Vel held the white silk collar, stiff between his fingers, up to the morning light coming through his window.
"What's this called?"
He turned toward Hileya with it still in his hand.
"A jabot collar, young master."
"A jabot."
He flipped it over to look at the front. The folds spilled one over the next.
"The shape presents the impression of a majestic bird," Hileya said.
I know this design.
Just never bothered with what it was called.
All of it had been Shizuka's work. She drew them, she named them, and he had never once asked where they came from.
The outfit, however, had come from the Academy, with word that he was to wear it to the ceremony. Nothing about how.
"How am I supposed to wear this?"
Hileya stepped in and took it from him. "May I?"
Her hands went to his shirt, setting the collar against it, working it into place.
The light from the window behind her caught in her hair as she moved, silver going bright along the edge, the braids swinging forward and settling back against her collarbones.
There's something different about her.
She stood closer than she used to when fixing his clothes. She offered things he had not thought of yet.
And even now she's taking her time, instead of getting it done and over with.
Back then she had kept to arm's length, quick and efficient about it, finished and away before he could say a word.
Her breath registered against his skin as she worked.
Her fingers made a last pass and stopped.
"It's done, young master."
She looked up then, and found him already looking at her. The color came into her face and stayed.
Then she bowed and took a step back, head down and staying down.
The contract bond had eased somewhere along the way.
No voice that wasn't his. No feeling arriving from a direction he could not account for.
Never knew how much of me went the other way.
He picked the jacket up off the bed.
"Those two who went after Eldrin. Did you find out who they were?"
"Not yet, young master." Hileya's hands returned to her front. "Master Duren might know where to ask. If I bring it to him, I may be able to—"
"Let's... hold it off for now."
She stopped there and waited for the rest.
"They walked straight through all of us because nobody thought they could. An operation at that scale... if they left anything behind, it might be on purpose."
"One wrong pull and they'll know."
Hileya gave a small nod.
"Nothing gets caught in its own den. We'll have a better shot when they stop expecting one."
"And the next time you come near them, I have to be there too."
That one she took longer with. Then she nodded again.
Vel pushed one arm through the jacket sleeve.
"Oh. Before I forget."
He crossed to the desk with the other sleeve still hanging off him, and got the drawer open with his free hand.
He took the insignia out and held it out to her.
Gold, a crown raised at the center of it. Among the carved lines ran smaller ones, too fine for any hand to copy.
Hileya looked at it without reaching.
"A Blade Steward insignia," she said.
"I have only ever heard of them in passing, back in Elnor."
"Highly trained servants, each placed at the side of a crown family member."
She had not taken her eyes off it.
"Each close enough to dress them, yet skilled enough to shield them."
"And fearless enough to trade their life..."
"I know exactly the person you just described," Vel said.
Hileya looked up at him.
"Keep it where they can see it."
Then she took it in both hands.
"But... be more mindful about that last part."
He smiled at her, then pulled the jacket on the rest of the way and worked the buttons up.
Vel checked the collar once more and moved toward the door.
Hileya followed behind.
---
"What the... Tomas?"
Tomas turned around, and the cloak turned with him, the high collar behind his neck covering part of his sandy brown hair.
"Why do you have a cloak?"
"It's what they sent me."
He spread his arms. Under the cloak was a robe, and across it an ornate sash worked in a pattern Vel could not make out from where he stood.
"You look like a real mage." Vel looked down at himself. "And I got this?"
"What do you mean? It looks fantastic."
Not sure I trust his eye for this.
Vel looked past him at the courtyard.
Strange vines climbed out of the botanical beds and followed the arch's structure, flowers of different blossoms growing along them. None of it had been there the day before.
Where they did not reach, drapes hung instead. No two were the same color, every edge trimmed in gold lace and finished with fringe that moved with the air.
The students had come out of their uniforms too. Formal garments everywhere he turned.
It almost looked like a soiree.
"I certainly did not expect this."
"Not me. It's a tradition, apparently. My cousin told me about it."
"So you keep mentioning. I'd surely love to meet him," Vel said, cheerful on purpose.
He took a breath, and his voice was normal again. "Where are the others?"
"Over there."
Vel followed where Tomas pointed. Long tables had been set out with food and drinks on display, and his friends were standing at the near end of them.
Rohen was shoving a whole cake into his mouth. Only Enya saw them, and waved.
"They're serving already? The main event hasn't even started."
"Those are just snacks."
"Mister Velarian. Mister Tomas."
An instructor had come up on them without either noticing.
"The speech is about to start. I suggest both of you move nearer the podium."
His voice stopped short at the end, the way a command does.
"Instructor Moana?"
"You sound surprised."
"No, I..."
Vel looked around. Across the courtyard the students had gathered into their classes, an instructor standing at the head of each group.
"Are you..."
"Yes. Standing in, for today." Moana's hands settled behind his back. "Elyssia figured you would all rather have a familiar face than a stranger."
"Come. It shouldn't be long."
They looked at each other, then followed him.
A chime rang out from beside the podium, one clear note of struck metal, and the courtyard went quiet with it.
Elyssia did not have to ask for their attention. She took the podium and let her gaze move across the classes, one after another, and whatever noise was left died out ahead of it.
"Students of the Academy. Welcome, and congratulations to every one of you, for making it to the end of your term."
"We have had a very... tumultuous first year."
"The first of its kind in the Academy's history."
She let that settle.
"And I will not dress it up for you."
"Some of you have friends..." Her eyes went out over the students.
"Some of us have colleagues..." And over the instructors standing at the head of each group. "...who are not here today. Some of them chose to leave, because they were afraid. Others simply could not stay."
"But such is the nature of our world. Constantly evolving. Perpetually changing."
"Know that their absence is not only felt by those who knew them, but by all of us."
"I would ask for a minute of silence, for those who could not stand here today."
The courtyard gave it to her.
A minute of silence. Mine hasn't ended in days.
Somewhere in the middle of it came a sob. Low, and short, and loud enough in all that quiet that everyone heard it.
Nobody turned to look.
The minute passed, and Elyssia gave them a while longer before she spoke again.
"Carry them with you. That is the whole of what any of us can do for them now."
"And remember who you are. Students of the Lona Academy of Arcane and Magical Arts, which has given this kingdom its finest warriors, its mages, and its scholars."
Vel turned. Tomas was beside him, and behind them stood Rohen, Mira, and Enya. They looked back at him and smiled.
"I know most of you want answers for what happened, and a great many names have been given for who is to blame."
"Yet I implore you to distinguish veracity from mendacity. Upon the former you may act. Upon the latter, you must not."
She let her words sink in before she moved on.
"Next, the result of the Ternion Tournament."
Whispers went through the courtyard like wind moving over a field.
"While it was interrupted before a champion could be crowned, both finalist teams demonstrated exceptional abilities worthy of recognition."
"After extensive deliberation, the Academy Council has decided..."
A pause.
"...to recognize both teams as champions."
The courtyard answered that with noise.
Vel glanced sideways along their group. Not one of them looked surprised.
Somewhere in the students nearby, a voice went up over the rest of them.
"Preposterous."
Elyssia raised a hand, and the noise came back down.
"I realize some of you approve of this decision, while others question it."
"However, determining a winner was never the tournament's true purpose. A rerun would be pointless, especially when there are more pressing matters to address."
The courtyard went still again.
"What happened in that arena was not an isolated event. It has exposed vulnerabilities within these walls that we can no longer afford to ignore."
"The arena will therefore remain restricted until further notice, and security measures throughout the Academy will be significantly strengthened after the break."
Better late than never.
"This threat now concerns the kingdom itself."
The courtyard came alive with movement.
"The next matter is no less important, as it bears directly upon the structure of this Academy."
She let the crowd sit with it until the silence returned.
"Whether you denied it or deflected it, every one of you saw it."
"There have been discoveries made within our Clouded section."
Across the courtyard, heads turned toward their group.
Moana stood at the head of them, hands behind his back, unbothered.
"I will not go into the specialized detail. The Arcane Council will publish it soon enough, and you may read it for yourselves."
"We have discovered..."
She stopped there.
"No. Our students have discovered a seventh element, alongside the six of our tradition."
The courtyard broke open, yet her words carried through it all.
"Those previously designated as Clouded will henceforth be recognized as Chaos-attuned."
"And next term, every student will be re-evaluated under our new classification."
Voices climbed over one another.
"What?"
"A seventh?"
"Forget the seventh, she said re-evaluated!"
Elyssia raised her hand again, and the voices came down with it.
"Rest assured, this will not affect your standing. It is a recalibration, to place you within our new classification."
"Whatever you are classified as, every student will be given the same opportunity to advance by their own ability."
"Those with talent who refuse to act upon it," she scanned the faces in front of her, slow enough that half of them looked away, "beware those who persevere."
In the elite section, a few faces had set hard.
Everywhere else in the courtyard, they had not.
Elyssia's expression softened by a small degree, and her voice eased with it.
"Now, with those matters addressed, I believe you are all eager for a celebration and rest. The Academy will host a banquet shortly after—"
"Archmagister."
Kein Atherwind had stepped out of his class. He walked forward at an even pace until he stood alone on the open ground, in front of the podium.
He turned to face the crowd. "As representative of the elite class, and co-champion of the Ternion Tournament, I would ask a single favor of you, if you would grant it."
Elyssia's eyebrows lifted.
Whatever had been written down for this morning, it was not this.
"State your request, Atherwind."
The courtyard waited on him.
"I wish for one final duel with Novalance."
The students erupted. Necks craned all across the courtyard, every one of them hunting for Vel.
Vel nearly came off his feet.
A duel? Now?
After everything that happened?
"You've got to be kidding," Tomas muttered beside him.
Elyssia's expression stayed neutral. She did not answer, and Vel could see the calculation running behind the silence.
Her eyes moved past the student sections, to the rows of guests behind them. Families of the prestigious houses, every one of them watching.
Moana turned his head back toward them and kept his voice down.
"What is happening? I thought the two of you had come to an agreement."
"I thought so too," Vel whispered back.
Kein's gaze found Vel in the crowd.
"Velarian. Would you accept my challenge?"
As if I could refuse.
Backing out means conceding. Every student here is being re-evaluated because of us.
A group that caused all this trouble, then refused to prove its worth.
They would then ask if Elyssia's judgement had any ground to stand on.
Win or lose, the duel has to happen. Kein knew that when he asked.
Vel exhaled slowly.
"I accept."
The noise filled in after him.
Moments later Vel stood in the middle of a dueling circle that had not existed a minute ago.
The sections had come apart the second Elyssia allowed it. Students pressed in from every side and settled into a ring, faces bright with it, close enough that the instructors had to move them back twice.
They worked from inside the crowd, spaced out at intervals to hold the ring open, hands loose at their sides and ready to throw a barrier over anyone who needed one.
Elyssia came down off the podium and into the circle with them.
"We should establish the rules of this duel."
"First point wins," Kein said, adjusting his collar.
Vel nodded once. "No need to drag this out."
"I must emphasize. Any technique that endangers the audience will result in immediate disqualification. Keep your spells and your sword arts contained."
The ring shuffled backward and widened, the instructors pushing at it until they were satisfied.
At the far edge of the courtyard, the servants stood in a line of their own. Hileya was among them, watching.
Vel and Kein paced away from one another and turned. Both of them checked the charms on their chests.
Kein levelled his sword.
"Still no place to put that?" he said, eyes on the crystal in Vel's hand.
Vel brought his own blade up. "What's your aim here?"
"Proving a point."
"What point?"
Kein did not answer.
An instructor raised her hand, then dropped it sharply.
"Begin!"
They charged together.
The blades met and held, edge grinding against edge, both of them leaning into it. For a heartbeat they stood matched, faces inches apart, each searching the other's eyes for something neither was showing.
"I've told you so," Kein said.
Then they broke and began to circle.
This isn't about the fight.
"That why we're here?" Vel said. "To gloat?"
Kein came in on the turn. Three strikes, high and then low and then high again. Vel gave ground on the last one and pushed him off.
"This is not about me." Kein said.
They came together again. Vel matched each strike as they worked each other around the circle.
The students shouted at every clash.
"She was your responsibility. What are you going to do about that?"
Vel took the strike on his blade and held it there.
"I don't need reminding."
"Whatever it costs."
Kein shoved him off the lock, then broke away on his own and stepped out of reach.
"Easier said than done. Everyone is expecting a demonstration."
"And what are you expecting?" Vel said.
"To end this fight. Not to win it."
End the fight...
Vel stopped moving.
He jumped back. A few more steps and he would have been at the perimeter.
I'm tired of hiding it anyway.
His body turned almost sideways, sword held out in front of him in one hand.
His mouth began to move, and in the other hand the crystal began to glow.
A vortex opened around him while he chanted. Wind first, pulling at his jacket and at the drapes above the archway.
Then water, glowing blue as it turned through the wind in long threads.
Then sparks, running the spiral in lines and brightening as they climbed.
Then sand, fine grains of it turning with the rest, out of a courtyard paved in stone.
The vortex fell away, and the sand came down with it and settled across the ground.
Across from him, Kein held his stance and let it finish.
The whispers around the ring rose into noise. Students turned to one another, asking what it was Vel had just done.
Vel lowered the sword to one side and walked toward Kein. The air shifted around his feet with every step he took.
Kein's form turned to light as he called it out.
"Flash Step."
The strike stopped dead where it arrived, and Vel held it there with one hand.
Then he pushed the blade aside and turned with it. Kein followed through with the push, then pivoted to face Vel once again.
"Heaven's Rend."
Light tore open in front of Vel, then at his sides, each one like a claw mark left hanging in the air.
Vel slipped between them, dodging what he could and turning the rest aside, his movement flowing like water.
"Blinding Flurry."
Strikes came faster than the eye could follow, each one dragging light behind it until Kein seemed to be standing in four places at once.
Vel put all of it aside with the one hand, and the sword he did it with had hardened over, the surface set darker than the iron it was. On the last deflection he put his weight through it, and Kein went back across the stone.
Both of them stood face to face for a breath.
Then a faint smile crossed Kein's face.
Before Vel could decide his next move, Kein sheathed his sword and raised both hands.
"I concede."
"What—"
The power drained out of Vel slowly, the blue going out of the air and the dark leaving his blade, while what Kein had said caught up with him.
"Archmagister."
Kein straightened where he stood.
"I concede this match."
The courtyard went loud. Shouting out of the elite section first, then questions from everywhere else, students turning to one another to ask whether they had heard it right.
Kein spoke straight through the noise, and it dropped away a little as he went.
"My techniques, while precise, lack the raw power needed to overcome his defenses. Not without breaching the boundary of a duel."
Then he turned back to Vel and came toward him at an even pace.
"What are you doing?" Vel said, low.
"Ending the fight."
Kein put out his hand.
"I believe the Chaos-attuned discovery would greatly strengthen the might of our ranks, and our knowledge."
He said that part loud enough for the back of the courtyard.
Vel looked at the crowd. Then at the hand.
He could have stopped the spells. He had the speed for it.
Then at Kein's face, completely neutral, as if taking it were the only thing left to do.
Vel took the hand and shook it.
Kein gave him a nod, formal and correct, and somehow more honest than anything he had done since they found each other again.
Then he turned back toward the podium.
"I believe we can conclude the ceremony now, Archmagister."
The students were still somewhere back in what they had watched. Nothing followed what he said.
Then a clap, from the front. Eldrin, first and alone, loud and unhurried, his face bright with it.
More joined, one after another, until the rest of the courtyard came with it.
Lysithea Fairwind clapped among them, fan hanging off her wrist, her face giving nothing away about whether she meant it.
Severin had his arms crossed and did not clap at all. He looked more like a man working something out.
In the Chaos-attuned section, his friends were grinning all over, their claps coming faster than the rest.
Elyssia looked surprised, but dropped a few satisfied nods before she spoke up.
"With this display of remarkable skill from our champions, I hereby conclude this ceremony. The banquet will be served shortly in the Great Hall."
The applause fell away, and the instructors began calling the students back into their sections and out toward the Great Hall.
Students broke off on the way past and came at Vel instead, ones he had never spoken to in his life, close enough to take his sleeve and all of them talking over each other.
"What were you casting at the end?"
"Is it something only Chaos-attuned can do?"
"Does that mean we could end up in the same class after the re-evaluation?"
Vel answered what he could and lost track of which question went with which answer, though he noticed not a single elite patch among them.
The crowd broke off as Kein came near. He said nothing, but his intention was clear enough, and the students drifted away toward the hall.
Only Vel's friends stayed.
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Kein said. "This does not mean I will do the same the next time."
"You planned this, didn't you? To put me in the spotlight instead."
"I have no idea what you mean."
He said it with a straight face. But the glint was there behind it, the one from Elnor, and he made no effort to hide it.
Vel could have sworn he saw half a smile as Kein turned around and made his way toward the hall.
---
The Great Hall opened out past the doors, and the noise came to meet them.
Silverware clinking against plates. Voices layered over one another until none of them carried on its own.
An attendant came past them, a stack of plates on his arm, scraps still sitting on the top one. The rest held their stations along the buffet, replacing anything that ran low.
How long were we back there?
Hundreds of students and guests filled the hall, and it still had space to spare for the decorations and walkways between the tables. It was the same hall they had sat the written entrance exam in.
Beside him, Rohen had stopped walking.
"I've never been to one of these before."
"What do we do?" Enya said.
"Find our table," Vel said.
"Think I just found it." Mira had her arm out, pointing at a table in the corner by the windows.
They started toward it.
Unlike the four of them, Giri had been to enough gatherings like this. The year-end party. The team building that got held because there was a budget, never for the reason in its name.
Vel read the plaque at the center of the table while the rest of them dropped into their chairs.
[Chaos Section]
"Is it just me, or does that not mean anything?" Tomas said, pointing at the plaque nonchalantly.
The rest of them shrugged.
"We might have broken the ceiling," Vel said. "But there's a whole ladder left to climb."
Hileya had taken her place a step behind Vel, her posture perfect, hands clasped neatly on her maid apron.
There was an empty chair next to him. Every one of them found it at the same moment, none of them meaning to, and the talk stopped without anyone calling for it.
Mira looked around, pursing her lips, scanning until she stopped at the food tables.
"Well, looks like we're serving ourselves."
"When are we ever not? Unless you have a servant standing next to you, like the nobles over there." Enya turned back to Hileya. "No offense, Hileya."
"None taken, Miss Enya," she answered with a smile.
"Hey! What about me?" Vel raised his voice.
"What are you waiting for? The food isn't going to fly over to us."
Rohen was up before he finished saying it. The rest followed him.
"Young Master, what would you like?"
Better to take a sample before deciding what I want to eat.
Like he always did.
"Let's go look together."
---
Tomas leaned back against his chair, a hand rubbing his stomach. Four empty plates sat in front of him.
"I'm so done."
"Of course you are," Enya said. "That was the third Quackulin'."
"I heard they brought new inventions into the gallery upstairs," Mira said. "Want to go look?"
"What are they?" Rohen asked.
"Dunno. They came in with the merchants and the guests. Tools, artifacts, things put out for display."
Tomas pushed himself out of his chair.
"I need a walk anyway. You coming?"
"I'll join in a bit," Vel replied.
He wanted to wait for Hileya to finish hers.
It had taken him a few tries before she agreed to sit down and eat at all.
She'll stop if I stand up.
He watched her slice through the portion on her plate, slow and even, wearing his jacket.
She was afraid of the rest of the hall seeing her in servant's uniform, eating beside her master.
A voice came from behind him, low and soft.
"Ex-excuse me..."
Vel turned in his chair.
"I'm sorry to bother you."
Bright blonde hair, covering part of her eyes as she bowed her head slightly.
"You... wait, I remember you. Sylwen, right?"
Sylwen Wyvell stood beside their table, her hands fidgeting.
"I wanted to apologize," she continued quickly. "About our match during the tournament. If I appeared to be rude..."
"Huh? You have nothing to apologize for. You were an incredible opponent."
The apologetic manner startled him.
Is this how she is when she isn't fighting?
In the arena she had practically danced through the air, confident, firing perfect shots.
Am I mistaking her for someone else?
Relief washed over her face.
"R-really?"
"Correct. Your technique was stunning to observe." A different voice came from the other side.
Vel turned to the voice, a face he knew.
"Thorson."
With the blinding tactic.
"You were impressive as well. There are few who can stack that many enchantments."
"Are you sure?" He looked back at Vel. "I can only do it with light. Not the whole rainbow."
Sylwen dropped into the chair Tomas had left, her face bright.
"Can you tell us more about that? I've never seen anyone do that in a duel!"
Vel stuttered a little before he found his words.
"Um, well. That was me converting weapon arts into spells. Your feather step, for speed. A monk's art for reflex. A reinforcement spell for my weapon, and a bit of fire to strengthen the muscle."
"Wow. You can do that?!" The words escaped Thorson before he could stop them.
"Ah, yes. That was part of our chaos discovery. It can blend elements."
Saying he could use every element would land him in a different kind of trouble entirely.
"Impressive," Thorson said. "Everyone got it all wrong about the unstable."
Vel turned to Sylwen. Her eyes were glued to him, bright with excitement.
More students nearby caught the conversation and drifted closer while he went through the reason behind each spell.
"...reflex can give you more time to react..."
"...the weapon needs to be hard enough, or the Flash Step breaks it on a head-on collision..."
Hileya slowly moved back into place behind Vel as she finished.
Before he knew it, he had become the center of a small circle.
Smiling faces, all of them turned in, waiting on the next piece.
For a second, an image surfaced out of his memory. Desk, neon light, monitors. People leaning in around him to listen. Kenji. Hane.
Except here, nobody was telling him to optimize the system for a player's wallet. They were simply curious about how the world worked.
That alone made him pause, and the question he dreaded answering surfaced.
If an opportunity ever came, could I decide?
He shut the thought down, turned back to the circle, and picked up where he had left off.
---
Vel leaned on the balcony rail, watching the sun go down. Hileya stood beside him.
Apparently the day came with more than food. Bards and music, a stage play somewhere below, harp and drum carrying up through the noise.
A few students had started sneaking wine into their cups. Most of those had already been dragged home.
Below, guests were leaving and new ones arriving to take their places.
He turned to Hileya.
"Good thing you're not working today. Not that I would have agreed to it."
"They wouldn't let me, young master."
"Hm? Why?"
"Most of them bow and turn away before they can hand me anything. As soon as they see this."
She touched her collar, the insignia plain against it.
That makes sense. She outranks them.
"I guess you don't have to wear it all the time."
Vel turned back to the focus crystal and rolled it around in his hands.
On the floor below, Kein stood with a group of his peers. Eldrin had not left his side all evening.
Or is it the other way around.
"Maybe we should head home—"
A notification flared sharp at the edge of his vision.
[Identification Completed]
Huh?
He swiped it open in front of his eyes.
Oh. The spell.
Somewhere in the sequence he had thrown during the duel, one had been running alongside the rest. The duel had ended before it could finish.
Maybe it caught up now. Kein's right down there, close enough for it to pick up the rest.
He had always hated seeing a person as numbers and text. It made them arbitrary.
It reminded him of the layoffs. When the project needed cuts, all he had to stand in for a colleague was a sheet of their performance.
His hand hovered over it anyway.
Just one look, I guess.
Kein's status opened.
Kein Atherwind
Primary Affinity: Light (Holy Specialization)
Proficiency: Long Sword (Expert)
Nothing unusual at a glance, nothing he did not already know.
He scrolled through the short chart under Known Abilities.
I've seen him use most of these. "Skyforge"? That's his secret art? Interesting—
Then he saw it.
Under Title, the same field where his own sat, was a line he had never seen on anyone before.
[Hero]
Vel stopped.
For a moment, he simply stared at it.
Not because he didn't know what it meant. Because he did, and all of it landed at once.
In Aeonalus, heroes were not simply people who became strong. They were chosen for a story. Blessed with greatness, cursed with the suffering required to forge it.
Every loss made them stronger.
Every tragedy pushed them forward.
It was the narrative device Giri had built into the world.
"A hero is forged through adversity."
Those were Shizuka's words. Exactly hers.
He looked back down at Kein.
If Divine is my credential, somehow this is Kein's.
Then...
what does that make me in this world's narration?
And more importantly. What is coming, that this world needs a Hero to face it?
Vel turned to Hileya.
"Hileya. What do you know about the Atherwind family?"
"From what I've collected, he is the only son of Lord Oliver Atherwind. The Lord's wife could not produce an heir. Lord Kein is the son of the second wife."
"But I heard that wife passed away. Some sudden illness."
Vel turned back down to Kein. He didn't breathe.
Lorene...
Has he been carrying it since childhood? All the way back in Elnor.
Another notification.
This one came bigger, more intrusive than the last, though he had seen its like before.
[World's Line Fragments Completed]
Five fragments folded into one another and became a single item. Some kind of stone tablet, or maybe a disk.
It hung there in his vision, waiting on a command.
His hand shook a little as he held it over the View button.
Beside him, Hileya's face had gone worried, sensing something wrong.
The moment his finger touched it, the world fell away around him like liquid, leaving only the dark.
The next second he was standing in the Academy courtyard.
He had seen this place before. His first vision. But there was no haze to it now, no shadow swallowing the edges. Every stone was clear under his feet, and every voice carried.
A girl was laughing somewhere ahead.
"Celia?"
The figure he remembered as a shadow had colour now, and he knew him.
Kein.
He stood beside Celia, the two of them talking about something Vel could not make out, laughing between the words. Kein smiled at her, open in a way Vel had never seen on him.
Vel looked around. There was no sign of himself anywhere in it.
"Kein?"
Neither of them heard him.
He stepped toward them and reached out, and his fingers passed through the scene.
The courtyard washed away.
Oakhaven.
Smoke filled the sky. Houses burned on every side, flame climbing through roofs he knew. Bodies lay across the streets, and he knew the faces on them. People whose names he still remembered.
Roen...Lili...
Finn... Miss Caseleth—
"Mom?"
Mari lay among the others, twisted where she had fallen, her face against the ground.
He would know that hair anywhere. He had spent years looking at it from the table while she cooked.
Vel ran to her.
"Mom!"
Nothing. He reached for her, and the world washed away before he could touch her.
Darkness. Candlelight. Cold stone, and air that smelled old and musty.
"Lan-neechan?"
Landre stood ahead of him, facing the wall. She did not answer.
Vel stepped closer.
"Lan-neechan."
He reached her and turned her around, and his breath caught.
It was not her face. Something had taken it. Her eyes burned red, and dark mist crawled out of her shadow, tendrils stretching up the wall behind her.
Vel stumbled back. She lunged, a hand reaching for his throat, and he spun around and ran.
The scene was replaced by another.
His house in Elnor. Everything exactly where it should have been, except for the man sitting alone in the chair.
"Father?"
Von did not move. Vel came closer, and then he saw the sword. It stood out of his father's chest.
He sucked in a breath and stumbled backward. His leg struck a chair and he fell, and the world went down with him.
Then there was sky. Dark.
Deep purple from one horizon to the other, broken by fragments of light cutting through clouds too dark to be clouds at all.
Vel pushed himself upright. His hands were shaking.
He looked ahead, and his blood ran cold.
Bodies. Hundreds of them. No. Thousands, covering the field as far as he could see.
A battlefield.
At the center of it one figure knelt in white, and beside her stood a banner marked with a sun.
Vel knew that robe. He knew that banner.
He started walking. His legs barely listened.
"No..."
The figure did not move. He came closer, and closer, and then he saw her face.
His sister. Not the thing he had just seen wearing her face.
The Saint. Landre of Shizka.
Dead. Still kneeling. Lifeless under the banner.
"No." His voice broke.
Something moved above him. He looked up.
A darkness had opened above the battlefield. Not a cloud. A hole. A black wound spreading through the sky, wider and wider, the clouds bending toward it, the light going in and not coming out again.
The world itself was moving toward it.
Then—
He was back.
The balcony came into existence around him. Hileya stood in front of him, her hands on his shoulders.
"Young master?"
Her voice sounded very far away.
"Young master, are you all right?"
Vel staggered backward. His legs gave out, and he caught the edge of the bench and went down onto it hard.
His chest heaved. His breath came ragged and shallow, and for several seconds he could do nothing but stare.
Hileya crouched beside him.
"Young master?"
Vel opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
"Did it happen again?"
"Wh—" Vel turned to her, still finding the words.
"You were like this before. When we first arrived here."
"I just... need a moment."
He wiped the sweat off his forehead, and his hand stayed there, covering his eyes.
It finally came clear.
Those weren't hallucinations. They weren't premonitions either.
That's the story of the world where I...Vel doesn't exist.
A boy dies to a lightning strike. His mother dies in a Wulfang attack. His sister is taken and comes back as something else. His father, with nothing left of them, ends his own life.
He would never have met Celia.
She'd be alive. Well. Happy, even. The Hero's companion.
But... what was that last place. The black hole.
Was there something in it?
Was it an eye?
He gasped.
The cult's mark is an eye. That swirl, the trail of light going down into the middle of it.
What should I do?
What should he do. He could not find the answer, not sitting there.
What could he do. Prevent it? How?
He looked back at Hileya. Then around him. Then up. Anchoring himself, making sure all of it was still there.
The day was winding down like any other. Music from somewhere below, students laughing, half a dozen conversations running over one another.
"We should... head home."
He pushed himself up off the bench.
And saw it on the ground below.
A white carriage with a banner flying above it, slowing to a stop at the Academy gate.
A sun.
The same banner from that field.
His eyes went wide.
Vel bolted for the staircase. He caught a few students on the way down, and one of them nearly went over.
Before long he was on the walkway to the gate.
The carriage door opened.
The figure stepped down.
"Lan-neechan!"
He ran.
Landre saw him. Surprise crossed her face and was gone in the same breath, and she came toward him faster.
They met in the middle and held on to each other.
"You miss me that much, huh?"
Vel didn't answer.
Behind her, Sarvin started up.
"Saint Landre, please, the saintly image of the Ch—"
Vel could not see it, but he knew she had a finger up to shush him.
His sister was here, and she was safe.
That was all he needed to know right now.
"You're shaking. What happened?"
There was no answer, and she didn't ask again.
She brought her arms back around him. His eyes stung, and he knew hers were doing the same.
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