Kael didn't know how to form a squad.
He stood among the tide of students funnelling through the crystal-lit halls of Centralis Institute, each one branded by the colours and insignia of the old Clans. Their Crowns shimmered like banners. Voices buzzed about tournament invitations, artefact resonance, and squad drafting. Everyone moved with purpose—except him.
He wasn't from a Clan. He wasn't even from anywhere that mattered.
He followed the stream down a quieter hall, walls dimmer, the magic-etched stone less polished. The sign above the door flickered with static: Unaligned Magic theory.
Kael stepped in.
The classroom was nothing like the grand lecture halls of Centralis. It was smaller, older, with cracked floors and a hum that grated in the walls. Inside were maybe a dozen students. No bearing house crests none with the normal hubris associated with crowned.
Just misfits.
A girl with rusted metal prosthetics. A boy whose Crown flickered like a broken lantern. Another who never lifted his eyes from a notebook covered in runes that pulsed wrong.
Kael sat near the middle, trying to seem smaller than he was. The instructor—a man with half his face replaced by metal and his voice dripping venom—stepped to the front.
"I see we've collected the spare parts," he muttered, not bothering to project. "Clanless bottom-drawers. Your only job is not to die in the first month. Try not to embarrass this institution further."
Kael swallowed it. He was used to being overlooked. But it still burned.
He kept his eyes down not from any fear but he was unbothered—until he felt it. A pressure. A strange weight in the room that pulled on his breath.
At the back of the classroom, leaning in the shadow near a flickering window, was a student Kael hadn't noticed. He stood with his head tilted back slightly, eyes half-lidded, as if asleep. His skin was pale gold, almost metallic under the dim lights. He was tall—taller than Kael—with braids that swept over his head in a—tribal fashion?
Crownlight rolled off him naturally. Not in bursts or flickers, but like a low tide dragging everything toward him.
But something was wrong.
Next to that presence was another—darker. A current that flowed the wrong way. Kael blinked and felt his Arc twist for a second, like he'd looked into a mirror and seen someone else's face. That Crownlight—It was reversed!
The boy's lips were cracked and his nails sharp. His black hair shimmered with oil and dust. Pale skin in this time was common but he almost felt porcelain and fake. His ears were pierced with dark metal rings that hummed faintly with some unknown resonance. And the longer Kael stared, the more the boy's piercing crimson eyes slowly opened.
Kael froze in anticipation.
The student's gaze locked with his, unblinking. A grin cracked across his face—too slow, too wide.
"What," the boy drawled, his voice gravel and honey, "you see something you like?"
Kael looked away instantly, heart hammering.
The footsteps came soft and measured as he came closer.
"You've been staring for a while," the boy continued, sauntering forward. "Got a problem, or are you just slow?"
Kael's mind scrambled for something to say. His Arc was humming uncomfortably under his skin. That pressure, that Crownlight—there was something about it. Wrong and magnetic.
The boy reached out a hand toward Kael's shoulder.
Then the teacher slammed a palm on the podium. "Break it off," he snapped. "Save the fights for the field, not my classroom."
The boy stopped an inch from Kael, grinning.
"Watch yourself, glassboy," the tall boy from earlier whispered.
Kael frowned. "What?"
"Glass," the boy repeated. "You look like you'll shatter when it matters."
He turned, walking back to his seat with the same eerie calm. Just before he slouched into his chair again, he added without looking back:
"Name's Sol."
"And I'm Kael" he nodded back before walking to his seat.
The instructor started. But not before eyeing them all with some deep found disgust he made sure to hide his feelings for one.
"As the Dean has told you this morning it is expected for you to form squads of 4 by the end of this week. By normal circumstances you would have already had teams formed" But with you... I digress there are 16 of you in this class I expect your to sort yourselves out as you have given your attendances and attitudes."
small murmurs in the room could be heard as the class slowly scanned each other. Kael thought "so now do i scout for friends or enemies.
After the instructor dismissed himself the class formed makeshift groups without some of the girls complaining about not being in a group with someone who seemed to have the most potent Crownlight in the room.
Kael's eyes scanned the room but they kept circling back to him.
the strange dark haired individual from before
Soahc sat in his seat like he owned the shadows around it, one arm slung over the backrest head tilted and eyes half closed like he was bored of the world. But his crown light it still felt so strange. Like something a live inside it was trying to get out
"Screw it"
He crossed the room with lingering glances as he approached Soahc didn't move he just watched him with the same lazy interest.
Kael stopped a foot away
"That crown," he said "it doesn't feel right"
Soahc blinked once , lips curling into that slow smile "Oh?" he said "you trying flirt or accuse me of something?"
Kael didn't flinch "it feels like its flowing backward"
"That's because it is he whispered "Voice dry link wind through ash "you ever watch fire freeze? That's what it feels like in my head"
Kael smirked "that's not-"
"Normal?" Soahc cut in he stood moving closer "I'm not normal little crown but I get we aren't that different you... you're also very strange"
Kael instinctively stepped back but it wasn't out of fear a strange fascination held him
Sols voice cut in from the side "Told you he'd get curious, Soahc You've got that I was put in psych ward as a child vibes going"
Soahc didn't look at him "And you've got that clan-polished shine that makes me want to puke sol."
Sol chuckled. "Aw, you love me"
Kael glanced between them "you two know each other?"
"We've fought" Soahc muttered "Twice i lost both times. but i enjoyed it."
"What about you Kael from the look on your face you didn't expect me to remember your name."
Kael hesitated "no that's not it and I'm no clan no squad for now"
"Strange" Sol said "they allow a clan less nobody on the last term right before the most dangerous expedition."
Soahc with that stared at Kael his crimson eyes flicking up and down Kael's form
But before Kael could speak a sharp and sandpaper smooth came from the other side
"Shut up"
A girl with deep violet hair and a tangle of silver charms woven through it her eyes half lidded. A tattoo pulsed between one
"I'm trying to dream up the perfect railgun, and your existential crisis duet is breaking my rhythm
The trio stared at her surprised
"call me Ishtar" she yawned "you're all loud. Especially reverse-boy"
Soahc gave her a low look. "You dream loud too"
she flicked them off without opening her eyes.