It was late — or whatever passed for late in the drifting currents of the Academy's reality.
Caelira stood alone in the Aether Garden, a glassless dome hanging over a sea of moving stars.
Tiny satellites spun around her, whispering data, but she silenced them with a gesture.
She didn't need the system's guidance tonight.
She needed him.
"You're quiet tonight," she whispered.
The air pulsed.The stars shifted.And then a voice like warm light flowed into her mind — not loud, not human, but intimate.
"I'm listening."
Orrelios.
She smiled softly, resting her hand against her chest — just over the glowing scar on her throat.
"They brought in the new Vessel today. The boy. Rei Kazuki. The one with the Smiling Shadow."
A pause.
"He's strong… but not in the right ways. He still fights like he's trying to break something that's already shattered."
"So did you, once."
She was nine.Born into one of the most powerful exorcist bloodlines — the Ven'dral family — but she had no sigil resonance. No cursed blood. No pact potential.
To them, she was defective.
They sent her to the Void Chapel — a place where unwanted children were sent to "awaken or break."
And there, in the dark, she bled for the first time.Alone. Forgotten.Until the dream began.
In it, she saw a sky with no stars — just one.
A single impossible sun that spoke not in words, but in visions.Of every version of herself that could have been.
A warrior. A failure. A mother. A murderer. A machine. A queen.
And the sun asked her:
"Which one are you?"
She had cried.
"I don't know."
And the sun had smiled.
"Then you are ready."
When she woke, her throat burned.
A scar had bloomed there — a permanent mark of her pact with Orrelios.
From then on, she wasn't just Caelira Ven'dral.She was the Living Thread. The one who could see what should never be.
Back in the garden, she whispered:
"You gave me choices when no one else would."
"You earned them," the Dreaming Star replied. "You bled for them."
"Will he survive?" she asked suddenly.
The stars stilled.
"He may.""But his thread is tangled. His heart is sharp. And what waits inside him… does not want to share."
She nodded.
"Then I'll guide him. Until he breaks. Or becomes something better."
Above her, a thousand futures flickered.And only one of them glowed brighter than the others.
It was walking down a corridor lined with shadows.And it looked a lot like Rei Kazuki.