William bolted upright in his bed and checked the time on his phone. It read 12:02 AM on Monday, August 15th. He took a few shaky breathes to calm himself and laid back down only to stare at the ceiling. For the past two weeks it had been the same recurring nightmare that interrupted his sleep each night. In it he was running through a dark forest while shadowy figures chased him down, once they reached him they would lunge and then he would wake up in a cold sweat. They all started after he had gotten that letter that contained what everyone hoped for. It was an invitation to attend Polaris Academy, the top Ruler academy in the entire nation. He rolled on his side and picked the letter up from where he left it on his nightstand. The gilded lettering glimmered slightly in the little moonlight that leaked through the window but it was enough for him to read it. "Dear Mr. William Ashborne", it started out, "I, Dean Fosters of the Polaris Academy of Rulers, invite you to attend classes and training with us starting August 15th. An attendant will pick you up from your place of residence at 7:30 AM and will escort you to the academy. Class starts promptly at 8:15 AM and I hope to see you there." At the bottom there was a silver star with a golden dragon circling it with its tail clamped in its mouth. William had read this each time he woke up from his nightmare and each time he felt absolutely terrified by it. When he got the letter his parents were at first excited for him but when he left the room he could hear them talking back and forth in a low tone. The next morning they kept exchanging fearful glances with each other. William's father, Daniel Ashborne, was a retired Ruler general for the nation of Dunset so seeing him with fear in his eyes shook William to his core and made him fear what was to come of this invitation. Two weeks had passed with constant nightmares and constant fear. As he lay there reading the letter his mind wandered to how this all came about.
A month prior William was running through his daily routine of intensive physical training with his father when the first sign happened. As him and his father took a short break from a rather tough sparring match William's mother, Elena , was rearranging the various potted plants that could be found in the back of their house. Elena had set a small clay that held a jade plant near the edge of the table and a gust of wind flew through right as she turned away. The wind caught the leaves and sent the plant over the edge and hurling towards the ground. All of a sudden it stopped two feet above the ground and wavered there. Daniel, who had witnessed the whole ordeal from the side, yelled out but was in complete shock when it stopped falling. Both his mother and father turned to him when they heard and took in both the floating plant and his shocked expression and ran over to him. After a few seconds of hovering the plant continued its downward journey and shattered on the stone. his parents were either too focused on him or didn't care enough to bother with the plant as they ran to him with worried looks on their faces. As they reached him his father took a quick look around the yard as if looking for something and his mom ushered him inside with haste born of nervousness.
A few seconds later his father entered the house and checked the yard once more before going to kneel next to William. Daniel looked at him and asked William what happened and he told them. When he finished a shadow passed over his dads face and he turned to Elena with a grave look. William turned to look at his mother still confused as to what just happened and why they were acting so weird. " William from the look on your face I can tell that you have no idea what just happened so I will try to explain it to you," His mother said " As you know both your father and I are Rulers and what just happened out there happened to us too. Its called an Emergence and it marks the beginning of the Awakening." she explained to him " All Rulers have different abilities and all of them have telekinesis. The fact that you made the pot stop falling outside marks you as a Ruler as well although you were a little late to develop your power so we were unsure whether you had them at all as most go through the Emergence at fifteen and not seventeen." as is mother finished saying his father chimed in "Yeah we weren't if you had powers or not and by the time your sixteenth birthday rolled around we had pretty much concluded you didn't have any but now that you do it means that we can kick training up a notch and incorporate new things into training." he said with a devilish grin. For what felt like an eternity Daniel sat there processing all that transpired.When he looked up his father had gone elsewhere and his mother was sitting in a chair a few feet away reading a book.
Those memories replayed themselves over in his head as he lay there. Setting the invitation back down on his nightstand, he sat back up and reached for the glass that he had set on his dresser across the room. No matter how much he willed that glass to move it sat there defiantly just like it had for a whole month.