The man frowned deeply.
"The child?" he murmured.
His gaze fixed on a dark patch along the pulsing wall, eyes unfocused as his thoughts raced beneath the surface.
No one else could have known what crossed his mind at that moment. Calculations, memories, and quiet anxiety tangled together, hidden behind his stillness.
The entity he communed with was no simple existence. It was something vast. Something ancient. Its power was greater than anything he had encountered in his life, stretching across layers of mystery that the world's rulers worked desperately to conceal. Even they only grasped fragments of it.
And yet, it spoke to him.
Through it, he had gained knowledge that should have taken lifetimes to uncover like the secrets of ether, of the Labyrinth, and forces that shaped the world from beneath its surface.
All it ever asked in return was a little sustenance. A small offering. That price was so insignificant compared to what he received that he never once hesitated.
That was why he kept coming back.
"What do you mean?" he asked quietly. "What child? Are you saying a child has entered this Academy?"
He already knew it was the season for new admissions. The timing was too precise to be coincidence.
The voice returned, slow and deliberate in his head.
"Yes… the child…"
His fingers curled slightly at his side.
"What makes this child important?" he pressed. "What do they do?"
If this entity considered someone important, then it was something he needed to understand as well.
But silence followed next.
The man waited. Seconds stretched made his patience thinned.
The black veins along the chamber walls pulsed steadily, indifferent to his growing unease, as the voice withheld its answer.
The man swallowed and asked again with his voice sharper this time. "What child?"
Urgency crept into his tone before he could stop it.
The response came instantly.
"Silence…"
The word struck his mind like a rock being thrown at his brain. Pain exploded behind his eyes and his thoughts shattered.
He dropped to his knees as if an unseen force had crushed him from above, one of his hands braced against the floor while the other clawed at his head. The jar dropped quite hard but didn't break.
His breath came in ragged gasps.
"I-I'm sorry," he muttered, teeth clenched. "I'm sorry… I won't question it again. I won't."
He lowered his head, shoulders hunched, his posture stripped of all arrogance.
In front of this mighty mysterious existence, obedience was not a choice. It was instinct.
The pressure eased.
Then the voice returned, quieter and heavier.
"Search for the child… the one with the mark…"
The man pressed his forehead to the stone.
"Yes," he said without hesitation. "I will search for them."
Even as he spoke, his thoughts moved quickly because no more clues followed.
The presence receded, leaving the chamber unchanged and silent once more.
He understood that this was all he would be given.
That would have to be enough.
He rose to his feet and turned toward the sealed jar he had carried all this way.
Breaking the seal, he twisted the lid open. A sharp metallic stench flooded the chamber, thick with blood and decay.
The flesh inside moved slightly within the viscous red liquid.
The man did not flinch because he was used to this kind of smell already.
"I hope you enjoy your meal," he said calmly.
He set the jar down, turned away, and walked out of the chamber without looking back.
—
The first lesson began an hour later.
Dominic now sat among the other first-years in a massive lecture hall built to accommodate hundreds of students at once.
Stone benches rose in wide tiers, all facing a broad platform at the front. For now, every first-year student attends the same core lessons but specialization would come later.
The class was called Ether Theory and Circulation.
Murmurs filled the hall until a short, middle-aged man stepped onto the platform.
He had a plump face, thinning hair, and a gentle smile that immediately softened the room.
"Good day," he said warmly. "I'm Professor Voss."
His voice carried easily, he sounded calm and nice, and the noise slowly died down.
"For many of you, this will be the first time someone explains what you've been feeling your whole lives," he continued.
Dominic leaned forward slightly with full attention.
"This class will not make you powerful overnight of course," Professor Voss said, smiling wider. "But if you fail to understand it, nothing you learn afterward will matter."
Professor Voss clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace slowly across the platform.
"Ether," he said, "is the natural energy that flows through this world."
He gestured lightly, as if drawing invisible currents through the air.
The noble kids snickered while muttering that what he said was useless because they already knew about it.
But the professor continued.
"It exists in the land, the atmosphere, living beings, and places beyond the surface. It also flows through the Labyrinth beneath us, but we will not discuss Labyrinth ether yet until you understand the basics."
A few students beside the nobles shifted at that, curiosity flickering across their faces.
"For now," Professor Voss continued, "we focus only on surface-world ether. The kind of ether you interact with every day, whether you realize it or not."
Professor Voss came to a halt at the center of the platform, his expression turning thoughtful.
"Here is the misunderstanding that ruins more people than any lack of talent," he said. "Most of you believe that once your Bloodmark awakens, ether begins inside you."
The hall grew quiet.
"That belief is wrong," he continued. "Ether does not originate within your body nor does your Bloodmark produce the power. What awakens is not a source of power, but a framework."
Soft murmurs rippled through the students.
"Ether exists independently of you," Professor Voss said. "It permeates the world. Your Bloodmark is a system of rules etched into your flesh that dictates how your body may perceive, draw in, shape, and release that energy."
He tapped his chest lightly.
"When you act, you are not spending something you created. You are negotiating with what already exists in the world."
Dominic's eyes sharpened as the idea settled into place.
"Through study, discipline, and understanding," Professor Voss went on, voice steady, "you will learn how to absorb ether without resistance, circulate it without loss, and allow your ether core to recover instead of collapse."
Professor Voss spread a meaningful look around. "You will learn how to talk to the ether in my class."
—