Chapter 1: The Boy from Black Hollow
The wind howled through the ravine as Kael Virel clung to the edge of the cliff, his gloved fingers scraping against the jagged stone. Below him, the depths of Black Hollow stretched into mist and shadow, where the ancient ruins of the pre-Exodus era lay buried and forbidden. Above him, the broken shell of a derelict Spellmech—the prize he'd been tracking for weeks—jutted out of the rock like the bones of some long-dead god.
"Come on, almost there," Kael muttered through clenched teeth. He swung his leg over the ledge and hoisted himself up, heart pounding.
The mech was massive, nearly twice the height of any he'd ever seen, its once-smooth obsidian armor now weathered and cracked. Aetherite veins glowed faintly beneath its surface, pulsing with forgotten magic. Kael reached out, placing a hand against its hull.
"You're not dead yet, old one."
He didn't know what had drawn him to this wreck. Maybe it was the stories his mother used to tell him before she vanished, tales of mechs that could think, dream, even feel. Or maybe it was the feeling in his chest—a humming resonance, like a forgotten song trying to remember its melody.
A sudden crack of thunder made him flinch. Vyronis's weather was volatile at the best of times, and the Hollow was notorious for its flash storms. He had maybe twenty minutes before the storm hit.
Kael dropped his pack and unzipped it, pulling out his salvaging tools: a micro-plasma cutter, a pair of scanning goggles, and a half-charged mana capacitor. He slipped the goggles on and activated them.
"Let's see what secrets you're hiding."
The goggles lit up, overlaying the mech's internal structure in glowing lines and symbols. His breath caught in his throat.
"No way... Spellcore's intact?"
It shouldn't have been. Spellcores were the heart of any mech, a fusion of technology and raw magic condensed into a crystalline matrix. They were incredibly volatile, and in a wreck this old, it should have crumbled into dust.
Kael reached for the capacitor. If he could extract the core and bring it back to the workshop in Ashreach before anyone else found out, he might just have a shot at the Arcforge entrance trials. He could finally leave the slums behind.
As he connected the capacitor, the mech trembled.
Kael froze.
The spellcore pulsed once, then again. Symbols ignited across the mech's frame. Its eye—just one, the other shattered—flickered to life with a deep violet glow.
"That's not supposed to happen," Kael whispered.
A voice echoed through the air, low and cracked with age.
"Who... calls the Sentinel?"
Kael stumbled back, nearly falling off the ledge.
"You can talk?"
"System integrity... 12%. Memory... fragmented. Identify: Operator."
He swallowed. "Uh... Kael Virel? I'm not your operator. I just found you."
The mech was silent for a long moment. Then: "Aether resonance confirmed. Kael Virel. Access level: provisional. Initiating preservation protocol."
Panels shifted. A smaller compartment opened in the mech's chest, revealing the core—a glowing purple crystal suspended in a cradle of gold and steel. It detached with a hiss and lowered into Kael's waiting hands.
"Holy stars..."
He barely had time to process it before the storm broke.
Rain slashed down in sheets. Lightning tore across the sky. Kael threw the core into his pack and sealed it, then scrambled down the cliff as fast as he dared. The mech's eye watched him until it vanished into the storm.
---
Ashreach was barely more than a junker town built on the edge of Black Hollow, a mix of corrugated metal and salvage-wood structures that looked like they'd fall over in a stiff wind. Kael burst through the door of the workshop he shared with Grinna, a retired pilot-turned-tinkerer who'd taken him in after his mother disappeared.
Grinna looked up from her bench, eyebrow raised. "You look like a drowned rat. What'd you do, challenge the storm god to a duel?"
Kael dropped his pack on the table. "Found something. You're not gonna believe it."
She wiped her hands and opened the pack.
"Is that..." Her eyes widened. "Void-burn me, that's a live spellcore."
"Pulled it from a mech buried in the Hollow. It talked to me."
"Talked?"
He nodded. "Called itself the Sentinel. Said I had Aether resonance."
Grinna was silent for a long time. Then she went to the back, rummaged through a cabinet, and came back with a sealed envelope.
"This came for you yesterday. From Arcforge."
Kael blinked. "What? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Wanted to see if you'd earn it first. I put in the application months ago, forged a few signatures, added your schematics. Didn't think they'd actually bite."
With shaking hands, Kael opened the envelope. Inside was a sleek black card embedded with a silver rune and a line of text:
**"You are summoned to Arcforge Academy. Entrance trials begin in ten days."
Welcome, Initiate.**
Kael looked up, eyes wide.
Grinna grinned. "Looks like you're going to school."
---
Arcforge Academy sat atop Mount Caelion, a shining spire of metal, crystal, and light that overlooked the Valley of Stars. As Kael stepped off the shuttle, his jaw dropped. Towers floated on levitation arrays, walkways spiraled through the air, and students in sleek uniforms piloted training mechs in the distance.
Everything buzzed with energy—magical, technological, and human.
He followed the line of new arrivals to a towering gate, where a mech-shaped statue loomed overhead. A voice boomed from unseen speakers.
"Welcome, Initiates. I am Archmaster Korran, Head of Arcforge Academy. Within these halls, you will learn the science of crafting Spellmechs and the art of wielding their power. Some of you will rise. Most will fall."
The gates creaked open.
Kael stepped forward.
His journey had begun.
---
To be continued in Chapter 2: The Girl with Silver Eyes