After lunch, they were led to practical sessions. Syn expected something organized, perhaps individual exercises under instructor supervision. But the Institute was not a place that coddled students.
They were taken to a large field behind the main building. It was divided into sectors, each enclosed by low stone walls. Various objects stood in the center of each sector: boulders, wooden planks, metal sheets, containers of water.
Instructor Varen stood before the formation, with three other resonators in black uniforms beside him. All were at least Masters, judging by the aura of power they radiated.
«Practical sessions,» Varen began, «are where you will learn to use your Aspect. Not control it. Use it. The difference is that control comes with experience. Use comes with understanding.»
He pointed to the sectors.
«You will be divided into groups based on Aspect type. Fire with Fire. Ice with Ice. Shadow with Shadow. Each group will have an instructor who will show you basic exercises. Your task is to repeat them until you achieve results.»
One of the resonators, a tall man with a scar across his face, stepped forward.
«Fire Aspects, with me.»
Several students, including Erik Solaris, stepped forward and followed him.
Another resonator, a woman with icy eyes and white hair, called:
«Ice and Water Aspects.»
Another group separated.
Varen looked at the remaining students.
«Shadow, Blood, Stone, and the rest, sort yourselves to the instructors.»
Syn looked around. The Shadow Aspect was rare. Out of the sixty-three surviving students, only four, including him, had it. The other three were already moving toward a young resonator with dark hair and nearly black eyes. Syn followed them.
The instructor gave them an appraising look. His voice was quiet, but each word sounded clear.
«My name is Instructor Raine. The Shadow Aspect is one of the most difficult to understand. It is not straightforward like Fire. Not stable like Stone. Shadow is mutable, duplicitous, requiring not strength but cunning.»
He led them to one of the sectors. Inside were several dummies and a large mirror.
«First exercise: shadow materialization. Each of you must learn to summon your shadow and control it. Not as an illusion. As an extension of yourself.»
Raine raised his hand. A black, smoke-like substance flowed from his palm. It thickened, taking the shape of a second hand, a mirror reflection. The shadow hand moved in sync with the real one.
«Like this. Begin.»
The four students lined up. Syn took a place at the end. Next to him stood a girl of about sixteen, with short black hair and a sharp gaze. Her Brand was on her wrist, a thin black line encircling her arm.
Syn closed his eyes and concentrated. Tried to feel the Aspect within him. The Brand on his neck responded. Coldness crept through his body. He raised his hand and tried to imagine a shadow flowing from it.
Nothing.
He tried again. Concentrated harder. Imagined darkness pouring from his fingers.
Nothing.
Beside him, one of the students, a boy with a pale face, exhaled with relief. A thin stream of black smoke rose from his palm. It writhed like a snake but didn't last long. It dissipated after a few seconds.
Instructor Raine nodded.
«Good start. Continue.»
Syn gritted his teeth. Tried once more. The coldness intensified, but nothing happened. The shadow within him remained silent, still.
"Why isn't it working?"
He opened his eyes and looked at his hand. Tried to remember what he'd felt that night when he saw the traces on the dummy. Back then, the shadow had responded. Showed him the past.
"Maybe it's not about summoning the shadow. But about understanding what it wants?"
Syn closed his eyes again. This time, he didn't try to command the shadow. He just listened. Felt its presence at the edge of his consciousness.
And the shadow answered.
Coldness exploded in his hand. He opened his eyes and saw a black substance flowing from his palm. But it wasn't just a shadow. It was something alive. It writhed, stirred, taking shape. Not a hand. Something else.
A small skeleton.
A tiny figure woven from pure darkness. It stood on his palm, turning its skull as if looking around. Then it raised a bony hand and pointed at the mirror.
Syn froze.
Instructor Raine stepped closer. His eyes narrowed.
«What is this?»
Syn slowly turned his head.
«I… don't know.»
Raine leaned in, studying the skeleton. It didn't move, frozen in its pose.
«Materializing a complex form on the first try. Unusual.» He straightened up. «Your Aspect is different from the standard. Keep experimenting. But carefully. Don't lose control.»
Syn nodded. The skeleton on his palm slowly dissipated, turning into smoke. The coldness receded.
The girl next to him threw him a quick glance. Curiosity flickered in her eyes.
«What's your name?» she asked quietly.
«Syn.»
«I'm Ayra.» She nodded at her wrist. «My Aspect allows me to hide in shadows. And yours?»
Syn looked at his hand.
«I haven't fully understood it yet.»
Ayra smirked.
«An honest answer. Most lie, trying to look stronger.»
They continued the exercises. Syn tried to summon the skeleton again, but nothing happened. The shadow didn't respond. As if the first time had been an accident.
"Or it showed me what it wanted. And now it's silent."
Irritation grew, but he forced himself to calm down. Anger wouldn't help.
By the end of the session, only two of the four had managed to materialize something stable. Ayra created a thin veil of shadow that enveloped her arm, making it nearly invisible. The boy who had summoned smoke at the beginning learned to hold it longer.
Syn showed nothing more.
Instructor Raine dismissed them with a parting word:
«Shadow requires patience. Don't rush. Understanding will come with practice.»
Combat training began at five in the evening. They were gathered on the field again, but this time issued wooden swords and shields.
Instructor Kyle stood before the formation, twirling a sword in his hand.
«A resonator without combat skills is a dead resonator. Your power is useless if you don't know how to fight. We'll start with the basics today.»
He demonstrated a stance. Feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, sword held with both hands, shield in front.
«Copy me.»
The students clumsily copied his movements. Syn assumed the stance, feeling the unfamiliar weight of the sword in his hands. He had never held a weapon before. In the slums, they fought with fists or knives. Swords were a luxury.
Kyle walked along the line, correcting mistakes. When he reached Syn, he stopped.
«Grip is weak. Hold the hilt tighter. Otherwise, I'll knock the sword out on the first strike.»
Syn clenched the hilt more firmly. Kyle nodded and moved on.
They practiced strikes until seven in the evening. Thrust. Diagonal. Overhead strike. Shield block. Again and again. Arms grew numb, shoulders burned. By the end of the training, Syn could barely lift the sword.
But he didn't give up. Like most of the others.
Erik Solaris, on the other hand, threw his sword to the ground after the two hundredth strike.
«This is pointless! I'm a resonator, not a soldier! I don't need swords!»
Kyle slowly walked up to him. His voice was quiet but cold.
«Pick up the sword.»
«I said…»
Kyle struck him. Quickly, hard, an open palm across the face. Erik fell into the sand, clutching his cheek. His eyes widened in shock.
«Pick. Up. The sword.»
Erik, gasping, got up. Picked up the sword with trembling hands.
Kyle returned to his place.
«Continue.»
No one else complained.
Dinner passed in silence. Everyone was too tired to talk. Syn ate his portion of porridge and bread, washed it down with water, and returned to the barracks.
He lay on his bunk; his whole body ached. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep. But sleep wouldn't come. Thoughts swirled in his head.
"First day of training. I achieved almost nothing. Couldn't control my Aspect. Barely kept up in combat training."
He clenched his fists.
"But I won't give up. Lian went through this. So I will too."
Somewhere in the barracks, someone was crying quietly. Someone groaned in pain. Syn paid no attention. He focused on the sensation of the Brand on his neck. Cold, pulsing.
"Shadow. Keeper of the Threshold. What do you want from me?"
There was no answer. But he felt it. A presence that never left.
"Alright. If you don't want to speak, I'll find the answer myself."
Syn closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. Sleep came slowly, heavy and restless.
The days began to blend into a monotonous cycle. Wake-up at six. Physical training to exhaustion. Resonance theory. Practical sessions. Combat training. Dinner. Lights out.
Syn immersed himself in the routine. Every day he tried to understand his Aspect. Every day he failed. The shadow responded rarely, and always unpredictably. Sometimes he saw traces of the past on objects. Sometimes he materialized tiny skeleton figures that disappeared after seconds. But there was no control.
Instructor Raine watched him with growing interest.
«Your Aspect is complex,» he said after one of the training sessions. «It doesn't obey standard methods. You must find your own path. Your own Gate.»
Syn nodded, but irritation simmered inside.
"How do I find what I don't understand?"
During the third week of training, the first significant event occurred.
During combat training, Erik Solaris challenged another student to a duel. A boy named Dan, thin, weak, from the slums. Erik beat him with a wooden sword until Dan fell unconscious.
Instructor Kyle stopped the duel but didn't punish Erik.
«There are no rules in combat. He was stronger. You must be stronger.»
Dan was taken to the infirmary. He returned two days later, his head bandaged, his gaze empty.
Syn watched this in silence.
"This is the world of strength. Here, the one who wins is not the one who is right. But the one who is stronger."
He clenched his fists.
"Then I'll become stronger. Much stronger."
In the fourth week, Lira opened her first Gate.
Syn was a witness. They were training on the field when her Aspect suddenly flared. A stream of light, pure and bright, burst from her hands. It enveloped the dummy before her, and the wood began to slowly heal. Cracks sealed. Charred edges turned clean.
Her group instructor exclaimed:
«A Gate! She's opened the Gate of Healing!»
Lira fell to her knees, gasping for air. Her face was pale, but her eyes burned with fire.
Syn looked at her. Then at his own hands.
"She did it in a month. And I still don't understand my power."
Envy pricked his chest, but he suppressed it.
"Not the time for weakness. I will find my Gate."
That night, Syn didn't sleep. He went out to the training field and stood before a dummy. Alone. In the dark.
He raised his hand and closed his eyes.
"Shadow. Show me. What do you want? What must I understand?"
The Brand on his neck blazed with cold. The shadow within him stirred.
And suddenly, a vision flashed before his eyes.
He stood in a vast hall. Walls of black stone. The ceiling lost in darkness. Before him was a Threshold. A huge arch of glowing metal. Beyond it, darkness. Absolute.
And from the darkness, a figure emerged.
Lian.
She walked toward him, reaching out a hand.
«Syn. Open the Threshold. I'm waiting.»
Syn stepped forward, but the arch flared. Pain pierced his body. He screamed and fell to his knees.
The vision disappeared.
Syn regained consciousness on the ground, breathing heavily. His whole body trembled. But a fire burned in his chest.
"The Threshold. She's beyond the Threshold."
He rose and looked at his hands.
"I must open it. Whatever that means."
And that night, Syn understood.
His first Gate would not be about materializing shadow.
It would be about opening a door between worlds.
And finding Lian.