Like fog dissipating in the early morning sun, the darkness lifted from beyond the gate and revealed what was hidden. Staring into the shadows before him, Kael tried to identify what might be hiding in the dark.

The first shape he saw was an outline of some sort of barrier some steps into the distance. Slowly the shadows had disappeared enough for him to roughly see most of the ground. Wanting a better look at what he saw, Kael blew caution out of the window and moved.

Taking a step forward, Kael could see that the barrier was actually a tall fence. It looked identical to the one surrounding the garden area and was running all around the space he stepped into. Estimating the distances, Kael gave the area about the size of a circle 10 meters in diameter.

Surrounding it were metal gates like the one he had stepped through to enter. Counting, he saw a total of seven other, still closed, gates spaced evenly around the circular area.

He, still, could not make out the source for the diffuse light seemingly permeating this entire... Dimension? World?. The darkness was still in the process of dissipating, and only slowly could he make out more details. Looking around, Kael noticed that while the shadows were almost gone from most of the area, it was still present in the center. Somehow, refusing to dissipate, clinging to something located there.

Ignoring the oddity, for now, he focused on what he could see. The area was empty as far as Kael could see. Only once he looked down and the ground came into view did he have something new to examine. It was made of smooth grey stone tiles, fitting together so perfectly their borders were almost invisible. Interesting, however, was not the material but what was engraved, no inlaid into it.

The floor he was standing on was covered in symbols like the ones he remembered from the light dome the archmage had him sit under. Kael was sure that there was some kind of logic to it all, even though it was absolutely beyond him for now. Going down on one knee, he inspected the markings.

Strangely, once he ran his hand over them, he did not feel them at all. From their color, they should be metals, like gold, silver, bronze, and some others he had never seen before, but they felt just like the supposed stone they seemed to be embedded in.

Maybe they were painted on instead, he thought as he filed the information away for now. Picking out one or two of the simpler runes, he tried to memorize them as best as he could. Whatever this was, he did not want to return empty-handed should something suddenly go wrong. Once he was satisfied, he switched to the next point of interest.

Taking his time, he walked along the fence. Trying to see past the metal bars seemed impossible since the same darkness that had first clung to this area was also shrouding whatever was behind those bars. The gates showed no handles, and the space connecting both sides was instead hung with delicate-looking chains, locking the gates shut.

The chains showed no lock holding them together. Instead, it was one continuous string of metal. Testing the chains, Kael found them too strong to break purely by muscle. Not that he would seriously attempt ripping them open if he could help it. While he was walking, the rest of the lingering darkness had dissipated completely. He could now see what it was that it had so desperately tried to hide.

Right in the center, surrounded by all the symbols that seemed to form ten concentric circles, there was a small pillar. Maybe a meter in height, plain white, and decorated with the same foreign symbols he saw on the ground. On its top, he saw something resembling a water basin. Made from the same material, shallow, and not even half a meter wide. Then, there was the centerpiece, or at least that was what Kael thought it was.

Floating, some twenty centimeters, above the basin was a construct of three metallic rings of different sizes, surrounding a shining pearl. Flat and smooth both inside and out, the rings hung in the air, dormant. The pearl shimmered in varying colors, reflected by some kind of liquid metal swirling around inside.

Once he had laid his eyes on the construct, Kael suddenly felt that this was somehow the most significant thing in this world. Just like he somehow knew what passing through the wall of light had meant. Just like he somehow knew that there was nothing in here that would hurt him. Some subconscious part of him just knew.

Taking step after step forward, he came to stand before the pedestal. His eyes fixed on the floating pearl. Once he reached the center, his body moved without him even realizing it. Like an observer, he watched as his body stretched out his hand towards the pearl. Fingers reaching to touch the pearl, the source, HIS Source.

Time seemed to stretch, and the process felt like minutes to him. Then, ever so slowly, his fingers made contact with the Source. At first, there was no reaction, making him wonder if something had gone wrong, until, with the booming of thunder, the world shook.

He felt something awaken at that moment, and bits and pieces of knowledge invaded his mind. Confusing information that had no start or finish made his head hurt as ever more rushed into it. The pain grew so overwhelming that it threatened to make him pass out.

Later, the pain had finally receded, and Kael could open his eyes again. They instantly fell on his Mana-Source, which was now radiating a warm light, while the rings spun lazily around it. What information he had gotten was still fractured and, mostly, made no sense. At least he now knew something about what all of this was, where he was, and why he was here.

This space was, he now knew, a sort of representation of himself. Or, at least the... Person? Thing? he had gotten the information from thought so. The different gates surrounding the Source were somehow representing talent or potential. The function of the Source itself was a mystery, but it was connected to mana, that much he knew.

There were only two ways to enter this space. Have your Mana-Source awaken by another mage or self-awakening, as he had done. The other way to enter was strange and only possible for already awakened mages involving lengthy meditation and intricate use of magic, way beyond him for now.

There was nothing more for him to do here. He had just awakened, and from what he could piece together, everything else came later. Looking at his Source once again, he was a little put-off. From the, albeit incomplete, information that had come with the awakening, he knew that new seeds were not supposed to be surrounded by rings.

Before he had time to think more closely about the strangeness, he felt a force pulling on him. Knowing his time here was coming to an end, he looked at his Source once more, now in the knowledge that his future had changed forever.

Darkness took him once again, and this time the sweet bliss of unconsciousness arrived with it.