Chapter 2: Testing Day
The dawn light over the Aurum District didn't feel like sunrise. It felt like being exposed.
Kaelin stood in a line of two hundred other seventeen-year-olds outside the towering crystalline gates of the Aurum Wall Academy. The structure wasn't just a building it was a statement. Polished white stone, inlaid with veins of refined blue beast crystal that pulsed with a gentle, regulated light. It gleamed under the false dawn of the city's environmental dome, a stark contrast to the soot-stained concrete and rusted metal of the Warrens where she'd spent the night.
She'd used the public wash-station, scrubbing the sewer grime from her skin until it was raw. The clothes from Saba's chip a simple gray tunic and durable pants were clean, nondescript. They made her look like any other hopeful orphan from the middle districts. Her hair, still damp, was tied back in a severe tail. She was Kaelin Vance now. The name felt like a ill-fitting glove.
Her System was a silent hum in the back of her skull, set to passive scan.
[SCANNING ENVIRONMENT…]
- LOCATION: AURUM WALL ACADEMY, GATE 3.
- POPULATION DENSITY: HIGH.
- ENERGY SIGNATURES DETECTED: 87% BASELINE HUMAN. 13% LOW-LEVEL ACTIVATED ABILITIES.
- SECURITY: VISUAL SURVEILLANCE DRONES (x12). ENFORCER PATROLS (x8). DAMPENER FIELD GENERATORS (ACTIVE – TIER 1).
The dampener field was a low, constant pressure, like walking through shallow water. It wouldn't stop an Ability, but it would make using one sluggish and obvious. A detection measure.
"Move forward! Keep the line orderly!" An Enforcer in spotless silver-trimmed armor barked, his voice amplified by a helm speaker. "Present your identity chip at the scanner. No chip, no testing. No exceptions."
The boy in front of Kaelin, lanky and nervous, fumbled with his chip. The scanner glowed red. "Uh… it's my uncle's chip, he said I could"
"Rejected." The Enforcer didn't even look up. Two others stepped forward and guided the protesting boy away from the line. His pleas faded into the morning hum.
Kaelin's throat tightened. She clutched her chip Saba's chip so hard the edges dug into her palm.
Just a clean orphan. No records.
She stepped up. The scanner was a cold blue lens. She held her breath, pressed the chip against it.
A soft chime. Green light washed over her.
"Kaelin Vance. District 7 orphan registry. Proceed to the courtyard for preliminary screening." The Enforcer gestured her through without a glance.
She walked through the gates, and the sheer scale of the Academy opened up before her. Vast courtyards of white marble, floating holographic banners displaying the sigils of the Four Families: the silver gear of the Silvers (Tech), the crimson fist of the Ironbloods (Military), the golden scale of the Aurums (State & Commerce), and the green leaf of the Verdants (Resources & Biotech). Students in crisp uniforms of different colors moved with purpose. In the air, the faint smell of ozone and polished metal.
This was the heart of the machine that had crushed her family.
"New candidates, form lines here! By height!" A sharp-faced woman in the dark blue robes of an Academy Proctor stood on a floating disc, projecting her voice. "You will be called in groups of twenty for the Resonance Test. This is not an Ability demonstration. This measures your latent potential. Your biological compatibility with regulated beast crystal energy. Nothing more."
Kaelin fell into a line. Her System tagged the Proctor.
[HUMAN FEMALE. PROBABLE ABILITY: KINETIC FORCE (TIER 2).]
So even the teachers had licensed, controlled Abilities. Of course.
They were herded into a vast, circular chamber the Resonance Hall. The ceiling was a dome of dark glass. In the center of the room stood a complex machine of crystal and silver, as tall as three men. At its heart glowed a massive, perfectly spherical blue beast crystal, refined to absolute purity. Cables and conduits snaked from it to twenty stations, each with a hand-plate and a headset.
"Take your assigned station. Place your right hand on the plate. The headset will measure neural activity. Do not attempt to activate any latent Ability. The machine will do the work. Your only job is to remain still."
Kaelin stood at station twelve. The hand-plate was cool. She put on the headset, which tightened automatically with a soft whirr. She closed her eyes.
A low hum filled the room, vibrating in her teeth. It was the crystal. The energy was… clean. Sterile. So different from the raw, wild green energy she'd used to blow open the tunnel wall, or the volatile red of Saba's hammer.
A tingle started in her palm, climbing up her arm. It was the machine, sending a pulse of calibrated crystal energy into her body, probing.
Her System flickered to life involuntarily.
[EXTERNAL ENERGY INJECTION DETECTED.]
[COMPOSITION: REFINED BEAST CRYSTAL – WATER ASPECT. PURITY: 98.7%.]
[PURPOSE: BIOLOGICAL RESONANCE SCAN.]
[SYSTEM RESPONSE: ANALYZE AND MIMIC? Y/N]
No. She thought the word fiercely. Passive only.
The energy reached her core. For a moment, nothing. Then, a reaction. Not from her, but from the wild energy sleeping inside her. It stirred, like a animal scenting something foreign.
The machine's hum pitched higher. On the far wall, a massive holographic display lit up, showing twenty bars of light, each tagged with a number. Most glowed a steady, low blue. A few flickered to a moderate green.
Above station twelve, Kaelin's bar didn't just rise. It shot up.
It went from blue to green to yellow in a heartbeat, then hovered at the edge of red. The numbers beside it scrolled wildly: Resonance: 89%... 92%... 94%...
A sharp intake of breath from the Proctor. Murmurs from the other candidates.
Kaelin forced her own energy down, imagining smothering a flame. The bar dropped, settling into a high yellow zone. Still the highest in the group by far, but not the alarming red.
The hum ceased. The headset retracted.
"Candidates, you may step back."
Kaelin removed her hand, her fingers tingling. The Proctor was walking directly toward her, a data-slate in hand, her eyes narrowed.
"Kaelin Vance." She looked from the slate to Kaelin's face. "An orphan from District 7. No registered Ability lineage."
"No, Proctor."
"Your resonance reading is… exceptional. Particularly for someone with no genetic markers. Have you ever experienced uncontrolled energy phenomena? Static discharge? Unexplained heat or cold?"
Yes. Every day since I was twelve. "No, Proctor. I just… always felt strong, I guess."
The Proctor stared at her for a long, uncomfortable moment, then made a note on her slate. "Potential is one thing. Control is everything. You will proceed to the Manifestation Test. Dismissed."
Kaelin moved with her group to the next chamber, her heart still thudding. Too high. I showed too much.
The Manifestation Chamber was smaller, more clinical. Another Proctor, a man with the green-trimmed robes of the Verdant Family, addressed them.
"Resonance measures your fuel tank. Manifestation measures your engine. Here, you will attempt to activate the latent Ability your biology suggests. The machine will assist. Do not be alarmed."
The stations here had different apparatus: small, isolated containment fields, each with a raw material. A block of ice. A bowl of water. A pile of loose earth. A candle flame. A small, insulated metal rod.
"The machine will stimulate your core. Focus on the material that feels most natural to you. The goal is a observable, physical change. Even a spark is a success."
Kaelin was directed to a station with the insulated metal rod. Energy conduction, she guessed. Her turn came.
She placed her hands on the activation plates. A weaker, more focused version of the crystal energy pulsed into her. This time, her System stayed silent. She focused on the rod, and on the wild energy inside her. Not the clean blue pulse from the machine, but her own.
She let a trickle out.
A faint crackle of visible energy, like pale lightning, jumped from her fingertips across the plates. The metal rod shuddered. Then, it began to glow, a soft, heatless white.
"Energy Conductance! Confirmed!" the Proctor called out, making a note. "Aspect: Pure Energy. Tier 1 manifestation. Log it."
Kaelin let go, the glow fading. Pure Energy. That's what they'd call it. Not the truth. Not Energy Manipulation. Not the ability to take, shape, and redirect any energy she encountered.
Around the room, other candidates had varying success. A boy at the water station made the liquid ripple. A girl at the earth station made a few pebbles tremble. One lucky boy at the fire station managed to make the candle flame stretch an inch higher, his face breaking into a triumphant grin a Fire Ability, recognized and logged.
But one girl, at the ice station, failed completely. She strained, face red, but the block of ice remained inert. The Proctor shook his head. "No manifestation. Resonance without form. You will be assigned to Support Studies."
The girl looked devastated. This was it. The single test that decided if you were a potential Ability user, or just another cog.
Kaelin had passed. She was in.
She was led to a final hall where successful candidates were being processed. A different official handed her a small, flat device a personal data-slate and a set of uniforms: two gray jumpsuits, marked with a single white stripe on the shoulder. The mark of a First Year Candidate.
"Your dorm assignment is on the slate. Your classes begin tomorrow. Biochemistry of Crystals, History of the Consolidation, and Introduction to Ability Control." The man gave her a perfunctory smile. "Congratulations, Candidate Vance. You have taken the first step toward serving the City and the Four Families."
Kaelin took the slate and the uniforms, the fabric feeling heavy in her arms. She looked around the hall at the other new candidates the boy who'd made fire high-fiving his friend, the water girl looking relieved. They saw opportunity. A future.
All she saw was the gilded cage.
She walked out into the Academy's main thoroughfare, following the map on her slate toward the Candidate Dorms. The scale of the place was overwhelming. Transport pods glided on magnetic tracks. Upper-year students in uniforms with two or three stripes practiced controlled Ability drills in designated courtyards a youth shaping a stream of water into a perfect sphere, another carefully growing a vine from a seed pod.
Then, she saw it. Across the plaza, near a massive bronze statue of the first Ironblood Patriarch, a group of older students in uniforms with the crimson trim of Military track were gathered. And among them, leaning against the statue's base with casual arrogance, was a familiar face.
Tall, wearing a new but already slightly unkempt crimson-trimmed jacket, his dark hair messy. He was talking, laughing, completely at ease. As if he belonged.
Saba.
His eyes swept across the plaza. They passed over the crowds, and then, as if pulled by a magnet, locked onto hers.
He didn't wave. He didn't smile his sharp grin from the sewers. He just gave the faintest, almost imperceptible nod. A flicker of recognition.
Then he turned back to his group, the picture of a new, brash Military-track candidate.
He was inside. Just like he said he would be.
And as Kaelin stood there in her plain gray uniform, holding her slate and her new life, her System pinged softly with a new, auto-generated line of text.
[OBJECTIVE UPDATED.]
[PRIMARY: LEARN. GROW. SURVIVE.]
[SECONDARY: AWAIT CONTACT.]
The game wasn't just beginning. The first move had already been made.