"What are you hiding, Rey Soren?"The voice echoed in Rey's mind long after the duel ended, long after Kade Vorn had been carried off the field on a stretcher, bones shattered and pride scorched. His name was no longer whispered with disdain, but with suspicion. Fear had replaced curiosity. The Academy of the Seven Towers, a fortress of ambition and ancient secrets, was now watching him with the eyes of predators. He had revealed too much.Far too much.Zayne found him near the outer training yard that night, crouched beneath the lone flame-touched tree that never lost its leaves. Rey sat silent, the moonlight casting jagged shadows across his face."You good, flame-boy?" Zayne asked, tossing him a dried fruit. "I mean, you nearly broke the guy’s spine. Epic, but... scary."Rey caught the fruit, barely looking at it. His fingers trembled."I didn’t mean to lose control."Zayne shrugged, sitting beside him. "We all got something to hide. Yours just glows and throws people across the ar

The Academy of the Seven Towers stood silent under a bruised purple sky, the last glint of twilight folding itself into the gaping shadows that curled along the tower spires. A storm was whispering on the wind, heavy and electric. But deeper within the academy—beneath its gilded floors, down past forgotten stairwells and broken sigils—another kind of storm was brewing."Are you absolutely sure about this?" Zayne hissed, glancing over his shoulder for the fifth time."Not even a little," Rey answered, his voice low, urgent, and alive with a strange mix of dread and thrill. "But we need answers. If the sword is connected to my mother, if Emberclaw holds memories... then the vault—whatever it is—might hold more."Elira Moonveil floated behind them like a silent ghost, her silver hair glowing faintly in the dark. "The Archive is sealed for a reason. Even the headmasters don't have full clearance. It’s a living place—half temple, half trap. And tonight... it feels awake."The trio had slip

The cursed artifact pulsed with a heartbeat not its own.Rey felt it before he saw it—a crushing weight of presence, like ancient hatred folded into obsidian stone. The air in the training coliseum thinned, each breath sharp as daggers.Kade Vorn stood center-stage, his armor scorched and dented from a recent battle, smirking like he’d dragged something out of a tomb for the sake of revenge. In his gloved hand rested a jagged, black relic—a blade that reeked of something beyond death. Its edge shimmered with faint red veins pulsing like veins, and as he held it aloft, it let out a low screech, like steel grinding against bone."Where did you get that?" Rey’s voice broke the tension, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles went pale.Kade grinned wider. "You recognize it, don't you, Soren? Or should I call you Drakar now?"A ripple of gasps cut through the crowd.Lyra, standing by the entrance, froze.Zayne stepped forward. "Kade, you don’t know what you’re playing with. That thing—it