Chapter Text
One fateful day, a yellow star fell from the sky, shaking the world of Amphoreus to its core. The star fell in the middle of an expanse of grass, upon the tall mountains surrounding Okhema, and burned into the soil like a second sun.
It completely altered the world, infusing it with a strange energy. Some of the population suddenly found themselves wielding strange powers. A child who had no experience with combat could now slice a rock with a mere tree branch. An ordinary village girl was able to annihilate monsters with a simple swish of her finger. A widow, blind for twenty years, opened her eyes and saw the future laid bare.
This unprecedented power began affecting individuals regardless of age, gender, class, or lineage and interspersed throughout the world. A world that had been unaltered for over a thousand years began to change. Tension brewed between those who previously held power and those who had just come into a new form of it.
Leaders across different cities began to express concern.
"Those who possess these new abilities..."
"How should they be handled?"
Among such cities, Okhema, the Eternal Holy City, was one of the first to make a declaration.
"Attention all individuals with powers! Please make your way to the capital of the Okhema empire! Prove the strength you possess and swear fealty to both the empire and his royal highness–and you will be granted the qualification to join the Solmaris Academy."
The word spread rapidly throughout Amphoreus: the slums, farmlands, and even Aedes Elysiae, a remote frontier village isolated from the world.
Phainon stood, the hush of wind swirling his silver locks amid the air. He carefully espied the royally stamped envelope in his bony fingers, ripping and tearing at the seams to behold a letter.
"To the gifted bearer of light, Phainon of Aedes Elysiae,
It is with calculated interest that I extend this invitation to you. Your awakening has not gone unnoticed. We believe your talents would benefit from focused development at our institution. Solmaris Academy accepts only the rarest kind. Consider this not merely an offer, but a summons to legacy."
– Sovereign Gorgo, Founder & Chancellor
"Solmaris Academy, Huh?"
Phainon scoffed, pinching his nose causing it to tint to a rosy shade of pink.
"They really think my power can benefit the world?"
He didn’t feel phenomenal, nor did he think of himself as tough. His Awakening, if one could call it that, was subtle, strange, and mostly… useless.
He could not ignite fire like the other people. No wings submerged from his back, and he had no special way to split stone or heal nature.
All he could do was occasionally spawn a globe of light in his palm and see flashes…moments before they happened.
And only when dreaming.
He clenched the axe in his hand, bending slightly to swing once more at a tree trunk. THWACK.
"You coming home for supper or are you just gonna keep moping out here till you starve?"
Lena's voice called from the lower edge of the hill. She stood barefoot in the fading dusk, cradling a basket of wild berries. Her ash blonde hair was all tangled from the wind. She grinned at him, wide and impatient, her emerald eyes clenching in the act.
"I helped Mumma make dinner," she added. "Even put the special porcelain tableware out."
Phainon smiled faintly, lifting his last piece of wood for the evening into a wheelbarrow. "Must be serious."
"Damn right it is."
She turned back toward the gravelly path. He followed slowly, folding the letter and tucking it into his coat before grabbing hold of the wheelbarrow.
"Hey Lena," Phainon spoke, catching up to her profusely impatient speed. His feather-light steps in sync with her stomps.
"Hm..?" She turned her head, tilting it slightly upwards cause of her brother's height.
"Do you think my power can predict what you cooked, Huh?"
She giggled into the puffy sleeve of her blue plaid dress. "No way, Jose."
Phai grinned and leaned his head down to smell her, ruffling her hair in the process.
"Ah, I had a vision that... You cooked Avgolemono soup."
"You cheated." She huffed, scrunching her nose and pursing her lips. "Mom told you, didn't she?"
"No..." he laughed. "I used my visions. Either way, I can smell the whiff of chicken and lemon in your breath."
Lena began giving him the silent treatment. They didn’t make it halfway to the cottage before the air began to cool.
She shivered slightly, clenching the basket of berries in her small hands.
The trees began swaying, the wind howling like it was a game of Chinese whispers.
A crack echoed through the woods like a wishbone splitting in two.
Lena’s eyes widened. “Phai—?”
A beast came out of the trees like a shadow. A black-furred, yellow-eyed, four-legged, and snarling. Its jaw stretched abnormally wide, teeth drenched in mucus.
Humans weren't the only ones who were granted abilities. A fair few animals had unfortunately been awakened also. This made the world of Amphoreus much more dangerous than it should've been.
It was something Awakened—and twisted. A hellhound, with grizzly teeth, snarling in starvation. It lunged forward.
Phainon swiftly moved without thinking.
“LENA!”
He shoved her behind him and outstretched his hand at the beast—
Nothing.
No ball of light. No vision. No time-stopping miracle.
He might as well just accept his fate, a failure.
The beast counterattacked, pushing Phainon to his knees.
Then the hellhound pounced at his younger sister.
Blood sprayed—Lena’s shoulder, her ribs—it got her. Painting her blue plaid dress in crimson splashes.
Phainon screamed, a deep guttural yell. And something inside his heart shattered.
The world suddenly blurred blue.
The trees, the ground, his hands—even the monster. But everything froze, halting in time.
And in his hand, light took shape.
A sword of pure glowing white, jagged light erupted from his palm, its form like a burning icicle, humming like ocean waves. The Astrathorn.
Phainon didn’t know how to articulate this. Never in his life had he ever laid hands on a power such as this. All he knew was his silly ball of light and useless visions, telling him the future of his boring tomorrow.
His crystal gaze scrutinized the weapon in his hand. This looked familiar, like a sword a mighty warrior wielded in an ancient myth he was told as a child. His heart still pounded confused by the suddenness of this all.
He took a deep breath. In and out.
The only thing he knew for sure was that it was very convenient to destroy the monster that had just taken his sister.
Phainon lunged—graceful, desperate, and burning. The blade sliced clean through the beast. Once, and the hellhound disintegrated in one stab as if the blade had had all this pent-up power waiting to be unleashed. The monster screamed as it fell, body unraveling in pale smoke.
The blue world around him faded to its natural colour palette, and the light blade faded to nothingness.
Lena was slumped in the grass. Blood soaked her dress. Her lips were purple.
And Phainon fell to his knees, reaching to cradle Lena in his arms.
“I didn’t see it,” he cried.
“I didn’t see it coming. I'm so sorry.”
She smiled at him faintly, with the last light she had left.
“It’s okay...” She winced.
“I—I love you.”
The world looked the same.
The sun rose like it always did, pale and indifferent. It spilled over the cliffs, reflecting onto the floorboards of Phainon’s bedroom, warming nothing. Outside his window, the mist hung low over Aedes Elysiae, wrapping the village in silence.
Inside the house, there was only the sound of sobbing.
Muffled, but constant. His mother. His father. Down the hall, behind a closed door, grief had built its way into their tortured hearts overnight.
Phainon sat hunched at the edge of his bed, the edges of his coat still stained with dried blood. His hands were trembling.
The letter lay on the desk across from him.
He hadn’t looked at it since the night before.
And he could still hear the faint echo of Lena's laugh in the wind.
Still remember the warmth of her blood on his hands.
“It's okay...I- love you.”
He stood up, wiped a tear from his watery eyes, and walked across the room.
He picked up the letter with slow fingers—and read it again.
Then—
He felt the sting, the bandage over a blood-spilling wound.
He would go to Solmaris.
Not for honor or glory.
But because next time—maybe he would be able to protect the ones he loves.