The laughter still clung to him long after the courtyard had emptied.
Even as the crimson sun slipped behind Pyrelith's distant towers, Alex could still hear the nobles' voices sharp, mocking, relentless. Every word replayed in his skull like the echo of metal striking stone.
"Sixteen years and that's all?"
"Tomorrow he'll burn out before Kaelen even draws his blade."
"A spark pretending to be a flame."
He sat on the dormitory steps long after dusk, elbows on his knees, the wooden practice sword lying across his lap. The cold seeped through the stone into his bones, but he hardly noticed.
His thoughts felt heavier than his body, thick with frustration and disbelief he had finally awakened after years of being told he never would and still, no one cared his miracle had become their joke.
Above him, the dormitory windows glowed with the golden haze of lamplight shadows moved behind them: students laughing, gossiping, trading small bursts of flame between their palms like children with toys.
He had once imagined belonging to that warmth, but now it felt like a distant world. His flame his tiny flame had exiled him from it before he could even begin.
He let out a bitter laugh, small and tired.
"So this is what they call awakening."
The System's faint shimmer pulsed at the edge of his vision.
[Side Quest – Rival's Challenge]
Objective: Survive Kaelen's duel at dawn.
Reward: +100 EXP · +1 Flame Affinity · Hidden Progress (???)
Failure: –20 EXP · Status Effect – Rival's Humiliation
Even the words mocked him Survive not win.
He stared at the line until his eyes blurred.
"They already know I'll lose," he murmured.
"Even the System knows."
The wooden sword creaked as his grip tightened he wanted to smash something, to strike until the weight inside him broke free. But the courtyard around him was silent just the whisper of the wind through banners, the faint scent of burnt ash from the day's drills.
Then another voice cut through the quiet calm, cool, and unmistakably female.
"You know," it said, "staring at the ground won't make you stronger."
Alex blinked, lifting his head.
Mira stood at the edge of the lanternlight, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised her black uniform caught the glow, tracing sharp lines of crimson along her sleeves.
She looked composed as always elegant, unreadable but her eyes carried that faint spark of interest he had seen earlier during his humiliation.
"Mira?" he said, startled "What are you".
"Walking," she interrupted, stepping closer "And apparently finding someone trying to drown himself in self-pity you're quite loud when you sulk."
He turned his face away. "I'm not sulking."
"Of course not," she said, the faintest smile tugging at her lips.
"You're brooding dramatically in public entirely different thing."
Despite himself, a dry laugh escaped his throat the sound surprised him; he hadn't realized how tight his chest had become until it eased a little.
Her smile vanished, replaced by curiosity "You really think this is the end for you, don't you?" He didn't answer the silence said enough.
Mira exhaled softly and moved to sit beside him on the step for a long moment neither spoke the night hummed quietly around them the wind rustling through the training banners, the distant murmur of the city beyond the academy walls.
Finally she said, "You're not the first to stand where you don't belong. And you won't be the last."
Alex frowned "You think I don't belong?"
"I think," she said carefully, "that the academy doesn't know what to do with someone like you. Everyone here fits a box noble prodigy, common-born struggler, instructor's favorite. You don't fit any of them that makes them uncomfortable."
He turned that over in his mind Uncomfortable he had been called weak, slow, useless but never that.
Mira's voice softened "They hate what they can't understand you didn't grow up surrounded by fire mages. You fought for every scrap of strength you have that kind of fight scares people who were born with everything."
Her gaze found his "And it intrigues the rest of us."
For a heartbeat, Alex couldn't breathe.
"You're saying you believe I can stand against Kaelen?"
"I'm saying," she replied, "that tomorrow, whether you stand or fall, people will see you maybe for the first time and how they see you depends on what you choose to do tonight."
She stood, brushing sand from her uniform "You can keep sitting here until dawn and let them be right about you or you can train until you can't lift your arms and prove that spark of yours means something."
Alex swallowed hard. "Why are you telling me this?"
Her expression wavered just a flicker of something softer before she hid it behind a smirk. "Because I don't like easy victories," she said. "If Kaele's going to crush you, I want to see you make him sweat first."
Then she turned to go the moonlight caught her hair as she paused at the doorway.
"Oh and Alex?"
He looked up "Yeah?"
Her eyes glimmered, equal parts warning and encouragement.
"Don't disappoint me."
The door closed softly behind her, leaving the courtyard in silence once more.
For a long time Alex sat frozen, replaying her words each one sank deeper than the last until something shifted inside him a small, steady warmth. Not the wild fire of rage, nor the shallow heat of pride ,Something quieter, firmer.
He rose slowly to his feet, gripping the practice sword.
If tomorrow the world would watch him fall, then he would make it a fall worth remembering.
The training yard lay empty under the moon the torches had long since burned low, leaving only the pale silver light of the night sky spilling across the sand. The banners barely moved. The silence felt sacred.
Alex stepped onto the sparring ring, the wood of his sword firm in his hands he inhaled deeply, grounding himself.
Then he began to move.
At first his strikes were slow, hesitant the motions of a tired student repeating drills he had memorized but as he swung again and again, rhythm took over.
His arms burned, his breath grew ragged, sweat dripping into his eyes but he kept going. Each strike carried a memory.
Kael's laughter keep swinging even when it hurts.
His mother's voice your fire is in your heart, not your hand.
The System's warning Survive.
The night became a blur of motion and pain his muscles screamed, his palms blistered, but the sound of the blade cutting air became a rhythm he could cling to.
He swung until he could barely stand, until his vision wavered and the stars above seemed to spin.
[Training Endurance Reached]
+10 EXP
Minor Stat Increase: +1 Endurance
The glowing text shimmered faintly before fading. He sank to his knees, chest heaving, eyes stinging with sweat. The sword slipped from his hands and thudded into the sand beside him.
A laugh tired but genuine escaped his lips. "Still counts," he muttered.
When he looked up, the dormitory tower loomed against the stars, its uppermost windows glowing with soft red light the chamber of the dragon eggs. His gaze lingered there, on the memory of his own egg: dark shell, no light, no warmth.
The others had glowed from the moment their partners touched them, but his had stayed silent, cold.
He almost looked away until something flickered at the edge of his mind.
A pulse.
Faint ,Steady ,Familiar.
He froze. It wasn't a sound, not even a feeling more like an echo deep in his chest answering a call from far above.
Another pulse followed, warmer this time, like a heartbeat reaching across a great distance.
His breath caught. "You… feel that too?"
The air around him seemed to hum in answer a thread of light shimmered briefly across the sand, vanishing before he could move. The connection faded as quickly as it came, leaving behind only stillness.
But he knew it hadn't been his imagination. The dragon his dragon had stirred.
He pressed a trembling hand to his chest. "Then we're both not giving up, huh?"
The faint warmth lingered beneath his skin as he forced himself upright. His limbs protested every movement, yet the exhaustion no longer felt hollow. It had purpose.
He retrieved the sword, slinging it across his shoulder, and began the slow walk back toward the dorms the horizon had begun to pale with the first hints of dawn. The courtyard was silent except for his footsteps crunching in the sand.
At the door, he paused and looked back once more at the empty training ground. The moon hung low, fading against the growing light.
He whispered, almost a promise, "Tomorrow, I'll stand."
Inside his small room, the world was still the single lantern flickered weakly on the table near his bed rested a small wooden boxñthe one that held the dragon egg. He knelt beside it, brushing his fingers along the grain before lifting the lid.
The shell was just as he remembered smooth, obsidian black, unmarked but now he saw it differently beneath that darkness, something lived he could feel it waiting.
He set the egg gently back in place and sat cross-legged beside it.
The ache in his muscles returned with every heartbeat, but he didn't mind he closed his eyes, breathing slow, centering himself.
Outside, the first birds began to sing a new day crept into the academy.
When dawn finally broke over Pyrelith, the world glowed in gold and ember hues the banners of the Academy of Fire caught the light and shimmered like living flame.
Students began to stir, gossip already crackling through the halls: The duel the commoner versus Kaele the spark versus the inferno.
Alex opened his eyes.
His body hurt everywhere, but his mind was clear the fear was still there, quiet but constant like the heartbeat of something alive but over it burned a steadier fire determination.
He rose, stretching his sore arms, and looked once more at the dragon egg.
"I'll survive," he whispered. "You'll see."
The egg pulsed faintly, once.
He smiled, gathered his uniform, and stepped out into the corridor the halls were already filling with students. Some stared at him as he passed mocking, curious, even a few surprised but for the first time, he didn't look away.
Each step carried the echo of Mira's voice: Show them why you refuse to break.
By the time he reached the stairwell leading down to the arena, the light of morning had filled every corridor. The air shimmered faintly with heat as the academy came alive.
Alex paused at the final landing, gripping the railing as he looked out the window toward the great sand pit below, where Kaelen would soon be waiting. His heart thudded once, twice then steadied.
The System flickered one last time before fading from view.
Quest Objective Updated:Survive the Arena Duel.
He drew a long breath.
Then he walked forward, step by step, toward the light.