Thor shifted uncomfortably in her armor, her fierce pride completely faltering. Her eyes drifted down toward the dirt. She rembered that battlefield in Hebthej perfectly.
She rembered walking away from Lancet. And she rembered him taking the Gloom Spear for her sake. The Valkyrie’s face reddened softly.
"You... you were carrying a cracked core this entire ti?" Thor asked, her voice uncharacteristically quiet, the rough edges of her personality completely lting away. "Because of that spear?"
"Yeah," Lancet said softly. "So summoning any of you was basically impossible unless I was lucky. If I summoned you, I just had to hope that my Grace wouldn’t cut. And it always did."
Astensia looked away, a deep crimson tint of sha flushing over her cheeks. She had spent weeks feeling abandoned and neglected, nursing a wounded pride, while her master was quietly suffocating under an injury he had sustained in battle.
As a knight, she’d grown to respect wounded soldiers, and holding a grudge over Lancet felt like a betrayal to her values. Even more, she was worried about how he’d been coping in this school she knew was cutthroat.
"I am deeply sorry, Master Lancet," she said. "I should have trusted your judgnt. I should have known there was a grave reason."
"It’s fine, really," Lancet offered a reassuring smile. "You didn’t know."
Thor looked over at the end of the log. Spectra was sitting there, a small, thoroughly wicked grin resting on her lips as she lightly twirled a lock of her platinum hair around a demonic finger.
Thor’s brows furrowed. "You don’t look surprised by this news."
Spectra giggled musically, shifting her hips as she looked up at the sky. "Well, that is because it isn’t exactly news to , thunderbird."
Thor frowned. "What does that an?"
Lancet’s eyes widened a bit. ’Uh oh.’
"I already knew all about his little crisis," Spectra said.
Astensia’s head snapped toward her. "You knew?" Her brows creased. "How could you possibly know when we were unaware?"
"Because he told , obviously," Spectra purred, flashing her sharp fangs in a teasing smirk.
"And you chose to keep this information from us?!" Astensia’s voice rose, a rare flash of genuine anger breaking through her noble deanor.
"Why on earth would I tell you?" Spectra laughed, leaning her chin in her palm as she eyed the two Heroines. "The sight of you two bickering and whining about how our dear master had abandoned you, was the only entertaining thing in that void. I wasn’t about to spoil my own fun."
"You manipulative little leech," Thor growled. "How did he even manage to tell you if his channels were broken?"
"Well, he managed to summon once," Spectra said triumphantly, casting a loaded look toward Lancet. "Right in the middle of a grand public display, no less."
Astensia turned her gaze slowly back to Lancet. The soft, forgiving warmth in her golden eyes instantly vanished, replaced by a sharp, highly demanding focus. "You summoned her?"
Lancet’s internal alarms went off. ’Uh oh.’
’I better clear this up.’ He quickly raised his hands in a placating gesture before the two Heroines could lose their minds again.
"Hold on, listen to ," Lancet said quickly, locking his eyes directly with Astensia’s. "It wasn’t a choice of preference. I just needed a quick help in the Dungeon competition. When I summoned her, she killed the beasts fast and then vanished because of my channels."
Astensia was quiet for a mont, struggling with looking into his eyes. "Then why didn’t you summon ?"
Lancet hesitated for a fraction of a second before answering honestly. "I didn’t want our reunion to happen like that. I wanted it to be better than a rushed summon in the middle of chaos."
Sothing quiet and bright flickered in Astensia’s eyes at once, and the faintest bit of tension left her shoulders. It was such a small change that anyone else might have missed it, but Lancet saw it clearly enough to know he had chosen the right thing to say.
He exhaled, relieved.
Saved.
Spectra rolled her eyes dramatically, letting out a mock-tragic sigh. "Oh, how absolutely dreadful. To completely shatter my poor little heart just so you can nd hers, dear Master. Have you forgotten that we are both your Summons?"
She tilted her head and winked. "Don’t start playing favorites now."
Lancet gulped, but chose to ignore the Villainess.
Thor made a disgusted sound through her nose. Astensia looked like she wanted to protest the wording and did not know which part to object to first.
Then Thor narrowed her eyes at him again, though now the anger had shifted into sothing closer to a grumpy, guilty frustration. "So you are better now?"
"Yes," Lancet said. "More or less."
"I know about broken Grace Channels," she said, frowning. "Those do not heal quickly. A full ritual can take ti."
Lancet shook his head. "I didn’t do a ritual."
Astensia’s attention sharpened. "Then how could you have gotten healed?"
Spectra sharpened her eyes, clearly interested in this part of the conversation.
Lancet’s gaze shifted slightly toward the side of the faculty building. He had been putting off this next part because it had its own kind of awkwardness attached to it, and it was not the sort of awkwardness he could dodge forever.
"Yeah, about that," he said, scratching the back of his neck again. "I had a little help from soone."
Astensia’s expression beca more suspicious by the second. "Soone?"
Thor stared. "Who is it?"
Lancet looked at all of them before praying in his mind that this would go smoothly. Then, he turned his head and called softly, "Espel? You can co out now."
For three seconds, nothing happened.
Then, from around the sharp stone corner of the Enchanter faculty building, a young woman stepped into the light.
Espel Fyrebloom approached the clearing with a slow, completely unbothered stride. Her long, dark hair, with its distinctive, vibrant pink shading, swayed gently over her shoulders.
Her pale, pristine white tunic was perfectly pressed, and her striking, glass-like cyan eyes scanned the three legendary entities with her usual deadpan expression. A small, glowing butterfly hovered lazily around the tips of her fingers.
Thor’s eyes narrowed imdiately.
Astensia studied her in silence, her posture going subtly more rigid. Spectra’s smile changed into sothing sharper and more amused, intrigued by the young girl and the aura simring around her.
Espel stopped beside Lancet, her hands relaxed at her sides, and looked over the legendary won with so much calm, like they were ordinary people she spoke to everyday.
That caught Spectra’s attention.
Lancet pointed toward her.
"Guys," he said. "This is Espel. She’s a Healer Mage with the Advanced Class of Entropy Mage."
He glanced at her once, then back to the three summons.
"And she’s my new Summon."
For a second, the entire clearing went silent.
Thor and Astensia both looked at Lancet at once, their heads turning away from Espel almost in perfect unison, and their expressions freezing into identical disbelief.
"What?!"
— —
A/N: It’s finally up! Join the discord!
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