Chapter 3 – Shadows and Scars

"The strongest cadets bleed too — just where no one can see."

The training field was quiet.

Not silent — the wind still hissed across the cracked tiles, carrying the distant howls of Rift echoes from beyond the eastern wall — but quiet in the way things get when pain finally settles into the bones.

Aarav sat alone near the edge of the stone ring. The place where his pulse had nearly detonated in the last trial. His fingers twitched slightly, as if still remembering the uncontrollable force that had nearly consumed him.

Across the field, cadets gathered in tight clusters — bandaged, bruised, whispering his name.

Not in admiration.

In fear.

"Did you see his eyes? That wasn't training. That was… something else."

"He didn't even flinch when that riftling got Mira. Just… exploded."

Aarav closed his hands into fists. Blood still crusted along his knuckles.

He hated this.

The looks.

The space they gave him, like he was radioactive.

He wasn't always like this.

"Your mind drifts again," a voice said behind him — cool, measured.

Aarav turned, slowly.

There she was.

Mira Veil.

Still in uniform, twin energy blades holstered neatly at her sides, her violet scarf fluttering in the dusk light. Her silver-ash hair was pulled back, though a few strands had broken loose and clung to the side of her cheek, catching the sun like threads of fire.

A thin cut trailed along her jawline — recent. A gift from the last riftling encounter. She hadn't bothered covering it.

"You left without debriefing."

Her voice was flat, but not cold.

Aarav blinked, unsure if she was here to scold or… something else.

"Didn't think anyone would care."

His voice was low, bitter.

She walked closer, stopped in front of him, arms crossed.

"You nearly vaporized a class-4 Rift entity using raw pulse force.

That kind of thing tends to get attention."

A beat of silence passed.

"You scared them."

"I scared you too," he murmured, almost to himself.

"No," she said, eyes narrowing. "You scared yourself. That's worse."

Aarav looked away. The guilt clung to him like soot.

In the shadows of the courtyard, another cadet watched the exchange with narrowed eyes.

Reyan Kaul.

His arms were folded, jaw clenched.

He'd seen the whole thing.

Not just Aarav's power — but the control Mira seemed to have over it. Her presence calmed him, grounded him.

And Reyan hated how natural it looked.

He turned away before their eyes could meet.

Inside the cadet hall, the atmosphere was a stark contrast to the somber courtyard. Cadets laughed, clinked metal cups, and patched each other up with crude bandages and sarcastic cheers.

At one corner table sat Saira Myles — quiet, focused, pale fingers thumbing through a classified file she'd swiped during an infiltration drill. Her stealth uniform was still speckled with rift-dust. Her dark eyes never wavered from the contents of the file — until Reyan slid into the seat across from her.

"You're bleeding," she said, not looking up.

"You always greet people that way?" Reyan smirked.

"Only when they're stupid enough to think sulking solves anything."

"I'm not sulking. I'm… observing."

"You're jealous," she said, flipping a page.

"Of your friend. Aarav."

Reyan didn't answer.

Not at first.

Then, slowly:

"He doesn't understand what he has. The strength. The power. The bond with Mira. He… never earned it."

Saira finally looked up. Her gaze was sharp, but not cruel.

"No one earns suffering, Reyan."

He stared at her.

And for a second, Reyan Kaul — cadet hero, golden boy, perfect strategist — looked hollow.

Back at the outer training wall, Mira and Aarav were silent again.

The sun dipped low, bleeding crimson across the sky — like a warning.

Aarav finally stood.

"They want me gone, don't they?"

"No," Mira said. "They want you stable."

"And if I can't be?"

"Then I'll be the one to end you."

Aarav froze.

Mira stepped closer, lifting his chin with two fingers.

"But not yet. Because I think you're not broken. Just… unfinished."

He looked into her eyes — really looked — and saw not just strength or fearlessness, but pain. Old, buried pain. She had lost more than she let on.

"You're not afraid of me?"

"No."

Her voice didn't waver.

"But I'm afraid for you."

Their hands brushed.

And just like that, the moment passed.

Later that night, alarms blared across the compound.

RIFT BREACH – SECTOR 4A

UNIDENTIFIED ENTITY – CLASS 5

SQUAD INITIATION: LIVE TRIAL

All cadets scrambled.

First trial was over.

This one wasn't simulation.

Commander's Transmission:

"Team configurations will rotate. Reyan Kaul – Squad One. Mira Veil – Squad Two.

Aarav — special classification: Solo entry. You're going alone."

A gasp echoed across the hall.

Solo classification was a death sentence.

Aarav stood frozen.

Mira looked to the commander's tower, fury in her eyes.

Reyan clenched his jaw.

Saira said nothing, but her fists tightened around her blade hilts.

"They're testing him," Reyan muttered.

"Or trying to erase him."

And in the shadows beyond the wall, something vast and ancient stirred within the Rift.

A thing with no name.

That remembered Aarav from another lifetime.

End of Chapter 3