I wasn't afraid of power.
I was afraid of what it might do to me.
The mountain path felt steeper than it had earlier, though no one else seemed to notice. Malik walked ahead with his usual swagger, hands behind his head like this was another training session. Leilani stayed near Nythrel, Nythrel walked slowly, observant as always.
Aria walked beside me.
"You're quiet," she said.
"I'm thinking."
"That usually means you're worried."
I glanced at her. "And if I am?"
"It will be fine," she said simply. Not dismissive. Not overly gentle. Just certain. "Your spirit isn't something new. It's something that's always been there."
That didn't entirely help.
We reached the summit clearing. The Awakening site was older than the rest of the mountain — carved stone etched deep with spirals and branching sigils that looked less like symbols and more like roots frozen in rock. Wind swept through the open circle, carrying salt from the distant ocean. Finally, I made it here.
Elder Nivara turned as we approached.
Leilani inclined her head. "Master."
Nivara waved a thin hand. "There's no need for such formalities."
Leilani didn't argue. But she didn't retract it either.
At the center of the circle stood Elder Kahoni.
He had been there before us.
Waiting.
His gaze settled on me — not weighing, not judging. Assessing.
"I will guide you toward your spirit myself," he said.
A few of the other elders exchanged glances. Kahoni ignored them.
I stepped into the circle.
The stone was warm beneath my feet.
"Sit," Nivara instructed.
I lowered myself to the center. The carvings beneath me seemed deeper here, forming a pattern that spiraled outward like something expanding.
Nivara began to recite.
The language wasn't one I knew. It rolled and rose like tidewater over rock — old and steady. The wind shifted with it.
Kahoni stepped behind me.
His hands pressed against my back, firm and grounded. Not forceful. Just present.
"Listen carefully," he said.
I focused on his voice.
"Question the world. Why is it how it is?
Understand the world. How did it come to be this way?
Look within. Where do you fit inside this world?
Ask why.
Find your answers. And in them… you will find yourself."
The stone beneath me pulsed once.
Then everything fell away.
—
There was no fire.
No sound.
No sensation of falling.
Just… emptiness.
I stood in it.
"What do you see?" Kahoni's voice echoed, distant but clear.
"Nothing," I said. My voice didn't echo back.
It wasn't unsettling.
It wasn't cold.
It just was.
"It's empty."
The silence stretched without resistance. No horizon. No ground. No sky.
It wasn't unfamiliar.
"Search."
I walked.
There was no ground, but I walked anyway. No direction. No horizon.
There was something almost relieving about it — a place where nothing was. No expectations. No roles. No future.
Just quiet.
There was no direction. No reason. Just motion.
I tried to think.
Why is the world the way it is?
Because people shaped it.
How did it become this way?
Conflict. Choice. Power.
Where do I fit?
The answer didn't come immediately this time. But I knew, it was beside her.
Something flickered ahead.
Small. Faint.
I moved toward it.
It was a lizard.
No — smaller than that. A chameleon, perched on nothing. Its skin shimmered deep purple.
It blinked at me.
"What do you see?" Kahoni asked.
"A lizard," I said quietly. "It's purple."
As I watched, its skin shifted. Purple faded into black. Then green. Then a deep blue..
"It's changing."
The colors moved without pattern. As if it couldn't decide what it was.
Or as if it was all of them.
"Look closer."
It grew.
Slowly at first. Its limbs lengthened. Its tail thickened. The delicate ridge along its back sharpened into spines.
"It's getting bigger."
Its eyes held mine. Intelligent. Measuring.
Skin hardened into scaled armor. Its front legs turned into wings — thin at first, then broad, veined with light.
My breath caught.
"It has wings."
The creature rose, no longer small. No longer harmless.
Its body expanded again, stretching into something vast and coiled, powerful and ancient.
"It's a dragon."
The word didn't feel invented.
It felt remembered.
The dragon lowered its head until its gaze was level with mine.
There was no hostility.
No rage.
Just awareness.
It opened its wings fully, and the emptiness behind it did not vanish.
—
Wind exploded outward.
I felt it before I heard it.
Heat surged through me like something breaking free after being held too long. The stone beneath me cracked with a sharp report. Symbols along the circle flared brilliant gold.
Gasps cut through the air.
A roar.
"It's a dragon," someone breathed.
Energy poured from me in a violent wave, then snapped inward just as fast — contained, drawn tight like breath held in a lung.
I opened my eyes.
The world looked sharper.
Brighter.
The elders stood rigid along the perimeter. Some stunned. Some wary.
Malik's usual grin was gone.
Leilani stared openly.
Nythrel's expression hadn't changed — but his eyes were alert.
A blindfolded guy with long hair stepped forward slowly.
His body was covered in ancestral markings, spirals and beasts inked across his skin in ceremonial precision. He circled me once.
Then stopped.
"I cannot tattoo that," he said.
Murmurs rippled.
"There is no template left by the ancestors for such a spirit." His voice did not waver, but something in it tightened. "I am not qualified to create one."
Silence deepened.
"Only the champion," he continued, "and the former champion had spirits without a template."
The words settled heavier than the wind.
Champion.
Former.
I looked at Aria.
"Isn't yours just a bat?" I asked before I could stop myself.
"It is a variant," she said evenly. "Forms differ. Meaning does not."
That didn't explain much.
"And the former champion?"
Before the elders could begin arguing, Kahoni stepped forward.
"I'll explain."
He didn't ask permission.
He bent, picked me up like I weighed nothing — and jumped.
The ground vanished.
Wind roared in my ears as the summit dropped away beneath us. Firelight from the island scattered below like fallen stars. Jungle canopy rolled dark and endless. Cliffs carved the edges of the land like teeth.
We cleared the ridge in a single bound.
My stomach flipped.
From above, the island didn't look mysterious.
It looked alive.
Kahoni landed against another cliff face, then pushed off again, carrying us farther, higher, until the ocean opened wide before us — moonlight stretched across its surface like silver glass.
We descended toward the shoreline.
He set me down gently in the sand.
Waves whispered in the dark.
"You like the ocean?" he asked.
"Not necessarily," I admitted.
A corner of his mouth lifted.
"Well," he said, folding his hands behind his back, "I oversee the ocean."
I stared at the horizon.
"The surface looks endless," he said.
"But depth is what defines it."
The wind was different here. Wider. Colder.
Behind us, the island rose in shadow and firelight.
"You have questions," Kahoni said.
I didn't deny it.
He studied the sea for a long moment.
"The former champion bore a soul without a template," he said at last. "So does Aria. Power without precedent is not new."
"The former champion… Who was he?" I said quietly.
"He is the leader of the people known as The Banished."
The Banished.. the ones that were after Aria, and now me.
The word didn't carry anger. Just fact, but I sensed regret.
"And you think I'll become like him?"
Kahoni looked at me then — directly, unblinking.
"I think," he said, "that power reveals what already exists. It does not decide it."
The waves rolled in and out.
Somewhere far behind us, the island continued to celebrate.
I looked at my hands.
They felt the same.
And not.
I had once believed there was nothing inside me.
I was wrong.
It.. I was inside.
And now I was awake.