The Weight of Mana

Some gifts are not given - they are taken.
Elowen Ashveil was only six years old when the Kingdom of Nodia's mages came to his village and measured the impossible - a well of mana so deep, so vast, that it hadn't been seen in over a century. They called it a blessing. His mother called it a curse as they pulled him from her arms.
Raised behind stone walls and iron schedules, Elowen is forged into something the kingdom needs: a weapon. His days are filled with runes, spellwork, and the cold praise of masters who see power, never a boy. But between the lessons and the silence, he finds something they never planned for - people who see him. A sharp-tongued girl with a talent for healing magic. A disgraced knight's son scrubbing floors to earn his place. An old groundskeeper who tends the academy garden and speaks in riddles that always make sense too late.
But the world outside the academy walls is cracking. War is coming. And the kingdom that stole his childhood now wants to spend it.
The Weight of Mana is a story about growing up too fast in a world that asks too much - and whether a boy can hold onto who he is when everyone around him only cares about what he can do.