Elias didn't come to school the next day.
That alone sent the hum into a restless spiral.
Blackwood felt wrong without him too still, too alert. Mara noticed it the moment she stepped through the gates. The air felt tight, like a held breath.
By lunch, she had made up her mind.
She found him where she expected to.
The old track behind the dorms was empty, the sky dull and grey above. Elias sat on the lowest bench, hood pulled up, staring at the ground like it might offer answers.
"You weren't going to tell me, were you?" Mara said.
He flinched but didn't look up.
"I needed time," he replied quietly.
"That's not time," she said, moving closer. "That's hiding."
He closed his eyes. "I scared someone."
"You stopped it."
"I almost didn't."
Mara sat beside him, close enough that their shoulders nearly touched. "You think disappearing fixes that?"
Silence stretched between them.
Elias's voice came out rough. "I've always done that. When things get dangerous… I leave myself behind."
She turned toward him then, fully. "Don't."
He finally looked at her.
"Don't disappear," she repeated. "Not from this. Not from me."
The words landed heavier than anything the school had ever asked of him.
The hum surfaced—not sharp, not wild.
Uncertain.
Elias swallowed. "What if I fail again?"
Mara didn't hesitate. "Then I'll still be here."
He shook his head slightly. "You shouldn't have to be."
"I'm choosing to be," she said. "That's different."
Something inside him cracked not painfully, but enough to let air in.
"I don't want to be alone anymore," he admitted.
Mara's breath caught, just for a second.
"Then stop deciding that for yourself," she said softly.
They walked back to Blackwood together.
The school felt warmer when Elias crossed the gates. The hum settled—not relieved, but reassured.
At the stairwell, he paused.
"Thank you," he said.
"For what?"
"For seeing me," he replied. "Even when I try not to be."
She smiled gentle, real. "Especially then."
That night, the hidden room opened on its own.
The wall where his name had been carved felt different now not waiting.
Rooted.
Elias stood before it, steady.
He wasn't whole yet.
But he was present.
And for the first time, the school did not feel like a test.
It felt like a promise.
*End of the chapter*