Boy Without Stats

The morning mist had not yet lifted from the mountain's shoulders when Attunement Day began in Cardinal Peaks. Snow dusted the rooftops and lined the winding paths like a hush meant to prepare the village for something divine.

This was not merely tradition or celebration — it was an unveiling, a reckoning. Each child would stand before the HEART system, the magic that measured a soul, and their Ki Card would activate for the first time.

Their essence, quantified.

Families rose early. Some did so with excitement, others with dread. All bore the weight of expectation. The HEART system didn't lie — it couldn't. It revealed not only what you were, but what you might never become.

Near the edge of the gathering, Niklaus Stagin leaned against his walking stick, his coat fluttering softly in the breeze. His gaze — ancient and penetrating — swept the crowd like a man who'd seen too many dreams shattered, too many tyrants rise and fall. Beside him stood a boy of five, dark-haired, bright-eyed, barely tall enough to see over the crowd.

Kaiden Stagin.

He clutched Nik's hand, bouncing slightly in his boots. To him, today meant becoming someone. A knight, a mage, a story worth telling. He looked up at his grandfather with the certainty of youth.

[ Kaiden ]

"Can't wait for my turn, Pops."

Nik didn't smile, not really. But the corners of his eyes warmed.

[ Niklaus ]

"Every story has a first page, boy."

"Let's see how yours begins."

The crowd moved steadily, children disappearing into the tent and emerging with glowing Ki Cards. Some wept with joy. Some with shame. Others, like Marris and Rammis Johnson — the Lanterns of the Last Light Festival twins — emerged like gods in miniature, their stats proclaimed aloud to a chorus of gasps.

[ Villager Raheem ]

"Five in Strength, Agility, and Intelligence..."

"At five years old?"

[ Villager Betty ]

"Not to mention..."

"Talent in Light Magic."

[ Villager Johan ]

"They're bound for Mythrillius Exodia, for sure!"

Kaiden's gaze followed them, awe widening his eyes.

[ Kaiden ]

"Do you think I'll shine like that, Pops?"

Nik knelt, slowly, until he met Kaiden's eyes.

[ Niklaus ]

"No matter what's on that card, you've already got something most kids never will."

[ Kaiden ]

"What's that?"

[ Niklaus ]

"A name I believe in."

Before Kaiden could ask, his name rang out across the square.

[ Concordium Examiner Tucson ]

"Kaiden Stagin!"

He stepped into the Concordium tent.

The tent interior was dim, its silence thick with incense and layered magic. Runes etched into the floor shimmered faintly. The examiner, a Concordium official, did not look up as he motioned.

[ Concordium Examiner Tucson ]

"Step into the circle, son."

Kaiden obeyed, heart thundering.

The ritual was activated.

Light spiraled up around him, flowing into the pedestal. Numbers and glyphs shimmered into place. One by one, they revealed their verdict.

The examiner frowned.

"…Strange."

He tapped his bracer. The readings repeated.

"Health: 50. Normal for a five-year-old."

"Energy: Stamina and Stimana, both stable, within common range."

"Understandable..."

Examiner Tucson paused for a beat.

"Attributes… Strength: 1. Agility: 1. Intelligence: 1."

"Hmm..."

"Let me check again..."

The silence that followed was total. The examiner checked the data again. Slowly.

The result was still the same.

Nothing to do but carry on.

"Resistance: Negligible."

"No Talent signature detected."

"No latent Skills."

Then the final glyph appeared.

"…Trait: Void of Aena."

A chill swept through the tent. The examiner recoiled slightly.

[ Concordium Examiner Tucson (whisper) ]

"Void of Aena?"

"Void?"

"Hmm..."

"There are no records in the Archives..."

"But I am sure I have heard of this before."

The examiner paused again — a tad longer this time.

"No… this isn't a Trait."

"This is — by the old orders — classified as a Curse."

"Void of Aena... it shouldn't exist."

The pedestal pulsed violently.

Suddenly, from Kaiden's back, where an old birthmark had always rested beneath his shirt, a radiant light erupted — brilliant and blinding, a twisted mix of violet and deep shadow. The entire tent shook.

Kaiden screamed.

The sound tore through the chamber like a wounded animal. He fell to his knees, clutching his sides.

The pain was unnatural — like something inside him was unraveling, tearing loose, trying to claw its way out.

Light burst from his spine, searing through the fabric of his clothes. The birthmark writhed, glowing brighter and changing before the examiner's eyes. It twisted and morphed, reshaping itself into a strange, arcane sigil. A crest. A symbol that resembled a lock — no, a chest. Dark chains etched around it like it was sealed by fate itself.

Kaiden's breath hitched, and his body arched. Then, silence.

He collapsed.

[ Concordium Examiner Tucson (panic) ]

"Medic!"

"Quickly..."

"Fetch the physician!"

Kaiden was rushed from the tent in a blur of movement and alarm. Magic-imbued stretchers carried him through the panicked crowd. Nik followed, his walking stick forgotten, eyes wide with a fear he hadn't known in decades.

At the infirmary, healers tried to stabilize him. There was no wound. No poison. Just an unnatural resonance emanating from the mark on his back. It pulsed like a sealed gate, not meant to be touched.

Not meant to be disturbed.

◈◈◈

The snow had thinned but not vanished, melting into the stone paths that wound through the infirmary. A cold wind whispered through the trees, rustling the prayer tags tied to them by worried parents. They fluttered like silent pleas to gods too old to answer.

Nik sat on a stone bench outside Kaiden's room, his cane leaning against the wall, arms crossed tightly over his chest. He didn't smoke, not anymore, but there was a long-lost habit in the way his jaw worked, like he wished he had a pipe just to keep his hands busy.

Footsteps crunched lightly over gravel. Then came a voice, steady but warm.

[ Cody ]

"How's it going, old timer?"

Nik didn't look up right away. He already knew who it was. He could recognize that voice through a battlefield, a blizzard, or a drunken tavern fight.

[ Niklaus ]

"Could ask you the same, Cody."

"Last I heard, your twins lit up the skies like a pair of firework charms."

Cody chuckled softly, but there was no pride in it — only weariness. He sat beside Nik, dressed in his well-worn ranger's coat, still carrying the scent of pine and saddle oil. He looked younger than Nik by at least thirty years, but his eyes were tired in a way only fathers of Gifted children understood.

[ Cody ]

"They did..."

"Gods above, they did."

"Light Magic..."

"...and Marris has control already."

Cody pulled a chair.

"And for Rammis... guess what?"

"Dark Magic!"

"Nearly burned down the examiner's tent just from sneezing."

[ Niklaus ]

"Ha. Good lad."

"Strong lungs."

[ Cody ]

"I should be proud, I suppose."

"The capital sent a hawk this morning..."

"Official summons."

"They want us in Star Groove."

"Training."

"Protection."

"Exposure to the better schools and…"

"Opportunities."

Nik nodded, slowly. This wasn't new. The Gifted were treasures. They didn't stay in mountain villages.

[ Niklaus ]

"That's a long road."

"Not just in distance."

[ Cody ]

"Yeah..."

"That's why I came to you."

Nik turned to look at him then. Cody rarely sought advice — not unless he truly needed it.

"You've raised someone in a storm before."

"You know what it's like to hold the reins when the wind tries to tear them out of your hands."

He hesitated, then said the words.

"I don't know if I want to go."

Nik didn't answer. Not right away. He waited because silence is where the real fears rise.

"Rosa thinks we'd be fools not to."

"Well..."

"She's not wrong."

"Star Groove has everything."

"Real beds, magical instructors, libraries full of knowledge that would take five lifetimes to read..."

Cody wavered. Conflict was clearly in his eyes.

"But out there, we're just another pair of country Gifteds."

"Everyone wants a piece of that."

[ Niklaus ]

"And here?"

[ Cody ]

"Here, I'm just their dad."

"Here..."

"They still think pinecones are treasure."

"And that the old cow is secretly a princess under a spell."

He laughed a little, then rubbed his eyes.

"I'm scared they'll lose that."

"Scared I'll lose them."

"You ever feel like that, Nik?"

Nik watched a stray breeze knock some of the prayer tags from a nearby tree. They danced on the wind for a moment before disappearing into the white.

[ Niklaus ]

"All the time..."

"Even now."

[ Cody ]

"Even now?"

[ Niklaus ]

"Kaiden..."

"He's no prodigy."

"His card said so."

"No stats."

"No Skills."

"Not even a spark of Talent."

"Just something the system calls a curse."

"But when he screamed in that tent..."

His hands tightened on the bench.

"I would've given anything to take that pain into myself."

"Anything..."

"That's what it means to raise a child."

"Whether they're Gifted or not."

"Whether they're bound for kings or kitchens."

Cody lowered his head. For a moment, the only sound was the slow creak of the infirmary doors and the soft chanting of a healer inside.

Then Nik continued.

[ Niklaus ]

"There's a story I never told you. About the Soul-Forged War."

[ Cody ]

"The old battle on the Drifting Line?"

"Both sides lost their skyships, right?"

[ Niklaus ]

"No..."

"The part they left out of the books."

He leaned forward, voice low.

[ Niklaus ]

"There was a boy named Elian."

"No family."

"No home."

"Not even a name of his own—just 'Scrap.'"

"Picked up by a battalion to carry water and bury the dead."

"No HEART attunement."

"No Talent."

"Barely old enough to hold a shovel."

[ Cody ]

"What happened to him?"

[ Niklaus ]

"He survived every siege."

"Walked through flame like a ghost."

"Carried wounded men on his back when horses wouldn't dare."

"We started calling him 'the unburned pack mule' — meant it as a joke at first."

A breath.

"Turns out, he had a Trait."

"Took the Concordium six years to detect it."

"Called it 'Resonant Heart.'"

"It absorbed ambient energy through pain, his own."

"Every scar he earned made him stronger."

"Every injury sharpened his instincts."

"He didn't know it..."

"None of us did."

"But by the end, he led the charge through Drosgard Strath."

"By the end, the generals knelt."

[ Cody ]

"He became a commander?"

[ Niklaus ]

"No..."

"He became more."

[ Cody ]

"More?"

[ Niklaus ]

"He became a legend."

The words hung there.

Then Nik gestured toward the infirmary window, where Kaiden lay motionless.

"That boy in there..."

"He may not shine now."

"He may never shine in the way people expect."

"But there's something in him."

He met Cody's eyes.

"You don't always get to choose what your children become."

"But you always get to choose how you walk beside them on the path."

[ Cody ]

"...Even if it leads far from home."

[ Niklaus ]

"Especially then."

Cody was quiet for a long time. Then he stood.

[ Cody ]

"Rosa's right."

"We'll go to the capital."

"But I'll bring every bit of Cardinal Peaks with us."

He pulled out a small carved token — an old good luck charm from his ranger days—and handed it to Nik.

"For Kaiden."

"When he wakes."

Nik nodded, accepting it.

[ Niklaus ]

"And when your twins come back, they'll have a home waiting."

Cody gave him a final nod, then walked away, toward the rising sun and the road beyond it.

Nik sat there a while longer.

Then turned to the token in his hand.

It was shaped like a fox. Carved with care, small enough for a child's pocket. On its underside, the words: "The forest watches its own."

Nik smiled gently and tucked it into the fold of Kaiden's blanket.

"Let the forest watch over you too, boy."

Then rose.

◈◈◈

Days passed. Kaiden didn't wake.

When he finally stirred, it was not to the sound of birdsong or crackling hearth. It was silence — cold and sterile, the scent of potion herbs and arcane smoke clinging to the air.

Nik sat at his side.

Unmoving.

[ Niklaus ]

"You're awake, boy."

Kaiden groaned, eyes fluttering.

[ Kaiden ]

"It hurt..."

"Pops..."

"What happened?"

Nik sighed, reaching into his coat. He drew out the Ki Card. It was darker now — its color like obsidian drenched in stormlight. The name had changed, too. Below his stats, a new line glowed in ominous script:

Skill: Analyze

Nik did not show it to him.

[ Niklaus ]

"You've been touched by something old, boy."

"Something..."

"Ancient."

"The Concordium doesn't understand it yet."

"...And people are afraid of something they don't understand."

[ Kaiden ]

"Is it because I'm cursed?"

[ Niklaus ]

"Maybe..."

"But if so, then it's not the kind that ends a story."

"It's the kind that begins one."

Kaiden was too weak to answer.

But something had begun.