The next morning felt like nothing had happened.
Vouille wore its usual stillness, quiet streets, slow-moving buses, and early fog curling between buildings. People smiled, chatted, lived.
But Kahel walked through it all like a ghost.
Every face looked normal.
Every glance felt suspicious.
His fight with Varen replayed in his head, every move, every shift in pressure. He hadn't expected to win, but something about the way Varen spoke still lingered.
They'll want to see you themselves.
Kahel didn't know who they were.
But he had a feeling they wouldn't knock politely.
At school, he couldn't focus. His pencil hovered above the page, untouched. Matis mocked him twice. He didn't even hear it.
The words from his mother's journal circled through his thoughts.
"There are things in this world no one talks about…"
Now he knew why.
Not because they were myths, but because they were watching.
That evening, Kahel stopped outside a small electronics store on the edge of town. His reflection stared back at him from the dark glass.
Calm brown eyes. Long black hair tied behind his head. A student, nothing more.
But his qi pulsed beneath the surface like a second heart.
He turned to leave and paused.
A small slip of white paper had been taped to the window beside his reflection.
At first glance, it looked like an ad.
But it wasn't.
There were only two words on it.
"North Bridge. Midnight."
His eyes scanned the block. No one was watching. No one stood nearby.
But someone had left it for him.
Someone who knew.
Back home, Mia was already asleep, arms wrapped around her stuffed fox. She'd left the TV on again, cartoons looping gently through the room. Kahel turned it off, brushed a strand of hair from her face, and stood there a moment longer than usual.
Then he left, silently.
Vouille's North Bridge was old. Half the lights didn't work. It crossed a small river and led into the forest path Kahel used for early training.
It was a dead place after dark.
Until now.
Kahel arrived ten minutes early and waited.
Nothing.
Then, at exactly midnight, a soft crunch echoed through the trees.
A woman stepped out of the shadows.
She wore a long, dark coat and gloves, her face half-covered by a scarf. But her posture was straight, balanced and alert.
"You're earlier than I expected," she said. "That's good."
"Who are you?" Kahel asked.
"I'm no one important," she replied. "But they sent me to offer you something."
Kahel didn't speak.
"We don't accept many self-taught practitioners," she continued. "Most burn out. Their qi spirals out of control. They die chasing what they don't understand."
"But I'm still standing," Kahel said.
"Which is why I'm here."
She stepped closer, then reached into her coat and pulled out a thin envelope.
Inside, he could see a seal stamped with silver ink. A symbol shaped like a circle broken by a blade.
"An invitation," she said.
Kahel didn't take it.
"What if I refuse?"
She paused.
"Then they'll mark you as unaligned. A rogue. They won't kill you. Not yet. But they'll watch you."
"And if I accept?"
"You enter the world you've been chasing."
Kahel looked down at the envelope. Then back up at her.
"I'll think about it."
"You have two days," she said, turning to leave. "After that, the door closes."
She vanished into the trees, her footsteps fading like smoke.
Kahel stood alone under the stars, the wind curling around him like a warning.
The world wasn't waiting anymore.
It was moving.