Chapter 3: talentless
"You have no talent."
The words struck Kieran harder than any physical blow ever could. They cut deep, carving a hollow ache in his chest, a wound no medicine could ever heal. For a moment, he couldn’t breathe. The world around him faded, swallowed by an unbearable silence that pressed down on his shoulders like an invisible weight.
The grand hall, once filled with murmurs of anticipation, now felt suffocating. His classmates’ faces blurred into a mass of judgmental stares, their whispers a cruel symphony echoing in his ears. The radiant glow of the awakening orb, which had moments ago seemed so full of promise, now felt like a mockery—a cruel trick played by fate itself.
Kieran’s fingers curled into tight fists at his sides. His nails bit into his palms, drawing tiny pinpricks of blood, but he welcomed the pain. It was nothing compared to the storm raging inside him.
’Why?’ he screamed inwardly. ’Why me? I did everything right! I trained, I studied, I never backed down from a fight, never turned away from someone in need. So why?’
It didn’t make sense. He had always believed that good deeds were rewarded, that the gods watched over those who lived with honor. Jane had told him so time and time again.
"The gods reward the righteous, Kieran. The more good you do, the greater your blessings in the awakening ceremony."
He had clung to those words, held them close to his heart like a talisman against the darkness. But now, standing here before the entire academy, stripped of everything he’d worked for, he felt like a fool.
His mind drifted back to the day it all started—the day he made an enemy of Frank. The boy had been tormenting a younger student, shoving him into the mud, stealing his food. Kieran had stepped in without hesitation, pushing Frank away and telling him to pick on someone his own size.
That moment had sealed his fate.
Frank never forgot. He made sure Kieran suffered for it, spreading rumors, turning people against him, sabotaging his training whenever he could. Kieran had endured it all, believing that one day, when he finally awakened, he’d prove them all wrong.