Lina was still asleep in the waiting room. I stood at the door watching her from where I was standing. Her little body was curled up on the sofa her thin jacket was frayed at the elbows and her messy hair was covering half her face. Her breathing was steady and deep.
I walked closer to her slowly, not wanting to wake her up. The baby photo was still in my hand. The paper felt warm, or maybe my hand was cold; I could not tell anymore. I slipped it back into Lina's jacket pocket slowly; my fingers barely touched the fabric.
Lina stirred; her warm hand reached for my arm and gripped it. "Kael..." she whispered, still asleep, her voice faint, like it was coming from far away. "Do not go." I sat on the floor beside the sofa, letting her hand grip my arm. "I am here," I said, quietly for myself.
In the morning I woke Lina by tapping her shoulder. She opened her eyes slowly, looked at me, and looked at her hand still gripping my arm. She let go smiling sheepishly. "Sorry I had a dream." "About what?" "I do not remember." I did not push,. I saw something in her eyes something she was hiding.
'We were going to register,' I said. Lina looked at me confused. "Register as students?" "Aldo said it is the way, the academy's protection." Your grandfather said not to trust the Academy. "I know. Aldo did not say trust the Academy; he said use their protection." Lina was quiet; her eyes studied me for a moment, and then she nodded. "I am coming with you."
The registration was held in the building, a large room on the second floor. Rows of white plastic chairs lined up in neat rows; dozens of prospective students sat there, some with parents, some alone, all in clothes nicer than ours. Kael and Lina sat in the back row. A man with a moustache stood at the front explaining the registration rules, three stages, written test, physical test, and interview, all today.
Lina gripped my hand under the chair. "Can you do this?" "I do not know." That was honest; the written test about hero history and Kai classification, I could do. My grandfather told me those stories every night. But the physical test I had no power over; I could control it. All I had was the Ember Core, and I could not call on it when I wanted.
The written test lasted an hour one hour sitting on a wooden chair filling answer sheets with a pencil whose tip had gone blunt questions about hero history, about Kai typology, about combat ethics. I had never studied formally, never sat in a classroom like children, but every night, for years, my grandfather told stories about the old heroes, about the battles that shaped the world, about power and weakness. Now I knew why.
I put down my pencil breathed out beside me Lina had finished ten minutes ago she looked at me with a smile. "Your grandfather would be proud " she whispered. I did not answer,. Something in my chest felt warm not the Ember Core, not the whisper, a different warmth.
The physical test was held in the backyard a large field with cut grass in the center a large circle marked by ropes several instructors stood at the edge holding clipboards. The test was simple stay inside the circle for three minutes, opponents, not mentioned. When the bell rang I understood. The walls moved, not walls, projections, light and shadows forming human-like figures they attacked, not as fast as real people but fast enough to make me struggle.
I dodged, rolled, and ran. I could not strike back with the power I had copied from Bara; the ability to strengthen my body was still inside me, but I did not know how to call on it, not like before, not on purpose. A punch hit my arm I fell my knee hit the grass it hurt,. I got up immediately, dodged again, and ran again. Three minutes I just had to last three minutes.
The bell rang; I was still standing, my knee was bleeding, and my shirt was soaked with sweat. One of the instructors wrote something on his clipboard; his face showed nothing. I did not know if it was enough.
The interview was held one by one in a room on the third floor not Room 13 a normal room with a wooden table and three chairs. I sat in the chair facing three interviewers, two men, one woman their faces were serious. "What is your motivation for becoming a hero?" one of them asked. I looked at them thought about the answer the answer that would make them nod and give me a good score.
What came out of my mouth was, "I do not want to become a hero." They frowned. "I just want to protect the people I care about." Silence, one of the interviewers wrote something his expression did not change. "That is it?" another asked. "That is it " I said. I left the room feeling uncertain not knowing if my answer had been foolish or honest.
Outside on the bench across the hall a girl sat alone, black hair to her shoulders, neat dark eyes too deep for someone her age, like there was something behind them that could not be seen but could be felt. On her wrist a metal bracelet, silver with carvings that looked like the symbols in my grandfather's basement. She was not looking at me; her eyes were fixed ahead at the blank wall across from her.
I was about to walk when she said, "You are carrying something dangerous." Her voice was flat and calm, like she was talking about the weather. I stopped. "I can feel it," she said, still not looking at me, "since you entered the interview room from behind the door." I looked at her; she still did not turn.
The final test was a combat simulation. We were divided into teams of four people per team. I was placed with three people I did not know and one person I did, Maya, the girl from outside the interview room. She stood beside me without speaking; her eyes were fixed on the simulation arena, a room with white walls that could become anything.
In the centre small sensors were attached to the floor and ceiling. "Team three, prepare," a voice from the speakers said. We entered, and the white walls changed into a forest: tall trees with thick leaves, bushes covering the ground and, in the distance, a rumbling sound that never stopped. "What are we facing?" one team member asked. "Do not know," another answered.
Maya was still silent her hands hung at her sides motionless. I moved closer to her. "What is your power?" I asked. She looked at me, reached out her hand, her fingers touched my arm, and I felt it: not power, not pressure, but emptiness, like a hollow space suddenly opened in my chest, the space where the Ember Core should be, the space that for a few seconds was empty.
Maya's power was null, the ability to neutralise people's Kai, but when she touched me, she did not neutralise anything; she froze. Her fingers on my arm began to tremble, her dark eyes suddenly wet. "You..." she whispered, her voice cracked like glass that had cracked but not yet fallen. "What are you?" I did not have time to answer.
The rumbling in the distance became footsteps loud, getting closer from behind the trees. Grey creatures emerged, shaped like wolves but the size of cows. Their eyes glowed red, and on their bodies were flashes of light like the projections in the physical test but denser, more real. "It is a simulation," another team member shouted. "Just fight them." He ran forward; the other two followed.
I did not move neither did Maya, "We need to move " I said, "we need to survive " Maya said, her hand was still, on my arm still trembling, "I know what you are carrying " she said, "I am also carrying something we will talk later for now we survive."
On my hand the Ouroboros scar was beating. It was beating a lot harder than it was before. It was like the Ouroboros scar was responding to something that was coming from Mayas body. This thing was hidden behind the silver bracelet that Maya was wearing.
I said to Maya, "What are you carrying?"
Maya looked at me. This was the first time that I saw Maya smile. The smile was not reaching her eyes.
Maya said to me, 'I am carrying an artefact, Kael.' I am carrying an artefact, like the Ouroboros scar that you are carrying, Kael."