POV: Selene
...…..
They said training would get easier.
Whoever they were, they lied.
The arena smelled like sweat, scorched metal, and frustration. The gravity had been dialed up by thirty percent again, which meant every movement felt like dragging yourself through molasses. And Selene? She was floating an inch off the floor, legs crossed mid-air, completely still.
Totally zen on the outside.
Absolutely screaming on the inside.
She watched as Zane and Kio brawled in the center ring, one zipping around with bursts of lightning, the other swinging his fists like he was born in a demolition yard. A pillar crumbled behind them with a satisfying boom, and Kio roared, "STOP ZAPPING MY BUTT, YOU SPARKY TROLL!"
Selene didn't flinch. But her lip twitched.
Dae was somewhere in the far left ring, sparring with Vera under Rea's icy supervision. It was part training, part slow-motion humiliation. Kairoth glimmered faintly on his finger, still new and unpredictable, like a weapon that didn't want to be held.
He moved clumsily, hesitant.
Selene's shadow curled beneath her.
She hated watching him train.
Not because he was bad.
But because it hurt.
Every time he winced, she felt it. Like her nerves were tuned to his pain, which~honestly~rude. She didn't sign up for this weird psychic crush nonsense. She'd barely talked to the guy. And when she did? It was awkward. Like, capital-A Awkward with extra vowels.
"Why are you always scowling?" Rea had asked her once.
Selene hadn't answered.
Because the real answer was: I'm scowling so I don't burst into flames when he looks at me.
...….
Training days at Blackridge followed no pattern.
Some mornings, they woke to sunrise alarms. Others, the lights flickered blue and Pix's voice simply said, "If you're still in bed, you're already failing." That one gave Vera an anxiety attack and made Syra theatrically faint into a pile of clean laundry.
The academy's main training deck sat beneath the freshwater dome, sealed in layers of enchanted crystal. There were six core zones: elemental manipulation fields, reflex simulators, aerial maneuver domes, physical combat rings, energy control halls, and… the Crucible.
But no one mentioned the Crucible unless they had to.
Not since the incident.
Not since Dae's shadow almost killed him.
Selene still saw it in her sleep.
The way he fell.
The way he screamed.
That moment, when her body moved on its own, when she almost ran to him but caught herself just in time.
If she'd stepped forward… everyone would've seen. Her roommates. The instructors. Dae.
But she didn't.
Three seconds.
That's how long she stood frozen.
Three seconds of weakness.
Three seconds too long.
Now she avoided the Crucible altogether.
Which was hard. Since it was starting to whisper to her again.
Fragments.
Half-formed sentences from the visions. Prophetic nonsense that wouldn't leave her alone.
"The boy with the ring will burn or bind the stars…"
She didn't tell anyone. Not even Noor, and Noor could keep secrets like a locked safe wrapped in silence.
.....
"Selene," Pix crackled through the comms above the arena. "You're up. Zone Three."
She descended with a bored expression, but her stomach flipped.
Zone Three was the darkness maze.
Great. Just what she needed. Another emotional metaphor.
As she walked past the others, she caught the tail end of a conversation.
"…he's been getting better," Rea said to An. "Slower to panic now."
"Still too soft," Vera added. "Power doesn't mean anything if your heart's glass."
Selene's hand curled into a fist.
She didn't turn around.
Didn't defend him.
Didn't say: You think glass can't cut you?
Instead, she entered the black maze and let the shadows swallow her.
...…
Later that night, dorm life was… loud.
Not in a bad way. Just alive.
Syra had stolen Jin's soap and replaced it with jelly. Lune was playing distorted violin in the common room like a mad banshee, and Nira was polishing her ice-branded boots with more care than anyone should.
Selene was stretched across her bunk, one leg dangling, a book open on her stomach that she hadn't read a single word of.
"Are you thinking about him again?" Noor asked, not looking up from her holo-puzzle.
Selene didn't move. "I think about a lot of people."
"Uh-huh." Noor smirked.
Lune bounced onto the edge of her bed. "So… when are you gonna tell Dae you'd literally murder a god for him?"
Selene sat up like a spring-loaded trap. "I…what?"
"Oh come on," Nira muttered from her corner. "You stare at him like he's the last chocolate on Earth and you're trying to be polite."
"I do not."
"You do," Noor confirmed.
"I saw you almost break through a panic field just to pull him out during the trial," Lune said dramatically. "Almost. And then you stopped yourself like a tsundere in an anime reboot."
Selene rolled her eyes. "He doesn't even notice me."
Lune leaned closer. "You don't want him to. That's the problem."
That part wasn't wrong.
...…
The next morning, they were briefed for their second Crucible prep.
Pix floated above them, flickering as always, giving them some speech about pressure, potential, and panic thresholds. Dae stood a few people away, quietly sipping from a metal bottle. His hair was still damp from showering.
Selene was not looking.
(Definitely looking.)
"Your vision matrix may fracture," Pix said. "Expect emotional interference. Don't resist it. Learn from it."
Vera raised a hand. "What happens if we see the future again?"
Pix paused. "…Then you've earned more than most."
Selene shifted.
Because she had seen the future.
Or something like it.
Not in full.
Just flickers. Fragments. A falling star. A throne of shattered moons. A boy kneeling at the center of a burning galaxy, screaming a name she couldn't hear but knew was hers.
And the ring.
Always the ring.
Kairoth.
She didn't know how she knew its name.
Only that the moment she saw it on Dae's hand, something ancient had stirred in her bones.
And for the first time since waking up in this academy, she'd felt afraid.
Not of him.
But of what comes after.
...
That night, after lights-out, she lay awake again.
She remembered how he'd looked that day, when the shadow version of himself nearly crushed his spine.
He didn't cry.
He just bled and gasped and got up.
And she'd wanted to wrap him in her arms and whisper that it was okay. That someone still saw him. That even if the rest of the world forgot him, she wouldn't.
But she didn't.
She just stood there.
Three seconds.
Three seconds too long.
...….
To be continued in Chapter 20: "The Boy With The Ring"
(Selene's Crucible visions deepen, and her mask begins to crack.)