The following is an excerpt from the Mourner’s journal

Aurelia, though it is a large planet, is minuscule in what it represents. Aurelia is but one of an incalculable number of origin worlds scattered amongst the greater galaxies.

Only five immortals have come from this inconsequential planet, and all of them have faded into obscurity. Not even their descendants, the humans who still live on Aurelia, remember who they are.

Aurelia has three celestial bodies of note: Rala—the orange star at the center of their cluster who brightened their days for sixteen hours at a time. Dawen—the small satellite that orbits Aurelia and brings light to their twelve-hour nights. And finally, Asta—an asteroid belt that orbits around Aurelia’s north and south poles.

Due to the reflective metals inside the asteroids, at night, they can be seen as slowly moving golden lights—a contrast to Dawen’s silver light.

The inhabitants of Aurelia believe that the asteroids are the souls of the recently deceased traveling to the spirit world, a ridiculous concept, but one they believe all the same. And if it brings them some measure of peace to believe that these floating hunks of metal are the souls of their loved ones, then I have no intention of correcting them.

The inhabitants of Aurelia do not measure time in the same way that many other worlds do. For example, they do not measure their days in weeks or months: instead, each season has roughly 94 days, and so the inhabitants simply count the days until the end of the season.

An example of this would be that harvest time in the capital of the Ullet Empire begins on the sixty-seventh day of Greenwilt and ends on the seventy-fifth. Like many other origin worlds, Aurelia has four distinct seasons, centralized around the harvest of crops. Though these names change depending on the language, this is what they are called on the main continent: the planting season is Leafwake, the dry season is Firecrest, the harvest season is Greenwilt, and the cold season is Witherpeak.

Life can be harsh on Aurelia, but Aurelians are a hardy people and many of them welcome the challenge their world gives to them. I should know, I used to be one of them.

End of excerpt.

A gentle breeze rustled the branches on the evergreen trees that surrounded the small field where one hundred children of the great Ukata clan stood at attention under the watchful eye of their parents, three teachers from the local school, and Teng De, first elder of the Ukata clan.

In spite of their young age, the children did their best to remain still and quiet for the first elder.

Ukata Teng De was a man in his fifties, with short black hair that was graying near the temples. Though young for an elder, he had successfully guided the Ukata clan for thirty years, his calm temperament and vast knowledge of Eco causing him to be widely respected both inside and outside of the clan. As such, it was only natural that he be the one to perform the awakening ceremony for the next generation.

The awakening ceremony was a crucial step towards being seen as an adult in the eyes of the clan. It was the day you accepted Eco into your body and your future duties in the clan were revealed.

“Hello, children,” Teng De said. His voice boomed across the field, making it almost impossible for the children to ignore him.

“I’d like to start out by welcoming you. As you all no doubt know, my name is Ukata Teng De, and I have the honor of serving as your first elder. Accompanying me today are these wonderful people.” He waved behind him at the gathered teachers.

“You will have time to meet each of them after the ceremony, but for now, they’re here to serve as my helpers. In a moment, I will have each of them demonstrate one of the four Eco disciplines. Let this serve as motivation for you. For someday, if you train hard enough, you can be as powerful as your instructors.” Teng De ended his speech with a smile.

Though he’d attempted to be as friendly as possible, many of the children were still rendered speechless by his presence.

Teng De beckoned an alluring young woman to stand next to him. The woman appeared to be in her twenties and was wearing a cut-off red robe that ended just below her hips. She waved at the children, causing many of the boys to turn scarlet and many of the girls to wonder at her beauty.

“Ukata Lai Delan, Wild Eco user.” Although the woman spoke quietly, her voice carried over the children as if she’d shouted.

The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then her eyes snapped open: her charming brown eyes had turned the color of wheat, her teeth elongated into fine points, her nails lengthened and sharpened to a shimmering edge, and a light dusting of fur sprouted across her skin.

What truly captured the children’s attention was the swaying tail that grew from her backside and swished behind her.

“As she explained, she is a Wild Eco user. Those of you lucky enough to possess this rather rare discipline will no doubt find yourselves under the tutelage of Lai Delan in the coming weeks. Thank you.” Teng De bowed to Lai Delan, who quickly returned the gesture, then returned to her place in line.

The next person to step up was a handsome woman with a spear held loosely in her left hand. She stepped to the left of Teng De and said, “Cao Xinyue, Captain of the Ukata royal guard, Battle Eco user. Filling in for my sister.”

Without wasting another moment, Cao Xinyue rotated the spear quickly in front of her, spun it around her side, and brought it behind her back. As it came around her other side, she struck. Though the tip of the spear hit nothing but air, the ground in front of her was torn as if someone had recently pulled a plow through it.

Cao Xinyue smacked the butt of her spear against the ground and bowed to the children. After receiving courtesy bows in return, she bowed to Teng De and went to rejoin the other teachers.

“Thank you, Cao Xinyue. I hope your sister feels better soon.”

The last person to step up was a heavyset man wearing a dark leather apron. Wielding a small hammer in his right hand, he moved to Teng De’s left side and began speaking.

“Greetings. I imagine some of you already know me, but for those of you who don’t, my name is Long Yijun. I am the successor to the Long family smithy, located centrally in the market district. Oh, that reminds me, we’re having a special this week on tool sharpening. Get two items sharpened, get a third free—” The sound of Teng De clearing his throat brought the man up short.

“Maybe you could advertise after you’ve demonstrated Shaper Eco for the children?” Teng De said, showing nothing of his emotions save for a humorless smile.

Long Yijun nervously chuckled at the first elder. “Apologies, Elder De. I’ll just get to it then, shall I?”

Long Yijun pulled the fragments of a broken knife out of a pouch on his side and held them up for the children to see. He gathered them into a single hand, then closed his meaty fingers around the fragments. He blew on his closed fist, the breath coming out a surprising dark orange. When he opened his hand again, the only thing left of the knife fragments was a bit of iron powder.

The children ogled the iron dust with open astonishment on their faces.

“You think this is impressive?” Long Yijun laughed. “I’m merely in the channel building stage, just one stage above your own! My father can repair cracks with nothing more than his breath.”

“Yes, yes, Long Meng is one of the prides of our city.” Teng De laughed while discreetly leading the salesman away before he could truly begin singing praises of his father. Teng De held only respect for Long Meng, and would likely pay the master smith a visit before the day was done… but they had a schedule to keep. “Once again, thank you, Long Yijun, for demonstrating Shaper Eco.

“And lastly, if you don’t mind someone who’s a bit out of practice, I would be honored to demonstrate the last Eco discipline for you. Does anyone have any objections?” The children remained completely silent at the question. None of them knew what to say to that.

Teng De, realizing he’d made them uncomfortable, coughed into his hand in order to hide his embarrassment. “I wield Elemental Eco: specifically, I wield the thunder element. I would ask that you cover your ears. I’ve been told it can be a bit loud.” The children immediately did as he said and covered their ears with their hands.

Teng De brought his right hand up to his left shoulder. He took a steadying breath, then twirled his hand in a circular pattern as he brought it across his body. Just before his arm fully extended he thrust two fingers towards the sky, high above the spectator’s heads: a crack of thunder reverberated throughout the field as a bolt of lightning shot from his fingers.

The bolt only dissipated once it’d traveled one hundred feet; in the wake of the lightning bolt, the grass beneath it, and to two feet on either side, was blackened from the intense heat.

Teng De brought his hand back to his chest and bowed to the children.

There was a moment of silence as the children processed what they’d just seen, which ended when they burst into a cheer loud enough to rival the thunder. Teng De laughed at the children’s enthusiasm.

Ukata Teng De pulled an unassuming glass sphere the size of a marble out of a pocket of his robes and motioned for a young boy to step forward.

Watching all of this from the sidelines was a teenage boy of fifteen years named Taryn. Appearance-wise, Taryn was memorable, not in the sense that he was handsome, but for the dark hood that covered his head and the cloth mask that covered the upper part of his face, even during the height of summer when the harsh light of Rala shined the brightest.

Hood and mask aside, the young man could be called average looking at best and “harsh” at worst. What could be seen of his face was pale, and his cheekbones were slightly too pronounced to be healthy.

The vest connected to the hood was made out of a rough, dark fabric the children on the field probably didn’t know existed, and the same could be said for his ill-fitting dark gray robe and breeches.

The only pristine piece of clothing to be found on the young man’s body was the dark bag slung over his shoulder. It was a rather small bag, only four hands across and two hands high, but it looked brand-new. The contrast between it and the young man’s clothes was sure to have drawn attention.

Dark red eyes stared out over the field, locked on the form of the first elder. Taryn hadn’t come to the training field to participate—he was far too old for that. He liked to watch the awakening ceremony. It was the closest he would ever get to cultivating.

He’d always dreamed of one day being on that field: the first elder standing before him with his arms outstretched, waiting for Taryn to take that first step forward… Taryn sighed. Who was he kidding? That would never be him. Taryn wasn’t a member of the three clans. He certainly wasn’t a Ukata—nor was he a Cai or Qiao.

Taryn was Clanless. While not the only reason he was considered an outcast, it was the most obvious thing to set him apart from everyone else within the great walls of Haven City.

While only those with a direct connection to the founders were considered “true descendants” and treated as nobles, everyone from the street urchins living within the shadows of the city to the men, women, and children standing on the field with the first elder could trace their lineage back to one of the three founders.

No matter their family name, they were all a part of the Ukata, Cai, or Qiao clans.

Had his adoptive grandmother not taken pity on him as a child and brought him back to the city to stay as a temporary guest of the clan, Taryn likely would’ve been left alone to die in the forest beyond the walls.

Though his grandmother said she had no idea why he was wandering the forest in nothing but rags, Taryn knew. It was because he’d been abandoned by people who couldn’t be bothered to show him the kindness of a quick death. He was left alone to starve… or worse, become the meal of some forest dweller.

He’d once wondered if perhaps his family was dead, but any hope of that being the case was crushed before he was ten.

The area he was found in supposedly had some kind of protector that had never shown aggression towards humans. Taryn was told that it was because of this protector that he’d been left alone long enough for him to be found and brought back to the city.

There was but one way a child such as Taryn could’ve made it to that area… Someone had to take him there.

He was abandoned outside the city with nothing but the rags he was found in, and the horrible burn scars across his face.

It was the kindness of a complete stranger that saved him from certain death, and the kindness of her clan that allowed him to stay with her despite their distrust of outsiders… But not even the Ukata were kind enough to allow him to join the clan or even to do something as simple as train with their children.

As an outsider, someone born outside the city and not of the three clans of Haven, he wasn’t trusted enough for such an idea to even be considered. No one in Haven City was willing to perform the awakening ceremony on the scarred outcast. Not even the woman who’d adopted him… Okay, that wasn’t strictly true or fair. His adoptive grandmother couldn’t awaken his Eco even if she wanted to.

Taryn silenced all thoughts as soon as he noticed a boy stepping forward.

Acting quickly, Taryn pulled a spyglass out of his bag and held it up to his eye. He watched with bated breath as the boy took a breath… Moments later, the crackling of electricity surprised the boy so much that he almost dropped the sphere, but at the last moment he closed his hand around it, preventing the priceless artifact from falling to the grass below.

After a taking a moment to relax, the boy once again opened his hand so everyone could see the marble. Thunder Eco flailed against the inside of the marble. Green arcs of electricity danced in Taryn’s eye, and he knew the boy had succeeded. “A maker: thunder element,” Taryn muttered to himself.

He pulled a leather-bound journal—a birthday gift from his grandmother—and a pencil out of his bag and began to write it down. This was something Taryn did every time he came to watch an awakening ceremony.

He liked to make note of what he saw. It was his way of trying to understand the cultivators around him, even if he couldn’t be one of them.

Makers was the preferred nickname of Elemental Eco users. The others had nicknames too: users of Shaper Eco were often called forgers, users of Battle Eco were nominally known for whatever weapon they used to focus their Eco, and Wild Eco users were commonly referred to as shifters.

Makers used Eco to wield the primal elements and alter the world around them as they saw fit. While most makers only had an affinity for one element, some geniuses were rumored to have been born with an affinity for two or perhaps even three elements.

Taryn had never seen this himself, despite having personally spied on—er… witnessed eight other awakening ceremonies in the two years he’d been doing this.

Taryn didn’t know whether to believe it or not, as it wasn’t uncommon for the clans to lie about the might of their members.

Just as Taryn finished writing his notes about the boy, a girl stepped forward confidently and without pause. She took the marble without needing to be told. At first nothing happened, just like with the boy, but then a loud clanging of steel rang throughout the field.

By the time Taryn could see the marble again with his spyglass, it had turned the color of blood, the telltale sign of Battle Eco—a branch of Eco that did exactly as its name suggested.

Battle Eco was used to enhance the body: it allowed for faster movement, stronger strikes, and reinforcement of the body to levels rivaling that of the strongest shields.

Taryn quickly wrote all of this down in his journal, then picked up his spyglass just as a group of boys wearing matching robes that were green and gold in color took the marble in turn, and each caused an earsplitting roar to erupt from the marble.

Even as far away as Taryn was, he winced at the painful noise. He could only imagine what it must have sounded like up close.

Taryn rubbed his ears with the palms of his hands for a few moments, trying desperately to stop the annoying ringing in his ears. With one hand still on his ear, Taryn began to write with his right hand.

The boys were users of Wild Eco, an untamed, uncontrolled form of Eco that allowed the user to absorb the essence and take on the characteristics of any number of beasts.

He’d never seen someone train using Wild Eco, but from his research, he concluded that shifters preferred training in complete isolation, or never trained at all.

Most of the shifters he’d heard of took the form of domesticated beasts in order to better work the fields or perform manual labor. He guessed he could understand their distaste for training if that was all they could do with their abilities.

However, Taryn was sure these people were not using Wild Eco to its fullest potential. He’d heard stories about the dreaded Eco Beasts in the forest beyond the walls. Couldn’t someone use Wild Eco to become like them?

Realizing he’d been too distracted with the thought, Taryn quickly wrote down everything he could about the boys.

Soon after, a pair of twin girls approached first elder together. The rhythmic tapping of a hammer on steel rang out across the field as the first accepted the marble. The same occurred with her sister, both girls awakening Shaper Eco one after the other.

While this might seem weird or unlikely because of the nature of random chance, according to Taryn’s research, children had about a seventy percent chance of awakening the same Eco type as their parents. A number which climbed to almost ninety percent if two or more children were born at the same time… Or so his sample size of eight would suggest.

More information was needed to come to a true conclusion, but Taryn believed it was an interesting theory nonetheless.

Taryn spent most of his afternoon sitting beneath the leaves of that large tree.

His journal was quickly filled with the traits and brief descriptions of each of the children.

Once all was said and done, Taryn managed to acquire data on about eighty children, and it went something like this: Fifty-two possessed Battle Eco. Twenty-five possessed Elemental Eco—of those that did, the overwhelming majority had an affinity for fire, ten had an affinity for wind, while only two children had an affinity for thunder. Fifteen children possessed Wild Eco. And only eight children of the Ukata clan would go on to wield Shaper Eco and become forgers.

With the ceremony coming to an end, Taryn quickly gathered up his things and made to leave the training field. He only made it a few steps before someone laid a hand on his shoulder and turned him around, causing him to drop his bag in the process.

Ukata Teng De looked down his nose at Taryn, all semblance of the kindness he’d shown on the field gone, replaced by anger and disappointment.

“Why are you here?” Teng De’s words were barely above a whisper, but they shook Taryn to his core as if he’d shouted them.

In all his life, he’d only seen the first elder a handful of times, and never had he been this close.

“I—I was just...” Taryn stammered.

“Spying?” Teng De narrowed his eyes.

It was then that Taryn realized his bag had fallen open, and his journal was visible.

Teng De pushed Taryn aside, much to the boy’s protest, and picked up the leather-bound journal. With one hand, Teng De undid the clasp and flipped the book open while holding a struggling Taryn at bay with his other hand.

After a few seconds of flipping through the pages, Teng De latched on to Taryn’s vest and he lifted Taryn off of his feet.

He looked at the journal for a few moments more, then he shut the book and shifted his eyes to Taryn’s face.

“As a favor to your grandmother I will not kill you for the crime you have committed here today. However, and listen to me well, boy. You will never cultivate Eco, especially not at our expense. If I ever see you in this part of the city again, I’ll see you expelled from the city.” He released Taryn’s vest, allowing the boy to collapse onto his backside.

While maintaining eye contact with Taryn, Teng De ripped every last page out of the journal, then threw the leather cover. It flew like a disc over the top of a nearby tree before vanishing into the tree line. “Go home. A nameless clanless like yourself doesn’t belong here. You aren’t even worthy enough to look in our direction.”

Taryn flinched at Teng De’s words.

His eyes involuntarily looked towards the tree line; he didn’t care much about the paper—it was easily replaced. But he wouldn’t leave the cover. His grandmother had saved every tiena she could get her hands on for three months to buy him that cover, and he wasn’t about to lose it.

But he knew he couldn’t go for it now, not with Teng De watching. So, Taryn stood up and fled from Teng De’s sight, vowing to himself that not only would he return for the cover, but he would show Teng De that he was wrong.

Taryn would cultivate, and he would be damn good at it too. He wasn’t the worthless kid people said he was. He wasn’t… And he’d prove it to Teng De, to the Ukata clan, to everyone.