The train hurtled through mountains that looked too ancient to exist. Cracked cliffs, like the broken fingers of giants, jutted from either side of the rails as smoke curled in lazy spirals behind the engine. The glass windows glowed faint blue with protective wards, flickering every time the train curved into a darker stretch of wilderness.
Marek Vales sat in the rearmost carriage, a worn leather satchel at his feet and a headache blooming behind his eyes like thunder about to break.
He had no memory of boarding.
No ticket, no formal letter of admission, just a single phrase scrawled in fading ink across the inside of his coat pocket
"You belong at Drexis."
He pressed his palm to the window, fingers tracing the sigils etched into the glass. They shimmered, reacting. Just a flicker, but enough to draw a sharp intake of breath from the girl across the aisle.
She quickly looked away, muttering something to the boy beside her.
Marek let his hand fall.
He wasn't trying to attract attention. If anything, he wished he could disappear into the seat. But even that wasn't safe; some part of him felt too large for his skin, like something else lurked just beneath the surface, waiting.
The train hissed as it dipped into a valley.
Gasps rippled through the cabin. Students surged toward the windows, pressing their faces to the glass.
There it was.
Drexis Academy.
A black-stone citadel carved into the ribs of the mountain. Arched towers rose like spears, wreathed in golden wards that floated midair in concentric circles. Spires cast long shadows across skybridges and dueling platforms. The main courtyard buzzed with activity below, students in crimson and steel uniforms, glowing familiars darting between them like stars with wings.
It looked nothing like a school.
It looked like a fortress preparing for war.
Marek's stomach twisted, not from fear, but something closer to… hunger.
As if part of him had been there before.
But that's impossible, he thought. I've never—
"Name?"
He blinked. A conductor stood at the front of the car, clipboard in hand. Robed in Drexis black, her eyes shimmered with violet sight-runes.
"Marek," he said slowly. "Marek Vales."
The conductor paused. Her pen hovered above her page.
She frowned.
"No record of boarding. No rank assignment."
"I… don't have one yet," he said, voice low.
She stared at him for a long moment, then handed him a small brass tag with no inscription.
"Take this to the Awakening Ring," she said curtly. "You'll be processed on-site. Quickly now."
She moved on without another word.
The moment she passed, murmurs started.
"No rank? "
"Nullborn?"
"Bet he's a plant. System test dummy."
Marek clenched his fists. He hadn't even stepped onto academy grounds, and already, he was being dissected.
He forced his eyes closed. Breathed.
Inhale. Exhale.
Remember the stars.
The thought wasn't his, but it drifted through his mind like a familiar melody. A feeling more than a memory. Cold skies. Cracked light.
He opened his eyes just as the train began to slow.
Drexis loomed ahead, impossibly vast. Magic pulsed through its wards in slow, hypnotic rhythms, like the heartbeat of a living thing.
The train hissed to a halt. The doors slid open with a thunderous groan.
Marek stepped down into a courtyard of stone and gold and eyes, so many eyes, already weighing him, calculating his worth before he'd even drawn breath on academy soil.
The wind carried the scent of ozone, sweat, and scorched mana.
Behind him, other students were already grouping by family crests and elemental lines, some with wind familiars perched on their shoulders, others summoning fire sigils just to show off.
Marek had none of that.
Just his name.
And the tag in his hand was blank, featureless, and quietly accusing.
"Out of the way, Null," someone muttered as they bumped past him.
Marek didn't respond.
He looked up at the towering black gate where the words "Through Strength, Order. Through Order, Victory" was carved in jagged script.
A boy with no past.
A system that already rejected him.
And a storm whispering behind his ribs, waiting to wake.
He stepped forward.