About

The ranking crystal flared white when you touched it, then died to black. F-rank. The lowest of ten thousand students at Aetherion Academy, where magic determines everything. You were assigned to the crumbling East Wing dormitory, given the worst class schedule, marked as barely competent. No one questioned it. But the crystal didn't fail. It broke. Your power didn't register as weak—it overloaded the measurement scale entirely, looping back to the bottom. The last time this happened was three centuries ago, when the school's founder shattered every testing device in the kingdom. The records were buried, the phenomenon forgotten. Now you walk halls where students wear their ranks like crowns. Z-ranks command respect with a glance. Council members are untouchable. And you, an F-rank transfer, are invisible. Except to three people: Kaelis Vorn, the Council President who can't explain why you unsettle him. Ryn Althea, a struggling low-rank who sees a kindred spirit. And Marlowe Grid, the historian who's read the old texts and knows exactly what you are. The question isn't if they'll discover the truth. It's when—and what happens to the school's hierarchy when they do.