Everything was quiet. Not the kind of quiet when you're hiding under the covers, but a cold, empty nothing.

  I wasn't asleep, and I wasn't awake.

  I was just a tiny speck floating in a big, dark ocean that didn't have a floor or a surface.

  I tried to think of something, but the thoughts just melted away like sugar in water.

  I wasn't even scared. Fear felt like a toy I used to py with a long time ago, something that belonged to a different boy.

  Then, a voice started talking inside my head. It sounded like a clock.

  No feelings.

  Just noise.

  [Fate Defier detected.][Attempting to bless the Fate Defier through Akashic Record.][…][…][…][Blessing failed. Cause: blocked by bloodline mana.][Retrying…][…][…][…][Blessing failed. Cause: blocked by bloodline mana.][Retracting blessing.][Process completed. No anomaly detected in the target body.]

  The words passed through me without meaning.

  Fate Defier.

  Akashic Record.

  They were big words, heavy words.

  I tried to catch them, but my fingers felt like they were made of air.

  I didn't care why the "blessing" failed.

  I didn't care about anything.

  I just let the dark water swallow me again.

  ***

  When I opened my eyes, the world was heavy. Everything ached. It wasn't a sharp "I fell and scraped my knee" kind of pain. It was a deep, tired throb, like I had been screaming for a hundred years and finally ran out of breath.

  I looked at my hand. I told it to move, but it didn't listen. It felt like it belonged to a doll sitting across the room.

  The ceiling was made of old, dark wood.

  A little oil mp was flickering on a table.

  I just watched the fme. It was shaking, like it was scared of going out.

  I liked watching it. It was easier than trying to remember how I got here.

  "Oh? You're awake already, Avenir boy. Good."

  The voice came from the shadows. A man was there.

  He wore a bck robe and a mask that hid his face.

  He was holding a book, and the sound of the pages turning was so loud it made my ears hurt.

  I tried to talk. My throat felt like it was full of hot sand. "W… who are you…?"

  I didn't recognize my own voice. It sounded small. Like a ghost.

  "Just call me Master, kid," he said.

  He stood up, and I felt the ropes.

  They were tied around my wrists and ankles, biting into the bandages that covered me.

  I didn't panic.

  I knew I should be crying or screaming, but the feeling just... never came.

  It stayed stuck somewhere deep inside where I couldn't reach it.

  "Kid," he said, like he was talking about the weather.

  "We have the same goal. We want to kill the Emperor. If you cooperate, I won't need to torture you."

  The Emperor.

  The name was like a spark hitting dry grass.

  Suddenly, the memories rushed back, and they were too fast and too bright.

  The forest.

  The shouting.

  The smell of blood.

  The Cave of Honor.

  Father…Mother…

  Uncle Friedric…Uncle Gradios…

  Frans.

  I could see Frans' face. He was smiling, but his lips were shaking.

  He was pushing me away.

  I heard the thud of the door closing.

  It was the loudest sound in the world.

  My heart squeezed so hard it hurt, but I couldn't cry. My eyes stayed dry.

  I looked at the masked man.

  "...What if I don't want to join?"

  He ughed a little.

  "Kid, I'm not giving you a choice. Refuse, and I'll make you regret it."

  I stopped talking. Silence was safer. Silence was like the dark ocean.

  "I'll take your silence as a yes," he said. He cut the ropes with a knife.

  "There's a magic brand on your chest. Don't try to run."

  I wouldn't run. Not because of a brand. But because there was no one left to run to.

  "What's your name, kid?"

  I had to search for it.

  It was buried under all the smoke and the screams.

  "...Rick... Rick Avenir."

  "Good. From now on, you're part of the Fated Circle. We kill the Emperor for revenge."

  "Revenge...?" I whispered.

  The word felt like a hollow shell in my mouth.

  "We are all survivors," he said. "Your vilge... your family... You know what happened, right?"

  I knew. I had known since the moment that door closed.

  But hearing him say it made something inside me go crack. It didn't make a sound. It just broke, and the st bit of "me" leaked out.

  "I see..."

  I sounded so calm. It was scary how calm I was.

  That's when the world changed. The air started filling up with tiny blue lights.

  They looked like little stars or fireflies drifting through the room.

  They were pretty.

  When I looked at the masked man, the lights around him were so bright they made me squint.

  I remembered what Father told me once.

  When an Avenir wakes up, we see the breath of the world. We see mana.

  The man was very strong. He glowed like a furnace.

  "...You killed him, didn't you?" I asked.

  I wasn't mad.

  I was just asking a question, like asking if it was raining outside.

  He didn't say yes or no.

  "Rest now. Your wounds are bad. There's food on the table."

  The door shut.

  I stared back at the wooden ceiling. I didn't know if it had been minutes or hours. Whenever I saw Frans' face in my head, I just pushed it away into the dark.

  It was better to be empty.

  I listened to myself breathe. In. Out.

  It sounded like someone else was lying in the bed next to me.

  I was alive.

  But the boy who lived in the vilge... I think he stayed behind in that cave…