The parchment in Kaien's hand hummed with an eerie energy, almost as if the paper itself were alive, breathing with the pulse of magic. His fingers trembled as he slowly unrolled the glowing scroll, the faint scent of ink and parchment filling the room. It looked like an ordinary scroll at first glance, yet there was nothing ordinary about the way the words shimmered on its surface.
Kaien's heart thudded in his chest, but his curiosity drove him forward. He squinted at the first line, which seemed to have been written in flowing script.
"Kaien Lior wakes up in his dorm room, still groggy from the night before. The room is quiet, except for the soft hum of the academy's magic. He wonders about his purpose in Arcanum Academy."
Kaien froze, his fingers curling around the edges of the scroll. He had just woken up, and the first line on the parchment was exactly what he had done. He looked around the room again, the unsettling sense that he was being watched creeping over him. Could this be some kind of trick? Some illusion?
Without thinking, he continued reading. The next line appeared almost instantly, written in smooth, delicate strokes:
"Kaien's stomach growls, reminding him that he has missed breakfast. His thoughts wander to what he might have for lunch."
Kaien blinked. It was like the scroll was describing his very thoughts, as though it were reading his mind. A strange excitement bubbled up inside him, mixing with a sickening sense of dread.
"What if I could control this?" he whispered aloud.
The moment the words left his lips, the text on the parchment changed again.
"Kaien wonders if he could manipulate the scroll to change his fate. He decides to skip breakfast for the day."
Kaien's eyes widened. It was working. His thoughts, his intentions, were literally changing the reality of the scroll's words. But the question that gnawed at him was: Could he manipulate the world around him in the same way?
With a mixture of terror and exhilaration coursing through him, Kaien rushed toward the door, his mind racing. What if he could use this power to control the academy itself? He quickly scribbled a thought on the bottom of the scroll:
"I won't go to breakfast."
Without thinking, he placed the scroll on his desk and stood up. As he moved toward the door, he froze. Through the window, he could see students walking down the hall toward the cafeteria—but when he tried to open the door to leave his room, the hallway outside was completely blocked off by a wall of shimmering magic. It was as if the hallway itself had been sealed, preventing anyone from passing.
Kaien's breath caught in his throat. This wasn't just a coincidence. He had created this block.
"I didn't really mean that," he muttered to himself, feeling a surge of panic. He reached out to touch the wall, but it was solid—impenetrable.
Suddenly, the door to his room creaked open by itself, as if the magic had lifted. Kaien stumbled back into his room, heart racing.
He had just altered reality. And he was terrified of what might happen next.
Kaien's mind raced with possibilities. This scroll—this strange magic—could rewrite anything. He could change anything, control anyone, just by thinking about it. But with this power came a heavy sense of responsibility. How far could he push it before everything slipped out of his control?
Trying to calm himself, Kaien picked up the scroll again, his hands shaking. He needed to test it further.
"What if I change something small?" he whispered, glancing over the cafeteria menu he had seen earlier.
He scribbled one simple line on the scroll:
"Kaien orders a bowl of fruit instead of the usual scrambled eggs."
The scroll shimmered with new writing as soon as the ink dried. Kaien blinked, his heart skipping a beat. It had worked.
He stood up and made his way to the cafeteria, still feeling the strange pulse of the scroll's magic thrum beneath his fingertips. As he entered the bustling cafeteria, the atmosphere felt electric, the clatter of trays and the murmur of conversations filling the air. He made his way to the counter, where the cafeteria worker greeted him with a smile.
"Morning, Kaien," she said, handing him a tray of food. Kaien glanced down at it.
There, nestled in the center of the tray, was a bowl of fruit. It was a fresh assortment—bananas, berries, and melon slices.
Kaien's breath caught in his throat. It worked.
"This is incredible." The thought rushed through his mind. But with it came a deeper question. Could he use this magic for something more? Could he rewrite his own fate?
Kaien made his way back to his dorm room, feeling a strange sense of empowerment. This newfound ability had changed everything. He could rewrite his entire existence if he wanted to. Yet, as much as this realization thrilled him, there was something deeply unsettling about it. He wasn't sure whether he could control this magic—or if it would control him.
As he entered his room, his thoughts drifted to the faction he had been assigned to—the Scriptors. They were known for their ability to manipulate the written word, shaping reality itself through written incantations. In his early research, Kaien had learned that they were one of the most powerful factions at Arcanum Academy. But the power they wielded was dangerous—unstable, even.
The faction used written magic in their battles. He had written about it briefly, but never in great detail. Now that he was part of the faction, he realized the true implications of what that meant. The Scriptors were not just academics or scholars; they were warriors, and their battles were fought on the battlefield of the mind. Each word they wrote could tip the scales of any confrontation, and every glyph was a weapon.
But there was something more—a deeper secret Kaien had never touched on in his novel. The scroll in his hands was not merely a tool. It was a connection to something far more ancient—a force that governed the flow of words, sentences, and fates.
As Kaien sat on his bed, staring at the scroll in his hands, he wondered if he should test his power again. He could change anything he wanted—but what if he changed something too important? What if the world around him shifted in ways he couldn't predict?
But before he could decide, his eyes were drawn back to the scroll, where the words continued to change as if they had a mind of their own.
"Kaien feels an unsettling presence in the room. Something is watching him, waiting for his next move."
A cold chill crept over him. He glanced up—nothing. But his instincts told him something was coming.
It was then that his eyes caught a new sentence on the scroll—one that had appeared unexpectedly.
"Kaien is ignored by everyone in the room."
That was when the idea struck him.
Without thinking, Kaien reached for the scroll, and with a single, bold stroke of his pen, he crossed out the sentence.
"Kaien is ignored."
The moment the ink left the page, the world around him seemed to stop.
He stood up and turned toward the door of his room. He felt an odd sense of clarity. And then, without warning, the air in the room seemed to shift.
The silence was broken—every eye in the hallway outside turned toward him, as if they had been waiting for him all along.
Kaien swallowed hard. The words on the page had changed everything.
To be continued…