The academy smelled of smoke and metal.
Days had passed since the Fire Gate. The walls still bore the scars — black streaks along marble, molten cracks sealed by earth-style instructors, sigils burning faintly in the corners where containment barriers had failed.
The sky above Keystone hung heavy, bruised with stormlight and lingering ash.
Jayden stood among hundreds of students gathered in the central amphitheater, the air tense with the scent of burned ozone and fear. Across the platform, Headmaster Varrick sat like a shadow carved from stillness. Around him, a semicircle of instructors and elemental scholars — each one a pillar of authority — waited.
The first to step forward was **Instructor Dall·E**. He was older, his eyes pale as frost, voice calm but sharp enough to cut through the murmurs.
"Three nights ago," he began, "a Class C Fire Gate breached the barrier between our world and the Elemental Realms."
The words fell like stones into water.
"You all saw what came through," Dall·E continued. "You fought them. You bled. Some of you lost friends. What you faced were *Aberrants* — fragments of elemental will that fail to stabilize upon crossing. They are the *errors* of creation. They do not think. They hunger."
He paused, then gestured. A shimmering sigil appeared midair — a sphere of shifting red light. Inside it, ghostly silhouettes twisted and burned.
"Every Aberrant is born when the boundary between realms collapses. Some are weak. Some… are not.
The weakest, we call *Brutes* — lesser aberrants. Class E. Their threat is minimal, their form unstable. The ones that nearly burned this academy were *Wretches* — Class C."
The image pulsed. The shapes twisted larger, more defined.
"Above them are the *Fiends* — Class B. Capable of wielding controlled elemental will. Then come the *Dreads* — Class A. These entities no longer bleed; they rewrite the reality around them."
A murmur rippled through the students. Even Kael, usually grinning, was silent.
"And beyond them…" Dall·E's gaze swept across the crowd. "...are the Calamities. Class S and above. They do not breach — they *descend*. When they appear, worlds fall. The last Class S Gate opened in the north, and a Sovereign went to contain it."
He didn't need to say the rest.
The silence said enough.
Aiden — standing a few rows ahead — muttered, "No one ever found the Sovereign's body."
Someone beside him whispered, "Because there wasn't one left."
Kael crossed his arms. "And we're supposed to fight *that* someday?"
Dall·E turned to face him. "If you survive long enough, yes."
A few uneasy laughs fluttered, then died quickly.
Another instructor — a stern woman with silver braids — stepped forward. "You must understand, the *Gates* are not random. They are *wounds*. When balance falters, when elements clash or excess builds, the fabric of our world tears. Each tear draws energy from the Realms — and something *answers*."
She flicked her wrist, and new runes bloomed above her palm. They depicted **the structure of the known Realms** — Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning — each a swirling sphere orbiting a hollow center of black.
"The Gates form where equilibrium collapses. The stronger the imbalance, the higher the Gate's class."
Another student — a girl from one of the legacy clans — raised her hand. "So the Sovereigns… are they the ones maintaining balance?"
The silver-haired instructor's eyes softened slightly. "Once. They were. The Sovereigns command the highest elemental dominion. Their existence alone stabilizes regions. But there are only three left — and none of them agree on what 'balance' means."
Dall·E's voice cut back in, deeper now. "The Sovereigns do not rule through titles or crowns. They rule through *presence.* Their existence shapes nations. Their *Legacies* — families like Ardent, Valen, Aegir — carry their will into politics, trade, and war."
Kael looked smug for half a heartbeat — until Jayden noticed the shadow flicker behind his grin. Legacy blood had its price.
"And us?" Kira asked quietly. Her voice carried, clear and bright, drawing eyes. "Where do the Unlocked stand in all this?"
Dall·E smiled faintly. "You are the thread that binds the realms to reason. Without Unlocked, the barriers would crumble. The Codex recognizes your will, and your growth strengthens the world's order.
Your duty is not glory. It is survival. Defense. Exploration. Containment."
Kael muttered, "Sounds like cannon fodder."
"Only if you die early," Dall·E said smoothly, earning a ripple of nervous laughter.
Varrick hadn't moved since the lecture began, but when he finally spoke, his voice filled the air like a quiet storm.
"The Elemental Codex governs law. It watches but does not command. It is the bridge between you and the Realms. Do not mistake its silence for mercy."
Jayden swallowed hard. His palms were cold despite the heat.
The discussion expanded. Students began asking questions — some naive, some sharp.
A young air-style aspirant asked about trade routes between Realms.
A fire legacy boasted about his clan's private battalion.
An instructor countered with the reminder that politics meant nothing in front of aberrant flame.
Each exchange painted the picture of a world both magnificent and fragile. Nations of floating citadels and submerged cities. Armies trained to suppress Gates before they bloomed. Sovereigns carving domains across continents, their legacies waging wars behind smiling masks.
And through it all, Jayden sat still, his hands clasped, his gaze unfocused.
He remembered the night of the Gate.
The heat.
The ash.
Varrick's impossible power.
And how small he'd felt watching it all.
For the first time, he understood: strength wasn't just survival. It was control — over power, over fear, over destiny. And he had none of it yet.
The assembly concluded in silence. The instructors departed. Students whispered, theories spreading like embers — who caused the breach, whether the Sovereigns would intervene, whether the Codex itself would notice.
Jayden stood last, eyes drawn toward the far horizon where the Gate had once burned. Even now, faint streaks of light shimmered in the clouds.
Kael clapped his shoulder. "You look like you saw a ghost."
"I saw the truth," Jayden murmured.
Kira glanced at him, her fire-bright eyes unreadable. "And what truth is that?"
Jayden's gaze hardened. "We're ants playing in a god's shadow and that is a bitter pill to swallow."