The dawn light stretched lazily across the Thalorin Plains, gilding each blade of grass in gold. Vaelen's body ached in every joint. His fingers were raw from grasping roots, his clothes stiff with dried mud. Hunger clawed at his stomach, a constant reminder that survival was a task in itself.
He pushed himself to his feet again, swaying, muscles quivering. His fractured Current throbbed beneath his skin, testing him like a caged animal. He tried to summon it again, a faint flare, but the energy recoiled violently, searing his veins.
'It doesn't want me,' he thought bitterly. 'Or… it's afraid of me.'
A rustle in the grass made him freeze. His instincts screamed to run, but his legs shook too much to obey. Out of the corner of his eye, a figure emerged, moving with careful, silent precision. A woman, cloaked in gray, her eyes sharp and watchful. She stopped a few paces away, kneeling to avoid drawing attention, yet her presence was impossible to ignore.
"Easy," she said softly, voice carrying across the plain. "I'm not here to harm you."
Vaelen's eyes narrowed, instinct and fear warring with the faint hope that someone, anyone, was near. "Who… are you?" he croaked, his voice hoarse.
"Someone who can help," she replied, standing slowly. Her hands were empty, but the air around her shimmered faintly. "You're far from any settlement. Alone. And… your Current—it's unstable."
He swallowed hard. 'You can see it?' he thought. Panic and awe mixed in his chest. "I… I don't understand it," he whispered aloud. "It… it hurts me when I try to use it."
She studied him carefully, expression unreadable. "That's because it's fractured. Most people bond naturally with their Current. You… you are… different. But not broken. Not yet."
Vaelen's knees buckled slightly. "Then… what am I supposed to do? Survive?"
She crouched beside him, scanning the horizon. "First, survive. Then learn. I can teach you how to control what lives inside you. But you must listen, and you must trust. The world… it doesn't forgive weakness easily."
Her words were firm but not unkind. Somehow, Vaelen believed her. Perhaps it was the way she moved, careful, precise, as if she had survived places he couldn't yet imagine.
The woman extended a hand. Vaelen hesitated, then took it, and she helped him to a sitting position. "You need water," she said. She gestured toward the shallow stream nearby. Together, they drank. The cold water bit at his throat, but it refreshed him in ways his meager scavenging could not.
He couldn't stop noticing her. There was something… otherworldly about her, something familiar and distant, like a memory he could almost grasp. "Who… are you?" he asked again.
She gave a small, tight-lipped smile. "A friend. For now. Names don't matter yet. You need a guide more than anything else."
Vaelen nodded slowly. Hunger gnawed at him again, and she handed him a small bundle of dried meat and roots she must have carried. He ate quickly, shivering less as warmth began to return to his body.
Afterward, she crouched beside him, hands brushing the grass as if feeling the currents themselves. "You're sensitive," she observed. "The plains are alive. Every blade of grass, every ripple of air… they respond to you, even when you don't understand it. That's why your Current reacts the way it does."
'Alive…' Vaelen repeated in his mind. 'It's all alive… and I'm part of it… somehow…'
She studied him for a long moment, eyes narrowing slightly. "You'll need more than survival skills. You'll need knowledge, discipline, allies. There is a place… an academy. There, you can begin to understand what you are, and who you could become."
Vaelen's stomach twisted. Academy. Other people. Rules. Tests. All things unfamiliar and frightening. "I… I don't belong anywhere," he admitted, voice low. "I don't even… know who I am."
"That's why you must go," she said simply. "The academy will give you a starting point. And… someone has noticed you. Someone important. But they will not act until you are ready."
The words sent a shiver down his spine. 'Someone… watching me?' he thought. Fear mixed with an unnameable thrill. He had been alone for so long, unseen, unheard… and now, finally, someone was aware of him.
She stood, brushing dust from her cloak. "Rest. Regain your strength. Tomorrow, we begin the first lesson. The Currents are patient, but they will not wait forever."
Vaelen sat beneath the trees, staring at her retreating figure. His fractured Current stirred, less violently now, as if testing her presence, sensing her as something safe… or perhaps something necessary.
'Lesson…' he thought. 'I'll learn. I have to.'
As night fell and the stars appeared, the plains whispered in their eternal currents. Vaelen curled against the rough bark of the tree, shivering, heart racing with both fear and hope. He did not yet know who he was, or what awaited him. But for the first time, he felt that he was not entirely alone.
And somewhere beyond the hills, eyes watched. Silent, patient. Waiting for the right moment to intervene.