The morning bell of Blackhollow Keep was not meant to wake you.
It was meant to test whether you deserved to be awake at all.
The sound tore through the stone corridors like a blade dragged across iron—low, brutal, and impossible to ignore. Kael was already on his feet when it rang, boots half-laced, breath steady. Around him, cots scraped, curses muttered, and bodies moved with varying degrees of readiness.
Renn Varn fell out of his cot.
Someone laughed.
"Up!" a voice bellowed from the corridor. "You've slept enough for the rest of your life!"
Nyx was already gone.
Kael stepped into the corridor just in time to see her rounding the corner, shadow slipping off her shoulders as torchlight caught her briefly. She didn't look back.
Outside, the courtyard had changed.
Where once there had been scattered dummies and loose order, now the space was crowded. More than twenty new trainees stood in loose formation—some stretching, some sharpening weapons they had no business touching yet, some staring around like they'd wandered into a mistake they couldn't undo.
Kael slowed.
"That's new," Borin muttered beside him, rolling his shoulders as if shaking off sleep and pain at the same time.
Elyra adjusted her grip on her staff, eyes scanning the crowd. "They've expanded the intake."
Nyx reappeared at Kael's side. "Or they're expecting losses."
Captain Maelor stood on the raised platform, arms folded, expression carved from stone.
"You," she barked, pointing at Kael's group. "Front line."
They moved without argument.
Maelor waited until the courtyard quieted—never fully silent, but close enough.
"You've passed the first physical assessments," she said. "That does not mean you are hunters. It means you're not dead yet."
A ripple of dry chuckles passed through the older trainees. Some of the newcomers looked pale.
"Today," Maelor continued, "you stop pretending you're the same."
She gestured sharply.
"Mentors!"
The retired hunters stepped forward.
There were eight of them—men and women marked by scars, missing fingers, clouded eyes, and the unmistakable posture of people who'd learned how to stand after being knocked down too many times.
Maelor's voice cut through the murmurs. "Weapons and disciplines will be assigned. You do not choose. You earn."
A tall woman with braided grey hair stepped forward first, carrying a longbow that looked older than the keep itself.
Her eyes landed on Kael immediately.
"Thorn," she said.
Kael stepped forward.
She studied him openly, unbothered by courtesy. "You track like you're afraid of leaving prints."
Kael didn't deny it. "Tracks tell stories."
"They also tell beasts where you are." She snorted. "Name's Serah Vale. Bowmaster. You'll learn to kill from a distance—or you'll die before you hear what's coming."
She tossed him a practice bow.
Kael caught it instinctively.
"Good hands," she muttered. "We'll see if they stay that way."
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
Renn Varn scoffed loudly. "Lucky."
Serah's head snapped toward him. "You?"
Renn straightened. "Renn Varn. Sword—"
Serah turned away. "Didn't ask."
Renn's face flushed.
Another mentor stepped forward—a massive man with arms like tree trunks and a hammer resting against his shoulder.
Borin felt the ground hum.
"You," the man said, nodding once. "Stone-blood."
Borin blinked. "I—"
"I know what you are," the man cut in. "Name's Grend Hollowfist. If you're going to move earth, you'll do it without breaking yourself in half."
Grend shoved a hammer into Borin's chest.
Borin nearly dropped it.
"Too heavy," Borin said automatically.
Grend grinned. "Good."
Elyra stiffened as a woman draped in layered robes approached her, eyes pale and unreadable.
"Spirit-weaver," the woman said. "You'll come with me."
Elyra swallowed. "Name?"
"Later," the woman replied. "If you survive."
Nyx lingered near the edge of the formation, already half-vanished from attention.
A thin man with a crooked smile and mismatched daggers stepped up beside her.
"Shadow," he said. "Or thief. Or corpse. We'll find out."
Nyx eyed him. "I don't like labels."
He chuckled. "You'll learn to."
Maelor raised her voice again. "The rest of you—pair off. Weapons assigned by need, not ego."
Chaos followed.
Arguments broke out immediately.
"I trained with spears my whole life—"
"You don't get to choose!"
"That's my hammer!"
Kael caught Renn glaring at him from across the yard, jaw tight, resentment simmering.
A larger trainee shoulder-checked Borin deliberately.
"Watch it, mountain," the man sneered.
Borin looked down at him calmly. "I was standing here first."
The man scoffed. "Move."
The ground cracked softly under Borin's boots.
The man paled.
Grend laughed. "Good. You'll need that restraint."
Training began without ceremony.
Kael found himself on the archery range with Serah and eight others. Targets were placed at uneven distances, some partially obscured, some moving slowly on ropes.
"Misses count," Serah said. "Not because they're failures—but because they tell me what you'll do under pressure."
Kael loosed his first arrow.
It struck center mass.
Serah didn't react.
"Again."
Hours passed.
Arms burned. Fingers blistered. Voices snapped.
"Too slow!"
"Too fast!"
"You shoot like you're apologizing!"
Kael adjusted. Listened. Learned.
Across the yard, Borin struggled under Grend's merciless instruction.
"Don't fight the weight!" Grend roared. "Guide it!"
"I am!" Borin gasped.
"You're arguing with the earth!"
Elyra stood in a shadowed alcove with her mentor, candles arranged in a careful circle.
"Speak," the woman said.
Elyra hesitated. "To what?"
The candle flames bent.
Nyx vanished mid-spar and reappeared behind her instructor—only to be thrown bodily into the dirt.
"Predictable," the man said. "You disappear when you're afraid."
Nyx spat dirt. "I wasn't afraid."
He leaned down. "That's worse."
By evening, bruises were earned, not avoided.
Trainees glared openly now. Alliances formed. Hostility simmered.
Renn approached Kael as they drank watered wine.
"You think you're better than us," Renn said quietly.
Kael met his gaze. "No."
Renn sneered. "Then stop acting like it."
Kael set the cup down. "Then stop needing me to."
Renn's hand twitched toward his belt.
Serah's voice cut in coldly. "Save it. Tomorrow you bleed."
Night fell heavy over Blackhollow Keep.
As Kael lay down, muscles screaming, he felt it again.
That warmth.
Serah had noticed it.
Others would too.
And training had only just begun.