The Fourfold Realms

Chapter 2: The Testing Grounds

The morning after the Awakening, the nine children were led to the edge of the village, where an old stone building sat half-buried in the earth. Vines curled up its cracked walls, but the heavy oak doors still stood strong. This was the Testing Grounds—a place built generations ago for the newly chosen, where children could unleash their gifts without fear of harming others.

Inside, the air smelled of dust and cool stone. Torches flickered along the walls, lighting a wide hall that branched into nine different chambers. Each door was marked with carvings, symbols shaped for fire, water, earth, and other forces of the world.

The elder’s voice echoed in the silence. “Each of you will enter your own chamber. In there, your power will answer you. Do not be afraid. The rooms will not break, no matter what you do.”

Aella exchanged a glance with her friends. Her chest tightened, but she nodded. This was the moment she would learn what it meant to hold the weight of earth in her hands.

One by one, they stepped into their chambers.

Colin’s room was wide and bare, its floor covered in packed soil and scattered stone. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then the ground beneath her stirred, tugging at her heartbeat. She lifted her palm, and the dirt rose with it, a mound forming like it had been waiting for her call.

In another chamber, Elwin yelped as sparks flared too close to his hair. Aero’s laughter rang out as a gust of wind spun him in circles. From behind one wall came the sound of rushing water; from another, a clang of metal against stone. Christine’s chamber filled with animal cries—chirps, squeaks, and the patter of tiny paws. Aella’s light flared so bright it seeped through the cracks in her door, only to be swallowed by an answering darkness.

The building seemed to hum with life as nine gifts unfolded at once, shaking the old stones as if the Testing Grounds themselves were waking after a long sleep.

When the children finally stepped back into the main hall, faces flushed and eyes shining, the elder was waiting.

“Now you understand,” he said, his voice low but heavy with meaning. “Power is not just a gift. It is a voice that will never stop calling you. Whether you answer wisely or recklessly—that is what will decide your future.”

The nine friends stood shoulder to shoulder, still catching their breath, still trembling from what they had touched. None of them could have guessed that this first step into their powers would one day lead them far beyond their village… into dangers they could not yet imagine.