Dawn had yet to fully break when the sound of wood striking the warehouse door rang out.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Raka opened his eyes reluctantly.
For a few seconds, he had no idea where he was. The first thing he saw was the cracked wooden ceiling. Then the knocking came again.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
“Wake up.”
Alya’s voice.
Raka pulled the blanket over his face.
“Five more minutes.”
“Wake up.”
“I just went to sleep.”
“That’s your problem.”
Raka groaned.
After making a pact with Alya the night before, he’d realized one major mistake.
He had chosen a fugitive as his teacher.
And apparently, fugitives had no mercy for sleepy students.
Alya opened the door.
“If you don’t get up right now, training starts with running laps around the city.”
Raka sat up immediately.
“I’m up.”
Alya stood in the doorway with her arms crossed.
“Good.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s still morning.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“If you knew the time, you’d come up with an excuse to go back to sleep.”
Raka glared at her.
“Are you always like this?”
“Like what?”
“Annoying.”
Alya shrugged.
“If you want a pleasant teacher, find someone else.”
Raka stood and picked up his sword.
Dimas, who had been sleeping in the corner of the room, opened one eye.
“Good morning.”
Raka looked at him.
“You’re not coming?”
“I’m not that stupid.”
Alya tossed a wooden stick at Dimas.
Dimas caught it in surprise.
“Why did I get this?”
“Because if you just sit there and watch, you’ll get lazy.”
“I don’t want to practice magic.”
“Good. Then you can practice swordsmanship.”
Dimas looked at the stick in his hand.
Then he looked at Raka.
“We really did choose the wrong person to work with.”
Raka nodded.
“Unfortunately, it’s too late.”
Alya walked outside.
“Ten seconds.”
Raka and Dimas exchanged a look.
“What?”
“If you’re not out in ten seconds, fifty laps.”
Raka immediately ran.
Dimas followed, grumbling.
“She’s not even officially a teacher yet.”
Alya’s voice came from outside.
“I can still hear you.”
Dimas quickened his pace.
They chose an open field outside the city.
The place was surrounded by trees and far enough from the settlements that no one would be disturbed by the sounds of their training.
The sun had just appeared behind the hills.
Dew still clung to the grass.
Alya stood in the middle of the field.
Raka and Dimas stood several yards in front of her.
“Put down your sword.”
Raka furrowed his brow.
“Why?”
“Because we’re not learning how to fight today.”
Raka set down his sword.
Alya pointed to a rock on the ground.
“Sit.”
Raka sat.
Dimas sat too.
Alya looked at them.
“First question.”
Raka sighed.
“This is already starting to feel like school.”
“What is energy?”
Raka answered quickly.
“The power mages use to perform magic.”
Alya shook her head.
“Wrong.”
Dimas raised his hand.
Alya pointed at him.
“Go ahead.”
“According to a book I read, energy is a flow of life that humans can control through their minds and bodies.”
Alya nodded.
“Better.”
Raka stared at her.
“Then what’s the right answer?”
Alya picked up a leaf.
She placed it on her palm.
“Energy isn’t something we create.”
She closed her eyes.
The leaf slowly rose.
“Energy is everywhere.”
The leaf spun in the air.
“In the earth.”
The leaf drifted downward.
“In the water.”
She pointed to a small river in the distance.
The river’s surface rippled.
“In the wind.”
The leaf rose again.
“And inside our bodies.”
The leaf stopped in front of Raka’s face.
“A mage’s job isn’t to create energy.”
Alya opened her eyes.
“A mage’s job is to direct it.”
The leaf fell.
Raka caught it.
“Then why can’t I?”
Alya looked at him.
“Because you keep trying to force the energy out.”
“What should I do?”
“Stop forcing it.”
Raka frowned.
“It’s that simple?”
“Yes.”
“If it’s that simple, why have I never been able to do it?”
“Because you’re stubborn.”
Dimas laughed.
Raka shot him a look.
“Don’t laugh.”
Alya pointed at Raka.
“Close your eyes.”
Raka closed his eyes.
“Take a breath.”
He followed her instruction.
“Don’t think about magic.”
Raka took another breath.
“Don’t think about power.”
Raka tried to empty his mind.
“Don’t think about how to do it.”
Several seconds passed.
The wind moved slowly.
Leaves rustled.
Birdsong drifted from the distance.
Raka began to feel calm.
Then he felt something.
Something very small.
Like a point of light in the darkness.
He tried to approach it.
The light moved away.
Raka chased it.
The harder he chased, the farther away it went.
He frowned.
“Don’t.”
Alya’s voice reached him.
Raka opened his eyes.
“What?”
“You’re forcing it again.”
“I felt something.”
“Good.”
“Then why did you tell me to stop?”
“Because you weren’t searching for energy.”
“Then what was I doing?”
“You were chasing it.”
Raka fell silent.
Alya walked closer.
“Imagine a river.”
Raka waited.
“If you stood on the riverbank and forced the water to come to you, what would happen?”
“Nothing.”
“What if you stepped into the river?”
“The water would flow around me.”
“Exactly.”
Alya sat in front of him.
“Don’t call out to the energy.”
She pointed at Raka’s chest.
“Let the energy come to you.”
Raka closed his eyes again.
This time, he didn’t chase the light.
He waited.
At first, nothing happened.
Then...
the wind changed.
A leaf fell beside him.
Raka could feel something moving.
Not from inside his body.
From outside.
The energy flowed through the air.
It slowly entered his body.
Raka’s chest grew warm.
He almost opened his eyes.
“Don’t.”
Alya’s voice was very soft.
“Let it.”
The energy grew stronger.
Raka felt as if he were standing in the middle of a river.
There was no need to fight it.
No need to pull.
He only needed to let the current flow.
Then something changed.
The energy entering his body collided with something else.
An explosion erupted inside his chest.
Raka opened his eyes.
His body was thrown backward.
Alya shot to her feet.
“Raka!”
Raka rolled across the ground.
Dimas ran toward him.
“What happened?”
Raka clutched his chest.
“There’s...”
He struggled to breathe.
“There’s something inside my body.”
Alya knelt beside him.
“Where?”
“My chest.”
Alya placed her hand against it.
The moment she touched Raka’s body, she felt an enormous amount of energy.
Not merely a great amount.
The energy was old.
Far too old.
Alya pulled her hand away at once.
“What?”
Raka stared at her.
“Why?”
Alya didn’t answer.
For the first time since they’d met, she looked genuinely afraid.
“Alya?”
“We’re stopping.”
“Why?”
“Training’s over.”
“But I haven’t...”
“Raka.”
Her tone changed.
“No more training today.”
They returned to the warehouse before noon.
Raka sat drinking water.
Dimas stood near the door.
Alya paced back and forth.
“Tell me.”
Raka finally spoke.
“What did you feel?”
Alya stopped.
“Energy.”
“That much is obvious.”
“More than that.”
Raka waited.
Alya looked at him.
“When I touched you, I felt something that wasn’t ordinary energy.”
“What was it like?”
“Like...”
Alya searched for the right words.
“Like a person.”
The room suddenly fell silent.
Raka lowered his cup.
“A person?”
“Yes.”
“Inside my body?”
Alya nodded.
Dimas stepped closer.
“Could it be a soul?”
Alya didn’t answer.
The question was too close to what they feared.
Raka stood.
“If there really is another soul inside my body, why have I never felt it?”
“Because it might be asleep.”
“And now?”
Alya looked at him.
“Maybe it’s starting to wake up.”
Raka remembered the voice that had been appearing in his head all this time.
**Open the door.**
**That power doesn’t belong to you.**
He shuddered.
“It’s already spoken to me.”
Alya looked at him immediately.
“Since when?”
“The night before we met.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know if it was important.”
“Raka.”
Alya stepped closer.
“Everything related to that voice is important.”
Raka lowered his head.
“I’ve seen things too.”
“What?”
“A baby.”
Alya fell silent.
“Myself.”
Raka looked at her.
“And a little girl.”
Alya said nothing.
“Was that you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t remember?”
“I don’t remember my childhood clearly.”
“Why?”
Alya sat down.
“Because my memories may have been affected by the soul exchange too.”
Dimas crossed his arms.
“Then we have a problem.”
Raka looked at him.
“We?”
Dimas pointed at himself.
“I’ve already been dragged into this. Don’t pretend you don’t know that.”
Raka gave a small laugh.
Alya shook her head.
“We need to find someone who understands the study of souls.”
“Who?”
Alya answered without hesitation.
“Bima.”
Raka frowned.
“The man hunting you?”
“Yes.”
“Why do we have to meet him?”
“Because he’s one of the few people who knows that soul exchange truly exists.”
“And he’ll capture you.”
“If he wanted to capture me, I would’ve been dead a long time ago.”
Raka stared at her.
“So you trust him?”
“No.”
Alya stood.
“But I trust that he knows something.”
While they discussed their next move, someone watched the warehouse from a distance.
A young man in a brown cloak stood behind the trees.
He was around twenty-five years old.
He held a sheet of paper in his hand.
A drawing of Alya’s face was on it.
He compared the drawing to the figure who had just come out of the warehouse.
It wasn’t the same face.
But there was something in the figure’s movements.
The way he walked.
The way he looked around.
The way he scanned his surroundings.
He smiled.
“So it’s true.”
He folded the paper.
“She’s still alive.”
That afternoon, Alya took Raka to the market.
“Why are we here?”
“To buy something.”
“What?”
Alya pointed to a small shop.
“An energy-sealing talisman.”
Raka looked at the shop.
“A talisman?”
“If your energy really is too great, you need something to contain it.”
They went inside.
The shopkeeper was a woman around sixty years old.
She looked at Raka.
Then Alya.
Then back at Raka.
“Interesting.”
Alya frowned.
“What?”
“This boy.”
The shopkeeper pointed at Raka.
“He doesn’t have an aura.”
Raka sighed.
“That’s nothing new.”
“No.”
The woman shook her head.
“That’s exactly the problem.”
She stepped closer.
“An ordinary aura can be sensed.”
Her hand stopped a few inches from Raka’s chest.
“There’s no aura inside your body.”
Raka stared at her.
“Then what is there?”
The woman smiled.
“An empty space.”
Alya immediately grew wary.
“An empty space?”
“Like a vessel waiting for something to enter it.”
Raka asked,
“What does that mean?”
The woman didn’t answer.
She took a small stone from a drawer.
“Hold it.”
Raka took it.
The stone immediately cracked.
The woman fell silent.
Alya looked at Raka.
The shopkeeper whispered,
“Leave.”
Raka furrowed his brow.
“Why?”
“Get out of my shop.”
Alya picked up the stone.
“How much?”
“Nothing.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to get involved.”
Alya stared at her.
“Who are you?”
The woman didn’t answer.
They left.
Dimas, who had been waiting outside, immediately asked,
“What happened?”
Alya shook her head.
“People are starting to recognize something.”
Raka looked at the cracked stone in his hand.
“What’s really inside my body?”
Alya didn’t answer.
Because she herself was beginning to fear the answer.
Night fell.
Raka went back to practicing alone.
Alya had forbidden him from doing so.
But Raka didn’t listen.
He stood in the warehouse’s backyard.
A wooden sword was in his hand.
He tried channeling energy into the tip of the sword.
It didn’t work.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Raka grew angry.
He slashed at a tree.
The wooden sword snapped.
“Damn it.”
He threw the broken pieces aside.
Then the voice came again.
**You’re angry.**
Raka turned around.
“Who are you?”
**You want power.**
“Answer me.”
**Power won’t come just because you ask for it.**
Raka clenched his fists.
“Then how do I get it?”
**Open the door.**
“What’s behind it?”
Silence.
Then the voice answered.
**Me.**
Raka froze.
“Who are you?”
**The part of you they hid away.**
“Who are ‘they’?”
There was no answer.
Raka dropped to his knees.
His mind filled with visions again.
A room.
A baby.
A woman.
His father.
Then a little girl.
He knew that girl.
Alya.
But this time, he saw something he hadn’t seen before.
The little girl was holding a pendant.
The same pendant carried by the old woman in his vision.
Then someone took the pendant.
“One day, you’ll meet again.”
A woman’s voice.
Raka tried to move closer.
But the vision vanished.
He jerked back to reality.
Alya stood behind him.
“Raka.”
Raka turned around.
“I saw it again.”
“What?”
“Us.”
Alya fell silent.
“We were in the same room once.”
Alya closed her eyes.
“I’m starting to remember too.”
“What?”
“A little.”
She sat beside him.
“I remember someone holding me.”
“Who?”
“A woman.”
“And?”
“She said I had to forget someone.”
Raka looked at her.
“Who?”
Alya looked at him.
“You.”
They fell silent.
Neither of them knew what any of it meant.
But one thing was becoming increasingly clear.
Their connection hadn’t begun when Alya’s soul changed bodies.
It had existed long before either of them realized it.
The next day, training began again.
This time, Alya didn’t ask Raka to release energy.
She handed him a cup.
“Fill it with water.”
Raka looked at the cup.
“We’re going to learn water magic?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because water doesn’t resist.”
Raka filled the cup.
Alya sat in front of him.
“Hold it.”
Raka held it.
“Don’t use your hands.”
“What?”
“Use your energy.”
Raka closed his eyes.
He tried to sense the water.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Alya said,
“Don’t force it.”
Raka took a breath.
This time, he let his mind grow calm.
Slowly, he felt something.
Water.
The energy in the water.
The energy in the air.
The energy in the earth.
They were all like thin threads woven together.
Raka followed one of them.
The liquid in the cup moved.
A little.
Very little.
Dimas, watching from a distance, widened his eyes.
“It worked.”
Raka opened his eyes.
The water in the cup trembled.
Alya smiled.
“Good.”
Raka smiled back.
But then the water suddenly rose.
It formed a ball.
The ball of water grew larger.
Raka panicked.
“Alya.”
“Don’t let go.”
“I can’t.”
“Don’t let go.”
The ball of water grew even larger.
The energy around Raka began to pull toward it.
Leaves rose into the air.
The ground trembled.
Alya moved immediately.
She grabbed Raka’s hand.
“Calm down.”
Their energies met.
White light appeared.
The ball of water burst.
Water fell like rain.
Raka panted.
Alya looked exhausted too.
They looked at each other.
“What was that?”
Raka asked.
Alya answered softly,
“Our bond.”
Dimas walked closer.
“So you really can affect each other?”
Alya nodded.
“That means the stronger one of us becomes...”
Raka continued,
“...the stronger the other becomes.”
“And the more injured one of us is...”
Alya looked at him.
“...the other feels it too.”
Raka fell silent.
It wasn’t merely an advantage.
It was also a weakness.
If they wanted to grow stronger, they had to learn to trust each other.
On the third night, they sat around a small fire.
Dimas cooked.
Alya mended her clothes.
Raka read a book.
For the first time, their lives felt almost normal.
Raka looked at Alya.
“Why do you keep staring at me?”
Alya didn’t look up.
“I’m not staring at you.”
“You are.”
“I’m looking at the book.”
“The book is in my hands.”
Alya fell silent.
Dimas laughed.
“I’ve seen enough.”
Raka looked at him.
“Seen enough of what?”
“You two are getting weird.”
Alya threw a piece of cloth at Dimas.
“Shut up.”
Dimas laughed.
Raka smiled.
But his smile soon disappeared when he looked at Alya.
Something was different.
He was beginning to see her as more than just his teacher.
More than just a fugitive.
He felt a surge of worry every time Alya was hurt.
He wanted to protect her.
And he didn’t know when those feelings had started to grow.
Alya secretly felt the same way.
She had never had anyone stand beside her without wanting something in return.
Raka was different.
He was stubborn.
Annoying.
Untalented.
He talked too much.
But when danger came, he stood in front.
Even when he was afraid himself.
Alya stared into the fire.
Maybe that was why she didn’t mind teaching him.
Maybe that was why she was beginning to fear losing him.
But the peace didn’t last long.
A shout came from outside.
“Stop!”
Alya immediately stood.
Raka grabbed his sword.
Dimas put out the fire.
They went outside.
Three royal guards stood in the road.
But this time, they weren’t alone.
A man in a brown cloak stood behind them.
The man who had watched them earlier.
He smiled.
“Finally, we meet.”
Alya looked at him.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Bastian.”
Raka stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
Bastian laughed.
“Not you.”
His gaze shifted to Alya.
“I’m looking for someone.”
Alya clenched her hand.
“That person isn’t me.”
Bastian smiled.
“You can wear any face you want.”
He drew a small knife.
“But a soul never lies.”
Alya froze.
Bastian knew.
He knew about the soul exchange.
“How do you know?”
“I’ve seen it before.”
“Where?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Raka looked at him.
“Twenty years?”
Bastian nodded.
“On the night two children were separated.”
Raka felt his blood run cold.
Alya stared at Bastian.
“You were there?”
“I wasn’t merely there.”
Bastian smiled.
“I was the one who took one of you away.”
The night wind swept past them.
Raka tightened his grip on his sword.
Alya stared at the man.
And for the first time since the soul exchange, she felt something stronger than fear.
A memory.
A room.
Crying.
Someone’s hand gripping hers.
A voice.
**Run, Alya. Never come back.**
Her eyes widened.
She knew that voice.
Bastian.
“So you...”
Bastian smiled.
“Your memories are starting to return.”
The guards moved forward.
Raka stepped in front of Alya.
Alya grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“He isn’t an ordinary opponent.”
Bastian raised his hand.
Black energy filled the air.
Raka felt his seal tremble.
The voice in his head rang out again.
**Open the door.**
Raka closed his eyes.
No.
Not yet.
But the energy grew stronger.
Bastian smiled.
“Yes.”
He looked at Raka.
“Let your power awaken.”
Raka opened his eyes.
Light appeared in his palm.
Alya stared at him.
“Raka...”
The ground beneath their feet began to crack.
Dimas backed away.
“I don’t like this.”
Bastian laughed.
“Good.”
He raised his hand.
“Because tonight, we’re going to see whether the heir of the Flame Keeper has truly awakened.”
Light filled the night.
And for the first time, Raka realized that their training was no longer training.
It was preparation for war.
A war that had begun long before they were born.