigil across his heart glowing faintly beneath his uniform. The Codex flared again.
> [Flow Instability Detected]
Activating automatic suppression.
The energy burst outward, scattering dust and knocking several students off balance. Then—silence.
Kael slumped forward, gasping. His veins felt scorched.
Instructor Taron's boots stopped in front of him. "What in the gods' name was that?"
Kael lifted his gaze. "A… mistake."
Taron's eyes narrowed. He wanted to demand answers, but the look in Kael's eyes—the exhaustion, the pain—wasn't something that could be faked.
"Get to the infirmary. Now."
Kael nodded weakly and stood, the stares of dozens following him.
---
He didn't go to the infirmary. He climbed the outer stairs instead, heading for the abandoned upper garden where few students ever went. The space was overgrown, silent except for the hum of Flow conduits beneath the ground.
He sat beneath a withered tree, pulled his Codex open again, and whispered, "You're not supposed to exist, are you?"
The screen pulsed once.
> [System Notice: Monitoring active.]
[Power absorption threshold: 3%. Recommend restraint.]
"Restraint," he muttered, laughing softly. "I can barely keep you inside me, and you want restraint."
"Talking to yourself again?"
He stiffened. Lyra stood at the edge of the garden, holding two cups of tea.
"How did you find me?"
"You always hide in the same place when you get scolded." She sat beside him, handing him one cup. "You scared everyone today."
"I scare myself most days."
Lyra looked at him quietly. "You don't have to keep proving anything. Just because your power's different doesn't mean you have to break yourself trying to make it normal."
He didn't answer. Her words lingered like a warm breeze, but beneath it all, a colder truth pulsed in his chest.
He couldn't stop trying. Because if he did, the thing inside him might wake again—and next time, there might not be enough left of him to stop it.
---
That evening, in the training archives below the Flow Tower, another figure studied a flickering Codex projection—Seren Vale.
Lines of data scrolled across the glass before her: Kael Ardyn's ceremony record, corrupted, filled with gaps and redacted symbols.
"A Veyra with no form," she murmured. "And it reacts to mine."
Her reflection in the Codex's surface shifted slightly, her mirrored self whispering back:
—Dangerous. Or useful.
Seren smiled faintly. "Maybe both."
---
Outside, night fell over Valenforge. The city's Codex lights glittered like constellations against the dark, each one a living soul written in the Flow.
Kael sat alone beneath the withered tree, the Hollow Veyra's sigil faintly visible through his shirt, its rhythm syncing to the quiet heartbeat of the world around him.
He didn't see the shadow watching him from the edge of the courtyard—sharp eyes glinting under moonlight, their owner's expression unreadable.
---
End of Chapter 3