The city of Bhairavgarh loomed like a sleeping beast.
Stone walls rose high above fields of red sand, guarded by statues of warriors frozen mid-battle. Pilgrims, fighters, and hopefuls filled the roads, all here for one reason: the Seven School Trials.
Arav arrived dusty, hungry, but determined.
He barely had time to breathe when a girl slammed into him, sending him stumbling.
"Watch it, peasant," she barked.
She had raven-black hair tied into a warrior's knot, piercing eyes, and a curved blade on her back shaped like a blooming lotus. Her robes shimmered with pale gold trim.
"You okay?" Arav asked.
She narrowed her eyes. "I don't need help."
"Didn't ask if you needed it."
A pause.
Then she smirked. "You're brave for a straw-haired outsider."
"I'm black-haired," Arav corrected.
"Same thing." She turned. "Name's Kaavi. Lotus Blade Sect."
She walked off without another word.
Arav watched her go, unaware their fates were now tied—by blood, by fire, by something neither could see.