They returned to the academy as the last light faded from the sky. The grounds were quieter now, most students already in their dormitories. Torches lined the pathways, their flas flickering in the cool night air.
Jas and Jared were waiting outside Building Six.
"We were worried you got lost, find what you needed?" Jas asked.
"Yeah," Ryan said. "And I got this weird bracelet." Ryan showed off his arm.
"Wow, that’s... an interesting choice of jewellery Ryan." Jas said, inspecting the bracelet.
"It looks like a crude piece of black iron roughly shaped into a large circle." Jared said plainly.
"Hey... what about the yellow engravings though! They are pretty cool, no?" Ryan said.
"What yellow engravings? Don’t tell you’ve gone senile Ryan." Jared sighed. "Oh well, Eleanor is humanity’s only hope now."
They climbed the stairs to Room twenty seven and pushed the door open. The room was exactly as they’d left it, the beds still unmade, their earlier belongings scattered across the desks.
Ryan dropped his bundle of clothing onto his bed and sat down, exhaustion finally catching up with him.
Jas and Jared began unpacking their luggage and getting ready to sleep. Eleanor set her things aside and turned to Ryan.
"Co here," she said quietly.
Ryan stood and walked over.
Eleanor gestured for him to sit. "I’m going to check your elent now."
Ryan’s heart picked up. His second elent. He had no idea what it would be.
I hope it’s Earth, Earth seems quite strong.
"What do I need to do?" he asked.
"Just sit still," Eleanor said. "And ditate as normal."
She placed her hand on his forehead.
Her mana flowed into him, warm and steady. Ryan closed his eyes, focusing on the sensation.
He waited.
Eleanor’s hand trembled slightly.
Ryan opened his eyes.
Eleanor was staring at him, her expression frozen. Her mismatched eyes glistened, tears welling at the corners.
"Eleanor?" Ryan said, alard. "What’s wrong?"
She pulled her hand back, wiping at her eyes.
"Nothing," she said, her voice tight. "Nothing’s wrong."
"Then why are you crying?"
Eleanor looked away. "Your light is... it’s beautiful, Ryan."
Ryan frowned. "Beautiful? What does that an? What about my second elent?"
"No," Eleanor said quietly. "Just light."
"Then why—"
"I haven’t seen a light elent like that in a long ti," Eleanor interrupted. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "That’s all."
Ryan opened his mouth to press further, but Eleanor stood abruptly.
"Get so rest," she said. "You have to be awake early tomorrow."
She turned and walked to her bed, leaving Ryan sitting there, confused and unsettled.
Jas and Jared exchanged a glance but said nothing.
What’s with her today, first the bracelet thing and now this... and it majorly sucks that I don’t have a second elent.
The room settled into silence. Jas moved to the lantern on his desk and blew it out, plunging the room into darkness save for the faint moonlight filtering through the window.
"Night, everyone," Jas said.
"Night," Jared muttered from his bed.
Ryan pulled the blanket over himself and closed his eyes.
The sounds of the dormitory filtered through the walls. Footsteps in the hallway. Distant voices. The creak of bed fras as students shifted in their sleep. Sowhere far off, a door slamd.
Ryan’s breathing slowed.
Sleep ca slowly, pulling him down into darkness.
Ryan opened his eyes.
He was standing.
Not lying in bed. Standing.
The air was cold. Bitterly cold. His breath misted in front of his face, and the wind howled around him, carrying with it the tallic tang of blood and smoke.
He looked down.
His hands weren’t his own.
They were larger, and wearing thick leather gloves, fingers wrapped around the hilt of a longsword.
What...?
He tried to move, but his body wouldn’t respond. It wasn’t his body. He was inside soone else, watching through their eyes, feeling what they felt.
Just like that nightmare with Jake.
Panic flared in his chest, but he forced it down. This was a dream. Just another weird dream.
The body he inhabited turned, and Ryan’s stomach dropped.
He knew this place.
The massive gate. The canyon stretching behind it. The sheer cliff faces rising impossibly high on either side, disappearing into darkness.
The first fortress.
The sa one he’d passed through just days ago.
But it looked different now. Wrong.
The gate, a towering slab of stone and iron covered in runes that had seed so impenetrable... was cracked. Massive fractures spider-webbed across its surface, chunks of stone missing where siege fire had struck. Smoke poured from sowhere beyond it, thick and black, choking the air.
The canyon behind him, the killing ground that had been so carefully organised, was chaos.
Soldiers ran in every direction. So dragged wounded n toward the inner passages. Others rushed toward the walls, carrying bundles of arrows, crates of supplies, anything that might help hold the line. dics shouted over the noise, trying to organize triage stations that were already overwheld.
Bodies lay scattered across the stone floor.
Ryan’s host turned back toward the gate and began running.
His legs moved without Ryan’s input, boots pounding against blood-slicked stone as he climbed a set of stairs leading up to the battlents. Other soldiers rushed past, faces pale and drawn, eyes wide with exhaustion and fear.
They reached the top.
Ryan’s breath caught.
Beyond the gate, the valley was filled with them.
An army so vast it seed to stretch to the horizon. Elves, dwarves, giants—thousands upon thousands of them. Their banners whipped in the wind, displaying sigils Ryan didn’t recognize. Siege engines and magic cannons lined the rear, still launching projectiles toward the fortress.
The fortress Ryan had walked through. The one that had seed so safe, so solid.
Was falling.
A cannonball struck the wall nearby, a massive explosion of blue fire shuddered the structure violently. Dust, fire and fragnts of stone rained down, and Ryan heard soone scream as they were thrown from the battlents.
"Get behind the slits in the mountain!" soone shouted hoarsely. "They can’t get through if we hold!"
But Ryan could see it in the soldiers’ faces. They didn’t believe it anymore.
Ryan’s host gripped his sword tighter and moved to the edge of the wall.
The elves were at the gate now, destroying it. Mages stood in formation, hands raised, channeling magic into focused beams of fire that carved through stone like it was butter. Giant’s with siege hamrs pounded at the door, each strike sending tremors through the entire fortress.
The gate groaned.
tal scread against stone.
Then it began to give way.
"Fall back!" soone roared. "Fall back to the inner defenses!"
If the gate fell, the elves, giants and dwarves would pour through the killing ground, and those carefully positioned firing slits in the cliff walls would wipe them all out.
The gate buckled.
With one final slam of a giant’s hamr, the gate collapsed inward with a deafening crash, and elves, giants and dwarves alike poured through the gap like water through a broken dam.
Ryan’s host didn’t run. He moved toward the stairs, descending toward the canyon floor where the breach was widest.
Other soldiers joined him. Not many. Maybe fourth. Fifty at most.
They ford a line.
It wouldn’t be enough. Ryan knew it. The soldier knew it. But they ford the line anyway.
The first elf through the breach raised a spear.
Ryan’s host stepped forward and swung his blade.
The clash of tal rang out, sharp and imdiate. The elf blocked, twisted, and thrust his spear toward Ryan’s chest.
The body moved, muscle mory taking over, deflecting the strike and countering with a slash that caught the elf across the arm. Blood sprayed, dark against silver armour.
But there were more. So many more.
Elves flooded through the breach now, hundreds of them, shields raised, weapons flashing in the firelight. The human line buckled imdiately, soldiers falling back step by step, overwheld.
Now humans began firing down spells and arrows alike from the slits beside the soldier. But they couldn’t calm the tide.
Ryan’s host fought desperately, blade moving in tight, controlled arcs. Block. Strike. Step back. Block again.
An arrow whistled past his ear.
Another struck a soldier beside him in the throat. The man collapsed without a sound.
A dwarf appeared, axe raised high.
Ryan’s host tried to raise his sword, but he was too slow. Exhausted. His arms felt like lead.
The axe ca down.
Pain exploded through Ryan’s shoulder, white-hot and blinding. He wanted to scream, but the body didn’t. It just staggered, the sword slipping from numb fingers.
Another blow. This one to the chest.
The world tilted.
Stone rushed up to et him.
The last thing Ryan saw was a cannonball heading straight for a human beside his host.
The first fortress was at its end.
Then darkness.
Ryan gasped and sat up sharply, his heart hamring in his chest.
He was back in his bed. The room was dark and quiet. Jas and Jared were both asleep, their breathing slow and even. Eleanor’s curtain was still drawn.
Ryan pressed a hand to his shoulder, half-expecting to feel blood, but there was nothing. Just his tunic, damp with sweat.
He sucked in air, trying to calm himself.
Ryan lay back down slowly, staring at the ceiling.
Just a nightmare, he told himself. Just another weird, vivid nightmare.
But his hands were still shaking.
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