Sleep didn't come easily after the duel.
Kael lay in the infirmary cot, staring at the ceiling's faint blue glow as the night lamps pulsed in rhythm with the academy's Flow conduits. His body ached, but it was the silence that gnawed at him — that quiet hum after chaos, the kind that made every sound in his head too loud.
The reflection on the infirmary's metal wall still bothered him.
It wasn't just that he'd seen a face — it was how familiar it felt. The faint smirk. The half-lidded eyes that seemed to know him better than he knew himself.
He whispered into the darkness, "Who are you?"
No answer came, only the soft buzz of the Flow regulators.
---
By morning, he was walking again, though the nurses told him not to. His ribs still throbbed, and each breath came with a faint sting, but he needed air — the real kind, not the recycled wind of the lower halls.
Outside, Valenforge stretched like a living fortress — spires of silver and black stone rising into the dawn fog. Bridges connected towers like veins, and Flow lanterns floated along invisible lines, humming faintly with energy.
Students moved in streams across the upper walkways, most ignoring him — though whispers followed wherever he went.
That's the one who fought Seren Vale.
The Hollow user.
They say his weapon eats Flow itself.
He tried to ignore it, but their words sank deep.
---
In the Training Annex, Professor Veyra Dathis stood over a wide projection table. Her fingers danced across runes of blue light, cycling through Kael's combat readings from the duel.
Lyra stood nearby, arms crossed, still pale. "You shouldn't be so calm about this," she said. "He almost—"
"—lost control? Yes," Veyra interrupted smoothly. "But losing control is part of understanding it."
Lyra frowned. "You sound like you expected it to happen."
Veyra's eyes flicked toward her, sharp. "Of course I did. The Hollow Veyra isn't a Flow mutation. It's… something older. And Kael's connection to it isn't coincidence."
She paused, looking at one of the captured frames from the duel — a still image of Kael mid-strike, shadows crawling across his body like veins. Behind him, in the fragmented reflections of Seren's Mirrorform barrier, a faint outline of a second figure could be seen — smiling.
Lyra stepped closer, her breath catching. "That… isn't Kael."
"No," Veyra said quietly. "It isn't."
---
Kael's return to class was uneventful — mostly because the instructors had no idea what to do with him. Most students followed structured progression models: Level, Rank, Elemental Affinity, Flow Capacity. Kael's stats screen broke half those categories.
> [Name: Kael Ardyn]
Veyra Type: Unknown — "Hollow" Classification
Flow Density: Unreadable
Control Efficiency: 14%
Instability Factor: 72%
Weapon Resonance: Temporary / Volatile
Memory Integration: …?
He closed the window with a sigh. "Perfect. I'm a walking glitch."
From across the practice hall, Seren Vale watched him. Her duel with him had clearly left its mark — not physically, but mentally. She'd always seen herself as untouchable, the model of discipline and refinement. Yet when she'd faced him, something about his power had reached into her mind — raw, chaotic, untamed.
She approached him quietly, the other students instinctively moving aside as she passed.
"You're back already," she said, her tone neutral.
Kael smirked faintly. "You sound disappointed."
"Confused," she admitted. "During the duel… there was something inside your Flow. A presence."
Kael's hand tightened slightly. "You saw it too."
"I felt it." She met his gaze. "Like being watched by the world itself."
He exhaled slowly. "I don't know what it is. But I think it's aware of me."
Seren's eyes narrowed — not in fear, but fascination. "Then we'll find out what it wants."
Before Kael could reply, a sharp, formal voice cut across the hall.
"Ardyn. Vale. With me."
Professor Dathis stood by the doorway, coat trailing behind her like the edge of a storm.
---
The professor's office was a library of impossible things. Scrolls floated midair, sealed by Flow glyphs older than the academy itself. Shelves of crystalline data cores pulsed with shifting colors, and the walls hummed with hidden conduits.
Veyra gestured for them to sit. "Both of you are here because your duel triggered something within the academy's resonance wards. An echo, recorded centuries ago."
Seren frowned. "An echo?"
Veyra nodded. "Residual memory — left behind by something powerful enough to imprint itself on the Flow field."
Kael leaned forward. "And you think it's connected to the Hollow Veyra?"
"I don't think," she said, "I know."
She tapped the control sigil. A shimmering image appeared between them — distorted, but recognizable.
A man, cloaked in the same shadows that had surrounded Kael during his manifestation.
The figure turned slowly toward the viewer — his eyes glowing faint silver, a small scar beneath his left eye.
Kael froze.
Seren glanced at him, confused. "Kael…?"
"It's him," Kael whispered. "The face in the reflection."
The projection flickered. A distorted voice bled through the static:
> "The Hollow remembers… not the living, but the lost."
Then the recording shattered.
Veyra's expression darkened. "Whatever this curse is — it predates the Academy. Possibly even the First Age."
Kael's throat felt dry. "So… what does that make me?"
She looked at him for a long moment, her tone unreadable.
"Either the first of your kind… or the last remnant of his."
---
That night, Kael couldn't sleep again.
He found himself drawn to the reflection on the dorm's windowpane. The moonlight caught the glass just right — and for a moment, the shadow of that same man appeared again, faintly smiling back at him.
This time, Kael didn't look away.
"Who are you?" he asked again.
The reflection's lips moved — not in speech, but in shape. A whisper he could somehow understand.
> "You already know."
Kael blinked — and the reflection was gone.
The room felt colder.
Outside, somewhere deep beneath Valenforge, the old dungeon pulsed once — faintly alive.
---
End of Chapter 8