The black throne heir

CHAPTER TWELVE- The Sage

The morning air is colder than usual, sharp enough to sting my nose as I step out of the tent, stretching my hands above my head as the camp come alive around me. Students are already moving about, some wrapped with blankets, some students practicing spells just to show off, because apparently nobody in Obsidian high knows how to wake up quietly.

Mara is brushing her hair beside me, squinting towards the massive crystal hills rising behind the village.

“Tell me I’m not the only one nervous about this sage thing,” she says .

“You’re not nervous,” Vera scoffs, adjusting her gloves, “you’re excited to gossip about what everyone’s power rating will look like after today.”

Mara gasps dramatically. “Excuse me I am a scholar of magical performance.”

“You’re a scholar of other people’s embarrassment,” Vera replies.

I laugh under my breath, grabbing a piece of honeyed bread from the passing tray being carried by floating serving orbs.

The village lumerith looks even more unreal im daylight, marble roads glowing faint gold beneath our boot, singing vines curling around tall lantern towers, fairies darting between rooftops like stars, Guards are everywhere, the kind of security here reminds us that these are not ordinary students, these are heirs, nobles, war mages , future leaders from every part of the world and this kingdom.

Laura jogs down towards us, nearly slipping on the polished marble.

“They are gathering everyone near the temple gates,” she pants, gripping my arm, “apparently it’s not just meeting the sage, we have to earn it.”

Vera snorts, “of course we do, nothing in this kingdom comes without drama.”

We follow the stream of students moving to the temple, and the moment it comes to full view, conversations dies around us.

The structure rises like it grew from the earth itself, massive spiralling towers of crystal gold veins threading through the walls, gemstones embedded through the entrance like stars , the doors alone are enormous, layered in five circular frames, each glowing with its own runic patterns that shifts slowly like they’re breathing.

“That is not a temple,” Mara whispers, “It’s a threat disguised as architecture.

Students clustering into groups already, voices buzzing, power signatures flickering in excitement and anxiety. I spot Kael around the courtyard surrounded by his usual circle, nobles laughing too loudly, confidence rolling off them like perfume .

A silver robed temple keeper steps forward raising a hand.

“To Enter the sanctum of the Grand Sage,” she announces, voice echoing without effort, “each door must be opened through trials of intellect, unity, magic control, participation is open to all students of Obsidian high.”

The crowd erupts instantly

“I call first attempt!”

“No you don’t, you failed rune theory twice!”

“That was a sabotage!”

Mara leans towards me. “This is going to be chaos.”

The first circular frame glows bright blue as runes rearrange themselves into floating sigils, dozens of them spinning slowly im the air like constellation puzzles.

“Rune alignment challenge,” Laura mutters, eye lighting up, “you have to match them in sequence before they collapse.”

A tall boy from the eastern noble houses steps forward confidently.

“I have trained celestial runes matrices since childhood,” he declares, cracking his knuckles.

“Translation,” Vera whispers, “he’s about to embarrass himself publicly.”

He raises his hand, pulling the runes towards him with threads of magic, arranging them in sharp precise movements, the sigils flicker, hums and explodes into harmless glitters that rains over his hair.

The crowd bursts into laughter.

“I was warming up,” he snaps, brushing the glitters off his shoulders.

“Warm up somewhere else,” someone yells.

Another girl steps forward, this one smaller, eyes sharp, fingers dancing with quick flickers of energy, cleaner, the sigils begin locking together, like puzzle pieces snapping into place, the blue gram shudders, then with a deep vibrating hum…

It clicks open

Cheers explodes around her.

“YES!” Mara shout like she personally trained her.

The second door glows green, vines of living magic spreading across the surface, forming, moving mazes that shifts every few seconds.

“This is illusion navigation,” Laura says, already stepping forward with two other students, “you have to sense the real pathway, not what the eye sees.”

They step into the projection field and instantly begins arguing.

“Left!”

“It’s not left, you’re walking into a spell loop!”

“You’re the spell loop!”

The maze keeps rearranging, students outside shouting suggestions that only make things worse. Eventually, Laura presses her palm on the ground, closing her eyes.

“Stop talking,” she mutters, “the ground remembers the real path.”

She guides the group slowly, ignoring the illusions trying to pull them sideways. The green frame pulses and slides open.

Mara grabs Laura’s shoulders, “you absolute genius.”

“I know,” Laura replies proudly

Door three ignites in red flames, that don’t burn but roar loudly, forming combat constructs.

“Oh this is fun,” Vera grins, already cracking her neck.

Multiple students step forward including Kael and his friend Ardyn, and three others. The constructs attack immediately, blades forming from fire, lunging fast enough to force the entire courtyard into alert silence.

Spells collide mid air, shields forming energy blasts cracking like thunder. Kael moves like he’s done this his entire life, precise, brutal, efficiency. I feel my self get wet for him as unholy thought cloud my mind, I flash back to the kiss, and suddenly the heat between my legs increases. He looks so gentle yet rough. He freezes a construct mid-strike before shattering it with a single downward motion.

“Shows off,” someone mutters behind me.

Arryn gets knocked backwards and yells, “a little help will be appreciated!”

“Try not standing in the way,” Kael replies dryly, dismantling another construct with a slicing arc of frost magic.

The final construct collapses, red flames dissolving and third frame opens.

Students are buzzing now, adrenaline high, pride wounded, egos inflated

Then the fourth door lights up.

Purple.

And the moment the symbols appear, the atmosphere shifts.

Floating equations, rotation spell circles layered over the emotional resonance sigils, power balance equations, time-locked glyphs, everything spinning in overlapping sequences.

And the moment the symbols appear the atmosphere shifts.

That… is illegal,” Mara whispers.

Several top-ranked students step forward together, clearly refusing to lose im front of their rivals.

“You’re overloading the anchor rune!”

“Team solve,” one of them declares

For nearly ten minutes they attempt combinations, spells sparking, arguments escalating.

“You misread the polarity, don’t blame me!”

A noble girl suddenly shove another girl aside. “Move, you’re destabilising everything!”

“Say that again,” the other girl snaps, magic flaring violently around her hands.

“Stop, you’ll collapse the—“

They don’t stop.

Energy bursts outward as the two girls clash, spells cracking against each other, students scrambling back as the guards step closer but don’t intervene yet.

Mara groans. “Of course there’s a cat fight during a sacred temple trial.”

Vera steps forward slightly. “They’re going to fry the lock.”

The purple sigils begin flickering dangerously.

I don’t even realize I’m moving until I’m already stepping into the circle.

“Both of you, stop,” I say.

They ignore me, launching another volley of spells.

I grab the central rune mid-spin, forcing my magic through it carefully, slowly, stabilising the entire structure, while dodging stray blasts flying past my shoulder.

“Are you insane?” One girl shouts at me.

“Probably,” I reply, adjusting the polarity flow, rewriting the spell, layering peace by piece, sweat sliding down my spine as sigils fight me like they don’t want to solved.

The runes resist, shifting faster, multiplying, testing power and balance simultaneously.

“She’s rewriting it,” someone whispers.

“That’s not possible.”

“She’s going to overload!”

I breathe out slowly, threading my magic through each sequence, letting the equations settle into harmony instead of dominance. The entire structure glows bright violet vibrating violently, then…

Unlocks.

Silence hits the courtyard like a dropped curtain.

Then the fourth frame opens

Nobody laughs this time .

“What just happened,” someone whispers behind me.

“Who is she?” Another whispers.

The final three does stand behind it, smaller but darker, their glow almost swallowing the light instead of reflecting it.

Students step forward eagerly.

The fifth door responds to several attempts, each student pushed back by waves of magic, too dense to pierce. Kael tries once , pressing his hand against sigils, frost spiralling outward, but the door absorbs it and throws him back a step.

He frowns slightly but says nothing

The air grows heavier.

“Maybe it’s locked to a specific power signatures,” Laura says quietly.

Nobody responds.

I step forward without thinking.

The fifth door erupts instantly with shifting, gravity sigil, pulling sideways “, downward, inside-out. My knees almost buckled as invisible force tries to crush me into the marble.

“Back off!” Mara shouts

I grit my teeth, forcing my magic outward, not to overpower the door but to balance the gravitational distortions, countering pressure with equal force, redirecting the collapsing vectors until the sigils align themselves.

The fifth door opens.

I turn and accidentally catch Kael’s eyes burning through my skin like he wanted to eat me up, my face feels hot all of a sudden.

Things I want to do him, I don’t understand how i started feeling this way towards him.

By the time I reach the final door, my hands are shaking

The frame is silent and completely black, absorbing even the temple glow. No sumbolds, no instructions, just smooth void-like surface .

“That one doesnot look friendly,” Vera mutters.

I place my palm upon it. Then the surface ripples like water, swallowing my hand up to my wrist. Gasps erupts behind me. I feel something ancient pressing against my magic.

“Nyra pull back!” Someone yells.

I can’t .

The pressure builds, crawling up my arm, probing deeper, deeper, until instinct takes over and I push back with everything, raw power, uncontrolled, instinctive, wild.

The pressure builds, crawling up my arm, the temple shakes.

Cracks of light burst across the black surface and the final door splits open with a deep thunderous echo that vibrates through the bone.

Inside, the grand sage is waiting.

Robes flowing like liquid starlight, eyes scanning students as they step in cautiously.

His gaze moves across each student, pausing briefly

Then it lands on me. He freezes

The silence spreads uncomfortably long, students begin glancing at each other, confused, whispering louder now.

The sage’s expression shifts slowly, something unreadable passing through his eyes. He looks at the shattered rune glow still clinging faintly to my hands, the. Lowers himself carefully onto one knee.

The emtire temple gasps as one

He says nothing.

He simply bows his head.

Then he rises, turns, and walks deeper into the sanctum without a single word.

Then he rises, turns and walks deeper into the sanctum without a single word.

And behind me whispers start immediately.