A question had been gnawing at Rhys. It was a simple question, but the answer felt vast and dangerous.
He had been so busy surviving, fighting, and building that he had never stopped to truly ask it.
He had accepted the power he was given without looking too closely at the hand that gave it. Or was it true? About the hand gave him the strength?
What is the System?
He sat on the cold stone floor of his small room in the outer disciple dormitories of the Azure Sky Palace.
The first month of his new life as a disciple had passed in a blur of routine. He attended the boring lectures, went through the simple drills, and ate the bland food.
He was just a number, another face in the crowd. This quiet, unremarkable life gave him something he had not had in a long time: the time to think.
And the more he thought, the more the question burned in his mind.
