Magic school for a nobody

In the kingdom of Elyndar, a land ruled by knights, kings, and ancient magic, the arcane arts are reserved for the gifted few. Far in the muddy southern countryside, in a forgotten village surrounded by swaying wheat fields, lives Aren Valen—a scrawny, ordinary farm boy with no magical talent, no noble blood, and no ambition beyond surviving the next harvest. He’s never held a sword, never cast a spell, and the idea of becoming a mage is as distant as the stars. But everything changes the day he saves an old beggar from being beaten by drunken guards. In return, the man gives him a sealed letter—marked with the sigil of Meridiana, the most secretive and feared magic academy in all of Elyndar. Somehow, against all logic, Aren is accepted. Thrown into a world of spellcraft and deadly competition, where students wield fire and shadows like weapons, Aren is weaker than everyone around him. Mocked, overlooked, and barely keeping up, he discovers that buried deep within him is a long-lost power the world has forgotten—one that could reshape the fate of magic itself… if it doesn’t get him killed first.