"Alright, settle down."
Elder Vance set his tablet on the podium and waited for the room to quiet.
Fifty-two seniors filed into Valdenmere Academy’s Awakening Hall, taking their assigned seats in neat rows that faced the Resonance Pillar at the center of the chamber.
Corbyn Veatch made his way to the last seat in the back row, exactly where the academy expected him to be.
Valdenmere didn’t assign seats alphabetically.
It assigned them by family rank.
The noble houses occupied the front rows. Merchant families sat behind them. Commoners were left with whatever remained.
This year, only three seniors came from commoner families.
Corbyn was the only one from Ashfen District.
He set his worn backpack beside his chair and finally took in the hall.
The ceiling stretched high overhead, supported by white marble pillars polished to a mirror shine. Crystal chandeliers bathed the room in warm light, each one worth more than his mother would earn in years. Along the walls hung portraits of Valdenmere’s greatest graduates, each frozen in the middle of an elegant summon. Heroes. Generals. Legends.
People who had never worried about paying rent.
Corbyn looked away.
"Before we begin," Elder Vance said, "I’d like to acknowledge several students whose families have long served the kingdom."
Corbyn already knew who would be mentioned.
"Stellan Draves. Heir to House Draves, ranked second among the summoner families of the Northern Reaches."
Applause rolled through the noble section.
Stellan, seated four rows ahead, accepted it with a slight nod. Less like someone receiving praise, more like someone confirming what everyone already expected.
"Renata Ashcroft, daughter of High Commander Ashcroft, decorated veteran of the Rift Wars."
Another round of applause.
A girl with copper-colored hair acknowledged it with a polite smile and a brief nod she’d probably performed hundreds of times before.
"And... Lyra Voss."
The room fell silent.
Not the expectant silence before applause.
A different kind.
The sort that followed a name people weren’t prepared to hear.
Corbyn found himself looking before he could stop himself.
She sat two seats to his left in the back row, arms folded over a notebook resting on her lap. Her silver hair was tied back without any effort to make it fashionable, and unlike everyone else in the academy, her uniform lacked the gold trim reserved for Valdenmere’s elite.
Her grey eyes stayed on the podium, her expression calm. Almost bored.
Voss.
He’d heard the name exactly once before. History class. Aldric Voss. Divine General. The man who sealed a world-ending gate from the inside two centuries ago and never came back out.
According to every history book, no heirs.
Corbyn glanced at her again.
This time she noticed.
Their eyes met for barely a second.
He looked away first.
"The ceremony will proceed according to family rank," Elder Vance continued. "When your name is called, approach the Resonance Pillar, place your dominant hand against its surface, and remain in contact until the system completes its reading. The process usually takes around ten seconds."
He adjusted the tablet in front of him.
"We’ll begin now."
The first name was hardly a surprise.
"Stellan Draves."
Stellan stood, straightened his uniform, and walked to the pillar like he’d done it a hundred times in his head already.
The crystal answered the moment his hand touched it.
Golden light flooded the chamber.
Combat Sovereign. SS-Rank.
The noble section erupted.
Stellan accepted it with the quiet confidence of someone who had expected nothing less and returned to his seat without hurrying.
One by one the ceremony continued.
The pillar never hesitated.
Another SS-rank. Two S-ranks. An A-rank that drew a disappointed sigh from its owner.
The merchant families produced respectable results. Two A-ranks. A Barrier Mage who grabbed her friend’s arm hard enough to leave marks.
Eventually only the commoners remained.
C-rank. D-rank.
Nothing anyone would remember.
Elder Vance glanced at his tablet one last time.
"Corbyn Veatch."
Nobody reacted.
He was the last student from the lowest-ranked district in the city. There was nothing worth watching here.
Corbyn stood, slipped his hands into his pockets briefly, then walked down the aisle toward the Resonance Pillar.
Up close the crystal felt warmer than it looked. Soft light drifted beneath its surface like a slow heartbeat. It had read fifty-one students today without a single problem.
He rested his palm against it.
Nothing happened.
Five seconds passed.
Ten.
A quiet laugh drifted from the noble section. Subtle enough to deny.
Elder Vance glanced at his tablet. "Give it another moment."
His voice carried very little confidence.
Then the pillar shuddered.
Not the gentle pulse everyone else had received. The entire crystal convulsed, the light inside dissolving into chaos, flashing white, then red, then a color Corbyn couldn’t put a name to.
Thin cracks spread beneath his palm.
"Step away from the pillar!" Vance snapped.
Corbyn tried.
He didn’t move.
The cracks raced upward, branching in every direction until they reached the top.
Then the pillar shattered.
Crystal fragments burst outward and rained onto the floor, settling into a near-perfect ring around his feet.
The sound wasn’t loud.
It was final.
Silence swallowed the hall.
A screen appeared before Corbyn — nothing like the clean blue windows everyone else had received. This one flickered violently, lines of text appearing, vanishing, rewriting themselves as if the system was arguing with itself.
[SOUL SIGNATURE SCAN — INITIATED]
[ERROR — SOUL SIGNATURE DOES NOT MATCH REGISTERED CANDIDATE]
[INTENDED RECIPIENT: ALDRIC VOSS — DECEASED]
[CALAMITY SUMMONER CLASS — ORIGINAL DESTINATION: ALDRIC VOSS]
[REROUTE FAILED — CLASS CANNOT BE REASSIGNED ONCE CONTACT IS MADE]
[CLASS FORCIBLY ASSIGNED: CORBYN VEATCH]
[RANK: UNREGISTERED]
[WARNING — THIS IS A GLITCH. THE SYSTEM DOES NOT ENDORSE THIS OUTCOME.]
Corbyn read it once.
Then again.
The class had been sitting in the system for two hundred years, locked to a dead man’s name. It had never found its intended recipient.
Then he touched the pillar last , because commoners always go last and the system panicked.
He let out a slow breath that almost became a laugh.
"What rank?"
Stellan’s voice cut through the silence. Not curiosity. A demand.