The symbols spun in the air like they were caught in a slow dance. Threads of faint blue light looped between them, shifting gently, as if breathing. Kael sat frozen in the dark, knees pulled to his chest, breath shallow.
He hadn't meant to do it.
He'd just… focused. Plucked that thread of power like a string on a guitar, and this had happened.
It was beautiful.
And terrifying.
Because he had no idea how to stop it.
One symbol pulsed brighter than the rest. A perfect circle with a downward slash across its center. As Kael watched, it spun slowly until it faced him directly.
Then it spoke.
Not in words.
In feeling.
He felt weight. Like standing at the edge of something vast. Something ancient. A presence that didn't recognize him as a person—only as a component. A gear in a machine built before history.
And just as suddenly as it had come, the light snapped out.
The room plunged into darkness.
Kael gasped. His lungs ached. Sweat clung to his forehead like glue. His hands trembled.
He hadn't moved an inch, but he felt like he'd just sprinted up a mountain.
Something inside him ached—not a physical pain, but something beneath. Something buried.
Backlash.
Delra's warning echoed in his head.
"Untrained Sparks are unpredictable. Dangerous. Easy to break."
Kael collapsed back onto the bed, the breath knocked from him by something invisible. His muscles twitched. A migraine exploded behind his eyes.
When sleep came, it was restless, and filled with faint whispers in a language he didn't understand.
Kael woke to the sound of his phone buzzing.
It was a message from Ren.
Ren: Yo. You look like death yesterday. U sick?
Ren (30 seconds later): Also… did u do something to the locker hallway?? One of the lights exploded. Janitor thinks it's faulty wiring but bro…
Kael's stomach dropped.
He hadn't done anything to the hallway, had he?
He'd passed through there after school. His mind had been clouded. The sigil had still been active. Could he have—?
Another message.
Ren: Did I dream this or did you say something about glowing rocks last week?
Kael didn't respond.
He just stared at the screen, feeling like a noose was tightening.
The sigil wasn't staying quiet anymore.
And people were starting to notice.
Later that morning, Delra found him behind the gym, crouched beneath the bleachers. She didn't say anything at first. Just sat beside him, quiet.
Kael didn't look up.
"I think I triggered something last night," he said.
Delra nodded. "I felt it."
"You felt it?"
"Your sigil flared. Hard. It rattled the grid."
"The grid?"
Delra hesitated. "There's… a network. Threads that connect bonded sigils. They run deeper than the physical. Through the world, through us. When one flares too hard, it disturbs the weave."
Kael let out a bitter laugh. "You sound like a metaphysics professor."
"I'm not. I'm a runner. My sigil amplifies movement. Speed. I can cross a city in minutes if I push hard enough. But if I don't calculate for thread feedback, I could tear my own legs off."
Kael winced. "...Fun."
"I'm saying this because you need to understand: sigils are not tools. They're symbiotic systems. You use them—they use you back."
Kael pulled out his shard and stared at it. It pulsed faintly. As if… listening.
"Mine showed me symbols last night," he said. "They weren't random. They meant something. I just don't know what."
Delra's eyes narrowed. "That's early."
"Early?"
"Symbols usually come later. When a Spark approaches Burn."
"Burn?"
She took a stick and drew a crude ladder in the dirt between them. Seven rungs.
Then she labeled them:
1. Spark2. Burn3. Flare4. Awakened5. Ascend6. Transcend7. Origin
Kael raised an eyebrow. "We're naming these after kitchen accidents now?"
"Shut up."
He smirked.
She went on, "Most people never move past Spark. Burn happens when the sigil begins to integrate with you. Emotion, memory, instinct—it's like burning your own self into the system."
"And the rest?"
"Each stage past Burn requires more than just power. It requires choice. Will. Creativity. Not everyone can do it. And those who try too fast…" She didn't finish that sentence.
Kael looked down at the dirt ladder.
"Origin," he said quietly. "What happens at the top?"
Delra's voice turned grim. "That's when you become the sigil."
At lunch, Ren finally cornered him.
Kael tried to brush him off, but Ren had that rare look—part concern, part stubbornness—that meant he wasn't going away.
They sat on the school roof, empty sandwiches between them.
"I know something's going on," Ren said.
Kael stayed silent.
Ren sighed. "Bro. Come on. You don't have to lie."
"I'm not lying."
"You're hiding. There's a difference."
Kael picked at a tear in his hoodie. "What if I told you… something happened. Something weird. Something I don't even understand myself."
Ren shrugged. "Then I'd say 'sounds like your whole life, dude.'"
Kael laughed despite himself.
But Ren's tone sobered. "For real though. I've known you since middle school. You're not crazy. You're not reckless. But the way you looked yesterday—like you saw something that broke you."
Kael hesitated.
Then asked, "Do you believe in… things bigger than us?"
Ren blinked. "Like gods?"
"No. Not exactly. Like… systems. Hidden rules. Secrets baked into the universe that we just… never see."
Ren thought about it. "Sometimes. I guess. Depends if I'm high or not."
Kael grinned. "Fair."
He didn't say more.
But when they walked back inside, he felt a little less alone.
That night, Kael went back to the shard.
Not to trigger it.
Just to listen.
He sat on the floor, lights off, shard resting on a cloth-covered plate.
It didn't glow.
Didn't pulse.
Didn't whisper.
But the moment he closed his eyes, he felt it.
A pull.
Not from the shard—but through it.
A place.
A pressure.
He focused.
Images came in flickers.
A tower buried in glass. A city with no sky. A library built inside a star.
And through it all, a sigil—circular, endless, bleeding light from its seams.
Then came the whispers.
Clearer this time.
"Awaken the bond. Fracture the lie."
Kael snapped upright, gasping.
His nose was bleeding.
The shard glowed faintly red now. A deeper color than before. Like it had tasted something.
Kael wiped the blood away and stared at it.
He wasn't sure if he was more terrified of what was coming…
…or how much he wanted to see it through.