Forgotten Shrine

The morning after the strange encounter with the cloaked figure, Kade couldn't shake the feeling that he was still being watched. Though the encounter ended with the figure escaping, something about it felt deliberate, as if they had wanted him to notice them. The tension gnawed at him, but he knew he needed to focus on strengthening himself first.

Determined to make the most of his time away from the academy, Kade visited an old mentor from his orphanage days, Master Ren—a retired martial artist who had taught him the fundamentals of combat when he was younger. If anyone could help him understand his powers, it was Ren.

"You're depending too much on what you see," Ren noticed after a few rounds of test sparring. "Your body moves well, but your mind hesitates when it comes to trusting your instincts. If you want to truly master your abilities, you have to let go of control."

Ren blindfolded Kade and challenged him to a sparring session in the courtyard. It was overwhelming at first. Kade fought, but it was too late for every attack. Then, something changed. His body quit relying on his sight and instead responded to something deeper: the awareness of space around him, the way the shadows moved and pulsed. For a brief moment, he was moving on pure instinct, his actions fluid and precise. But almost as swift as the feeling came, it went, and he staggered.

Ren blew out the match and observed Kade in a meditative manner. "You reached out to touch something, didn't you? A glimpse of true potential. But something inside of you is holding you back. Until you confront it, you won't be able to move forward."

Kade spent the rest of the day in deep thought. That night, as he rested in his childhood home, his fingers brushed against the mysterious token the old woman had given him after he saved her. The engravings were intricate and unfamiliar, and the material had an unnatural coolness to it. He had no idea what it was for, but it felt significant.

Curious, Kade decided to visit the underground market, a place where relic traders and information brokers gathered. If anyone could tell him about the token, it would be someone there. After weaving through dimly lit alleys, he found a merchant specializing in ancient artifacts—a frail old scholar with sharp, calculating eyes.

At once, the trader's face changed when he looked at the token. "Where did you get this?" he whispered, voice low.

"That old woman gave it to me after I assisted her," said Kade as his uneasiness grew.

Before the merchant could even open his mouth, a group of masked assassins burst into the shop. Without hesitation, they lunged for the merchant, blades flashing in the dim light. Kade barely managed to block the first strike, kicking over a table to create distance. The attackers were fast—too fast for ordinary thugs.

The merchant pushed into Kade's hands a creased note he'd folded within his palm and, gasping for air said, "Run!" before the blade of the second assassin impaled him right into his chest.

Kade curled his fingers, rage blazing through his muscles. He still wasn't an idiot; if they were out for him he had no one's back.

Glancing just once at his lifeless commerce seller, he vanished into shadow as the hired killers turned his attention to face Kade.

Once he had gained enough distance, he unfolded the note with shaking hands. The words written on it made his spine tingle:

"Seek the Forgotten Shrine."

His heart was pounding. Who were those assassins? Why were they after the token? And what was this Forgotten Shrine?

All was pretty obvious one thing was for sure; the man's history, powers, and secrets of mysterious existence entangled with more knots than ever in his mind, and someone is now killing for these hidden things to stay concealed.