Chapter 3: Opposites in Bloom

Chapter 3: Shadows in Bloom

Ren awoke to the scent of antiseptic and sunlight. The infirmary was quiet, save for the soft drip of a healing elixir bottle beside his bed. He blinked blearily, the ceiling unfamiliar.

Zayne Kael sat slouched in the chair nearby, red scarf crumpled, arms crossed, dozing. The second Ren shifted, Zayne snapped awake.

"Holy sh*t, you're alive," he said, grinning. "Don't do that again, yeah?"

Ren sat up slowly. His chest still ached. Flashes of the trial rushed back—roots, violet light, Akira's voice.

"Did… anyone else see?" he asked.

Zayne hesitated. "Some. Most just remember you collapsing. After… whatever that was."

The halls of the Academy felt sharper when Ren returned. Stares pierced deeper. Whispers curled like smoke behind his back.

He didn't react. Not until he saw her.

She passed him in the corridor, her steps quiet, her presence luminous. She wore white and gold, her eyes clear as morning skies. And behind her… a Tree.

It glowed like dawn. Blossoms of light swayed in a nonexistent breeze. The complete opposite of his cursed tree of obsidian and fire.

Their eyes met.

Just for a second.

Then she was gone, turning a corner.

Zayne appeared beside him, casual as always. "That's Lyra Solenne. Light-bonded. Starborn or something. Don't ask me how she ended up here with the rest of us disasters."

Ren said nothing, but the image of her tree lingered in his mind.

Training began the next day.

Ren was… behind.

He had no control. No spells. No weaponry. No mastery.

But he had something else: obsession.

He trained alone. Every night. Until his muscles screamed. Until he collapsed. Again and again.

He watched the others in secret, studied their forms, memorized their magic. The Soul Trees. Every student had one—born from within their spirit and shaped by who they were.

Each tree had a Soul Echo—a subtle hum or resonance, like music only their wielder could hear. It responded to emotion. It grew louder with strength.

But Ren's tree… was silent.

He listened to it each night. Begging for a sound.

Nothing.

Only the whisper of Akira in his dreams.

When Professor Caelus announced the Class Trial, it snapped the academy into chaos.

"Three teams," he explained. "You'll enter the Ebonwood Forest. Your goal: defeat and mark as many hostile creatures as possible. Each kill registers on your Soul Beacon. The team with the highest score wins."

The class buzzed.

"Team A," Caelus read. "Zayne, Kara, Sylven, Nima."

"Team B: Lyra, Cato, Marielle, Ellinor."

"Team C: Ren, Revik, Dren, Torrin."

Ren's stomach dropped.

Zayne gave him a thumbs up from across the courtyard. "Don't die!"

The forest swallowed them that afternoon.

Ebonwood was alive—chittering, breathing, watching.

Team A moved like a pack of wolves.

Zayne darted through the trees, flames bursting from his fists, smoke trailing behind. Kara created spikes of frost that skewered lunging beasts midair. Nima split into two with her shadow twin, flanking an enemy from both sides. Sylven blurred past enemies in a streak of silver wind, his voice shouting taunts even as he launched cutting gusts.

"Keep up!" Sylven laughed. "Or I'll bag all the kills myself."

Kara rolled her eyes, freezing the legs of a chameleon-beast mid-pounce. "Shut up and focus."

Team B moved with elegance.

Lyra's tree pulsed softly with golden rings of light, and beams lanced from her hands, purifying shadow-wolves with barely a whisper. Cato hurled gouts of flame shaped like birds. Ellinor zipped around at near-blinding speeds, striking vital points with lightning-tipped daggers. Marielle stayed back, her aura glowing, sending waves of healing to reinforce her allies.

"Don't let your guard down," Lyra said, glancing at a ripple in the grass. "Something bigger's nearby."

"Let it come," Cato grinned. "We'll light it up."

Team C was different.

Dren smashed. Torrin commanded his beasts with silent gestures. Revik was unsettlingly calm, dissolving enemies in pools of venom-mist. Ren… mostly watched.

He tried. He slashed. He missed. He got thrown.

Still, he stood.

Hours passed.

Then came the scream.

It wasn't human. But it wasn't beast, either.

They followed it, cautiously. That's when they found him.

A man. Wearing rust-red robes and a cracked white mask.

Ren's blood froze.

The memories returned—his family's yard. His sister. That same feeling.

The man raised a hand. "You again."

Dren charged without hesitation. "Who the hell are you—"

The man didn't even blink. He flicked his wrist.

Dren flew back, crashing through a tree like a rag doll.

Torrin summoned Shade to defend, but the wolf was caught mid-leap by a wave of invisible force.

The masked man stepped forward. "You should not be alive, Akira."

He pointed at Ren.

Ren tried to move.

Tried to breathe.

The blade of shadow came—

And the world shattered.

A void swallowed him whole.

He stood in a space of darkness and drifting fragments. Memory. Thought. Emotion.

And Akira was there.

Grinning like a devil.

"Finally," he said, voice echoing like thunder. "You stopped dying long enough to listen."

Ren backed away. "What is this?"

Akira's violet eyes flared. "Your soul."

He raised a hand.

"And I'm the part of you that makes you strong."