"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."
***
The grandfather clock in the hallway chimed four times. Each hollow note bounced through the empty corridors of the Leone estate while I sat alone in my chambers, staring at the thing that was about to ruin my night.
The Rune of Diminishment sat on my desk like a paperweight from hell.
Tomorrow morning was the Royal Awakening Ceremony. The grand spectacle where the kingdom's noble youth would have their classes revealed, their stats displayed, their worth quantified in front of the entire aristocracy. Every single person in attendance would be watching. Analyzing. Judging.
And me? I'd be standing there as Kaelen Leone: the pathetic third son, the family embarrassment, the boy who couldn't manifest proper mana if his life depended on it.
Which, technically, it did.
