The ocean was calmer by the time Kahoni began the lesson.

  Moonlight stretched across the water in long silver lines, broken only by the slow rise and fall of the tide. Each wave folded softly onto the sand before retreating into the dark again. The air smelled of salt and cold sea wind.

  Kahoni stood barefoot where the water met the shore, hands folded behind his back as if the entire ocean were something he personally supervised.

  Which, judging by the island, wasn’t entirely impossible.

  I stopped a few steps behind him.

  “So,” I said, folding my arms.

  “This is the training?”

  Kahoni glanced over his shoulder.

  “This,” he said calmly, “is the beginning.”

  He turned fully toward me, the wind tugging lightly at the loose sleeves of his robes.

  “The first step of Spirit Arts,” he continued, “is acceptance.”

  I waited.

  Kahoni didn’t seem bothered by the silence.

  “You accept your spirit,” he explained, “and then you begin acting like it.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Your spirit responds to recognition,” he said. “Move like it. Think like it. Breathe like it. When you do… it begins to empower you.”

  He gestured toward the open sea.

  “That is why we observe the creature our spirit resembles.”

  It took me exactly one second to see the problem.

  “How exactly,” I asked slowly, “am I supposed to observe a dragon?”

  Kahoni paused.

  Then he laughed — a loud, genuine laugh.

  “Yes,” he admitted.

  “That is a problem.”

  He stepped forward until the water lapped around his ankles.

  “To understand my spirit,” he said, “I spent seven days and seven nights with a pack of sharks.”

  I blinked.

  He didn’t look like he was joking.

  “On the eighth day,” Kahoni continued, “I challenged the alpha.”

  He reached up and touched the necklace around his neck — a cord strung with jagged shark teeth, worn smooth with time.

  “We fought.”

  The waves rolled in behind him, steady and quiet.

  “When he bit me,” Kahoni said, tapping one of the teeth, “his teeth broke off inside my skin.”

  “I kept them.”

  I stared at him.

  “That shark became my teacher.”

  For a moment, neither of us spoke.

  Then Kahoni sighed lightly.

  “Unfortunately,” he added, “you can’t really find dragons to learn from.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck.

  “Convenient.”

  Kahoni nodded thoughtfully.

  “But this is not the first time we’ve had a spirit without a clear form.”

  He glanced back toward the ocean.

  “The former champion, he also had an unusual spirit..”

  “And what did he do?” I asked.

  Kahoni’s expression remained perfectly calm.

  “He was a genius by all means. He skipped this step entirely.”

  That didn’t sound encouraging.

  “You will need to do something similar,” he said.

  Then he stopped talking.

  I waited.

  Nothing.

  “So…” I said slowly.

  “That’s the lesson?”

  Kahoni nodded once.

  “Look within your spirit again,” he said.

  “Eventually, it will respond.”

  I stared at him.

  Then I exhaled.

  “So much for training.”

  By the time I returned to the island’s central halls, the celebration had mostly faded.

  The fire pits still burned, but the loud energy from earlier had settled into quieter conversations and drifting groups of warriors. Shadows stretched across the stone floor beneath flickering torchlight.

  The chamber of the Oath of Ember stood open at the far end of the hall.

  Its tall stone doors were carved with ancient patterns that glowed faintly under the light of the braziers inside.

  The group had already gathered.

  Malik leaned against a pillar with his usual relaxed posture. Leilani stood nearby with her arms crossed, watching the flame in the center of the chamber. Nythrel lingered farther back, quietly observing everything.

  Aria stood with them.

  When she saw me enter, she gave a small nod.

  A warrior of the Oath stepped forward — not the captain, I think, but someone a few years older than the rest of us. The ember sigil glowed faintly across his chest.

  “You have become warriors of the Oath,” he said.

  His voice carried easily through the chamber.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  “You have proven yourselves as mighty warriors. From this moment forward, you serve the will of the island.”

  The flame in the center of the room flickered.

  “Your first assignment,” he continued, “will take you beyond Anakoa.”

  Malik straightened.

  “We’re leaving the island?” he asked.

  The warrior nodded.

  “You will travel to the outside world.”

  My shoulders relaxed before I could stop them.

  “Finally,” I muttered.

  The warrior ignored the comment.

  “The Oath of Ember watches the world beyond these shores,” he said.

  “When threats rise… we answer them.”

  His eyes briefly settled on me.

  “Your cover will be simple.”

  He gestured toward Aria.

  “You will attend Kael’s school.”

  Malik blinked.

  “School?”

  “You will enroll as transfer students,” the warrior clarified.

  “From Hawaii. An island country similar to Anakoa.”

  Leilani nodded slowly.

  Malik scratched the back of his head.

  “Hawaii, sounds interesting..”

  “The mission itself is investigation,” the warrior said.

  His tone hardened slightly.

  “We believe someone connected to the Banished has infiltrated the school.”

  The word seemed to linger in the chamber.

  Malik’s grin faded a little.

  Leilani’s arms tightened across her chest.

  Even Nythrel’s gaze sharpened.

  After a moment, the warrior stepped back.

  “The rest will be explained when you depart.”

  The meeting ended quietly. People began leaving the chamber in small groups.

  I stretched my arms and glanced toward the open doorway.

  “Finally,” I said again.

  Malik chuckled beside me.

  Leilani shot me a warning look.

  Aria didn’t laugh.

  Instead, she stepped in front of me.

  “One more thing,” she said.

  “You should know the story of the former Champion.”

  I shrugged.

  “Can’t say I’m not curious.”

  We walked toward the shoreline in silence.

  The island was quieter now. Most of the fires had burned low, leaving the beach lit mostly by moonlight.

  The ocean stretched out endlessly in front of us, dark and calm.

  Aria stopped near the waterline.

  For a while she didn’t speak.

  Then she said,

  “His name was Shogrel.”

  Her voice was quieter than usual.

  “He rescued me.”

  I turned slightly toward her.

  She kept her eyes on the ocean.

  “My parents died,” she said.

  “That’s why I moved away.”

  The waves rolled in softly against the sand.

  “He found me that night,” she continued.

  “Brought me here.”

  She paused.

  “That’s why we never saw each other again.”

  It made sense now, why she suddenly disappeared..

  The wind shifted across the beach.

  “He raised me.”

  That caught me off guard.

  Aria didn’t seem like someone who needed raising. She seemed strong.. Stronger than I had remembered, maybe that was why..

  “He was strong,” she said.

  “Stronger than anyone I’d ever seen.”

  “When he awakened his spirit, everyone said the same thing.”

  “A genius.”

  She crouched slightly and brushed her fingers through the sand.

  “He rose to the seat of Champion faster than anyone before him.”

  The island had believed in him.

  I could hear it in the way she spoke.

  “People called him the hero of the island,” she continued.

  “The chosen one.”

  She hesitated.

  “Even though he was an outsider.”

  Something clicked.

  “Wait,” I said.

  “He was an outsider too?”

  Aria nodded.

  “They say Anakoa opened its arms to him,” she said quietly.

  “He arrived as a child. Running from somewhere.”

  Her gaze drifted across the water.

  “Everyone believed the island loved him.”

  “And he loved the island.”

  The waves continued their slow rhythm against the shore.

  Neither of us spoke for a moment.

  But the question hung there anyway.

  If he was loved.

  If he was the hero.

  How did he become the leader of the Banished?

  Aria watched the waves for a long moment before continuing.

  “One day… Shogrel noticed people trying to locate the island.”

  I frowned slightly.

  “They were outsiders,” she said. “Scientists. Researchers. They had discovered traces of the island’s mana.”

  “The island’s mana?” I asked.

  “They wanted to harvest it,” Aria said quietly.

  “To use it for science… for weapons… for power.”

  Her voice hardened.

  “Shogrel discovered them before they reached the island.”

  The wind moved through the trees behind us.

  “He went to stop them.”

  Something in the way she said it made me uneasy.

  “He fought them,” she continued.

  “And he killed them.”

  “All of them.”

  I stared at her.

  “He didn’t stop there,” she added.

  “He left the island… and hunted down the rest.”

  The waves crashed a little louder now.

  “The Elders were furious. Heartbroken.”

  “A great war happened on the island,” she said.

  “To stop him.”

  “All the Elders joined forces in the end. They defeated him… and banished him.”

  “And the people who followed him.”

  She lowered her gaze.

  “Shogrel… was like a brother to me.”

  Silence settled between us.

  “I looked up to him.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck.

  “…I see.”

  Then I frowned slightly.

  “He just killed them?”

  Aria shook her head.

  “I don’t know what truly happened that day.”

  “But what I do know…”

  Her eyes hardened again.

  “He’s on the wrong path now.”

  “And we will stop him.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  She blinked.

  “Why?”

  Aria shook her head.

  “It has nothing to do with you.”

  “If anything,” she added, smiling faintly,

  “I’m the one who should apologize for dragging you into this world.”

  I shrugged.

  “Nah.”

  “It’s fine.”

  I glanced toward the dark ocean.

  “Honestly… I’m glad I know about all this.”

  “It’s better than being oblivious.”

  Aria smiled a little wider.

  “I’m glad you think so.”

  Then her expression became serious again.

  “But don’t let your guard down.”

  “This world is dangerous.”

  I nodded.

  “Yeah.”

  “If there’s one thing I learned this week…”

  “It’s not to underestimate things.”

  Aria chuckled softly.

  “Well… at least you can finally return home.”

  I blinked.

  Then my eyes widened.

  “Oh.”

  A sudden realization hit me like a punch.

  “Oh wait.”

  My head snapped toward the village.

  “OH WAIT.”

  “IT’S BEEN DAYS.”

  “I’M IN SO MUCH TROUBLE.”

  I spun around and started running.

  “I GOTTA GO!”

  Aria laughed behind me.

  “See you at school, Kael!”

  I ran down the path toward the docks.

  Toward home.

  Toward school.

  And toward a world that had suddenly become much bigger than I ever imagined.

  Behind me, the island of Anakoa slept quietly beneath the moon.

  But somewhere out there…

  The Banished were waiting.

  And their leader—

  Shogrel.