Raen didn't sleep that night.
Not with the ring whispering fragments of words in dead tongues—languages that brushed against his mind like ghosts. Not with the presence inside the ring, silent yet fully awake, watching.
He tried removing it.
It didn't budge.
Not even with a dagger's edge pressed to his finger.
Blood welled, but the ring remained. The wound sealed itself, as if the ring refused even pain to touch him now.
By dawn, he knew. He wasn't the same boy who'd entered the ruin.
He was something else. Or becoming it.
And yet… fear gnawed at the edges of his thoughts. Not fear of what the ring might do—but fear of what he might become.
At the academy, chaos had taken root.
The Testing Hall was sealed off. Dozens of guards swept through the halls, and even the sky above shimmered with active wards. Rumors spread like wildfire—someone had triggered a deep ward. A forbidden relic had awakened.
At the center of the panic stood Head Warden Ceryn, towering in obsidian armor, her voice sharp as steel. "Find the source. I want a name before the sun sets!"
None suspected Raen.
Not the stablemasters, nor the scholars, nor even the Warden tasked with watching him.
After all, he was just a servant boy. Quiet. Invisible.
He slipped back to his quarters unnoticed. But the moment he entered, he stopped cold.
His bed—shredded. His blanket, burned at the edges. His few books—torn apart. Someone had searched his things.
Veylan.
Raen stared at the ruin of what little he owned. Something twisted inside him—not quite rage, but not sadness either. A cold certainty.
He said nothing.
He didn't clean it up.
Instead, he sat cross-legged on the floor, drew in a breath… and let the ring guide him.
> [Initiating Resonance Pulse…]
[Searching for matching echoes…]
[1 Result: Sealed Chamber Detected – Deep Below Academy Grounds]
[Warning: Entry Forbidden by Royal Edict.]
Raen's eyes snapped open. A chamber beneath the academy?
It wasn't curiosity that burned inside him. It was pull. The ring was leading him.
He hesitated. Just for a moment.
Then he stood. Pulled his cloak tighter. And moved.
He crept through the shadowed halls like mist, unnoticed as always. But now, his footsteps were lighter. His hearing sharper. The ring pulsed with every turn, guiding him—left, then down, past forgotten stairwells cloaked in dust.
Eventually, he reached a wall that should not have been there. Solid. Cold. Unmarked.
But the ring burned suddenly hot.
His hand moved without thinking—pressed the gem into the stone.
A low click echoed.
The wall… dissolved.
Beyond it: a spiraling staircase that led into blackness.
Elsewhere—far, far beyond the academy—a storm roared over jagged cliffs. Atop a dark spire, a cloaked figure stood before a mirror of obsidian.
Raen's image shimmered in its surface.
"He's awakened," the figure said, voice hushed.
Behind them, a massive shadow stirred.
A voice followed, low and ancient.
"Then the hunt begins."
End of Chapter 2