THE VOID THRONE

CHAPTER 3

Something grabbed him from inside.

Not a hand — there was no hand. Something much deeper than that. Something right in the centre of his chest, behind his ribs, in a place he had never felt before. It grabbed him like a hook catching on something solid and it pulled backward, hard and sudden, and he gasped and stumbled away from the edge and went down on both knees on the wet stone.

He knelt there, breathing hard, both hands pressed flat against the rock.

The stone under his palms felt strange. Smoother than it should be. Not smooth from rain or wind — smooth from hands. Like many people had pressed their hands against this exact spot over many years.

He barely noticed. Because there were golden letters floating in the air right in front of his face. Soft and warm, like candlelight that didn't flicker.

Just two words.

*Hey. *

Wei Liang stared at them.

*I've been looking for you,* the letters continued. *Well — not you exactly. Someone like you. I'll explain everything. But first — are you okay?*

He almost laughed. He was on his knees in the rain at the edge of a cliff and glowing letters were asking if he was okay.

"Not really," he said out loud.thinking instead of falling to his death he has gone crazy.

*Yeah. I figured. Can you move back from the edge a little bit? You're making me really nervous and I just found you. I'd rather not lose you in the first five minutes.*

Wei Liang moved back. Sat against the nearest pine tree. His robe was soaked through. His knees were stinging where he'd scraped them on the stone.

The letters followed him like they were attached to him. Soft. Patient.

*My name — I don't really have one. You can call me System. Most people do. I know this is weird. It is weird. But I have something really important to tell you, and I need you to stay with me long enough to hear it properly. Can you do that?*

Wei Liang looked at the letters floating in the rainy dark wondering if he has gone crazy just like that or was this real

He had nowhere else to be.

"Yeah," he said. "Okay."

*The ceremony,* the System said. *The grey stone. The Grand Elder. Those twelve people who all looked away at the same time. Every single one of them told you the same thing without actually saying it out loud — that you were broken. That you had nothing. That you didn't count.*

Wei Liang's jaw went tight.

*They were wrong,* the System said. Simple as that. No drama. Just — wrong. *Not because they were mean. They just didn't know. The grey stone doesn't mean you're empty of potential. It means something much rarer than that. It means you are perfectly, completely empty. Not a trace of root energy anywhere in you. Do you know how rare that actually is?*

"Being a cripple?" Wei Liang said. Old word. Old humour.

*Being a PERFECT vessel,* the System said, and he could somehow feel the capital letters even though it was just light. *Think about a cup. A cup full of fire can't hold water. A cup full of water can't hold medicine. But a cup that is completely, truly, perfectly empty — that cup can hold anything you choose to pour into it. Every single kid who lit up that stone today has walls inside them they can't see past. Fire roots are walls. Water roots are walls. Even four beautiful golden roots are just four beautiful walls.*

*You have no walls, Wei Liang.*

*You can hold everything.*

He sat with that. The rain came down. The cliff was three steps behind him wondering if he should just jump to avoid being called crazy or should he just go crazy along with this thing called system. The first person to say he was perfect not just some cripple everyone already lost hope in .Well maybe not a person but a thing or should he call it a floating letter that seems closer than anyone he knew.

*I know it doesn't fix tonight,* the System said, and its voice — if light could have a voice — got a little quieter. *I know it doesn't fix five years. I'm not pretending it does. I'm just telling you the truth: you are not what they told you you were. And if you're willing to try — if you want to see what you can actually become — I would very much like to help.*

Wei Liang looked at the glowing letters.

He thought about his father's oiled hair.

He thought about his mother's green dress.

He thought about all the floors he'd swept and all the cold rice he'd eaten and all the twelve people in all the courtyards who had looked carefully at nothing when something happened to him.

"Okay," he said quietly. "Show me."

*Good,* the System said.

And somehow — somehow — that one small word sounded like it had been waiting a very long time to be said.

Wei Liang stood up. Turned around. Started walking back down toward the Academy.

He didn't notice, as he stood, that the two patches of stone where his knees had been were worn smooth. Not from the weather. Worn smooth from hands and knees. From other people.

From people who had knelt in this exact same spot before him.

He didn't notice.