NOVEL WEB Chapter 20: Black rings
The Cradle didn't wake that morning to the usual chaos of fire drills or lightning practice, but to an eerie stillness that made everyone's skin crawl. It was the kind of quiet that came before thunderstorms, when even the birds stopped singing and the air itself seemed to hold its breath.
Ares stood at the center of the stone courtyard alongside three others, feeling like he was waiting for his own execution. The air was crisp and sharp, heavy with something unspoken that pressed down on their shoulders like invisible weights. Above them, the sky was the color of cold steel, with angry clouds rolling across it like smoke from a distant fire. The sun was hiding somewhere behind the jagged mountains that loomed over Eisenhart's fortress domain like sleeping giants.
They had all passed the Appraisal, barely, in some cases, but they had survived.
Now came something else, the binding.
Matron Veltrissa stood atop the raised stone platform like a dark queen holding court, her midnight-black Eisenklinge uniform making her look like a piece of the night sky that had decided to take human form. The blood-red insignia of her Warden rank blazed against her obsidian coat like a fresh wound, and her rapier hung at her side, its blade gleaming with the kind of shine that promised it had tasted blood many times before.
Before her, displayed on a black cloth-covered pedestal like precious jewels, rested four rings. They looked simple enough at first glance, just plain black bands that might have been carved from polished stone. But as you got closer, you could see the tiny runes etched into their surfaces, symbols that seemed to shift and dance when you weren't looking directly at them. The rings pulsed with a faint magical glow that made the air around them shimmer like heat waves rising from summer pavement.
Each one looked harmless, unremarkable, until you got close enough to feel the power radiating from them.
Then you could sense it crawling under your skin: the pressure, the control, the bone-deep weight of a magical contract that couldn't be broken by anything short of death.
"Step forward," Veltrissa commanded, her voice cutting through the morning stillness like a blade through silk.
Ares was the first to move, because of course he was. His feet carried him toward the pedestal before his brain had time to second-guess the decision.
Ever since the appraisal three days ago, the entire Cradle had been buzzing with whispers that followed him through the corridors like persistent flies. Word had spread faster than wildfire through dry grass, that he was not only the sixteenth son of the mighty Lord Alaric, but that the legendary Eyes of Veyr had actually failed to properly measure his magical potential.
Immeasurable. The word had been carved into that floating plaque like an accusation.
He hadn't fully understood what it meant at first. The implications had been too big, too strange to wrap his mind around. But now, as he walked toward those black rings with every eye in the courtyard following his movement, he felt the crushing weight of every stare burning into his back. He could practically taste the emotions swirling around him like smoke: envy sharp as broken glass, fear cold as winter morning, and curiosity hungry as a starving wolf.
The ring was waiting for him, his ring, he slid it onto his finger with a chill that went deeper than cold, sinking into his bones and making his teeth ache. For a moment, the metal felt like it was made of liquid ice. Then it pulsed once, a pulse that seemed to reach directly into his mana core and squeeze, and suddenly the ring felt warm, alive, like it had become part of his very flesh.
The binding was complete. There was no going back now.
One by one, the others followed his lead, Sylas moving like a ghost, Lysandra walking with perfect grace, and Maelia trying to hide how her hands were shaking. All of them now marked by the black metal. All of them now officially Trainees instead of mere Initiates.
The weight of it settled on their shoulders like invisible chains.
Veltrissa stepped down from her platform to face them directly, her crimson eyes scanning each of their faces like she was reading their souls.
"This ring now binds you to the Cradle," she said, her voice carrying the authority of someone who had never been questioned. "It is your key to locked doors, your contract with this institution, and yes, your leash when you forget your place. The ring will log your magical growth, your training mistakes, and your victories. It will show us exactly who you are when no one else is watching."
As she spoke, soft glyph wheels began to flicker to life above each child's ring, magical displays visible to everyone in the courtyard. Names floated in glowing letters. Mana ranks pulsed like heartbeats. Elemental affinities swirled in colored spirals. Core conditions glowed steady green or flashed warning yellows. All of it projected like ethereal holograms that turned their most private magical information into a public display.
There was nowhere to hide anymore.
"From this day forward, you are no longer Initiates stumbling around in the dark," Veltrissa continued, beginning to pace back and forth in front of them like a caged predator. "You are Trainees. Your time here will be harder than anything you've experienced so far. It will be crueler, more demanding, and more painful. But for those strong enough to endure it, it will also be infinitely more rewarding."
She paused, letting that sink in like poison seeping into a wound.
"The Cradle operates on three distinct phases: Initiate, Trainee, and Finalist. You've survived the first phase, congratulations. That was the easy part, the gentle introduction designed to weed out the truly hopeless cases."
Maelia's eyes widened like she'd just been slapped.
"From this moment on, everything costs merit points. Every shrine visit will drain your account. Every meal will require payment. Healing draughts, advanced classes, even permission to sleep past the dawn bell, you will pay for it all with your performance. Excellence is rewarded. Mediocrity is starved."
The words hit them like physical blows. During the Initiate phase, basic needs had been provided automatically. Now they would have to earn the right to eat.
"Merit points are earned through everything you do," Veltrissa continued relentlessly. "Combat trial victories, written examination scores, shrine endurance records, and behavioral evaluations. If your merit account falls to zero, all access locks. No food. No healing. No help. You survive on your own strength or you don't survive at all."
The silence that followed was the kind that made your ears ring. Even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing.
Veltrissa turned sharply and gestured toward a nearby doorway that had been sealed with heavy iron bars until this moment. The bars began to retract with a deep mechanical grinding sound, revealing a massive hallway that stretched into darkness. Strange blue light emanated from somewhere deep within, casting eerie shadows on the walls.
"That," she said, her voice dropping to something almost like reverence, "is the Echo Vault. Inside are dozens of Echo Chambers, magical simulation rooms created using ancient Auracore memory spheres recovered from battlefields across the realm. Here, you will face echoes of real monsters: beasts, and past Eisenklinge warriors ranging from novice-level threats to intermediate nightmares that have ended the careers of seasoned warriors."
Sylas's pale eyes narrowed as he stared into that blue-lit darkness. Lysandra straightened her spine even more, if that was possible. Maelia looked like she might be sick.
"These Echo Battles are not mere illusions or training exercises," Veltrissa warned, her voice carrying the weight of absolute truth. "The monsters you face will be memory-perfect recreations of creatures that have killed real people. They will hurt you. They will break bones and tear flesh. They will shatter your confidence and expose every weakness you try to hide. And if you are weak, if you are unprepared, they will teach you the final lesson that failure brings."
The threat hung in the air like smoke from a funeral pyre.
Ares didn't blink. His dark eyes remained fixed on that blue-lit entrance, and something inside his chest began to burn with anticipation instead of fear.
Veltrissa looked at each of them in turn, her crimson gaze burning into their souls like brands. "Your rings will track absolutely everything. Your magical rank progression. Your tactical failures. Your moments of cowardice. The exact amount of pain you can endure before breaking. And when the time finally comes for you to graduate from this place, we will know exactly who deserves to carry the Eisenklinge name with pride."
She turned without another word and walked away, her boots clicking against the stone like a countdown timer, leaving them standing there in the morning chill.
Four children who had been through hell and thought they were stronger for it.
No longer Initiates fumbling in the dark.
Bound by black rings that would judge their every breath.
And burdened by the crushing weight of expectations that felt heavier than mountains.
Ares looked down at the glowing glyphs spinning gently above his ring hand, reading his magical statistics like a report card written in light:
Name: Ares Eisenklinge
Rank: Trainee (Year 2)
Mana Rank: Intermediate (Low)
Core Status: Stable
Elemental Affinity: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Ice, Lightning.
Potential: Unreadable
Merit Points: 175
The others gathered around him, reading their own displays with expressions ranging from determination to barely concealed panic. But Ares barely noticed them. His attention was fixed on that last line, on the red X that marked where his potential should have been measured.
Unreadable.
His lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile but wasn't quite a grimace either. It was the expression of someone who had just been handed a challenge that might kill him, and found himself looking forward to it anyway.
Time to start climbing again. And this time, he wasn't planning to stop until he reached heights that no one thought possible.
The Echo Vault waited in the darkness, promising pain and growth in equal measure.
He could hardly wait to see what monsters were waiting for him in those blue-lit chambers.