The first lesson wasn't about strength.
It was about stillness.
Elior sat cross-legged on the worn mat in his apartment, the Codex of Veins opened before him. A candle flickered nearby—not for light, but focus.
He had tried to follow the diagrams.
Circles, meridian lines, breathing rhythms that made no logical sense… yet felt right. The instructions weren't detailed. They weren't even in a language he fully understood.
But as he slowed his breath…
Silence crept in.
Not the silence of an empty room.
The silence beneath the city noise.
A layer below everything—like standing at the edge of a vast lake at night.
Feel the current, the Codex said. Don't chase it. Let it find you.
At first, nothing happened.
But then…
The warmth returned.
Not as a surge, but a flicker—just beneath the skin, like the memory of heat. It followed his breath, curling through his chest and into his limbs.
His palm tingled.
The three-ring mark flared faintly, resonating with his pulse. Not painful this time. More like… acknowledgment.
You're starting to listen.
He didn't know how long he sat there.
Time slipped away.
At some point, the candle went out. The glyphs in the Codex dimmed. And when he opened his eyes… the world had shifted.
The room looked the same.
But he felt it differently.
Each object around him left a faint trail—a residue of presence, or maybe energy. The jade ring on his finger pulsed faintly, reacting to unseen threads in the air.
He could sense them.
Weak. Flickering. Like frayed wires sparking behind the wall of reality.
But they were there.
A knock snapped him out of it.
Sharp. Urgent.
He opened the door slowly—ready to dismiss a delivery or neighbor.
But the hallway was empty.
Except for the envelope lying on the floor.
He picked it up.
No name. No seal. Just the faint smell of burned paper.
Inside: a single photograph.
It showed a run-down warehouse.
And in the corner, blurred by distance…
A person with the same three-ring symbol glowing on their neck.
He turned the photo over. A single line was scrawled in ink:
"You're not the only one."
Elior stared at the photo, heart pounding again—but not from fear.
From purpose.
The silence had taught him something.
He wasn't alone.
And if there were others…
He had to find them.
Or they would find him first.