[Leif's POV—ThorenVald Estate—Training Hall—Later]
The world didn't feel real anymore. Or maybe it never had been.
The morning air was sharp and thin, the kind that usually cleared my head—but right now, it just made the pressure worse. Every breath scraped like glass.
"Alvar knew," I muttered under my breath.
The words didn't sound like mine. They felt too heavy. Too final. Caelum's voice still echoed in my skull—soft, reverent, devastating.
"He knows who you are, Leif. He kept the Book of First Light."
The Book of First Light.
My boots struck the marble floor as I walked, each step echoing too loudly in the empty corridor. Cold light filtered through the high windows, painting the world in the color of old wounds.
When I reached the training hall, the air was alive with sound.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Steel against steel. Rhythmic, precise, perfect—like a heartbeat made of violence.
