Night fell without warning.It did not fade or dim.It simply descended, thick and absolute, smothering the village and pressing against the small room where Vincent sat in silence.
He lay on his narrow bed, eyes half-open, staring into a ceiling he could barely distinguish from the darkness around him. His breath was slow. His body still. But his mind twisted restlessly, caught in loops that pulled tighter with every passing second.
I have nothing. No power. No awakening. No path. I am not even sure I qualify as someone with potential.
He shut his eyes, trying to suffocate the bitterness rising in his chest.
Bellona was leaving soon.Bellona, who shone so naturally it felt unfair just to stand near her.Bellona, who would go to the capital, join the academy, rise as everyone expected she would.
And he would remain here.A quiet boy in a quiet house at the dead end of an unremarkable life.
A faint laugh escaped him, hollow and dry.
Pathetic. I fall in love with a star and I do not even have the height of a candle flame.
He opened his eyes again.
The small blue star hovered exactly where it had been, suspended in the air like a shard of frozen moonlight. It pulsed faintly, its glow cutting clean lines through the darkness, as if reality itself bent around it.
It watched him.It had always watched.
The voice slid into the room, calm and aristocratic.
"You are thinking yourself in circles again."
Vincent flinched.
"I think because this is all too insane to accept without thinking about it."
The star drifted closer, expanding slightly, like a creature stretching after a long sleep.
"You think because you fear, and you fear because you yearn. The equation is simple."
He clenched his jaw.
"I do want change. I want something more than this."His voice dropped."I just never thought anything would actually appear to offer it."
The star's glow sharpened.
"Then answer. Accept or refuse."
There was no pressure in its tone.No urgency.No persuasion.The star spoke as if it already knew which choice would be made.
Vincent closed his eyes.
A life of nothing behind him.A future of nothing ahead.A heart that wanted too much and received too little.
"I accept."
The room tightened, as if the air itself had exhaled and forgotten to inhale again.
"Speak your oath," the star said.
Vincent felt the words before he understood them. They gathered in his throat with an instinctive clarity, as if the pact were digging the vow out of something buried deep inside him.
"I swear to become your host. To walk the path this pact opens. To accept your power and its price. Let our destinies bind without return."
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the tearing began.
A sharp pull inside his chest drew a gasp from him. His fingers clawed instinctively at the fabric of his shirt. A thin filament pushed out from his sternum, black and dull like the husk of something long dead.
Vincent stared, horrified.
"What… what is that…"
More strands followed, slipping out of him one by one. They twisted in the air like sluggish smoke, heavy and reluctant, as if even they wished they belonged to someone else.
The star regarded them with quiet disdain.
"These are your threads of destiny," the voice murmured. "Colorless. Brittle. Empty. A future without light."
Vincent swallowed hard.
"Great. I always wanted visual proof of my failure."
The star gave a faint ripple, the closest thing to laughter it seemed capable of.
"You have always been painfully honest with yourself. How convenient."
Before Vincent could respond, the star unfurled its own threads.
Golden light spilled into the room, weaving out from the glowing core in long, liquid arcs. Each thread shone with the intensity of a newborn sun, alive and vibrant, the kind of brightness that made his eyes water.
The contrast was brutal.
His threads were cracked stone.The star's were molten gold.
"Why show me this," Vincent whispered.
"Because for our pact to exist, shadow must meet light."
The golden strands drifted toward the black ones, slow and deliberate, as if savoring the moment before collision.
The first touch ignited agony.
A burst of heat shot through Vincent's chest. His breath caught. His body jerked. The threads intertwined violently, twisting around each other with a force that felt both physical and spiritual, pulling at his marrow and his mind.
He tried to push himself away but the pain crushed him.
"Stop… stop… that hurts… that really hurts…"
The voice remained steady.
"You wished for change. Pain is simply the door you must pass through."
The star moved closer, close enough that he could feel its heat against his skin.
The golden threads wrapped fully around the black ones, tightening, merging, devouring.
Then the star pressed itself against his chest.
The world shattered.
A scream tore out of Vincent as the star sank into him. Fire raced through his bones. His ribcage felt like it was being forced open. Every nerve burned. Every breath dissolved. His entire being stretched and warped as if something was trying to carve space inside him where no space existed.
He collapsed to the floor, convulsing, his fingers scratching grooves into the wood. Time unraveled. Sensation fractured.
Seven hours passed.One long, impossible breath of agony.
Then the pain ended.
He lay still, exhausted, drenched in sweat.
Slowly, his awareness shifted inward.
He stood in his own spiritual realm.
A desert.Dry.Cracked.Dead.
It had always been like this.
But now, at the very center of the wasteland, a small azure star glowed quietly.
A drop of blue light fell from it.Then another.Each droplet seeped into the dead ground, carving lines of faint luminescence.
The voice whispered inside him.
"This place will change. One day this desert will be a sea."
Vincent stared at the tiny star in the center of his emptiness.
And for the first time in his life, something flickered behind his ribs.
Not pain.Not fear.Not longing.
Hope.
****
The inner world dissolved like dust blown off a forgotten book.The azure glow faded.The desert of his spirit vanished.And Vincent fell back into his body with the heaviness of someone pulled from the bottom of a dream too vivid to be discarded.
He opened his eyes to the cold touch of the wooden floor.
For a moment, he could not breathe.
A weight pressed around his heart, not physical, not visible, yet so real he could feel every breath scraping against it. It pulsed faintly with each beat, like a chain wrapped tightly around his chest.
He groaned and pushed himself upright, his muscles aching as if they had been torn apart and stitched back together during the night.
Light filtered through the window.Soft morning light.Too soft.Too late.
He dragged himself toward the glass, braced a hand against it, and stared at his reflection.
He froze.
His eyes had changed.
They glowed.A faint, deep azure radiance swirled beneath the surface, like a quiet flame trapped under crystal. It pulsed faintly in rhythm with his heartbeat.
"What did you do to me…" he whispered.
The voice answered immediately, whispering through his mind as if it had always lived there.
"I did nothing that you did not welcome. This glow is simply the reflection of our pact. A mark of the bond you accepted."
Vincent shut his eyes.
Great. I am turning into a night lantern. Perfect.
A sudden pressure gathered behind his skull, and an image tore its way into his thoughts.
A lake.Far to the south.Beyond the borders of the kingdom.Surrounded by ancient ruins, scattered stones covered in moss, and carvings half-devoured by time.Hidden under one of those stones, resting in a hollow carved by centuries…
A ring.
Vincent stumbled backward as the vision faded.
"What was that?"
"It is your destination," the star said calmly. "A fragment of me sleeps inside those ruins. You must retrieve it. As soon as possible."
The chain around his heart tightened without warning.Pain shot through his chest, sharp and suffocating.He fell to one knee, gasping.
"Stop… please…"
"It is only the reminder of your vow. Nothing more. You agreed to obey."
He remained on the floor for a long moment, one hand pressed against his chest, feeling his heart tremble under the weight of something not entirely his.
I have to leave. Today. I have no choice.
He pushed himself up with effort and glanced out the window again.
The sun was high.
Too high.
"It is already past ten…"
His eyes widened.
"Bellona…"
He rushed to dress, nearly tripping over himself as he pulled on his boots. His body protested with every movement, but he forced it to obey. He slammed the door open and sprinted down the path to the village.
Morning activity had already begun.
People carried impossibly heavy loads, their bodies strengthened by their awakened spiritual power. Machines powered by shimmering blue vivacium crystals hummed quietly. The air was full of voices, of life, of everything he had never truly felt part of.
He ran through it all.
Up the hill.Past the houses.Toward the old ash tree.
And there she was.
Bellona stood under the thick branches, her light chestnut hair braided with a crimson ribbon, her training attire neat, her posture relaxed. She turned as he approached, and her smile curved with familiar mischief.
"Congratulations, Vincent. You have officially set a new record for lateness. I was starting to think you had died."
He reached her breathless, one hand on his knee, bent over and gasping.
"I… had a difficult night… very difficult…"
"Oh?" She lifted an eyebrow. "Did your pillow beat you again? Which round knocked you out?"
His face tightened slightly.
"No. This is worse than that. Bellona, something happened last night. Something… enormous."
She leaned forward, intrigued.
"Go on. I am ready to laugh."
He inhaled.
"A star entered my chest."
Her expression froze somewhere between confusion and pity.
"…I see."
"It is true!"
"Of course it is. And I suppose I am secretly the lost queen of the southern tribes?"
The voice in Vincent's mind pulsed with amusement.
"She doubts you. How refreshing."
Vincent rolled his eyes internally.
"Please," he said aloud, "just listen. I do not have time. I have to leave today. I have a mission. Something I need to retrieve in the south."
Bellona's smile vanished.
"What are you talking about…? You are not going anywhere, Vincent. Not now. Not alone."
He swallowed.
"I wish that were true. But I have no choice."
She stepped closer, concern etching her features.
"Vincent… what happened to you? Look at your eyes. They're glowing."
He hesitated.He fought with himself.Then he released the truth, slow and heavy.
"Bellona… I know you are leaving for the capital soon. I know you are going to enter the academy and become… someone extraordinary. You were always meant for something greater."
She looked away, her jaw tightening.
"Do not say it like that. Like you expect to be left behind."
"That is exactly what it felt like," he whispered. "And I hated it. Not because of you. Because of me. Because I was never someone who belonged on your path."
Her eyes flicked back to his, wide and uncertain.
He stepped closer.
"But this morning… something changed. Something opened. For the first time in my life, I saw a direction. A real one. And I think… I think I can become someone who can walk beside you. Someone who can reach you."
Bellona's breath caught.The wind lifted the red ribbon in her hair, and she stood there with an expression Vincent had never seen from her.Vulnerable.Afraid.Hopeful.
"Vincent…" she murmured. "You sound like you are saying goodbye."
His voice cracked.
"I have to leave. Today. But not forever."
She looked down, her hands trembling at her sides.
"You are an idiot."
"I know."
"I am serious," she said, her eyes lifting, glistening. "You cannot just decide to run into danger because you suddenly feel brave."
"This is not bravery," Vincent whispered. "It is destiny forcing my hand."
She let out a shaky breath.
"Do you even know where you are going?"
"No. But I know I cannot stay."
A silence stretched, almost unbearable.
Then she stepped forward until they were almost touching.
"Vincent… I do not want you to go."
"I do not want to go either."
Her voice trembled.
"Then stay…"
He shook his head.
"I cannot. But I promise you this."
He reached for her hand.She let him take it.
"I will find you. In the capital. No matter how far it is. No matter how long it takes. I will come to you."
She squeezed his hand, her eyes finally breaking.
"Do not make promises you cannot keep."
"I will keep this one."
Her forehead touched his.Her breath trembled against his lips.
"Then I will wait," she whispered. "But if you do not come… I will come looking for you. And I will drag you back by the ear."
He let out a quiet laugh.
"That is terrifying."
"It is meant to be."
Inside him, the star murmured with a voice of quiet authority.
"It is time. The south awaits."
Vincent looked at Bellona one last time.
Her eyes.Her smile.Her sadness.
He felt the promise settle into his chest like a second heartbeat.
He would leave today.
And he would return.
Even if the world tried to break him on the way.