Two weeks went by.
My training started to feel like a routine that I just could not get out of. Every morning I would go to the pool with Bayu, trying to hold my breath for a time, feeling the pressure of the water trying to crush my bones. Then in the afternoons I would go to the classroom with Aldo staring at this glass sphere that was filled with stars. I just could not see them. In the evenings I would sit with Maya in the garden under this big banyan tree, not talking much, just sitting there.
My body was changing. Not because my muscles were getting bigger or my lungs were getting stronger. It was something inside me that was changing, something that had only been whispering until now. Was starting to respond.
I could feel it now like someone was sitting beside me in a room watching me from behind a mirror. The Ember Core's voice was no longer cold or warm; it was there.
"You are getting closer," it said.
"Closer to what?" I asked.
"Closer to what you're looking for," it replied.
I did not ask any questions.
---
In the classroom Aldo put the glass sphere on the table. The stars inside started spinning slowly.
"Try again," he said.
I stared at the sphere, and the scar on my hand started pulsing. Nothing changed. The stars were still faint. The pattern that only people with the same blood could see was still hidden.
"I still cannot see it," I said.
Aldo did not look disappointed; he just nodded.
"It is fine; your grandfather also took weeks to see it for the first time," he said, picking up the sphere and turning it in his hands. "But you do not need to see it; what matters is that you are starting to feel it."
"Feel what?" I asked.
"That something there is calling you, that you are no longer just Kael Ember from a small village," he said, looking at me. "You are the heir to something older than yourself, and that something is getting impatient."
---
That night I could not sleep, so I started walking through the academy hallways without any purpose. Maybe I had wanted to go back to Room 13 all along.
The hallway on the floor was dark, with only the moonlight from the window at the end casting long shadows on the floor. I was at Room 13's door when I heard voices coming from inside.
They were not voices; they were voices I knew. Bayu and Aldo.
The door was not fully closed, so I could see a light coming from inside. I could hear what they were saying.
"He is not ready," Bayu said, his voice heavy. "Three months is not enough."
"We do not have a choice," Aldo replied, his voice quiet and tired. "Ouroboros already knows he is here; they are just waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Bayu asked.
"For us to take him to the Mariana Trench for him to open that door," Aldo said. "They will not attack before that."
I felt a chill run down my spine.
Bayu and Aldo knew that Ouroboros was watching me; they knew I was bait. They had not told me.
"You are sure they will not attack here?" Bayu asked.
"This academy still has a name," Aldo said. "Ouroboros will not risk a war – not yet."
". After he opens that door?" Bayu asked.
There was silence. I could imagine Aldo looking at Bayu with his pale blue eyes, full of exhaustion.
"After that", Aldo said slowly, "they will not need to wait."
I stepped back from the door. My step was too heavy, and the floor creaked.
The door. Bayu stood at the threshold, his yellow eyes glowing in the darkness of the hallway. He did not look surprised to see me; it was like he already knew I would come, like he had left the door open on purpose.
"You heard," he said, not as a question.
I clenched my fist. "You made me bait."
Aldo appeared behind Bayu, his face more tired than usual, his black robe almost blending with the shadows behind him.
"Not bait, Kael," he said. You are the only one who can open that door, the only one who can take what your grandfather left behind. Ouroboros knows that they will follow you wherever you go."
"So you let them follow me?" I asked.
"We are protecting you," Bayu said, his voice still heavy and flat. As long as they are only watching, you are safe. If they attack here, the entire academy gets involved; they do not want that."
I looked at them both, Bayu with his eyes. Aldo, with his pale blue eyes, two people I thought I could trust, two people who had hidden something I should have known.
". After I open that door?" I asked. "After I take what my grandfather left?"
Bayu and Aldo exchanged a glance; something passed between them, something I could not read.
"After that," Bayu said slowly, "they will not need to wait."
I clenched my fist harder, the scar on my hand pulsing not from the Ember Core. From anger.
"You let me be bait without telling me you let me think this academy was a place."
"This academy is safe," Aldo said. "As long as you are here, as long as that door has not opened, you are safe. Ouroboros will not take the risk."
"And Lina?" I asked. "Is she safe too? Is she also bait?"
Aldo was silent; Bayu did not answer.
In that silence I got my answer.
---
I do not remember how I got back to my room.
What I remember is sitting on my bed staring at the ceiling, and Lina was already asleep beside me, her warm hand lying open beside her face.
I wanted to wake her; I wanted to tell her we had to leave, that this academy was no safer than the village, that we could not trust anyone.
I could not.
Not because I was afraid but because seeing Lina asleep, her hand open beside her face, I remembered something.
My grandfather said Lina was safe; Lina was a victim.
But now I was not so sure anymore. Was Lina a victim of something she did not understand, or was Lina part of something even my grandfather could not protect her from?
"You have to choose," the Ember Core's voice whispered.
"Choose what?" I asked.
"Trust them. Trust yourself."
I closed my eyes.
Sleep did not come.