Adam stepped down from the carriage. The air in Wini Gar was slightly colder than in the capital, carrying the scent of burning wood and smoke seeping from house chimneys.He raised his head to take in the façade of the stone inn: an old building, only two floors high, its wooden balconies a little cracked, its faded sign barely legible.Still, the place was bustling with movement: travelers, merchants, and even a few off-duty soldiers.
The stranger entered first, followed by Adam.Inside, it felt warm — walls covered in dark wood panels, the smell of common food mingling with the smoke of torches.The stranger approached the innkeeper, a bald man with a cheerful face. They exchanged a few short words Adam couldn't catch.But the man winked, then handed over a heavy key.
They climbed to the upper floor; the hallway was narrow and the floor creaked with every step.The stranger stopped at a room at the end of the hall, opened the door, and motioned for Adam to enter.The room was simple: a wooden bed, a small table, a window overlooking the main street.Nothing suggested the presence of any secret.
Adam sat on the edge of the bed, while the stranger remained standing at the door, his gaze steady:"Sleep well… tomorrow we go to where you must be."
He explained no further, and closed the door behind him.
For minutes Adam stared at the wooden ceiling, trying to analyze the situation:(Everything seems ordinary… a modest town, a common inn, a simple room. But… why do I feel this 'ordinariness' is just a veil?)
He approached the window, looking outside.The street still pulsed with life: small caravans passing, vendors shouting the names of their goods, children chasing one another.But in the far corner… he saw a man standing motionless, his eyes lifted directly toward Adam's window.He did not look away.Only silent observation.
With the sunrise over Wini Gar, Adam woke to the noise of the market outside.The voices of vendors mixed with the footsteps of passersby — everything suggested a perfectly ordinary life.But within him, he was certain this day would not be ordinary.
The stranger knocked gently on the door, then entered without waiting for permission.His eyes carried no greeting, only a brief signal:"Follow me."
They descended together to the street, where life was at its peak.Merchants displayed their wares, a baker pulled out steaming loaves, children quarreled over a piece of candy.Everything was normal — unnervingly normal.
They walked through the inner streets until they reached a modest stone building, with no sign to mark its purpose.Its façade was plain: a wide wooden door, only two small windows. It looked more like a storehouse or a trading office.
The stranger knocked three times in a deliberate rhythm: knock… knock-knock… knock.The door opened slowly, revealing a bald, broad-shouldered man whose eyes scanned Adam briefly before he stepped aside.
The two entered.Inside was entirely different: a narrow hall lit by oil lamps, its walls lined with shelves filled with files and old boxes.The smell of aged paper and iron was strong.
The large man led them to the end of the hall, where a strangely shaped metal door stood.He opened it with a long key, revealing a stone staircase descending below.Each step carried them into another world, far from the town's simplicity above ground.
The deeper they went, the more the light changed.The walls shifted from raw stone to polished metal, the oil lamps replaced with faint blue sources of light, unlike anything familiar.There was a low sound, like an electrical hum, that grew louder with each descent.
At the bottom, a wide hall opened before them — completely different:Long rows of metal tables, strange devices emitting green lights, and people in gray coats working silently.On the walls, carved circles glowed with interwoven golden lines, as if they were part of an unknown energy system.
Adam stood in the middle of the vast hall, his eyes moving slowly across the strange devices and the people working in ordered silence.It did not look like an ordinary laboratory or a training center… but an unfamiliar mixture, blending science with ritual, cold metal with glowing engravings.
An elderly man approached him, wearing a long white coat, his features sharp though his voice calm:"Adam Ethan… at last, you've arrived."
He exchanged a quick look with the stranger, then added:"You are now inside the Inner Institution of Advanced Evaluation. What you see here is unknown to the public, not even to much of the royal court. This layer is hidden from the official records."
He raised his hand, pointing to the glowing circles on the walls:"The Royal Measurement you know is just a façade.Here… we measure what lies beyond physical or mental abilities.We measure the essence itself."
A technician stepped forward, carrying a glowing metal tablet, and placed it in front of Adam.Symbols appeared on the tablet, constantly shifting, as if trying to match something inside him.But the tablet failed several times, emitting a faint beep before retrying.
Adam remained still, watching attentively, showing no anxiety.(Essence?… they're measuring something that was never revealed in the capital. So this is the true level of evaluation.)
The elder smiled, then stepped closer:"Do not be surprised if you don't understand now. You are not here to be given an answer, but to become the answer itself."
He gestured to the technician:"Take him to the isolation chamber. Tonight, we begin the first essence test."
A side metal door opened, leading to a long corridor bathed in blue light.Adam entered slowly, his steps silent, as though he already knew what awaited inside would not be just 'measurement'… but something that would place him on a path from which there was no return.
They led him through the long metal corridor until they reached a thick door covered in faintly glowing intertwined engravings.The door opened slowly, the sound of grinding iron reverberating in his ears like an unspoken warning.
Adam entered the room.It was circular, wide, its black polished walls reflecting his features in distorted fragments.The dim light came from deep blue lines in the floor, intersecting into a large circle in the center.
But what caught his eye was not the room… but who was inside it.
Five others, spread across the chamber, each seated on a metallic chair that looked more like a restraint than a seat.Their faces were different: a young man with eyes blazing like embers, a girl in her twenties with trembling hands, an old man staring in eerie silence, and two others with anxious expressions.Each of them seemed to carry something unnatural within.
The technicians approached Adam, indicating for him to sit on the sixth chair.He sat without resistance, feeling the cold of the metal restraints as they locked around his wrists.
The voice of the elder who had greeted him in the great hall echoed through a hidden speaker:"Those present… you are not mere people. You are the Cursed."
He paused briefly, then continued:"Each one of you carries a mark within your essence — something unseen, unmeasurable by ordinary tools. These curses are not weakness… they are keys, perhaps even power. And that is why you were brought here."
Some of the chosen exchanged anxious looks, while Adam remained still, his eyes half-closed as if listening to distant music.
The voice went on:"Adam Ethan… your curse has not yet been revealed to the world. But we have seen its traces.It is the Curse of the Void."
A murmur rose among some of the seated, while Adam stayed silent."You are not like the others… your emotions are empty, your essence barren like a wasteland. But this void — if stirred — may devour everything around it. We are here to discover: will you remain silent forever, or will the door to the unstoppable be opened?"
The blue symbols on the floor began to shift, interlocking until they resembled a glowing matrix.A heavy sensation filled the room, as if the very air grew denser, and the essence within each of them began to be drawn out slowly.
Adam raised his head, his eyes glinting with coldness, a single thought echoing in his mind:(So… they did not choose me for my intellect or my fate… but for the thing that has lived inside me from the beginning. The Curse of the Void…)
Once everyone was seated in the metal chairs, a heavy silence filled the room.Nothing supernatural began — no complex rituals, no screams.Only several technicians in gray coats entered, carrying tools that looked familiar: copper tubes, measuring tapes, small devices flashing with green lights.
One approached Adam, placing a device on his wrist to measure his pulse, another fitted a thin metal ring around his head.He asked calmly:"Breathe normally."
Adam did as instructed, his eyes fixed on the reflection of the lamps' light in the black ceiling.
Across the room, they did the same with the other chosen: measuring height, weight, body temperature, breathing rates.It all seemed like an ordinary medical check… except that the workers recorded every number with obsessive precision, as if each fraction of a decimal was crucial.
One technician ran a metal rod along Adam's arm.At his elbow, the device flickered blue, then emitted a short beep.The technician wrote something in his notebook, exchanging a quick glance with his colleague — a glance Adam did not miss.
(So… they're not measuring only physical strength. There's another hidden index.)
After nearly half an hour, they finished.The technicians stepped back, carefully gathering the equipment.The elder's voice returned through the hidden speaker, calm as before:
"This was only the first measurement. Superficial, simple, but it gives us a general picture of your bodies' stability.Starting tonight… we begin what is deeper."
Some of the lights went out, leaving only a faint blue circle surrounding them.The metal door reopened, and they were released one by one, each escorted back to separate rooms deep within the institution.
As Adam walked between the guards, he was not thinking about the numbers they had written down…but about the small smile that had appeared on one technician's face as they left — a smile that did not belong to a 'routine physical exam,' but to something greater waiting behind the curtain.