Chapter One: The Fallen Prodigy

"Battle Qi: Third Stage!"

The five glowing characters on the black Testing Stele were bright enough to sting. Kael Vale stared at them without expression, though the corner of his mouth twisted into something that might have been a smile. His fists clenched so hard that his nails bit into his palms, sending a dull ache up his arms.

"Kael Vale. Battle Qi: Third Stage. Grade: Low!" Roderic announced from beside the stele, his voice flat and professional.

The words had barely left the examiner's mouth before the crowd erupted.

"Third stage? Ha! Didn't I call it? Another year, and this 'prodigy' still hasn't moved an inch."

"Pathetic. The clan's face is in the dirt because of him."

"If the patriarch weren't his father, they'd have thrown him out years ago. Let him make his own way. Why should the clan feed a waste?"

"Whatever happened to the boy who made Emberfall City sit up and take notice? Look at him now."

"Who knows? Must have done something to earn the gods' wrath."

The sneers and sighs drifted over Kael like a wave of needles. His breath came a little faster. He lifted his head slowly, his boyish features pale but composed, and swept his dark eyes across the faces of his peers. The self-mocking smile at his lips grew bitter.

They're all so quick to kick a man when he's down. Three years ago, they were bowing and scraping. Now they want their pound of flesh back.

Kael turned without a word and walked to the back of the line. His solitary figure stood apart from the crowd, as though a wall none of them could see had risen around him.

"Next. Mira Vale."

A girl darted out from the back of the crowd. The chatter dropped a notch as she stepped forward, and more than a few pairs of eyes locked onto her with unmistakable interest. She was fourteen, not quite a beauty yet, but there was something in that youthful face—an unsettling blend of innocence and nascent charm—that made her the center of attention.

Mira walked to the stele with the easy confidence of someone who had done this a hundred times. Her small hand touched the black stone, and she closed her eyes.

A moment passed. Light flared across the stele.

"Battle Qi: Seventh Stage. Grade: High!"

"Yes!" Mira's face split into a triumphant grin.

"Seven stages. Impressive." A man near the front nodded approvingly. "At this rate, she'll be a true Battle Practitioner in three years, maybe less."

"Now that's what a seed talent looks like."

Mira's smile widened as the envious murmurs washed over her. Hard not to enjoy it—the spotlight was seductive, and she was only human.

She exchanged a few words with her friends, laughing. Then, almost against her will, her gaze drifted through the crowd to the lone figure at the back.

For a moment she hesitated. Should I go over? Say something?

She thought of the boy he had been three years ago. Four years old, already training. Ten, at the ninth stage. Eleven, breaking through to ten and condensing a Qi Vortex—the youngest Battle Practitioner in the Vale Clan's century.

She had been one of the many girls who blushed whenever he walked past.

But that was then. Now? He would be lucky to serve in the clan's lower ranks as an adult. She was on track to become one of its pillars. The gap between them was too wide to bridge with a few kind words.

Mira sighed quietly and turned away.

"Next. Elara Vale."

The name cut through the noise. The crowd went silent, and every head swiveled.

A girl in a purple dress stood calmly at the edge of the circle, utterly unruffled by the sudden attention. Her face was still young, but there was a poise to her—a clear, cool grace like a lotus opening above still water—that hinted at a devastating beauty to come.

She was, by any measure, a cut above Mira.

Elara walked to the stele. Her purple sleeve slid back as she reached out, revealing a pale wrist. She touched the stone.

Light blazed.

"Battle Qi: Ninth Stage. Grade: High!"

A hush fell over the plaza. Then the whispers began.

"Nine stages… Gods above. She's terrifying."

"The top of the younger generation. No contest."

Roderic—who almost never smiled—allowed a thin curve of approval. "Miss Elara. In half a year, you should be able to condense a Qi Vortex. If you succeed, you'll be the second person in the Vale Clan's century to become a Battle Practitioner at fourteen."

The second. The first had been Kael.

Mira's eyes narrowed at the purple-robed girl. Something ugly flickered across her face before she smoothed it away.

Elara inclined her head. "Thank you." There was no joy in her voice, no pleasure at the praise. She turned and walked—not back to her friends, not to the clan elders—but toward the back of the line, where the defeated boy stood.

She stopped beside him and bent in a small, formal bow. "Brother Kael."

Kael looked at her—the brightest jewel of the Vale Clan, speaking to him as though nothing had changed. She was one of the few who still did.

"Do I even have the right to be called that anymore?" he said, his voice thick with bitterness.

Elara smiled gently. "You once told me that you can only hold something new if you first let go of what you're carrying. That a person who can release and grasp freely is truly at ease."

A hollow laugh escaped him. "At ease. Right. I only know how to say the words—look at me. Do I look at ease to you?" He shook his head. "And anyway… this world doesn't belong to me."

Her brows drew together. "I don't know what happened to you three years ago. But I believe you'll stand again. I believe you'll take back everything that was taken from you." She paused, and a faint flush rose to her cheeks. "The old you… was very hard to look away from."

Kael's mouth opened, then closed. He managed an awkward laugh. In another life, those words from a girl like her might have meant something. But not now. Not with this hollow ache where his power used to be.

He turned and walked out of the plaza without another word.

Elara watched his back—that lonely figure moving as though he walked in a world apart from everyone else. She hesitated for only a moment. Then, ignoring the scandalized whispers and the jealous groans from the boys behind her, she hurried after him and fell into step at his side.