Three Years Later
Location: Ravenhold Estate,Kael's Age: 13
The letter from the Royal Academy arrived on a silver platter. It was heavy, sealed with the crest of the Golden Griffin, and smelled faintly of lavender and pretension.
Kael Raven picked it up.
He was thirteen now. The baby fat was gone, replaced by lean, whipcord muscle. His black hair was longer, tied back in a messy knot, and his violet eyes were sharper, like he was constantly dissecting whatever he looked at.
He sat at the long breakfast table with his family.
Duke Aleric was reading a war report. Grandfather Arthur was sharpening a steak knife with a frightening amount of focus. Grandmother Helena was stirring her tea with a spoon made of solidified mana.
"Well?" Aleric asked, not looking up. "What does the prestigious Academy say?"
Kael broke the seal. He scanned the calligraphy.
"It's an acceptance letter," Kael said, his voice flat.
"To the Combat Department?" Arthur asked, pausing his sharpening.
"No," Kael read aloud. "Dear Candidate Raven. Due to your F-Rank mana capacity and unstable Corrosion affinity, the Combat Department cannot accept you. However, we are pleased to offer you a place in the Department of General Studies and Logistics."
Silence filled the room.
"Logistics," Grandfather Arthur wheezed, looking like he was about to pop a blood vessel. "They want a Raven to... count crates?"
"It says here I would make an excellent Quartermaster," Kael added, a small, cold smile playing on his lips. "Or perhaps a Librarian."
"Burn it," Klaus's voice echoed in the room. The Dragon had grown stronger over the last three years. His voice was no longer a whisper; it was a low vibration that shook the silverware. "If I am forced to attend a class on 'Supply Chain Management,' I will eat the professor."
Kael dropped the letter onto the table.
"So," Aleric said, finally looking up. "You are refusing?"
"I am."
Aleric nodded, looking satisfied. He took the letter, snapped his fingers, and watched it turn to ash.
"Good. The Academy is a playground. It teaches children how to duel with rules, how to bow to royalty, and how to look good in a parade."
Aleric stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the jagged, snow-capped peaks of the Northern Frontier.
"But the world does not have rules, Kael. The Demons do not bow. And monsters do not care about parades."
The Duke turned back to his son.
"When your sister graduates, she will take the public stage as the Face of House Raven. She will play the game of politics."
"And me?" Kael asked.
"The Academy takes six years to graduate," Helena said softly. "For the next six years, while Leonardo Valerius sits in a classroom learning how to be a Hero..."
She pointed to a file.
"You will learn from the real world"
"...You are going to learn how to be a Shadow."
"The Shadow Guard has a training camp in the Whispering Woods," Arthur added, grinning. "Survival rate is 40%. The monsters there are real. The killers there are real. No referees. No safety wards."
Kael looked at the map.
He thought about Leonardo, sitting in a pristine white lecture hall, surrounded by admirers, learning theory.
Then he looked at the black skull on the map on the table,
Inside his chest, Klaus uncoiled. The Dragon didn't growl; he purred. A deep, resonant sound of pure anticipation.
"Finally," Klaus whispered. "Real food."
Kael stood up. He picked up his steak knife and stabbed it into the map, right through the skull.
"When do I leave?"
"Tonight," Aleric said. "Pack nothing. You earn what you keep."
[That Night]
The carriage that waited for Kael wasn't the luxurious Raven transport. It was a rusted, unmarked iron bus used for transporting prisoners and traitors.
Aurelia was waiting by the gate.
She was a teenager, beautiful and terrifying, radiating the power of a C II Rank warrior. She held a long, wrapped bundle in her hands.
"You're not going to say goodbye?" she asked.
"I'm not dying," Kael said, adjusting his cloak.
"Where you're going... you might," she said seriously. She handed him the bundle.
Kael unwrapped it. It was a pair of daggers. The blades were black, made of a metal that seemed to absorb the moonlight. They weren't ornate. They were ugly, jagged, and brutal.
"Dragon-bone steel," Aurelia said. "Grandfather commissioned them. They conduct Entropy mana without rusting."
Kael took them. They felt light. They felt right.
"Leonardo is the Sun," Aurelia said, looking at the moon. "He burns bright. Everyone sees him. Everyone admires him."
She looked down at her little brother, the Spare, the F-Rank disappointment, the monster in human skin.
"But the brighter the light, Kael..."
"...the deeper the shadow," Kael finished.
He stepped into the iron wagon.
"I'll see you in three years, sister."
"Try not to lose a limb," she called out as the wagon lurched forward.
As the wagon rattled away into the darkness, leaving the safety of the estate behind, Kael didn't look back.
He closed his eyes and began to cycle the Star-Breathing Sutra.
The Academy could keep its lectures. The Golden Child could keep his applause.
Kael Raven was going to become a shadow.