Byun slipped away from the group without anyone noticing. It was easy, given how everyone's attention was fixed on Jae, Yuna, and the aftermath of the battle.
Byun kept his head low, moving with deliberate calm even as his pulse hammered beneath his skin.
The smoke rising from the courtyard still clung to his robes, but it wasn't the charred stone or the scent of blood that unsettled him. It was something deeper, something that clung to his senses like a phantom: that shadowy aura.
He knew it too well. His time in the Shadowrift had etched it permanently into his memory, the oppressive weight of it, the way it wormed into the edges of his thoughts, trying to unmake him.
And now it was here.
He clenched his jaw as he made his way across the ruined courtyard toward the faculty wing, eyes darting over his shoulder once to ensure no one followed.
