Chapter 2 - Echoes in the Dust

 Claiming it to be a "special assessment," the King sent Rein alone into the faraway Ashen Desert. His classmates laughed, proud of their abilities and blind to the cruelty of the court. He was given no food, no water-just false encouragement. He wandered for days, starving, burning, and hating. When his legs gave out and he collapsed by a dying oasis, a voice whispered through the wind: "Help me..." The girl from his dreams. The girl he couldn't remember. A violent sandstorm erupted, shifting the dunes violently until they uncovered a hidden structure-an ancient ruin buried beneath the sands