kweenjaded

For as long as the stars have burned, she has existed. She has been called many names—Gaia, Lilith, the First, the Eternal Witness—but time has eroded meaning, leaving only silence. When the sun finally devoured itself and Earth drifted into the abyss, she closed her eyes, expecting oblivion.

But she did not die.

Eons passed, and Earth—no longer Earth—was reborn in a distant galaxy, reshaped by her unconscious will. Now a training ground for civilizations across the cosmos, the planet teems with life once more. And she, no longer Lilith yet not fully something else, awakens in a body that is hers but unfamiliar. She knows everything yet feels nothing. Memories exist as echoes, not experiences.

When a young explorer, Tilana, stumbles upon her, she is given a name—Lily—a word tied to a flower that no longer exists. As Lily navigates a world both familiar and alien, she must relearn what it means to feel, to connect, and to exist. But something lingers in the depths of this reborn world, something that calls to the remnants of who she was.

To see tomorrow, one must kill yesterday. But what if yesterday refuses to die?.

Lily: The last lily of a forgotten world.

"Power is a language. If you do not speak it, you will be silenced." — Unknown

The moment Kairos Venn set foot on Vatra, he knew he had made a mistake.

The sky burned with streaks of auric fire, an artificial phenomenon generated by the planet's hypercharged atmosphere. The air was denser, vibrating with a high-frequency neural field that pushed the minds of its residents to their limits. Even standing upright had been a challenge on his first day.

Vatra was not a world for the weak.

It had been heralded as the pinnacle of education, military training, and scientific advancement—a place where only the best, strongest, and wealthiest could refine themselves into legends.

For students of Prime Ascendancy Academy, transferring to Vatra was considered an honor, an exclusive privilege reserved for the genetically optimized heirs of corporate dynasties, war-born prodigies, and those who carried the bloodlines of the ruling elite.

His admission had been a technicality, a trial case orchestrated by the High Council of Academic Affairs.

When Prime Ascendancy Academy expanded to Vatra, the council had debated whether "lesser students" could withstand the planet's harsh conditions and advanced curriculum.

Kairos had begged for a transfer, thinking that if he could survive here, if he could prove himself, he might finally have a chance to rise.

Instead, the council had used him as an experiment. They had wanted to see how long someone like him could last.

And the answer was becoming painfully clear.

The planet rejected him. The gravity weighed him down, the cognitive fields overclocked his brain to the point of exhaustion, and the students—

Kairos had no allies, no mentors, no place where he belonged.

His classmates came from families that owned planets, controlled industries, and commanded armies.

To them, Kairos was nothing more than a curiosity, a punching bag, an unwanted anomaly.

The bullying had started on day one.

It was subtle at first—mocking glances, whispered comments, exclusion from high-level training simulations. Then it escalated. His academic access codes were revoked, his dorm was relocated to the lowest tier, and during combat drills, he was "accidentally" struck more times than he could count.

The message was clear: he did not belong here.

He could have returned to Strion Prime, to his mother, to a life where at least he wasn't actively being crushed under the weight of expectation and cruelty.

But if he left, he would be proving them right.

As he walked past the administration hall, something caught his attention.

The air was electric—faculty, envoys, and security droids moved with an urgency he had never seen before.

Another spoiled, gene-optimized heir, no doubt. Another name to add to the list of people who would never have to struggle like he had.

He muttered, voice laced with resentment:

"Great. Another entitled rich brat who's never struggled a day in their life."

Didn't know that, for the first time in his life, he was completely wrong.

Chapter 9:The Academy