Elder Veylan sat at the head of the council table, hands folded so deliberately that the knuckles showed white. The candlelight painted his face in slow strokes—pale in the hollows, composed on the surface. He listened as the others spoke, their voices a thin curtain he could see through.On his ringed finger, he tapped a slow, almost musical rhythm. Two taps, a pause. Two taps again. Habit. Tension. Something like amusement curled at one side of his mouth and disappeared before it reached his eyes. He cleared his throat, a micro-sound, small and precise. Always control the smallest noise. People mistake silence for weakness. They should not.“The incident in Kael’s quarters,” Elder Ravos said finally, the man’s voice like gravel, “has left the academy… unsettled. Students whisper. Tutors are uneasy. The council needs to act decisively.”A chorus of assent, some eager, some tentative—breezed the chamber. Veylan kept his expression even, letting the others carry the heat. He liked the

The academy felt strange in the days after the Deathwood return.Kael walked through the stone courtyard, his boots clicking too loudly against the polished tiles. Or maybe it wasn’t the sound, maybe it was the silence that followed him everywhere. Conversations dimmed when he passed. Heads tilted, whispers fluttered like nervous birds.He tried to ignore it, but his body betrayed him. His jaw tightened, his shoulders locked. His aura, though he suppressed it, pulsed faintly, and people could feel it like the air thickened for a heartbeat before returning to normal.By the time he reached the dining hall, he was already weary of the stares. He sat, set down his tray, and reached for his chopsticks. His fingers, restless from suppressed tension, slipped. The chopsticks clattered loudly against the wooden table.The whole room froze.Kael exhaled through his nose, slowly, and picked them up without a word. His hand trembled just slightly be

The platform quaked as aura clashed again, harder, sharper. Sparks spat from the runes, scattering across stone like fireflies.Kael drove forward, his aura pressing outward in waves. Every step was a drumbeat, the pressure swelling until students near the warded circle instinctively flinched, clutching at their chests.Dorian didn’t falter. His blade slashed upward, cutting a crescent through Kael’s pressure. His aura condensed sharp as glass, focused into a single edge. Where Kael’s dominance pushed, Dorian’s control sliced.Steel kissed fist. The shock snapped through Kael’s arm, rattling his bones. He swallowed the sting in his knuckles, his eyes narrowing.Fast. Too fast to swat down like before.Dorian’s grin tightened. “You’re slower than I thought.”Kael snorted once, a low exhale through his nose. “And you’re lighter than you pretend.”He surged forward again.The duel became a storm of rhythm: sword cu