I. The Morning After Ash
The smell of scorched earth still clung to the courtyard.
Kai stood beneath the blackened fig tree, staring at the spiral scar left in the ground where he'd unleashed the shard's light. The grass around it had withered into perfect circular rings—like ripples frozen in fire.
Lina sat on the chapel steps, bandages wrapped tight around her ribs, jaw set.
Aren hadn't said a word since dawn.
They were quiet in different ways now.
Not the silence of comfort.
The silence of knowing something had changed forever.
Sister Olma approached quietly.
Her robes were still dusted with ash, and her walking staff bore a new crack where the glyph at its base had overloaded during the ward activation.
But her eyes were calm.
And resolute.
"You cannot stay here," she said.
Kai didn't argue.
He already knew.
"They will come again," Olma continued.
"Stronger. Smarter. With instructions."
"They know what you carry."
"They think you are their salvation."
"Or their destruction."
She handed him a sealed envelope.
The Academy's seal.
"They've been watching too."
"Now it's time to meet them."
II. The Final Conversations
The afternoon passed in quiet motions.
Sister Olma gathered the younger orphans into the chapel for prayers and songs—pretending, for their sake, that nothing had changed.
Lina and Aren packed essentials: food, blade, maps, and relic-flares—small orbs that would burst into smoke if thrown, useful for cover or signals.
Kai sat alone, reading the letter again.
He wasn't surprised by the words inside.
Only the name at the bottom:
Instructor Sera Maren
"Relic Division, Academy of Echoes"
He remembered her name from a book Olma once gave him.
She'd studied forgotten spell structures tied to the Divine Collapse.
She once theorized that memory could shape magic.
"She's the one who requested me," he whispered.
"Not the Academy."
When night fell, Sister Olma called them to the chapel one last time.
No sermon.
No ceremony.
Just her voice.
"This orphanage was not just for shelter."
"It was a watchtower. A sanctuary."
"And now that sanctuary must move with you."
She placed a relic pendant in Lina's hand—a protective sigil that would break once used.
She gave Aren a focus dagger wrapped in cloth.
And to Kai—
She said nothing.
She simply pressed her forehead to his and whispered:
"Remember what kind of person you wanted to become before the world told you who you were."
Then she let him go.
III. Academy of Echoes – Echoes Detected
Deep within the mountain that housed the Academy, an arch-glyph array carved into the inner dome lit up like it hadn't in over a decade.
The spiral signature was unmistakable.
A flare.
Wild. Untamed.
But real.
"Kalai has awakened," the monitoring scribe whispered.
Dean Marros looked down at the data, jaw clenched.
"He used the shard?"
"Yes, but uncontrolled. Raw instinct."
"That means he's still fragmented," Instructor Sera said from beside him.
"And vulnerable."
"We should extract him now," one instructor insisted.
"Send a retrieval team."
"Or a containment squad."
Marros raised a hand.
"He's already on the move."
"Olma has sent him."
"Let him arrive on his own feet."
Another faculty voice growled, "You're risking the lives of everyone here if he loses control."
Sera stepped forward.
"He's not going to lose control."
"Because he's already chosen to protect."
They stared at her.
She smiled thinly.
"I've read the archives."
"Kalai didn't burn the world."
"He tried to stop it."
IV. The Watchers in the Dark
Far beneath the city, in a mirrored chamber humming with false light, the cultists watched the same signature flicker across their own glyph array.
The masked leader turned.
"He's leaving."
"Heading for the mountain."
Verel—the young cultist with too much conscience—shivered.
"What do we do?"
The masked one paused.
"Nothing."
"Let him reach the gates."
"Let the Academy teach him what he is."
She touched the mirror.
"Then we'll see what side he chooses."
V. The Road Begins
At dawn, Kai stood on the ridge with Lina and Aren, the orphanage a speck behind them, the mountain a silhouette ahead.
He carried no weapon.
Only the shard.
And the name they all refused to say out loud.
Not yet.
"So," Aren muttered, "how long before someone tries to kill us again?"
"A day," Lina said.
"Maybe less."
Kai smiled faintly.
"Good."
"That means we're getting close."