THE VOID BEAST

Chapter 12: THE CONSEQUENCE

"I won't let you do this," Jace said.

His voice was quiet, but the weight behind it was heavy. I looked up at him. His face had shifted—his usual easy smile was gone, replaced by something harder.

"I'm not going to watch you walk into those mountains," he continued. "You'll die. And I'll be the one who has to explain to someone that I let my only friend go off to get himself killed."

"You don't own me, Jace."

"No, but I'm not going to just sit here and let you throw your life away." He stepped closer. "You want to get stronger? Fine. We'll find another way. But the mountains aren't the answer."

"Then what is?"

"I don't know yet. But I'll help you find it."

I wanted to tell him he didn't understand—that staying here meant slowly being crushed by Sebastian and his kind, that every day I stayed weak was another day they could take something from me.

But looking at his face, I couldn't say any of that.

Instead, I just nodded.

---

The next morning came faster than I expected.

A sharp knock on the dorm door jolted me awake. I opened my eyes to see a stern-looking instructor standing in the doorway. His gaze swept the room and landed on me.

"Darian Vex. You're to come with me."

My stomach dropped. I glanced at Jace, who was already sitting up, his eyes wide.

"What's this about?" I asked.

"Fight in the corridor yesterday," the instructor said flatly. "You were identified as one of the participants."

I opened my mouth to explain, but the instructor raised a hand.

"Save it for the investigation."

I followed him down the corridor. Students peered out from their rooms, watching me pass. Whispers trailed behind me like smoke.

"Did you hear? He got caught."

"The rabbit boy? What did he do?"

"He's done for already."

The investigation room was small and cold. A man sat behind a desk—same stern face, same flat voice.

"Darian Vex," he said, reading from a paper. "You were involved in an altercation in the east corridor yesterday. You threw the first punch."

"He was beating someone else," I said quickly. "A smaller student. I was just trying to—"

"Did you throw the first punch?"

I hesitated. "Yes, but—"

"Then you violated Rule One: No student may attack another student outside a sanctioned duel."

"There were witnesses. The other boy was—"

"The other boy has filed a complaint against you," the man interrupted. "He claims you attacked him unprovoked."

I stared at him, my mouth open. "That's not true. There were people watching. The instructor—"

"Was on his way to an urgent matter. He didn't see the incident."

He didn't see the incident. He'd walked past. He'd seen us. But he'd chosen to look away.

I was about to argue when the door behind me creaked open. Two figures walked past—the tall boy from the corridor and his wolf. They were laughing, their voices low, their eyes briefly glancing my way. The smirk on the tall boy's face told me everything.

I opened my mouth, but the instructor cut me off.

"Your punishment is as follows: ten points will be deducted from your standing. This includes your individual score and your dormitory score."

"What about the boy who was being beaten?"

The man's face remained impassive. "No complaint was filed."

"And the other boy, the one who—"

"I have no record of that."

I understood. The student I'd tried to defend was too frightened to speak up. And the academy was happy to let it slide.

"Get out," the instructor said. "If you're smart, you'll learn to behave."

---

I walked out of the investigation room in a daze. My hands were shaking. I'd been punished for defending someone.

The rules didn't protect me. They protected the people who knew how to use them.

I was halfway down the corridor when I saw him. The old man from the library, the one who'd guided me to my dorm.

He stepped out of a side corridor, his eyes meeting mine. His expression was unreadable.

"Already causing trouble?" he asked.

"I was defending someone."

"Defending someone by throwing a punch?" He shook his head. "That's not how you survive in a place like this."

I felt a surge of anger. "So I should just stand there and watch someone get beaten?"

"No. But you need to be smarter." He looked at me more closely. "This place has rules. The rules don't protect people like you. They protect people who can use them to their advantage. If you want to change anything, you need to survive first."

I opened my mouth to argue, but he cut me off.

"Your anger is justified. I'm not telling you to suppress it. But you have to control it. If you don't, it will control you."

I didn't respond. I couldn't.

The old man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pouch. He pressed it into my hand.

"Rabbit food," he said. "She looks skinny. Feed her."

I looked down at the pouch. Then back at him. "I can't pay—"

"It's a gift." He turned away. "Take care of that rabbit. She's worth more than you know."

He walked away before I could ask what he meant.

---

Jace caught up to me as I walked back to the dorm.

"Bad news?" he asked.

"Ten points deducted from my standing. Before the academy even officially starts."

Jace winced. "That's rough."

"And get this—the other boy who was actually attacking someone? No complaint filed."

"Of course not." Jace shook his head. "They're nobles. They know how the system works."

I wanted to argue. Instead, I looked at the pouch in my hand.

"He gave me rabbit food," I said quietly.

"The old man?"

"Yeah. He said she's skinny."

Jace fell silent for a moment. "He's not wrong. She does look thin."

We walked the rest of the way in silence.

---

The dorm was quiet when we got back. Finn was sitting on his cot, his Stone Lizard perched on his shoulder. Orla was at the small desk, sketching something in a notebook.

Jace sat down heavily on his cot. "You should have listened to me," he said. "I told you to stay out of it."

"I couldn't just—"

"I know. I know." He rubbed his face. "But look what happened. You got punished. And the kid you were defending? Nothing. The bully? Nothing. The system doesn't care."

Orla looked up from her notebook. "He's right, Darian. We're D-rank. Lowly class. Acting out doesn't help us. It just gives them more reason to crush us."

Finn nodded silently, his lizard flicking its tongue.

I looked around at them. Their faces were tired, resigned. They'd learned to survive by keeping their heads down.

I didn't know if I could do that.

"Thanks," I said quietly. "For telling me the truth."

--

Over the next four days, I threw myself into readin. How to Train a Rabbit became my constant companion. I read about basic care, diet, and daily exercise. I learned about mana affinity and how to improve it through small bonding exercises. I even found a chapter on taming wild beasts.

But nothing mentioned Emberbloom again.

The rabbit followed me everywhere. She hopped behind me as I walked to the library each morning and waited patiently as I studied.

One afternoon, I was reading about mana bonding techniques when I felt a small nudge on my arm. The rabbit had pushed a heavy book off the shelf with her head.

I picked it up, frowning.

Advanced Beast Communication.

I looked at her. "Is this what you wanted me to find?"

She blinked.

I opened the book.

I avoided trouble. I avoided Sebastian and his cronies. I avoided the bullies from the corridor. I kept my head down and focused on my studies.

It was lonely. But at least I wasn't being beaten.

One night, I sat on my cot with the mountain chapter open again, the passage about Emberbloom staring back at me. I'd read it so many times the page had started to soften at the corner.

I looked at the rabbit, curled at the foot of my bed.

"I still want to go," I admitted. "That hasn't changed."

She lifted her head.

"But Jace was right about one thing. If I die up there, none of it matters. The evolution, the flower, proving them wrong—all of it means nothing if I'm dead before I even try."

I closed the book slowly.

"So we wait. We get stronger here first — enough that the mountains might actually be survivable instead of a guaranteed grave. And when the timing's right, we go. Not before."

The rabbit watched me for a long moment. Then she settled back down, as if she understood.

I wasn't giving up on the flower. I was giving up on being reckless about it.

There's a difference, I told myself. I just hoped it was true.

---

On the fourth day, our uniforms arrived.

They were delivered in plain packages, each bearing our name. I opened mine with trembling fingers.

The uniform was dark. Black and gold. The colors of D-rank.

I compared it to the uniforms I'd seen others wearing—the bright silvers and blues of the higher ranks, the deep reds and greens of the middle classes. Ours was simple. Plain. Easy to overlook.

Good, I thought. Blending in is the goal.

Jace's uniform was the same as mine—black and gold. He held it up with a grimace.

Jace had tested as C-rank, but because his dorm placement had been changed, he'd been assigned the same D-rank uniform as us.

"Not exactly what I dreamed of," he said.

"It's fine," I said. "It's just cloth."

He looked at me. "You're taking this better than I expected."

I paused. The question hung in the air. How was I taking this?

The punishment. The bullying. The system that didn't care.

I could feel the anger simmering beneath my skin. But I also knew somewhere deep down that fighting back directly wasn't working. It was getting me punished. It was getting me beaten.

Maybe that was okay. For now.

I'd survive. Then I'd figure out how to fight back.

"I've decided to survive," I said. "That's my focus."

He nodded slowly. "Good."

---

The first day of classes arrived too fast.

I dressed in my black and gold uniform, smoothing out the wrinkles with my palms. The rabbit watched from the bed, her cloudy eyes tracking my movements.

"Stay here," I told her. "I'll be back soon."

She didn't move. She just stared.

I walked out of the dorm with Jace by my side. His fox padded alongside us, tail swishing.

"Ready?" Jace asked.

"Ready," I lied.

We walked toward the main training hall, joining the stream of students heading to their first class.

The doors loomed ahead. Black and gold uniforms clustered near the back. Silvers and blues filled the front rows, closest to the instructor's podium.

I took my seat near the back, Jace beside me. The room filled quickly—dozens of students, dozens of beasts settling at their masters' feet.

Then the instructor walked in.

She was younger than I expected, dressed in deep violet robes, a hawk perched on her shoulder. Her eyes swept the room, cataloguing faces, ranks, beasts.

Then they stopped.

On me.

Not a glance. A stare—sharp, deliberate, lasting a full second too long. Like she was checking something against a memory. Like she already knew my name before I'd said a word.

Then she looked away, and the moment was gone so fast I almost convinced myself I'd imagined it.

"Welcome," she said, addressing the room. "I'm Instructor Vasa. Today, we begin with the basics."

I glanced at Jace. He hadn't noticed anything. His attention was already on the hawk.

But I couldn't shake it.

She knows something, I thought. She looked at me like she already knew exactly who I was.

The question was what.