Academia - Ability Wielders

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - The Girl Who Never Belonged

The rain had always sounded different around Fin.

Not louder.

Not softer.

Different.

As if every raindrop whispered secrets only she was meant to hear.

She stood barefoot outside the tiny cottage she had called home for sixteen years, letting the cold rain soak through her oversized hoodie while staring into the dark forest surrounding their property.

Her mother hated when she did this.

"Fin!"

There it was.

The sharp voice echoed from inside the house.

"You'll catch a fever! Get inside."

Fin rolled her eyes dramatically before walking toward the porch.

"I'm already wet, Mom."

"Don't argue."

"I'm just saying—"

"No."

"...You're impossible."

"And you're stubborn."

Fin laughed despite herself.

Everyone in town knew her as the loud girl with a short temper and an even shorter patience.

She climbed trees she wasn't supposed to.

Picked fights she couldn't always win.

Questioned every rule.

And somehow still managed to smile afterward.

It was why almost no one believed she was adopted.

She looked enough like her parents to avoid questions.

Brown hair.

Gray eyes.

Tan skin.

Average.

Ordinary.

At least...

That's what everyone thought.

"Where's Dad?" Fin asked, dropping into her chair at breakfast.

Her mother didn't answer immediately.

Instead, she continued stirring the soup even though breakfast definitely wasn't supposed to be soup.

"He left early."

"For work?"

A pause.

"...Yes."

Fin frowned.

That wasn't true.

Her father hadn't worked in almost a month.

He kept disappearing into the woods at night.

Whenever she asked, both parents changed the subject.

Something was wrong.

She could feel it.

Later that afternoon—

CRACK.

A tree split in half.

Fin jumped.

"What the—"

The enormous oak collapsed without warning.

No wind.

No lightning.

Nothing.

Birds scattered into the sky.

She slowly approached.

The trunk wasn't cut.

It looked...

Burned.

As if something impossibly hot had exploded inside it.

She reached out.

The wood was still warm.

"...Weird."

"Don't touch it."

Fin spun around.

Her father stood several feet away.

His face had gone pale.

"Since when do you sneak up on people?"

"You shouldn't be here."

"What happened to the tree?"

"...Lightning."

"There wasn't any."

"I said it was lightning."

Fin narrowed her eyes.

"You've been acting strange."

"I'm protecting you."

"From what?"

Silence.

Again.

She hated silence.

"You always do this!" she snapped.

"I ask one question and everyone suddenly forgets how to talk."

Her father looked exhausted.

"You'll understand soon."

"I hate that sentence."

"I know."

That night—

Fin couldn't sleep.

Every dream ended the same.

Fire.

Screams.

A woman reaching for her.

A glowing symbol floating above the sky.

Then—

Darkness.

She woke with a gasp.

Her room...

Was glowing.

No.

Not glowing.

The air itself shimmered.

Tiny blue sparks floated around her bed like fireflies.

"What..."

One landed on her hand.

Warm.

Comforting.

Then it disappeared.

The moment her bedroom door opened—

Every spark vanished.

Her mother stood there.

For one horrifying second...

Fear flashed across her mother's face.

Not concern.

Fear.

Then it was gone.

"You had another nightmare?"

"...Yeah."

"You'll be alright."

Fin nodded.

But neither of them believed it.

The Next Morning

A black car stopped outside the cottage.

No one in town owned cars like that.

Three people stepped out.

All wore identical silver uniforms embroidered with an unfamiliar crest—a pair of wings surrounding a glowing eye.

One of them knocked.

Her father answered.

"We've come for the girl."

Fin frowned.

"...Excuse me?"

The oldest woman smiled politely.

"Fin Alster?"

"Yeah?"

She handed Fin a sealed envelope.

The paper felt strangely warm.

The wax seal carried the same winged-eye emblem.

Her hands trembled as she opened it.

To Miss Fin Alster,

Congratulations.

You have been accepted into Academia: The Academy of Ability Wielders.

Your presence is mandatory.

Classes begin in seven days.

Transportation has already been arranged.

Welcome home.

Fin blinked.

"...Ability... Wielders?"

She laughed.

"This is a prank, right?"

No one laughed with her.

She looked at her parents.

Neither of them met her eyes.

"What is this?"

Her father finally spoke.

"...You were never ordinary."

The words hung in the air like thunder.

Fin's smile faded.

"What do you mean?"

"You deserve the truth."

Her mother's eyes filled with tears.

"We didn't tell you because we wanted you to have a normal life."

"A normal life from what?"

Another silence.

Fin's patience finally snapped.

"Will someone PLEASE stop talking in riddles?"

Her father inhaled deeply.

"You weren't born here."

"I know."

"No."

His voice broke.

"You weren't born... in the Human Realm."

The world seemed to stop.

"...What?"

"You belong to another world."

Fin laughed.

Then laughed harder.

Until she realized—

Neither of them was joking.

"This isn't funny."

"It isn't."

"I don't have powers."

"You do."

"I would've noticed!"

"You weren't supposed to."

"What does that even mean?"

Her father stepped closer.

"The seal placed on your abilities is beginning to break."

A chill crawled up Fin's spine.

"What seal?"

Before anyone could answer—

BOOM!

The front wall exploded inward.

Wood splintered across the room.

Smoke swallowed the house.

A deep voice echoed through the dust.

"We found the heir."

Fin's heart pounded.

Five masked figures stepped through the ruined wall, each cloaked in crimson and black.

The tallest raised a glowing crimson blade.

"Bring us the girl."

Her father shoved Fin behind him.

"Run!"

"Dad—"

"RUN!"

One of the masked attackers lunged.

Her father met the strike with a flash of golden light erupting from his bare hands.

Fin froze.

"...You..."

Golden energy spiraled around him like living flames.

Her mother slammed both palms onto the floor.

Massive vines burst from the earth, tearing through the house and wrapping around two attackers.

"You have powers?" Fin whispered.

Her parents had lied to her her entire life.

No—

They had hidden an entire world.

The leader of the attackers chuckled.

"How touching."

He lifted his hand.

Dark energy gathered into a sphere.

"This reunion ends tonight."

As the sphere hurtled toward them, Fin instinctively threw her hands forward.

A blinding burst of silver-blue light erupted from her body.

The explosion swallowed everything.

And for a split second, a luminous crest appeared behind Fin's back—a pair of radiant wings encircling a blazing star.

Everyone stared.

The attackers.

Her parents.

Even Fin herself.

The light vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

She staggered, her vision fading.

The last thing she heard before collapsing was the masked leader whispering in awe—

"...The Starborn Princess has awakened."