The eyes in the mirror stared back at him, blue…, like frost entrapping and reflecting light. They had belonged to his mother once before her soul resonance or at least, his father said so. People liked to remind him of that, as though it was a compliment.
Kaitri adjusted the collar of his jacket as he looked at his reflection.
"Second day as a 16-year-old. First day as a pre-Res"
His hair was black and slightly curled, refusing to obey the comb. Even now, when the uniform sat on him smooth and without crease, the hair rebelled against him — a funny contrast.
It doesn't matter.
He straightened his tie and stepped back. Held a small coin, smooth like polished silver at eye level. In its centre, lies a pinprick void, a tiny black circle that seems to drink in colour.
"Mom, Dad…," he muttered under his breath, then put away the coin in his chest pocket.
The room around him gleamed like a showroom. Polished glass walls, a sprawling bed that looked untouched, an entire library arranged by colour. His aunt insisted on these things— taste, class, order, like a prince. Kaitri had learned to live inside cages dressed as palaces.
A knock came at the door. Three soft taps. Then her voice...
"Kai, breakfast!"
He glanced again at the boy in the mirror, at the line of his jaw, at the faint dark bags under his eyes, evidence of another sleepless night, and turned away.
The dining hall smelled faintly of coffee and flowers. His father's younger sister sat at the far end of the long marble table, scrolling through a floating pane of light, a hologram projected from the cuff of her wrist and hung between them. She looked like she belonged in a magazine, her silver hair pinned back, pearl earrings catching the glow of the chandelier. Her eyes, steel grey, lifted as he approached.
"You're late," she said, no sharpness to it, just a routine.
"I'm here, at least," Kaitri replied and took his seat halfway down the table.
A smaller voice chimed in before she could answer. "You look like you're going to a funeral."
Kaitri didn't need to look to know it was his sister. Lira sat cross-legged on her chair, hair falling over her face in messy brown strands. Her uniform hung loose on her thin frame. She grinned at him, all teeth and mischief.
"Close enough," he said.
Lira's grin widened. "Eryndor's not that bad."
"You've never been."
"And you have?" she shot back.
He didn't answer. Lira laughed anyway.
Their aunt set the projection aside and folded her hands, the way she did when she wanted their attention without raising her voice. "Kaitri." He met her eyes.
"You remember what we talked about?"
"Stay out of trouble," he sighed. "Keep my head down. Don't do anything to draw attention."
A faint smile curled her lips, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I mean it, Kai. Eryndor isn't like the schools you've been to. Everyone there will know who you are."
"Yeah," he said. "The tragic celebrity."
"Kai—"
"I heard you," he cut in gently then reached for the glass of juice in front of him. "Relax. I'm not looking for trouble."
'Not yet at least'
***
The ride to Eryndor cut through the veins of the city, skybridges coiling between towers of glass and steel, rails humming with mag-trains overhead. It gleamed like a dream stitched together by sorcery and tech—laying on a huge Island in the south owned by the Government separate from the joint continents of Halycon.
Halycon is the second‑most populous world in Earth's Galaxy with Earth being the most being the only Legacy planet before the event that changed the rules of the solar system known as "The Pull" happened, wiping out the other planets except for Earth and Mars and forcefully inviting Alien neighbours.
At least they came with another huge star far away, making the system a circumbinary Orbit. That star was called the Resonant sun, and it is believed to be the source of the Resonant energy known as Resonance.
Kaitri sat in silence as the armoured sedan glided along the elevated road. Outside, the world blurred… Hover freighters hauling rune-crates, patrol drones slicing through clouds, and banners of the Guardian Orders waving in the skyline.
He'd grown up with this view in his former hometown as well. It still felt foreign, especially with the forest expanse surrounding the Big Island city of Eryndor.
The gates of Eryndor's inner division rose like a fortress carved from white stone, etched with glyphs that pulsed faintly in the morning sun. Beyond them lies the academy, terraced courtyards, silver spires piercing the sky, training fields lined with runes. Statues of Pure-Spirited heroes stood sentinel along the entrance, their names carved in scripts that glowed faint blue.
The Annex Duo had a statue here too. He didn't need the marble memento to remember them; their presence was a constant, living part of him.
'They never get her nose right.'
He brought out a map of Eryndor from his jacket—turning left and right, trying to get his bearings. The campus sprawled below: training terraces, glass-clad lecture halls, a maze of courtyards that smelled faintly of iron and chalk.
He traced a route with one finger, eyes flicking from compass rose to landmark until his gaze landed on the dorm ring on the west side.
"There," he muttered, more to himself than to anyone who might care.
He tilted the map, squinting toward the real world and then back again. The dorms clustered around a low garden like teeth around a tongue; most of the roofs bore small, carved anchors—metal glyphs sunk into stone. He furrowed his brow—judging that those anchors were not decorative.
'They always put the useful things in places meant to look harmless. How annoying? That Soul Void Chapel…' his thought trailed off when a gust of wind blew at his face. He stepped toward the path that led west, boots echoing, and kept the map folded sharp in his palm.
When he reached his dorm room, he thumbed open a palm-sized cube he'd kept tucked under his jacket. The storage-cube was dormant until he tapped its side. The runes gleamed to life, lines of faint blue that tasted like static in air. He placed it on the inlaid stone—closed his eyes and whispered.
"ENPO."
A purple smoke puffed, engulfing the cube. Where it laid a second ago, a neat column of luggage with other household items, a single leather case hummed with rune-stitched seams. Kaitri snagged the case.
'Protective Anchors all around the school,' he thought, loosening his tie, 'Not bad at all.'
***
The next day, a loud terrible noise like a siren's call pierced his mind, waking him up—soothing, yet annoying. He realised it was only meant for the first years because a moment later, a quiet solemn voice followed…
"ALL FIRST YEARS ARE TO GATHER IN THE ASSEMBLY HALL"
The hall wasn't large when he stepped in.
It breathed and became one.
Stone ribs flexed along the walls, rune-lines waking as more bodies filled the space. Benches split their spines and slid; aisles widened without scraping a single boot. Somewhere beneath the floor, anchors hummed like a hive. Some students sat while others stood.
Kaitri lifted his eyebrows as he saw this magnificent spatial sorcery. "Neat," he said as he drifted to a column and laid back.
On the dais, a girl was already there. Shoulders square, chin lifted, a plain sash tied with the exactness of a vow. Aris Veylan from HOUSE CHROMAREIGN. She was tall in a way that makes uniforms fit like sculpture. Pale, flawless skin; hair the colour of late wheat, always pulled into a precise braid. Her eyes, the calm grey of slate that make people rethink their posture.
He'd seen a photograph once — an award ceremony beside a coffin draped in a sea-green banner. The orphan of a Fated who died holding a Mernian shore during a rift siege of two Paragon-ranked creatures. 'Something in common… Kind of,' he thought.
House Chromareign was the second most powerful family after Annex.
'If Nyxveil weren't a rumour, they'd sit above Chromareign—making it third. She and her brother were adopted into the Inner families when their parents, Diaphanous Leaders of the house, fell in action,' he thought.
Chromareign was known for its flair, style, prestige, and the fact that they only accept Resonants with Elemental Affinities. That was all Kaitri knew, but he did not know what all of it meant or why it was. 'That's why I'm here, I guess,' he thought.
A small, deliberate smile formed on her lips — beautiful the way people notice at once and then forget to look away. She spoke…
"My fellow First-years. I am pleased to welcome you to Eryndor. A named Academy in all 26 Worlds and amongst all Families. In this hall, we learn what that name weighs. We will—"
A soft scoff clipped the sentence. A boy near the front — same eyes as hers, but an obvious contrast in looks. He leaned back with a bored roll of his shoulders and looked away. The ripple of attention reached her and broke; Aris didn't flinch. She finished without theatrics and stepped aside to polite applause.
Kaitri watched, felt nothing he'd admit to, and let his gaze skim the crowd.
Faces human and inhuman alike, badges, whispers. Sponsor threads woven into cuffs, house sigils hidden and not. The academy brats clustered in their little islands, rehearsing the same old pride. Commonfolk stood alone, learning to love the edges.
He smiled. 'Technically, I am an academy brat.'
A flicker of movement to his right. A Corvian student — ash-grey skin, hair cut into feathered tufts, eyes like a black bead with a star caught inside — stood alone with his hands folded, and a ring of space around him as if by instinct. People pretended not to look while doing exactly that. A Corvian Crowfolk.
Useful? Maybe. Outcasts were stereotypically useful.
The dais shifted again.
A man stepped into the light.
"Headmaster Hannas Jonesy," someone breathed, reverent and afraid.
Jonesy looked like he'd been carved with a chisel that hated its work. Scars clean as a ruler along the cheek. No ornament. He didn't raise his hands. He didn't need to.
"Welcome to Eryndor Academy," he said in a familiar soothing voice, but the words landed like a gavel. "I am Headmaster Jonesy. I have been put in charge of you potential young talents of the next generation of Resonants. Do not be laid back. You will be here for two years but a lot of you will leave sooner."
A pleasant murmur died.
"Also, this might be an academy for aspiring Resonants like you, but it is still under the Guardian Order. You will obey posted orders. You will respect wards and the people who maintain them. You will not traffic in unregistered Momento. You will not duel outside of sanctioned pits. And you will not go into the Darkwood…"
The hall hummed with restrained whispers.
"I heard citizens who breaks the laws are banished in there as punishment," a bald cat-eyed student whispered.
"Didn't the Draevos traitors get banished there?" a girl with moss-patches tucked into her hair and a skin with warm green undertones asked.
"Shut up, the Concord said they died fighting Dark-Souled on a Red-World. No Resonant will betray the Concord," a human girl answered.
"The Darkwood huh," Kai muttered, a somber expression on his face.
'Aunt said it's filled with Dark-Souled creatures. Still… if it's that dangerous, why is the academy so close to it?'