The moon hung low over Ardent College, pale and watchful, as if it were listening.
Most students believed the campus was ordinary—old stone buildings, wide lawns, late-night chatter drifting from hostels. They were wrong. Power breathed beneath the bricks. It moved through shadows and bloodlines, through oaths whispered generations ago. In this world, strength was not admired—it ruled.
Kael Rowan learned that truth on the night he should have died.
He was running when it happened. Running because the bells had already tolled midnight, and being late after curfew meant more than detention here. Running because the upper-tier students were hunting tonight, and Kael—unranked, unmarked, unimportant—was easy sport.
A laugh cracked behind him. Magic hissed through the air, close enough to singe his sleeve. Kael turned sharply into the old observatory courtyard, heart pounding, breath burning. The iron gates were locked. Of course they were.
"Cornered," someone said pleasantly.
Three figures stepped into the moonlight. Their insignias glowed faintly—proof of awakened power. Kael had none. In Ardent College, that made him prey.
"I don't want trouble," Kael said, backing away until cold stone met his spine.
"Trouble wants you," another replied, raising a hand already alive with energy.
The strike came fast. Too fast. Kael closed his eyes—
And the world fell silent.
Not darkness. Silence.
When he opened his eyes, the courtyard was gone.
He stood on endless silver ground beneath a vast night sky. The moon loomed enormous above him, cracked with veins of light, as if something ancient slept inside it.
"You are late," a voice said.
Kael turned. A figure stood before him, cloaked in shifting moonlight, face hidden, presence crushing. Power radiated from it—not wild, not cruel, but absolute.
"I—" Kael swallowed. "Am I dead?"
"No," the voice replied. "You were chosen."
The ground trembled. Symbols bloomed beneath Kael's feet, glowing softly, then brighter.
"In your world," the figure continued, "power is inherited, stolen, or taught. But once every era, the moon selects its ruler."
Kael laughed weakly. "You've got the wrong person."
The figure stepped closer. The air grew heavy.
"The wrong ones are always passed over," it said. "You were invisible. Untouched. Unclaimed. That is why you survived long enough to be worthy."
A sharp pain tore through Kael's chest. He gasped, dropping to his knees as light flooded his veins. Memories not his own brushed against his mind—wars under moonlight, cities kneeling, kings falling silent.
"From this moment," the voice declared, "you carry the Lunar System."
A translucent screen unfolded before Kael's eyes.
LUNAR SYSTEM INITIALIZING…
HOST: CONFIRMED
PRIMARY AUTHORITY: SEALED
CURRENT RANK: DORMANT HEIR
The pain faded. The silence shattered.
Kael slammed back into his body, gasping, the courtyard snapping into place around him.
The three attackers lay frozen mid-motion, eyes wide, bodies locked as if trapped in glass. Moonlight poured down, brighter than before.
Kael stood slowly. His hands trembled—not with fear, but with something new. Awareness.
A quiet voice echoed in his mind, calm and distant.
Threats detected. Permission to act?
Kael looked at the helpless figures before him. At the fear in their eyes.
"No," he said aloud.
The moonlight dimmed. The attackers collapsed, unconscious, their power drained like water from cracked vessels.
Footsteps echoed in the distance. Kael turned away, slipping into the shadows just as professors arrived, confusion rippling through the courtyard.
By morning, rumors spread.
Someone had nullified three awakened elites.
Someone unknown.
Someone the moon favored.
Kael sat alone in his dorm room, staring at his reflection. His eyes looked the same. Everything else felt different.
Outside, the moon lingered in the pale sky long after dawn.
Watching its new ruler awaken.