The shock spread like cracks through glass.By the next morning, the entire academy had fallen into an uneasy hush. Students moved through the corridors in tight clusters, their voices lowered to whispers. Beasts stayed glued to their tamers’ sides, ears flattened and tails tucked. The usual buzz of morning drills and classes felt muted, as though the whole institution was holding its breath.I walked among it all carrying a crate of fresh restraints for the afternoon training sessions, my steps measured and silent. The weight felt insignificant now. My body had grown stronger with every passing day, the bond feeding me a steady stream of raw power that made ordinary effort feel almost quaint.The shadow moved with me.Not visibly not yet but I could feel it. A faint ripple at the edge of my vision. A subtle shift in the air when I passed a group of students. Their beasts reacted instantly: a flame sprite dimmed and retreated, a stone golem ground to a halt, a wind hawk screeched an

Suspicion had taken root, and it was spreading like poison through the veins of the academy.By the following morning, the silence had evolved into something sharper a tense, watchful quiet that followed me everywhere. Students no longer simply avoided me; they studied me from a distance, their conversations dying the moment I entered a corridor. Beasts pressed themselves against their tamers or refused to move at all when I passed. Even the cleaning staff, who had once treated me with casual contempt, now finished their tasks in record time and disappeared whenever I appeared.I continued my duties as if nothing had changed sweeping halls, hauling supplies, scrubbing the aftermath of other students’ glory. But everything had changed.The shadow moved more freely now.During midday inventory in the beast supply wing, a single tendril of darkness detached from the floor without conscious command and slithered across the stone. It was invisible to human eyes, but every bonded beast in t

The academy had learned to breathe around me.Students moved in tighter clusters, their voices dropping to whispers the moment I entered a corridor. Beasts stayed glued to their tamers’ sides, ears flattened, tails tucked. Even the instructors, who had once dismissed me as another forgotten failure, now watched with narrowed eyes and careful distance. The fear I had planted in the arena had taken root and grown into something palpable, something the entire institution carried like a second skin.I continued my duties without reaction sweeping halls, hauling supplies, cleaning the aftermath of other students’ glory. The work was monotonous, but it had become useful camouflage. While they whispered and avoided me, I observed. I catalogued every fearful glance, every uneasy beast, every instructor’s lingering stare.The shadow moved more freely now, responding to thought rather than command. It no longer needed my conscious will. It simply existed with me, a living extension of the bond

Curiosity was a dangerous thing in a world built on power.I learned that the hard way the very next day.The academy corridors felt narrower than usual, as if the walls themselves were pressing in with the weight of a hundred unspoken questions. Students moved in tighter groups, their voices low and cautious. Beasts stayed close to their tamers, ears flattened, eyes darting nervously whenever I passed. The fear I had planted in the arena had taken deeper root overnight. Whispers followed me like shadows of their own, but no one dared speak directly to me.Except her.Elara Voss found me again in the late afternoon, this time in the quiet alcove near the rune-lit library annex where I had been assigned to reorganize old training manuals. The space was dim, lined with tall shelves of ancient texts and glowing holographic archives. Dust motes danced in the faint light filtering through the narrow windows that overlooked the New York skyline.I was stacking a heavy crate of scrolls when

The warning spread faster than any rumor had before.“Stay away from him.”It started as a whisper among the second-years who had seen the storage room incident, then rippled outward through the academy like a cold current. By the next morning, it had become something close to law among the lower ranks.Stay away from Lucien Drax.Students who once laughed at the cracked egg now crossed to the other side of the corridor when they saw me coming. Groups parted like water around a stone. Beasts even the proudest lions and wolves lowered their heads or refused to advance, pressing themselves against their tamers with soft whimpers or uneasy growls.The fear had taken root.And it had a face.Mine.I moved through the academy as I always did carrying supplies, cleaning halls, performing the menial tasks assigned to F-rank failures. On the surface, nothing had changed. I was still the quiet janitor in the plain gray uniform.But the atmosphere around me had become thick with tension.Nyxar