CURSE OF THE SAND

The night Steve was abandoned, the sky turned black. Not dark. Black. There was a difference. The moon disappeared behind a veil of unnatural clouds, and every lantern in the outer district of Valen City went out at exactly midnight. Steve remembered none of it. He was only eight months old when his mother carried him through the rain and left him beneath the old stone bridge. The only thing she left behind was a silver pendant. And a name. Steve. No family name. No explanation. No promise that she would return. She never did. Fifteen years passed. Steve grew up knowing that he had been unwanted. The people of the outer district knew his story. Some pitied him. Others laughed. The children called him the Bridge Orphan. Steve learned early not to react. Words were cheaper than food. Today, however, there was something else on his mind. His cultivation test. The courtyard of the Valen Spirit Academy was packed with young cultivators. One by one, they stepped before the awakening crystal. “Ethan Vale!” A tall boy approached. He placed his hand against the crystal. A burst of golden light erupted. The instructor smiled. “Spirit Core Realm. Excellent.” Applause followed. Ethan turned toward the crowd with a satisfied grin. Then the instructor called another name. The results continued. Steve waited at the back. His fingers slowly tightened around the silver pendant beneath his clothes. Today was supposed to be different. He had spent three years cultivating. Three years of waking before sunrise. Three years of training until his hands bled. Three years of being told he was wasting his time. He only needed one breakthrough. One chance. “Steve.” The courtyard became strangely quiet. He stepped forward. Whispers followed. “That's him.” “The abandoned one?” “He's still trying?” “His spiritual root is probably worthless.” Steve ignored them. He stood before the crystal. The instructor looked at him without much interest. “Place your hand on it.” Steve inhaled. Then touched the crystal. Nothing happened. One second. Two. Three. A few people laughed. Steve's face remained expressionless. The instructor sighed. “Spirit Awakening... first stage.” The laughter became louder. Someone muttered, “After three years?” Steve removed his hand. His heart felt heavier than he wanted to admit. But he didn't leave. The instructor frowned. “Steve, your results are not enough to enter the inner academy.” “I know.” “You'll be assigned to the outer division.” “I know.” The instructor looked at him for a moment. “Then why do you keep coming?” Steve didn't answer immediately. His hand moved unconsciously toward the pendant. “Because I have nowhere else to go.” The courtyard fell silent. Then someone laughed. Steve turned. Ethan Vale stood among several students. “That's pathetic.” Steve looked at him. Ethan smiled. “You've spent fifteen years trying to prove you're worth something, but you don't even know who your parents are.” Steve's eyes hardened. “Leave my parents out of this.” “Why?” Ethan stepped closer. “Your mother left you beneath a bridge.” The words struck harder than Steve expected. “You were abandoned because even she didn't want you.” Steve's fists clenched. For a moment, he wanted to hit him. Then something strange happened. The silver pendant beneath his shirt became warm. Steve froze. A faint vibration passed through his chest. He looked toward the academy's eastern wall. Nothing was there. Yet he suddenly heard something. A heartbeat. Not his own. Boom. Steve's breath caught. Boom. The courtyard vanished from his attention. The sound came again. Boom. Something was calling him. From beneath the academy. Steve took one step backward. The awakening crystal suddenly cracked. Everyone stopped laughing. A thin black line appeared across its surface. Then another. Crack. The crystal shattered. Silence. The instructor stared at the broken pieces. “What...?” Steve stared at his hand. A tiny black mark had appeared on his palm. It looked like a grain of sand. Except it moved. The mark slowly crawled beneath his skin. Steve's eyes widened. Pain exploded through his body. He fell to his knees. “Steve!” The instructor rushed toward him. But before anyone could reach him, the courtyard temperature suddenly dropped. The shadows beneath Steve stretched outward. Something moved behind him. For one brief moment, everyone saw it. A pair of enormous eyes. Ancient. Silent. Watching. Then they disappeared. Steve collapsed. The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was a voice. Not human. Not male. Not female. A voice that seemed to come from somewhere beyond the world. “At last.” Far away, beneath a mountain that had remained untouched for thousands of years, an enormous stone door trembled. A single grain of black sand rolled from its surface. Then another. And somewhere beyond that door, something opened its eyes. “The bearer has returned.” Steve knew nothing about the door. He knew nothing about the Sand. And he certainly didn't know that the night he was abandoned had not been the night his life ended. It had been the night someone had hidden him. Because if the people who abandoned Steve had known what was sleeping inside him... They would never have left him alive.