On the way to the town centre, the class was more subdued than usual. On any other trip around town with Miss Morgan, there would be idle chatter and no end to students wandering off or getting waylaid by some distraction.

This time there was almost dead silence within the group, as the kids walked towards the stage in the centre of town, where the Examiner stood.

“Alright, I'll keep this brief,” he announced as his gaze swept the group of kids below. “In my hands, I hold a Talem stone. Some of you might have heard about it, or seen your parents use it. For those that haven’t, this stone has runes inscribed upon it. When you concentrate on the correct score- called the activation score- and focus your soul on the Tal the runes will activate.

This Tal, in particular, will only light up, simply because the word inscribed upon it is light. This is what you will be measured with.” He paused here, giving some of the slower kids time to catch up. There was always a few. “The test is simple. Just concentrate on the score I'm about to give you and focus your soul on the Tal. Your score will be determined on how quickly you can memorise the score, how intense the light is, and how long you can hold the light for. If your score is impressive enough, I am able to grant scholarships to the prestigious Animar Academy. So, trust me on the fact that this is one test that you want to try your absolute hardest on.” he intoned.

The kids nodded their understanding.

“Alright, line up, and let's get this over with,” he finished.

The kids quickly jostled themselves into some semblance of a line. Brady, to exactly no one's surprise, had pushed himself to the front. The more timid kids in the groups allowed others to pass in front of them as they subtly tried to be in the latter half, but at the same time, not the last person to take the test.

Corwin had long since learnt that it was easier to go where there was a gap for him. So he merely stood where he was until the last in line became apparent, and then promptly took his place behind him.

Brady stepped onto the stage. He was nervous, but as nervous as he was, he was determined not to let it show in front of his class members- and especially not to the man in front of him. His father had taught him better than that.

“State your name, age, and religion if you follow any.” droned the Examiner like he’d said it hundreds of times before, which he likely had, thought Corwin.

Having given his name and details, Brady took hold of the Tal. The Examiner whispered what Corwin assumed to be the score into Brady's ears. The boy gave a small nod to the Examiner and closed his eyes, as he concentrated. After a few seconds, he took the Tal from the Examiner’s outstretched hands.

Almost immediately, the tal lit up with a ghostly bluish light. Having never seen anything of the sort before, Corwin had no way to tell whether that was a good result or not, but the surprise on the examiner’s face seemed to indicate that it was. After keeping the stone alight for a few minutes, he opened his eyes again as the light flickered out.

The Examiner wrote down something in his book, presumably Brady's score, and told Brady that he had done an excellent job.

Brady’s smug expression never left his face as he descended down the stairs. Passing the start of the line, he looked through his classmates, as if daring them to beat his score.

The next 10 or so children that went up and touched the Tal all managed to make some sort of bluish glow light, and held it to varying lengths of time. But none received any congratulations from the Examiner as Brady had.

Finally, Corwin stepped onto the stage. As the Examiner hummed him a short line of music into his ears, he tried to quieten the butterflies that were wreaking havoc in the pit of his stomach.

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After repeating the score a couple of times over to make sure the score was completely correct in his head, he gave the instructor a shaky nod and took the Tal.

Repeating the music in his head over and over, Corwin focused on the Tal and felt the connection click into place. The Tal lit up with a bluish light just as it had for the other children, however almost as soon as it had come, Corwin felt his connection break, taking away his focus and with it, the light. The Tal in his hands quickly returned to its normal grey colour.

Compared to the other students, his light had gone out incredibly fast. He had only held the light for a few seconds! Panicked, he looked at the Examiner who returned his nervous glance with another look of mild surprise. Corwin didn't think this was the same type that Brady received.

“Did you get surprised by the light and stop concentrating on the score?” asked the Examiner. “Or was that really only how long you could hold it for?”

Somehow he could feel that that was the limit. When he felt the connection sever, he knew it was through no fault of his own.

But that wasn’t going to stop him from trying again. It had to be a mistake.

“Uh, yeah, the light screwed up my concentration,” muttered Corwin as he shuffled his feet.

There had to be some mistake.

“That's alright,” comforted the Examiner. “It’s not an uncommon occurrence. I'll give you one more chance, but that's it. Do you need to hear the score again?”

Corwin shook his head. Determined, he concentrated on the score and focused his soul on the Tal.

Again the Tal lit up as Corwin felt the connection set in place. However, again, he felt his connection cut off only a few seconds after the light.

The Examiner shook his head and wrote down the score in his book.

Too stunned to react to anything, Corwin stayed motionless as the Examiner took the Tal from his hands.

Numb, Corwin heard nothing of what The Examiner said to him as he descended from the stage.

He spared a glance at Miss Morgan as he walked by, noting the look of pity in her eyes. Not one of the other kids mirrored that expression. In fact, a large portion of them- mainly led by Brady- seemed to find immense joy that he had seemingly failed.

After the kids were dismissed, Miss Morgan walked up to the stage to meet with the Examiner.

“You must be proud,” commended the Examiner. “I haven't come across a student as astounding as Mr Ross in at least a year.”

He was right, she should have been happy. Another one of her students was obviously on the path to the Academy- of which she had only had 2 in her whole 30 years of teaching. But conflict warred in Miss Morgan's heart. She had seen all the teasing and bullying that Corwin had received, and had hoped that perhaps karma had some redemption in mind. However, it seemed fate had other ideas.

“Yes, it'll be nice to have him out of my hair at least.” she acquiesced, sharing a look with the Examiner.

The two were old friends, Miss Morgan having been a teacher for the latter part of her life and the Examiner being a regular yearly visit to her class.

“Troublesome kid, huh?” wondered the Examiner. “That's unlike you to not have weeded it out of him already.”

“Unfortunately, there was little I could do this time. His father is quite a powerful man in this village. The kid is unquestionably talented, but I wish he'd at least face some retribution for the torment that he has put poor Corwin through.”

“I'm sure we can smooth some of those rough edges out at the academy.” nodded the Examiner. He flipped through his notes. “Corwin was the last kid in line, wasn't he?”

“Yes,” replied Miss Morgan. She could never show it directly to him without being accused of favouritism from all the other parents, but she really felt for the child. She’d been one of the first to dismiss horrid rumours that had sprung up when the couple had announced their eminent child.

“Poor kid, poor kid,” murmured the Examiner. It was clear even to him that- even without the knowledge of village rumours- he was going to get bullied mercilessly. Especially when the kids started learning to weave properly. He was going to be a walking training target.

* * *

Corwin’s walk home was a slow one. He tried not to think about it too much, about how much worse his life could possibly get, but there was no stopping the dark thoughts. One ray of sunshine might be the fact that Brady looked as though he was going to receive the scholarship, and would, therefore, be leaving the village. But, he was sure that any of the other boys in his group would love to take up his position as the gang leader.

When he got home, his parents were sitting in the front room, waiting for him. Somehow, they knew his result- or perhaps they could just see it from his facial expression- because they didn’t look like they were there to celebrate.

Corwin tried to talk, but couldn't find it in himself to tell his parents what had happened, to tell him that he had failed. Lana walked over and embraced her son. She and Ennis were absolutely aware of the harassment their son was facing, even though little Cori tried to hide it from them.

And, it wasn't like she hadn't heard the rumours.

She patted Cori on the back as he began to sob quietly. Ennis stood quietly on the sidelines, waiting for the right time. He had guessed that something along these lines was going to happen, and had told Lana as such.

But he hadn’t told Lana everything just yet.

Over the last week, Ennis Kane had been fighting with himself day and night leading up the ceremony. He couldn’t reveal everything, that was absolute. And even revealing a little would bring them all into danger.

But, no son of his was going to be called a weakling.

No son of his was going to be a moving target for the rest of his life.

seeing his son crying right in front of his eyes after trying to hide it from them for so long, he made his decision.

His son was going to have to learn how to fight.

The Kane way.