The scent of polished steel and sharp ambition was Caleb's earliest memory. It was not a memory of comfort but of expectation. He was a son of House Vance, a prominent Baron family in Eldoria's Eastern Region. Though not one of the four Ducal Houses, the Vances were renowned for generations of shrewd strategists, disciplined knights, and their deep, almost reverent, affinity for fire-based Essences. Their sprawling, fortress-like estate, Highforge, stood as a monument to their martial power and rigid traditions. From birth, Caleb Vance, eldest son of the first wife, was groomed for one purpose: to inherit the mantle of Baron and to wield the raging flame of a formidable Essence.
His mother, a gentle woman whose quiet strength contrasted with the family's fiery reputation, passed away when Caleb was five. He remembered little of her, only the cool, soft touch of her hand and the odd companionship of a small horned rabbit she kept in her private chambers. Its fur gleamed like moonlight and its horn spiraled delicately. It was the only creature in Highforge that did not demand something of him. After her death, the rabbit, Luna, became his quiet confidant, a secret comfort in a house that grew colder with each passing year.
His father, Lord Darius Vance, a man forged of iron and ambition, remarried swiftly. The new Lady Vance, Celia, brought with her a calculating gaze and, soon after, three children of her own. From then on, Caleb's life turned into a nightmare.
Training at Highforge was relentless. Caleb endured grueling hours with the sword and excelled in discipline, but the true measure of a Vance heir lay in Essence Resonance. Each month, a new batch of Heartstones was laid before him, taken from Ember-Lizards or even Tier 3 Hellhounds. He would press his hand to the stones, close his eyes, and pray for the warmth and power his father spoke of. But there was never anything. Only silence.
"Still nothing, Caleb?" Lord Darius's voice would rumble with restrained disappointment, while Celia's thin smile cut sharper than a blade.
"What a clown of an older brother," Roxy sneered one evening, her ten-year-old voice full of venom. "Alduos already resonated with a Tier 2 Fire Essence and he's only eight. But you? You're about to turn fifteen and still nothing. Are you even a Vance?"
Alduos and Jenthro laughed from the side.
Caleb could not argue. The truth stung more than their jeers. He was fourteen, one year away from the age where failure meant losing everything. His younger half-siblings were lauded for their brilliance. Alduos could summon embers to dance on his fingertips, while Roxy could ignite a training dummy with a flick of her wrist. They were praised as true heirs, paragons of the Vance name. Caleb, meanwhile, became the family's disappointment, mocked as a hollow vessel unworthy of his bloodline.
"He is a waste of our resources, my lord," Celia hissed late at night, her voice drifting through the thin walls of his chamber. "No Essence. No future. He is a blight on the Vance name."
Caleb's only refuge was the sword and the quiet presence of Luna. The Moonhorn Rabbit never spoke, yet its amber eyes shone with uncanny intelligence. When his despair grew too heavy, Luna would nudge his hand, and a subtle warmth would pass through him. It was fleeting but real.
"Why can't I resonate, Luna?" he whispered one night, his voice breaking as tears streaked his face. "Maybe they're right. Maybe I don't have the blood of a Vance. I've trained every day. I've bled and fought to prove myself, but still… nothing. Why?"
Luna pressed her head against his trembling hand until he finally drifted into exhausted sleep.
When his fifteenth birthday drew near, the pressure reached its peak. This was his final chance. The annual Resonance Ceremony would determine his future. The grand hall of Highforge swelled with spectators: extended family, minor nobles, hardened officers. At the center sat a magnificent Tier 3 Blaze-Hound Heartstone, pulsing with fiery energy atop a velvet cushion.
Caleb stepped forward, hands shaking. He closed his eyes and begged the Aether for a spark, a connection, anything. He gripped the Heartstone. He felt… nothing. The stone remained inert, lifeless in his palm.
A gasp rippled through the hall. Lord Darius's stern face sank into profound disappointment. Celia's lips curled in a triumphant smile.
"This charade ends now," she declared, her voice cutting through the silence. "He is a hollow vessel, a shame to this house. He does not deserve to stand among us."
Lord Darius's jaw tightened. "Caleb Vance," he said coldly. "By my authority as Lord of House Vance, and by the laws of Eldoria, I disown you. You are no longer son of this house. You are no longer Vance. Begone from these lands, and never return."
The words struck harder than any blade. Around him, laughter broke out—his stepmother's, his half-siblings', even the guards'. Caleb stood frozen, hollow, stripped of everything.
He was allowed to take only one possession: Luna, carried in a small wooden cage. The rabbit's amber eyes glowed with quiet sorrow as Caleb walked through the massive gates of Highforge, the estate that had been both his prison and his home. His name, his legacy, his birthright—all gone.
That night, under the cold stars, he chose a new name for himself. Caleb Ignis. "Ignis," the ancient word for fire, spoken as both a bitter jest and a defiant vow.
He had trained his body, but his spirit was shattered. And as he stumbled into the wilderness, clutching the cage with Luna inside, the sound of distant hooves echoed through the night.