The line moved with agonizing slowness. For hours, the vast, sunlit dome of the High Court of Jute echoed with the fat priest’s monotonous voice and the crushing disappointment of hundreds of teenagers.
"Dormant. Next!"
"Dormant. Next!"
Boy after boy, girl after girl, they stepped up to the velvet pedestal with desperate hope in their eyes, only to walk away with their heads bowed. The transparent skull-sized Resonance Crystal remained a lifeless chunk of glass.
I stood near the front of the remaining crowd. Out of nearly four hundred commoners and low-borns who had touched the stone so far, almost all had failed.
"Look at them," a silk-clad noble boy whispered loudly to his friend a few feet away from me. "Did they really think Jute would bless a pig-farmer with the Ember? It’s a matter of bloodline."
But the arrogant boy was proven wrong a few minutes later.
"Kael, son of the Silk Merchant!" the priest called out.
A slightly plump boy stepped forward, wiping his sweaty palms on his expensive tunic. He placed his hand on the crystal. For a second, nothing happened. Then, a faint, milky-white light began to swirl inside the core of the stone, slowly illuminating the boy’s terrified face.
A collective gasp echoed through the cavernous temple.
"Active!" the priest shouted, his multiple chins quivering with excitement. "A Dormant Bud is found! Stand behind the altar, child!"
Over the next hour, only two other low-borns succeeded—two frail-looking girls from the outer agricultural ring. When their hands made the crystal glow with a pale, flickering light, they burst into tears of overwhelming relief. Three out of hundreds. The odds were astronomically low.
Finally, the priest finished the parchment roll of the commoners and unrolled a much shorter, gold-trimmed scroll.
"The Children of the Great Houses!" the priest announced.
The atmosphere in the temple shifted. The murmurs died down. On the viewing balconies, the nobles leaned over the marble railings, their eyes fixed on their heirs.
The first few nobles failed, their expressions twisting from arrogance to profound, humiliating shame as the crystal remained dark. But then, a tall, muscular boy from a prominent military family stepped up. The moment his palm touched the glass, a fierce, bright orange light erupted from the stone, casting long shadows across the marble floor.
The nobles on the balconies erupted into polite, restrained applause.
"Active! A strong vessel!" the priest beamed.
"Of course," an old woman in the crowd muttered bitterly behind me. "The rich get richer. The powerful stay powerful."
"The Protégés of Commander Erula Fion Buros!" the priest called out, his voice tinged with deep respect. "Valerius and Livia!"
The two teenagers who had walked beside the Commander earlier stepped out of the aristocratic group. They moved with terrifying synchronicity, their faces blank masks of cold discipline. Valerius stepped up to the pedestal first. He didn’t hesitate. He slammed his palm onto the crystal, his chin raised in absolute defiance.
The temple was dead silent.
The crystal remained perfectly transparent.
Valerius frowned. He pressed harder, his knuckles turning white, but the stone was completely lifeless.
"D... Dormant," the priest stuttered, sweating profusely as he glanced up at the balcony where Commander Erula sat. "Next."
Livia stepped up, pushing Valerius aside. She placed her delicate hand on the glass. Again, nothing. Not even a spark.
"By Jute’s eyes... both of them?""The Commander’s chosen? Powerless?""Did you see their faces? They look like they want to murder the priest."
The whispers from the crowd turned into a deafening, chaotic buzz.
From the elevated viewing platform, Miklas gripped the marble railing, his knuckles white.
He didn’t care about the whispers. He was watching Commander Erula. The woman was lounging on a velvet chair, her snow-white face completely unreadable. But Miklas, a veteran of countless battles, saw the microscopic twitch in her jaw. Her blazing red eyes were locked onto her two failed protégés with a look of absolute, chilling disgust. She didn’t see children; she saw just a failed investment and the loss of her honor.
She will discard them by tomorrow, Miklas thought grimly.
But his attention quickly snapped back to the center of the temple as the fat priest frantically tried to restore order.
"Silence! Silence in the Court of Jute!" the priest bellowed. "The final candidate! Elvit, daughter of Captain Miklas!"
Miklas held his breath. He watched as the small, dark-haired girl stepped out from the crowd. She was wearing the deep blue silk dress he had bought her, but she didn’t walk like a noblewoman. She walked with small steps, not as if she were scared but more as she was thinking.
Come on, little girl, he prayed silently to whatever god was listening. Show them.
I walked up the marble steps, ignoring the hundreds of eyes boring into my back. My mind was calculating the probabilities, but my heart was hammering against my ribs.I was already dealing with the fact that I needed to find another source to get powerful
I stopped in front of the velvet pedestal. The Resonance Crystal was cold and smooth. I took a deep, steadying breath, raised my right hand, and placed my palm flat against the glass.
For a heartbeat, there was nothing.
Then, I felt it.
It wasn’t a spark or a magical shock. It was a sensation of profound, heavy heat originating from the very center of my chest, right below my sternum. It felt like a dormant muscle I never knew I had suddenly flexing. The heat rushed through my veins, traveling down my shoulder, past my elbow, and into my palm.
The crystal exploded with a brilliant, blinding blue light.
It was so bright I had to squint. The light pulsed in time with my own heartbeat, projecting a mesmerizing, aquatic glow against the high dome of the temple.
"Active!" the priest yelled, his voice cracking. "A highly resonant vessel! Stand behind the altar, child!"
I pulled my hand back, my palm tingling, and walked toward the small group of successful candidates. The merchant’s son gave me a nervous nod. The two low-born girls were still crying silently, while the noble boy completely ignored us, staring proudly at his family on the balcony.
"The assessment is complete!" the priest announced, turning to face the five of us who stood behind the altar. The massive crowd of failed candidates was already being ushered out of the bronze doors by the guards.
"You five have been blessed by Jute," the priest said, his tone shifting from theatrical to strictly business. "You are now recognised as Dormant Buds. But raw potential is nothing without guidance. The Empire offers you a choice regarding your future."
He pointed a fat finger at the merchant’s son and the two girls. "You three are commoners. You may choose to dedicate your lives to the Church. We will feed you, clothe you, and train you in the holy arts of the Ember. Or, you may offer yourselves to a Noble House as retainers. If a family accepts you, they will sponsor your training in exchange for your eternal loyalty."
He then turned to the noble boy and me. "You two already possess noble sponsors. You may remain with your respective families, or forfeit your lineage to join the Church."
The decision was immediate for some.
"I choose the Church, Holy Father," the merchant’s son said quickly, bowing his head. For a merchant-class family, having a son in the Church’s inner circle was the ultimate political victory.
"I will remain with my House," the aristocratic boy declared, puffing out his chest.
The priest turned his gaze to the two frail girls. They looked at each other, utterly terrified and overwhelmed by the sudden weight of their new reality. "We... we do not know, Holy Father. We need time to think."
"You have until sunset to decide," the priest dismissed them coldly, before finally looking at me. "And you, daughter of the Knight-Mage?"
I didn’t even need to run calculations. The Church was unknown. I needed a protector who understood the brutal reality of the world, someone who had already proven they would fight by my side. I looked up at the balcony, meeting Miklas’s proud amber eyes.
"I will remain with my father," I said firmly.