Elior stepped out of the training chamber like someone who had just crawled out of a dream that smelled of metal and ash.
Light drifted silently through the Hall of the Middle Ring — ribbons of silver-gold crystal streaming like enchanted mist.
Each footstep echoed hollowly, as if he were walking inside the empty lungs of a cloud.
He wasn't tired in the way lungs begged for breath.
He was tired in the way a mind trembles after staring through a window into something greater — and realizing it stared back.
At the end of the corridor, Lucen leaned against a pillar, holding a cup of silver water from the canteen. Frost curled lazily around his hair — as if the air enjoyed teasing someone who believed too easily in miracles.
Lucen tilted his head.
"You look like you got tied to lightning and thrown into an ice lake."
"Feels worse," Elior muttered, sinking onto the steps.
Lucen sat beside him. "How did it go?"
Elior stared at his own hands — light dust still glimmered at his fingertips.
"I'm trying to get stronger. But everything I learn… feels like touching water without being able to move it. Nothing sticks."
Lucen nodded.
"That's rough. But you know — real power isn't something someone hands you."
"And you?" Elior forced a faint laugh. "Teleportation just… gifted to you."
Lucen waved, blushing as if he'd been complimented.
"Instinct! I don't even understand it. Everyone has their thing. I run. Alice freezes people."
He eyed Elior.
"And you have light that wants to write its own textbook."
Elior actually laughed — small, weary, but real.
Alice appeared, gliding more than walking, her cup of silver water trailing quiet frost without needing breath to chill it.
"Elior."
Her voice was soft like new snow — but there was always a blade hidden in the snow.
"What do you need?"
"I need… to control myself before my own power decides for me."
He lowered his voice.
"I don't want to surpass anyone. I just don't want to wake up one day as something else."
Alice studied him longer than usual. In the violet twilight of the corridor, she looked like someone reading runes carved into a soul — uncertain whether to speak them aloud.
Lucen suddenly jumped up.
"Then let's get an expert!"
Before Alice could stop him, he dragged someone over — a first-year Advanced student, robes neat, hair slicked, smile polished like silverware in a royal hall.
Varian Cohl.
Even his name sounded like a silver ring that changed color depending on who looked at it.
"I hear you need guidance in the arcane arts?" Varian spoke smoothly, his voice as slick as a floor polished with dragon-grease.
Elior nodded.
"Very well," Varian said. "Twenty Golden Diem coins."
Lucen nearly choked. "T-twenty?! You could buy two fire ravens with that!"
Elior clenched his jaw.
He had money in his private Ether vault — a secret Remiel entrusted to him. And secrets were worth more than strength.
"I have two," Elior said quietly. "I'll pay the rest when I learn. My word."
Varian saw the sincerity — the kind only those who had never compromised with the world carried in their eyes.
He smiled.
"Deal."
Two coins dropped into his hand, small clinks heavy as fate's clasp closing.
Varian handed Elior a thin dark-bound book with silver script:
Fundamentals of Ether — Beginner's Primer
Elior opened it. The text flowed like vapor pressed into shape — unreadable.
Varian winked and vanished like a party illusionist after a cheap trick.
Lucen winced. "Uh… he'll teach later, right?"
Alice flipped the book once, then shut it like closing a box of crawling insects.
"No. He's done."
Lucen spluttered. "W-what?! But—"
"Cheap knowledge always costs the most," Alice said simply.
She placed the book gently back in Elior's hands — as if returning an unnecessary burden.
"You want to actually learn?"
Her eyes glimmered like frost catching lightning.
"Go to Professor Kael Deayen."
The air cooled. A stone of ice seemed to drop behind Elior's ribs.
Lucen shivered as if wind bit the back of his neck.
"Kael?" Lucen whispered. "If he trains you… you'll either become a blade of light… or atomic dust."
"He doesn't train talent," Alice murmured. "He tests who refuses to die."
Elior didn't look away. The light in his eyes quivered — afraid, but determined.
"Okay."
He rose to his feet.
"I'll go to him."
For a moment, Lucen and Alice stayed silent. Not out of surprise — but because they knew Elior had just crossed a line one only crosses once.
Outside Astra's great gate, Ether thundered softly — the world tapping a warning… or a welcome.
Somewhere far across the academy, a cloak of ash-gray might have paused — for just one heartbeat.
Enough for the Ether to shift direction, sensing something was about to begin.
Astra gleamed.
But sometimes light feared itself most.