The first thing Luna noticed about him was that he didn't belong.
Not in the arrogant way most misfits didn't — but in the quiet way.He stood among the hundreds waiting for the Trials, but his eyes weren't on the sky or the crowd. They were on himself.Like he was trying to remember what it felt like to exist.
When the resonance surge hit him — that wave of raw emotional noise that made even seasoned mages flinch — Luna saw it all at once.His soul wasn't weak. It was fractured.And something inside him was screaming for harmony it couldn't yet find.
She shouldn't have helped.The Trials were meant to test isolation, endurance, control.But there was something in him — an echo she couldn't ignore.When she touched his shoulder, she felt it: the pulse of an unfamiliar frequency, deep and unrefined but painfully human.
Later, when the fire circles flared to life, she searched for him again.
There — in his ring of blue light.The boy from before, already trembling, already burning.
The others faced beasts, illusions, or echoes of fear.He faced himself.
And somehow, the arena seemed to bend around him.
The flames rose higher, turning the mirrored floor into a storm of reflected stars. The silver-haired proctor stopped his pacing, his runes flickering in astonishment.But Luna barely noticed any of that — her eyes stayed fixed on the boy inside the storm.
She could feel his pain through the resonance field, raw and unfiltered.It wasn't just fear — it was memory.Loneliness so thick it almost felt sentient. Regret sharp enough to wound.
"Idiot," she whispered under her breath. "You're supposed to contain the flame, not feed it."
And then something impossible happened.
The storm shifted. The blue turned silver.His emotional frequency — once chaotic and unfocused — aligned with hers.
Just for an instant.
The connection wasn't conscious, but it was real. She felt it — her heartbeat syncing with his, the pulse of his emotions brushing against the edges of her mind like static and light.
He steadied. The flame obeyed him. And when the reflection shattered, Luna's entire body went still.
He resonated with me.
The thought shouldn't have startled her — not after years of training, not after countless failed matches during resonance studies.But it did.Because resonance required emotional parity — trust, empathy, shared intent.And she hadn't even known his name until this morning.
When the fire died, he was still standing — breathless, bruised, but alive. Silver flames curled at his fingertips, flickering like the last sigh of a star.
He looked up — right at her.
And though there were dozens of students between them, it felt like he saw through every single one.
Not at her.Into her.
[Resonance Match Established: 48% Synchronization]
The system prompt flickered faintly across her vision, translucent and soft.Her pulse stuttered.
"Impossible…" she whispered.
No one — not even the prodigies — had ever achieved that kind of resonance in a trial. Especially not a first-year. Especially not with her.
The proctor's voice broke the silence."End of Phase One. Survivors — report to the infirmary for evaluation."
Luna exhaled, forcing calm back into her chest.She closed her system panel, smoothed her uniform, and turned away before anyone could read her expression.
He resonated with me… and he doesn't even know what he did.