The next month slipped by in a strange suspended quiet. It was coming to the end of the summer and transitioning into the descent, the season of falling leaves. Crownspire moved as it always had, full of crowned footsteps and murmured lessons and the distant clatter of training halls. I still walk the halls cursed, people still stare and whisper but I try to pay no mind anymore. If I have my friends then I shouldn't care about idle rumours.
It's funny, observing the students and even the faculty searching my face or features for signs of corruption, rumour has it, I grow horns and drink blood now. Charming. It's amusing hearing these stories about myself from people letting their fear run their imaginations. Nothing has changed. Well, apart from being able to call on tendrils of shadow and even sometimes tendrils of light. Rell, Seras and Thorne have been helping me control it, whatever this power really is. At first I had no control, it leaked out through my emotions, Rell helped rile me up making his stupid crude jokes.
Seras crosses my path more often, usually helping me with deliveries of ink and parchment or rearranging the archives, with Orien's permission of course. I finally feel accepted, my feelings grow for her but I think it's more about respect than anything, she also gives me courage to keep walking and never give up despite the challenges the world may throw at me.
I'm no longer the sole owner of that forbidden knowledge, when I could I sat the trio down and explained my visions in the ruins of the forest of sin. They were astonished, shocked and confused but believed it. Believed me. There isn't much the four of us could do on our own, maybe Lira could help but it's just getting her to trust us, which may prove to be difficult, she's been tied down with work since Ellis passed, I think the workload is helping with the grief.
On normal days, Rell filled the empty spaces around me with relentless noise. He talked loudly and laughed even louder. He loves creating a thick plume of smoke around me when Lucien is around, Rell says he's helping the academy's air circulation by confusing the breeze, whatever that means. Meanwhile Thorne offers a different kind of shield. I think he's taking his protector role very seriously. Whenever someone stares at me for too long or takes a step towards me, he steps in front of me without saying a word. They usually step away, muttering their half-coherent threats like cowards who prefer distance.
Orien still looks at me with a heavy gaze, he feels responsible for how my interrogation was handled by the headmaster and the inspectors. He approached me two days after, apologising for not stepping in when it got too much for me, I told him that what's done is done and left it like that. I understand his guilt and I do not blame him, but I know he knows more than he's letting on about the Eclipse and what could be going on with me, he dances around my questions and pretends he doesn't understand what I'm talking about. He can keep his secrets.
I used to find comfort in the details of the academy walls, the murals painted so long ago with heroes and healers, the colours have softened into soft blues and faded golds. Crownspire Academy was itself a stone city inside of a city. Seven towers rise up like pillars in the sky, each tower dedicated to a different division of Lightscar duty and magical discipline. Bridges of arched stone connect each tower to one another and in the centre lies the oldest foundation. The prayer hall. A place said to bear the first users of the Lightscars who knelt and asked the heavens to strengthen their gifts, of course now I know the truth I know it to be propaganda used to indoctrinate simple minds.
This academy used to be the world I knew and understood but now, each hallway feels slightly off, as if shadows shift beneath the surface. Sometimes torches flicker and bend towards me as I walk past them.
The more I learn to control my power, the more rumours spread through these walls. A Paladin Knight apparently vanished near the forest of sin, strange prints were found in farmland along with missing livestock. Tall figures that look like trees move silently through the night and more Nightmaws have been spotted closer to Crownspire than ever before, the air felt charged with something that had no name and I couldn't tell if something was waking up after being asleep for so long.
Rumours swelled, tensions grew and finally this morning, everything shifted. The academy felt unusually quiet, even the wind sounded cautious. I had barely reached the courtyard to meet the trio when a figure in pristine white and gold armour stepped into my path, the black mast gleamed coldly in the early light. A Paladin Knight, fully ranked and unmistakable.
He stops directly before me, announcing my name.
''Veyrin, Scarless. Assistant Scholar. By the Crowned Paladin, you are hereby being summoned for further inquiry. Please present yourself to the Paladin Citadel immediately.'' The words are clear and direct. He had no time for games.
I freeze, Seras stops walking and Rell halts mid step. Thorne straightens and places his hand on his blade, bracing for a fight. For a moment, the world held still. Rell lets out a slow breath. ''The certainly sounds friendly.''
All three step closer to my side, shielding me from the Paladin. The Knight waited with a stillness of stone, his mask blank and merciless. The summons felt like the opening of a door I'd always feared, into something dark, something that had always been chasing me.