The Fracture.

The Fracture.

Chapter 1: The Unchosen.

Seres Caelum.

"Does anyone want to answer the question?" Professor Thorne Valen asked sharply as his ruler smacked the blackboard.

I hid a chuckle when half the back row jumped at the sound.

No one raised their hands, so I followed their lead. Not because I didn't know the answer, because I did; I just didn't like attracting attention unless I had to.

Nothing good ever came out of it for me. The last thing I wanted was someone to make fun of me. I wasn't in the mood to deal with these idiots.

"Come on, guys," Thorne groaned. "We've covered this over a hundred times this year."

He wasn't wrong; Thorne sure loved droning on about our past.

The silence turned thick. The hair on my neck rose as he scanned the room.

I exhaled, preparing myself to meet his gaze.

Bad idea.

At least if you asked anyone else. I, on the other hand, treated moments like this as training. I could see myself dying a thousand times under that stare, but I refused to flinch.

Shardbounds were really something else.

Thorne smirked at my stare and gave a slight nod. Then his expression softened with a flicker of pity, and I scowled.

I despised pity.

"Seres, explain to the class what happened two thousand years ago," he said.

Staying silent never actually avoided attention. But I didn't lose anything by trying.

I ignored the jeers and sighed.

I hated that he singled me out again. Whatever. Everyone had heard this story a thousand times.

Something apocalyptic didn't need repeating.

"Two thousand years ago, the Fracture happened," I droned, closing my eyes. "An apocalyptic event that changed history and did irreparable damage to everything under the stars."

"Good," Thorne said, then turned to Maria, the best student in class by far. "Maria, pick up where Seres left off."

The brunette stood tall and placed a hand on her chest before replying.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. She cared too much about appearances.

Then again, being part of Farskog's ruling family came with pressure. I wasn't jealous of her station.

Being the heir meant she shouldered more than anyone. The expectations on her were otherworldly. Not that she didn't meet them, because damn.

She even made second place jealous. And the less said about the rest of the class, the better. They probably didn't think about her suffering behind closed doors.

"Null, the abomination, nearly succeeded in destroying the world, Professor," Maria said crisply. "It was the betrayer's final act, and the reason our world is broken."

"Exactly." Thorne clapped. "Sven, continue."

The class clown, someone I didn't particularly like, spoke up.

"But Teach, everyone knows this," he rolled his eyes.

I winced. I didn't like him, but taunting Thorne was stupid.

Thorne didn't respond or even move. Sven just suddenly embedded into the wall.

"It appears our friend is having difficulty," Thorne said with twitching lips. "Ragnar, say what he should have."

"Sure, Professor," Ragnar said, trying not to snicker. And failing miserably.

I ignored Sven as he groaned, trying to pull himself out of the wall. Completely unharmed, of course.

My chest tightened with jealousy. Why could he do it? Why could everyone do what I needed so badly? It felt like a dream slipping farther away every year.

Ragnar cleared his throat. "So… from what we're told, and everyone agrees, Null got jumped by all the big fish in his final battle, right before he could erase divinity."

He was killed, of course. I hadn't met a god, but I doubted they tolerated being hunted for sport.

Ragnar took a breath. "But before his essence could dissipate, he gave the world one last fuck you."

He blurred aside with a grin just as his chair caved in.

"Good," Thorne said with an excited nod. "But watch your language next time."

"Sure thing, Teach." Ragnar saluted and plopped into an empty seat, ignoring the wreckage.

"Skald, continue," Thorne said with a lazy wave.

Skald rolled his eyes at his idiot friend and sighed. "The final battle between Null and the chief gods took place far in the stars. They were so powerful that every strike consumed nearby celestial bodies. Null…"

He swallowed hard. Hell, everyone did.

"Null killed multiple gods before he fell. The stories say he bifurcated Lord Zeus in a single blow and used Lady Amaterasu to fuel his weapon, Voidbane. With it, he supposedly felled Anu, Ukko, and Itzamna before Lord Shiva, the All-Father, and Thor struck him from behind after Ra gave his life to create the opening."

What he didn't say, and everyone avoided mentioning, was that Null supposedly only lost because he was busy consuming the Egyptian god until nothing remained and got hit from behind.

Mentioning that would earn you a very public flogging, but everyone knew it. Not that I blamed the gods who killed him. The idiot deserved it for turning his back on his enemies.

The classroom went quiet. A moment of silence for the fallen gods who shaped the battle that changed reality.

That ruined it.

"Null was a fearsome being," Professor Thorne agreed grimly. "No one knows where he came from, who he was, or which pantheon birthed him. His entire existence is a mystery… and he's the cause of our suffering."

He drew a slow breath. "It's because of him we're forced to live inside this dome. Step outside, and death waits, even for the strong. As Ragnar said, crudely, Null's final act was to explode his symbol of power… where he stored the essence of divines, monsters, heroes, and followers to fuel his strength beyond the gods."

"Tell us what's known about Null's meteor, Seres," he said, meeting my eyes.

"Null was called many things," I began, "but the title that terrified everyone was 'Devourer.' He consumed and siphoned the energy of every enemy that fell under his blade. He stored all that mythic energy in his symbol of power, a meteor formed from everything divine he nearly wiped out."

I imagined how colossal it must have been at his peak before continuing, "The Star of Silence. All that untamed energy gathered there and pushed his strength to unseen levels… and just before dying, he destroyed it."

"Exactly." Thorne's eyes lit up before an ugly sneer twisted his face. "Think about it, students. It's easier to count the gods who didn't fall to Null. He had the blood and energy of billions stored inside… and he detonated it all at once."

"Regulus, explain what that explosion caused."

"It fractured reality, Professor," Regulus said quietly.

That's why I liked him more than most idiots here. He didn't cause trouble and, more importantly, didn't bother me.

"That explosion caused the greatest event in our world's history," Thorne said. "The Fracture."

"The Fracture," he barked, making the dozing ones in the back jump. "It changed life as our ancestors knew it. An explosion so vast it split the world in three… or so our teachings claim." He snorted.

"And what do you think, Professor?" I asked. He rarely shared his own thoughts. This was a chance.

"Aetherion and Nythrak?" he murmured, more to himself than to us, though everyone heard it. Even I did, and I was just a normal human.

"Yes… I believe in them, Seres," he said with a sad smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Doesn't it give life purpose? A realm of peace ruled by the gods who died protecting us… and a realm of monsters so terrifying they exist only to punish sinners?"

Then Thorne added softly, "What about you, Seres? What do you believe in?"

Seres Caelum.

"What are you going to do, Seres?" Alva asked quietly as we stepped out of the classroom.

"What do you want me to do, Alva?" I scowled. "The same thing I've done every day for the past eight years."

"Don't get snarky with me, bitch," Alva said, rolling her eyes as she bumped my shoulder hard enough to be annoying. "I'm your only real friend in this frozen wasteland. Treat me better."

I sighed. She really was. As sad as it sounded, it was true. And I was letting my anger cloud my judgment again.

Something that has, worryingly, been happening more lately.

"Sorry, sorry." I shoved her back. "It's just… I'm running out of time. We've got a few months until graduation, and I'm still the only one in class who's not a Shardbound. I'm a failure."

Alva's expression softened as she climbed onto my shoulders like it was nothing. I almost stumbled but caught myself before we both ate shit.

"By the All-Father, you're heavy, Alva. Are you even watching your diet?" I smirked. Even if she couldn't see it, I was sure she heard it.

She tried her best to choke me with her thighs. I had to tap out twice before she finally let go.

"I'm perfect the way I am… Mom told me so," she said brightly, laughing as I chuckled and kept walking.

The fact that she could say that with a straight face astounded me.

"And you shouldn't call yourself a failure. How do you think the ones below you in class feel?"

"It's their own fault," I grunted. "How the fuck do they lose to a normal human like me? They should be ashamed, to Nythrak and back."

She hopped off my shoulders and deadpanned at me, making me shift where I stood.

"Seres," she said evenly, "you're an idiot. And I love you despite that."

That pause made me narrow my eyes. I knew the lovable pain in the ass was about to get snarky.

"But you do realize you're a scary little bastard, right?"

She patted my cheek twice, then twirled on her heel and kept walking.

"Like… everyone knows it. If you merged with any fragment, hell, even a Soldier-rank, you'd have a real chance of beating me. Me. And I'm second in the class, only behind the stuck-up bitch."

Whatever. I rolled my eyes. That was on them. They weren't training hard enough.

I sighed and glanced up at the sky. The dome shone faintly above the clouds, a reminder we were still being protected from the hell outside. If I squinted, I could see the fractures beyond it, the broken sky split like glass, fragments streaking across the horizon and back again.

Mythic fragments… the bane of my existence and the lifeline for everyone else.

Or at least for the ones who wanted to be someone.

Null's final act. Hatred or defiance, depending on who you asked, but it gave humanity a chance to survive the mess he left.

Some even called it a gift. A way to hand power to the powerless.

No one understood exactly how they worked, not down to the last detail. But everyone knew where they came from: the essence of Null's fallen foes, crystallized into something more.

An Echo of someone.

A myth.

Every country had them, and most were scattered across the world like divine debris. From Soldier-tier fragments to the whispered, borderline-sacred Divine-class ones. The world wasn't fair, but anyone could become something more by merging with one of those brilliant little bastards.

From soldier to hero, from monster to God. All fragments worked the same way: you bonded with one, and it gave you something in return.

At first? Not much. A slight physical boost in a specific area depending on the fragment's type and tier. But the real change came later… when you advanced.

If you synchronized with it, the fragment evolved inside your constellation.

Your soul. The core of what made you, you.

The second stage didn't seem like a big deal, or so people said. It gives you talent in whatever the fragment specialized in. Swordplay, precision, fire magic, whatever.

Even things less combat oriented, like cooking, blacksmithing, or potion making.

Some saw it as a turning point. I didn't.

Talent was overrated. A shortcut, maybe. A privilege. But not a foundation for what I needed.

People said I had none. The irony was… I still beat them.

With enough hard work, you could catch up with someone gifted with talent, maybe even pass them. But when a fragment hit its third stage, things changed.

That's when you stopped being another hopeful. That's when you became someone.

The second evolution gave you an ability. Something real, tied to the fragment's origin.

It could be something simple, like Ironhide, a burst of supernatural toughness for a few seconds.

Or ridiculous, like Phasebreak, which made you completely immune to damage for a second. And a second was enough to turn a fight.

All of it depended on the fragment's tier.

Soldier-tier, Heroic, Demonic and the ones no one talked about unless they were whispering behind closed doors, Divine.

Alva was one of the lucky ones, having merged with a fragment from Atalanta herself.

From what I'd seen, her speed and agility were enhanced enough that it was incomparable to a trained human.

But she was talented and hardworking to boot. She wasn't second in the class for nothing. She, Maria, and Ragnar were the only ones with a heroic fragment maxed out.

Of the three, the only one I could push into using his ability was Ragnar. I was still in the dark about Alva and Maria, which Alva loved teasing me about.

The rest of the class were in the first or second stage, except for one poor bastard not bonded with a fragment. Me.

And not for a lack of trying, I thought with a scowl.

"Come on, Seres," Alva hugged me. "Why the long face? I believe in you… and whether you want it or not, even Professor Thorne believes in you. You'll become a Shardbound soon, I can feel it."

"What, did you merge with a fragment of Delphy?" I rolled my eyes as I tried to pry her off.

"You think Vasillios would let such a precious fragment stay in Nordhjem?" she shot back, rolling her eyes. "There'd be war. Or Maria's dad would send me to the capital to be sacrificed for a Sigfried fragment those uppity bastards keep in their magma-filled vaults."

"Don't even say that," I winced. "Sorry… it's just… I'm tired, Alva. I can't find any fragment compatible with me."

And wasn't that hilarious? Anyone could merge with any fragment at first. I was a complete anomaly, my body incompatible for whatever reason.

Not that trying too much when denied was recommended. The whispers were enough to know the risk.

Even I wasn't crass enough to put all of Farskog at risk. We'd suffered enough thanks to some idiot.

I tried ignoring the whisper in my head saying I was running out of options.

She smiled brightly and leaned close, her cold breath making me shiver. "You know… Papa said we're going to a new fragment storm outside Farskog for special training. Maria's father said it's something special and not dangerous. Seems a Greek hero fell near the Pale Mirror."

"He said it's not even a violent kind of storm, but he wouldn't explain more because he wanted to keep me excited," Alva pouted. "Who knows… you might get lucky. Don't lose hope, Seres. I believe in you."

With that, she skipped ahead and threw herself into her father's waiting arms at the academy entrance.

Thalric Eriksen. The lead general under the top bastard of this remote city, probably the most powerful man besides Maria's father.

I nodded at the surly bastard, and he returned it firmly. He wasn't a man of many words. I respected that.

I tried to hide the hurt the scene caused and finally headed home.

Seres Caelum.

"I'm home," I said quietly as I closed the door behind me, even though I knew no one would answer.

It hadn't changed in more than four years, and I was still clinging to the hope that one day something would.

The silence that greeted me was the same as always. It didn't hurt any less.

My family was gone, and I didn't even know if they were dead. I didn't even have their bodies to bury. Nor any notes to prove they'd left because I was an embarrassment to the family name.

Nothing. That was what made it worse.

Orien, Maelis, and Lira Caelum. Orien and Maelis were my parents. The people who raised me, who made me who I was, who loved me through every failure. And Lira, my beautiful, terrifyingly talented sister, more of an idol to me than even them.

Life without them was hard, and the main reason I was in the academy to become a Shardbound.

It was the only way I could stay fed. When they disappeared, I became responsible for myself. And nothing about this world was easy.

I remembered that weekend like it was burned into my skull. A training trip with the class, out near the edge of Farskog, close enough to retreat if anything went wrong. The top dogs never pushed us past the dome's protection.

When I came back on Monday, the house was wrecked. Furniture shifted, doors ripped from their hinges, things scattered everywhere.

And no one inside.

I ran to the authorities as fast as my thirteen-year-old legs could carry me, sobbing the whole way.

They found nothing.

I never touched their room. Not really.

Not until tonight.

Maybe it was Alva's words. Maybe it was the way the silence crawled over my skin like frostbite. Either way, something pushed me forward. Past the torn family portraits, the faded sigils, and dust caked paintings of a life that didn't exist anymore.

The last truly happy moments I could remember, back when I still knew that even as a failure, my family would never stop loving me.

Their door creaked open like it hadn't moved in years. Maybe because it hadn't. I didn't let anyone into the house. Not even Alva had ever been invited since the day they vanished.

I stepped inside quietly, something strange tightening in my chest.

The air was still, no different from the rest of the house, and yet heavier here.

My eyes moved on their own. Father's notes scattered across the desk. The half-read book still on Mother's nightstand. Lira's scarf draped over the back of a chair, which mother had promised to wash.

I reached the bed, and the gnawing in my chest twisted into something else. Not grief. I was beyond that, but confusion.

I didn't know why, didn't understand how, only that I had to do something.

I dropped to one knee and slid my hand underneath. At first, I felt only cold wood.

Then, my hand passed through something that felt like a seam.

I narrowed my eyes and pressed down.

A faint, almost inaudible thrum ran through the floor. A panel lifted just enough to catch my fingertips.

My heart thumped inside my chest as I opened the clearly secret tile.

Before I froze. As if I glanced at Medusa's eyes.

Fragments. Dozens of them.

All tacked neatly in reinforced crystalline boxes, etched with glowing runes I didn't recognize. Some shimmered like stars. Others pulsed like they were alive. Red, gold, deep indigo, one even flickering with shifting white and violet. Soldier-tier. Heroic-tier. And some… some I couldn't even guess.

Because I'd never seen anything like them.

My mind reeled. No wonder I could count on one hand the times anyone ever visited this house, even when my family was still here.

They'd hidden this. All of it.

And the worst part was that I didn't feel surprised.

Maybe I didn't understand them. I probably never did.

But one thing was suddenly clear.

My parents weren't just missing. They were hiding something.

Something the rest of the world couldn't know.

I reached out, hovering my hand over the nearest fragment.

"Just where the hell are you all…?"

Darkness settled deeper into the room, and yet the fragments shone brighter.

And for the first time in years, I didn't feel alone.