2025-06-18 17:09:09The hallway to the Class E dorms smelled like mildew and metal. One flickering light buzzed overhead, casting sickly shadows that shifted whenever Kai moved. The stone floor felt colder here, more unfriendly. The Academy had golden towers and shimmering spell walls—but not here. Here, it felt like a prison no one bothered to lock.
Kai stood outside the door for a long time, hand hovering over the handle. Then, slowly, he pushed it open. The room inside was barely lit. One cracked window. Two bunk beds. One rusted mirror that had lost half its shine. Graffiti carved into the walls—names, curses, symbols. The kind of marks desperate people left behind just to prove they existed. A boy on the top bunk didn’t even glance at him. Another by the wall shot him a glare before going back to sewing his ripped boots with twine. No welcome. No words. Just silence. Kai sat on the edge of the empty bed. The springs groaned like they resented his weight. He looked down at his hands. They were still trembling. Still marked. He hadn’t eaten since the duel. He didn’t know how much time had passed since then. Hours? A day? Maybe two? He didn’t ask. He knew the rules already: people like him didn’t get to ask questions. The Academy didn’t wait for broken students. When morning came, Kai followed the crowd to the mess hall—though “hall” was generous. Class E had their own basement dining area. A cracked wooden door, sticky floors, a long metal counter with dented trays. The food was… something. He wasn’t sure if the soup was moving or just steaming. He didn’t get far. Someone slammed into him from behind, knocking the tray to the floor. “Oops.” Kai turned slowly. The boy grinning at him had sharp features and hollow eyes. Not big. But his presence filled the room like poison. “What’s the matter, Mark Boy?” the kid said. “Too good to eat with us?” Kai didn’t answer. He bent down to pick up the tray. The boy kicked it out of his reach. The hall burst into quiet laughter. “You think cause you got some glow on your chest, you’re untouchable?” he spat. “This is Class E, freak. We’re the broken. The unwanted. And you’re even lower than us.” Kai stayed crouched. The boy moved closer. “Look at you. All silent and scared. You’re nothing.” Still, Kai didn’t rise. Didn’t swing. Didn’t speak. Only one person did. “That’s enough.” A girl’s voice. Soft. But firm. Everyone turned. A small figure stepped into view. Lina. Kai blinked. She didn’t look like someone who belonged here. Not because she was special—but because she still cared. Brown curls tucked behind her ears. Wrinkled robes too big for her. Arms full of books she probably couldn’t afford to drop. She set them down gently and picked up Kai’s tray. “Let him eat,” she said. The boy scoffed. “You sweet on him, mouse?” Lina didn’t flinch. “I’m sweet on people not being jerks.” Someone in the back laughed quietly. The boy sneered but stepped back, muttering something under his breath before slinking to the back of the hall. Lina looked at Kai. “You okay?” He nodded, slowly. “Thanks,” he muttered. She didn’t smile. Just handed him the tray and said, “Don’t sit alone. That’s when they circle.” She turned and walked toward the corner table. He followed. They ate in silence. Kai focused on his soup—which wasn’t moving, just bubbling weirdly. He noticed her hands were scratched, fingers red. Probably from books. Or scrubbing spells gone wrong. “You shouldn’t have helped me,” he said. She shrugged. “Neither should you have been left bleeding after a duel.” “People think I’m… him.” “I know.” “You’re not scared?” Lina looked at him finally. Her eyes weren’t soft like he expected. They were tired. And smart. And sad. “Fear’s easy,” she said. “Kindness costs more.” Kai didn’t know how to reply. She slid a wrapped piece of bread across the table. “Eat it before someone sees.” “I don’t want charity.” “It’s not charity. It’s an apology.” “For what?” “For how this place works.” He didn’t argue. He took the bread. It was stale. It was perfect. Later that day, they threw him into an elemental training pit. No warning. No prep. Just a name on a list and a shove toward the edge. The pit was cracked stone and old blood. Fire runes etched into the walls still glowed faintly from past use. The instructor didn’t even introduce herself. Just barked, “Survive.” His opponent was a girl with dirt on her face and lightning in her veins. She grinned like pain was a game. When the match started, Kai barely dodged the first strike. The second scorched his sleeve. He didn’t win. He didn’t even come close. But when he raised his hand to block her final hit—when he thought about stopping her—the mark on his chest flared. And the lightning bent around him. Twisted. Then vanished. The class went silent. He collapsed to his knees. The instructor stared at him, eyes narrow. She didn’t say anything. Just made a mark on her clipboard and walked away. By evening, his body felt like a bruised fruit. He barely made it back to the dorm. He sat on the floor. Legs folded. Back against the wall. Trying not to cry. He wouldn’t. Not here. Not where they could smell weakness. The door creaked open. Lina entered. She paused when she saw him. “You look worse.” “Thanks.” She handed him something wrapped in cloth. He unwrapped it. Fruit. Real fruit. A pear, slightly bruised but still whole. “Where did you—?” “I… borrowed it.” “You stole?” “I said borrowed.” Kai stared at her. She looked away. “I figured you’d share.” He broke the pear in half and handed her a piece. They ate in silence. Then, softly, she said, “Why do you think you’re here?” He looked down. “I don’t know. I don’t want to be him.” “But what if you are?” He didn’t answer. After a pause, she added, “You still get to choose what kind of person you become.” Kai almost laughed. Almost. Instead, he leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. “I’m not sure I believe in choices anymore.” Lina didn’t push. She just stayed. Sitting beside him. Two broken pieces in the lowest part of the tower. That night, in the dark, the dream came back. Only this time, it wasn’t fire or blood. It was a mirror. He stood before it, dressed in black robes lined with silver. His eyes were cold. Dead. The reflection smiled. And said: We’re not so different. Then the glass shattered. And Kai woke up gasping. The mark burned. And something inside whispered: What if becoming him is the only way to survive?
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Chapter 10: He who was Named Rafe
Rain fell on Arcadia that night.A soft, cold drizzle that soaked the stone paths and smeared the stars above. It trickled along windowpanes, whispering like secrets too old to remember.Kai sat alone at the edge of the training grounds, the grimoire hidden in his coat, heart thudding beneath soaked fabric.“I was Rafe,” he murmured again, the words tasting strange in his mouth.He didn’t feel like a Tyrant. He didn’t want to feel like one.But the pieces were falling into place.He remembered the spell now…..Not all of it—but enough.Rafe had been betrayed. Not just by enemies. By friend…by someone he trusted, someone close.In his final moments, he hadn’t fought back. He hadn’t screamed. He had smiled.Because he had already planned his return.A reincarnation spell buried deep within his bones.His mark—the Tyrant’s sigil—wasn’t a curse. It was a beacon. A promise.He would return, and when he did, he would finish what he started.Kai clenched his fists, raindrops slipping through h
Chapter 9: Flash of the Past
The nightmare came again.Burning skies. Screaming winds. Fields scorched black. Smoke rising in thick, twisting plumes that curled like claws into the heavens. Blood sprayed across broken ground like crimson rain.In the dream, Kai stood at the center of it all—laughing.A monstrous sound.Not his laugh nor his voice.But it came from his throat.He looked down at his hands. They dripped red. His fingers clenched, and magic crackled at his fingertips—too dark, too old. Something that didn’t belong in this world anymore.Bodies surrounded him. Friends? Foes? He couldn’t tell.A child with pale blue eyes tried to crawl away.He raised his hand again.The dream shattered.Kai sat in bed, gasping and sweat slicking his back and chest. His heart thundered in his ears. The dorm room was still dark, moonlight spilling across the cold stone floor.He touched his face and his arms, then his ribs…..they felt real and aliveBut the scent of blood still crawled in his nose.He stumbled out of bed
Chapter 8: The Girl who Heals
Kai woke to soft light and a pounding headache.At first, he thought he was dead. The pale surface above him was smooth white stone, the smell of mint magic in the air. The faint hum came from glowing crystals tucked into infirmary corners, casting everything in pale warmth.His whole body aching from shoulder to spine. His sides felt bruised all over; something sticky stuck to his ribs-salve, or blood, or both.He shifted, wincing. A soft gasp came from his side.Lina.She had been asleep in the stool, curled in beside the bed, with arms folded on the sheets. Her brown hair had fallen across her arm and onto the sheet. One of her hands was still gently wrapped around his.He blinked once….twice….He tried to move.Her head lifted with a start. “Kai!”She stood, flustered, brushing hair from her face.“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I was just—just making sure you were okay.”He stared at her, trying to place the right emotion.Not confusion or not fear, just something sof
Chapter 7: First Blood Duel
By morning, the academy buzzed with a rumor too loud to ignore.Someone had challenged Kai to a First Blood Duel.The kind that didn’t end with applause—but with pain.Official duels at Arcadia were rare for Class E students. Too rare. Usually, they were mock trials or punishment drills, never real matches with real stakes. But Kai’s mark had changed that. His existence was a question now, and the academy wanted answers. Or entertainment or probably both.The challenge came from Daren Volk—Class C, fire user, son of a merchant noble….known for flashy moves and dirty finishes.Kai read the notice posted on the board, his name burned in gold at the top. The words “PUBLIC ARENA – NOON” glared like a threat.Lina stood beside him, her voice barely above a whisper. “You don’t have to do this.”He gave a dry smile. “It’s mandatory.”“They want to see if you’ll break.”“Then I’ll disappoint them.”The arena loomed at the center of Arcadia’s training grounds—a great circle of stone enclosed by
Chapter 6: Pages of Sin
The next night, Kai returned to the library.He waited until curfew bells echoed over the academy spires, until the halls thinned and the students vanished into their dorms. He didn’t run. He didn’t sneak. He walked—head down, feet silent, breath low—as if the shadows themselves allowed him passage.No one stopped him. Maybe they didn’t see him. Maybe they didn’t want to.The library was colder than he remembered.The sealed section even more so.He didn’t go to the front desk. He didn’t light a lamp.He didn’t need to.The book called him like…. it had a voice.A heartbeat…..like…. it knew.It was still there, open now, as if someone—or something—had turned the page in his absence.Gold ink shimmered in curving lines across black parchment.The sigils curled like living things.And for the first time, the symbols didn’t look foreign.They looked like language.He reached for the page.It pulsed.Not with magic—but with memory.His fingers trembled as he touched the corner.The sigil burn
Chapter 5: Fangs in the Library
It began with footsteps,quick and too many for a single person.Too quiet for friends.Kai woke before his eyes opened. That edge-of-sleep awareness that smelled of danger. His body, trained by fear even if his mind wasn’t ready, jerked upright. Cold sweat clung to his spine. The shared dorm was dark except for the flickering blue of the ward-stone embedded in the ceiling.The others slept but something was wrong.He reached for the blunt dagger under his cot.Another step…too close.He moved without thinking—ducked, rolled, and barely missed a fist crashing down where his head had been.He scrambled to his feet.Five shapes.All masked.All silent.Magic pulsed between them, low and crackling like a growl beneath the surface.One of them spoke. “Tyrant’s spawn.”The words weren’t loud, but they carried.Kai’s breath caught.He didn’t ask questions. He bolted.Down the narrow hallway, past the communal washroom, boots slapping hard on stone. The walls blurred beside him, but he knew the
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