The Talentless Boy Who Challenged the Devil

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE TRUTH

A thin line of blue light appeared inside it.

Another followed.

Then another.

The symbols rotating around the crystal began moving faster, their orderly pattern breaking apart as unfamiliar markings flashed across the surface.

The examiner stood abruptly.

"What is that?"

Kael stared at the crystal.

If only the instructor knew he had no answers, too.

A deep pulse passed through the instrument.

For a fraction of a second, the entire room filled with blue light.

Kael felt something stir beneath his skin.

It was not the same as the sensation he had experienced near the Frostfang. This felt distant, as though something buried deep inside him had shifted in its sleep.

The crystal flashed again.

Then everything went dark.

The examiner stumbled backward.

A sharp crack travelled through the metal frame, and the crystal's surface became cloudy.

Kael pulled his hand away.

"What happened?"

The examiner did not answer immediately.

He leaned over the instrument, checking its runes and examining the broken patterns with growing disbelief.

Kael stared at him.

"Does that mean I have a talent?" He muttered, shakily, with little hope in his voice.

"It means nothing has been confirmed."

The examiner turned toward the door.

"You are dismissed. Do not discuss the assessment until further notice."

Kael rose slowly.

He had spent years being told that he possessed nothing.

Now, twice in a single day, something had happened that nobody could explain.

And both times, the people responsible for finding answers had refused to give him any.

He reached the doorway when the examiner spoke again.

"Kael."

He turned.

The man's gaze was fixed on him.

"Whatever you believe happened in the training zone, do not attempt to recreate it without supervision. That creature could have killed you."

"I understand."

"No." The examiner's voice lowered. "I don't think you do."

Kael left without another word.

Behind him, the door closed.

And the examiner's jaw tightened.

He opened the hidden diagnostic record, a function reserved for senior academy officials. 

“What just happened is a symbol unlike any talent classification I had ever encountered”.

“What is he?”

Then he seized the communication crystal on his desk.

"Connect me to the director. Immediately."

Across the academy, Kael stood outside the assessment office, watching students hurry past with frightened faces and hurried whispers.

He had no idea what the examiner had seen.

He only knew that something inside him had responded to the Frostfang, and the academy's instruments had reacted to something they could not identify.

For the first time in his life, the possibility of having a talent felt real.

And somehow, that frightened him more than being talentless ever had.

*********

Kael had imagined this moment so many times that he had stopped believing it would ever happen.

He had imagined standing before the academy's assessment crystal with the instructors falling silent, and the students who mocked him struggling to meet his eyes.

He had even imagined his mother's expression when he told her she no longer had to suffer because of him.

But standing inside the highest security examination chamber in Veylcrest Academy, Kael discovered that none of those fantasies had prepared him for the possibility that something might actually change.

The room was enormous, its circular walls covered in layers of enchanted inscriptions. 

Seven crystal pillars surrounded a raised platform at the centre, each containing a different coloured flame that burned without fuel. 

Above the platform, a massive crystal sphere rotated slowly within a framework of silver rings.

He had heard rumours about the academy's advanced assessment chamber. 

Students with exceptional talents were sometimes brought here for further classification, especially when their abilities exceeded the limits of ordinary testing equipment.

He had never imagined that he would be one of them.

"Stand on the platform," the director instructed.

Kael obeyed.

Director Aldren stood beside the control console, his hands folded behind his back. 

Three senior instructors accompanied him, including Instructor Riven and the silver-haired examiner who had conducted Kael's previous assessment.

None of them looked particularly pleased to be there.

The examiner, especially, seemed to have spent the journey arguing against the entire procedure.

"Director, with respect, we have no confirmed evidence that the boy possesses an abnormal talent," he said. "The previous readings could have resulted from damage to the equipment during the incident at the training grounds."

"Three independent diagnostic systems produced the same result," Aldren replied. "You inspected all three yourself."

"And none could reproduce it."

"Which is precisely why we are conducting this examination."

The examiner pressed his lips together.

Kael watched their exchange, feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

He had expected questions. Perhaps another series of tests. He had not expected the director himself to supervise the examination or to bring senior instructors into the room.

Whatever had happened to him, it had attracted more attention than he could understand.

“Even if I had a talent, then what the hell is it?” He thought, determined to find answers

"Director," Kael began, "may I ask something?"

Aldren turned toward him.

"Go ahead."

"Why are you doing this?"

The question seemed to surprise the instructors.

Kael forced himself to continue.

"You allowed me into the academy when everyone knew I had no recognized talent. You ordered them to include me in the practical assessment, and now I'm standing in a room reserved for exceptional students. I don't understand what you expect to find."

He had wanted to ask that question for days.

Every time he had been close to an answer, someone had shut him down.

 He was tired of being moved from one place to another without knowing why. Tired of being treated like a problem everyone was afraid to name.

Most of all, he was tired of hoping.

Aldren regarded him quietly.

"I wasn't the one who brought you to the academy"

Murmurs immediately filled the hall

“What does the director mean by he wasn't the one who brought him here?”

“Does that mean there's also someone who has authority over the director?”

But why him, though?”

“I wonder what his talentless self has to offer anyway”

Instructor Riven shifted beside the director, but Aldren raised a hand to stop him from speaking.

“Enough!” Aldren said with his hand still raised, and the hall fell into silence.

Then he faced Kael, who still looked composed where he was, even though it was obvious he was uncomfortable.

"Kael, I cannot give you an explanation I do not possess. Your admission was authorized under circumstances I am not at liberty to discuss. Since then, your behaviour has produced evidence that contradicts your previous assessments. My responsibility is to establish what that evidence means."

It was the closest thing to an honest answer Kael had received from him.

"But if the examination shows nothing?"

"Then we will have learned something."

"And if it shows that I have no talent?"

Aldren's expression hardened.

"Then you will have the truth. Whatever that truth is, you will have to decide what to do with it."

Kael lowered his gaze.

The truth.

He wanted it more than anything.

Yet a small, shameful part of him was terrified of receiving the same answer he had received his entire life.