Forgaze City—stone-carved streets, looming towers, and skies thick with pride. The Arclight Clan, small yet burning, was now one of Kaizan's many vessel clans. They were given quarters on the city's far edge—a cramped dwelling, barely enough for four. But it was shelter. It was a beginning.
Reve stepped outside, taking in the overwhelming noise of the city. He walked past lavish clan halls, expensive aura shops, and training arenas buzzing with energy. But what caught his eye was something else—the way people looked at him. Disgust, pity, mockery. The symbol of a vessel clan stitched on his shoulder felt more like a target than an identity.
Children ran by, pointing and laughing at his patch. A merchant shooed him away for "standing too close." A noble disciple whispered, "Another worm hoping to crawl into our sky."
He clenched his fists but said nothing. Let them laugh, he thought. Let them doubt.
Meanwhile, back at their quarters, Eiran handed Arel and Mina two old scrolls of basic aura cultivation. His tone was calm, but his eyes were serious.
"You must reach the Base Stage of aura before I return. That's an order."
"Where are you going, Grandpa?" Mina asked, concerned.
"Some… business," Eiran replied with a smile, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Reve will be back before sunset. You two must train till then."
And with that, the old man vanished into the crowded veins of Forgaze.
Forgaze, like many major clan cities, followed a common structure—an expansive inner area, reserved for the clan's main halls, disciples, and elite activities, and an outer area, where vessel clans and ordinary citizens dwelled. Eiran, with decades of experience in reading city structures and behavior patterns, navigated expertly.
Though barred entry into the Kaizan inner circle, Eiran wasn't new to scouting. Not through memory—but through intuition, observation, and hardened instinct. His eyes scanned the movements, the guards' routines, the rhythm of deliveries.
He found a narrow alley between two aura forges, used frequently by messengers. There, he gathered hushed conversations, intercepted subtle signals, and pieced them together like a seasoned hawk tracking prey.
And the name he heard confirmed everything.
Sarah.
She wasn't just anyone in Kaizan. She was the daughter of the current Clan Head… and the elder sister of the most powerful elite disciple the clan had produced in a century.
She had been sent to the Meadows Region—not as a prisoner or exile, but as a vice leader in a classified investigation, representing Kaizan's interest in foreign affairs. It wasn't public knowledge. But Eiran had ways of knowing.
He slipped back through the alleys, quieter than a shadow.
Back at their quarters, Arel and Mina sat cross-legged, sweat dripping from their foreheads. A faint glow shimmered around Arel's fingers—his aura beginning to stir.
Reve returned by dusk, standing in the doorway silently, watching them try.
He smiled.
Then looked up at the sky beyond Forgaze
, and whispered, "Just wait. We'll rise."