I woke up to the soft hiss of filtered air and the distant rhythm of a mana monitor.
The ceiling above was a dull off-white, the kind you only ever saw in hospitals or places where comfort was an afterthought. My body felt heavy, like soone had poured molten lead into my veins and forgot to drain it out. Every breath I took felt wrong—too controlled, like the room itself was making sure I didn't forget I wasn't in charge right now.
It took a mont to sit up. A long one. My hands were shaking, and my vision swam with static. But I pushed through. I had to.
Then it ca back.
The way the mana inside had twisted, spiraled, snapped— And how I'd lost control. No. Not just lost it. Unleashed it.
And they were there.
Rachel. Cecilia. Seraphina. Rose.
I saw their faces. I felt their fear. Because of .
"Damn it…" I muttered, my voice hoarse and dry.
'You were trying to protect them,' a voice echoed gently in my mind.
I blinked. Luna.
She was always there, even when I tried to forget. Even when I didn't deserve her.
'You saw what I did. What I almost did. Don't try to coddle .'
'You lost control, yes. But you didn't give in. You held on at the last second. That matters, Arthur.'
I sighed and stared down at my hands. They were mine. But I didn't feel like .
"I should've handled it better. I should've—I don't know—trained more, held back. Anything but that. Anything but turning on the people I love."
The words burned coming out. I hadn't said it aloud before. Not even to myself. But it was true. I loved them. All four of them. And I'd nearly destroyed everything.
I leaned back against the bed, letting the silence press down on .
And for once, I let myself breathe.
I wasn't dead. I hadn't killed anyone. That was sothing. Not much, but sothing.
I took another breath. Then I swung my legs over the side of the bed and slowly stood. Unsteady, but upright. A few more minutes and I could—
The door slid open with a soft hiss.
Alyssara Velcroix stepped inside.
She looked exactly how I rembered her. Calm. Immaculate. Perfect posture, asured steps. That subtle scent of cold tal and starflowers followed her like a mory. And as always, those eyes—too sharp, too familiar.
I stiffened instantly.
"What do you want?" I asked, harsher than I ant to. The hostility bled out without permission.
She tilted her head slightly, but didn't flinch. "You're awake. Good."
"I wasn't planning to stay in bed forever."
We stared at each other for a mont too long. She didn't look away. I hated that.
Because every ti I looked at her, a part of whispered sothing I couldn't quite grasp. A familiarity I couldn't place. And I couldn't shut it up, no matter how hard I tried.
"Is that it?" I asked, keeping my tone cold. "You just ca to check if the unstable lunatic survived his breakdown?"
A flicker of sothing crossed her face. Guilt? Pain? I wasn't sure. Maybe I imagined it.
"No," she said, voice quieter now. "I ca to ask you sothing."
I didn't move.
"Co to the festival," she said. No sarcasm. No gas. Just words.
I blinked. "What?"
"I want you to co with . Just… co." Her voice wasn't commanding. It was genuine. Almost… unsure.
That threw off more than anything.
"No," I said automatically, but it ca out weak. I wanted to say more. Wanted to push her away, keep that distance, pretend she wasn't who I feared she might be.
But my throat closed around the words.
She looked at —really looked. And for the first ti, I couldn't see the sharp Velcroix brilliance or the calculated daughter of high nobility. I just saw a girl asking soone not to leave her behind.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"…Fine," I said quietly.
She smiled.
And I hated that I didn't regret it.
The Festival of the Red Sun transford the Southern Sea Palace into sothing otherworldly—a place where reality felt thinner, where the boundaries between the mundane and the mystical blurred into ruby-tinged twilight. Lanterns floated overhead like captive stars, and the air was heavy with incense and anticipation.
I shouldn't have been there. The dical staff had protested vehently when Alyssara arrived with formal attire for —a suit of deep crimson and black that matched her own ensemble far too perfectly to be coincidence. But no one, not even the Head Physician, could overrule the Chief Advisor to Lord Daedric.
So here I was, walking beside her through the central courtyard, my body still aching from the mana deviation, my mind clouded with questions I couldn't voice.
"You should try this," Alyssara said, offering a small cup filled with sothing that glowed faintly golden. "Sun-blessed wine. It's only served during the Festival."
I hesitated, then took it, our fingers brushing briefly in the exchange. The contact sent an uncomfortable jolt through —not unpleasant, exactly, but disorienting. Like déjà vu, but stronger.
"It won't poison you," she added with a hint of amusent. "Though I'm flattered you think I'd need to resort to such thods."
"That's not what I was thinking," I replied, taking a small sip. The wine was unlike anything I'd tasted before—warm honey and distant spices, with an aftertaste like sunlight breaking through storm clouds. I felt my tense muscles relax slightly as the liquid's subtle mana infusion worked through my system.
"What were you thinking, then?" Alyssara asked, her cyan eyes studying with that unsettling intensity that always made feel exposed.
I looked away, scanning the crowd instinctively. "I was wondering where my friends are."
A shadow passed briefly over her face, so quickly I might have imagined it. "The Academy students have their own section for the festivities," she said smoothly. "We can find them later if you'd like. But first, there's sothing I want to show you."
Before I could press further, she led toward a performance area where dancers in fla-colored silks moved in hypnotic patterns around a central fire. Their movents told a story—the ancient myth of the Red Sun's creation, how it had been torn from the sky by jealous gods and shattered into seven aspects before being restored by a hero's sacrifice.
Despite myself, I was captivated. The dancers moved with inhuman grace, their bodies bending and flowing in ways that suggested enhancent—either through training thods or actual physical modifications. In the Academy, we'd studied various cultural expressions of mana manipulation, but I'd never seen it integrated so seamlessly with art.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Alyssara murmured, standing close enough that I could feel the warmth of her presence against my arm.
"Yes," I admitted. "It's... impressive."
"The lead dancer is from a bloodline that has perford this ritual for over seven hundred years," she explained. "The movents are passed down genetically—muscle mory encoded into their very DNA."
I glanced at her, surprised. "That's not possible. Genetic mory doesn't work that way."
She smiled enigmatically. "Many things are possible in the Southern Sea that the outside world considers impossible, Arthur. You of all people should understand that."
There was sothing in the way she said my na—like she was tasting it, testing how it felt. It made uneasy.
"I should find my friends," I said abruptly, taking a step back. "They'll be worried about ."
"They know you're with ," Alyssara replied, though sothing in her tone struck as off. "But if you're concerned about them, you can try your communicator."
I reached for the device at my wrist, only to find it unresponsive. "It's not working."
"Ah, I forgot to ntion—communication devices are temporarily disabled during certain ceremonies. Security protocol." She gestured vaguely toward one of the Palace towers. "It's only within specific areas, though. If we move away from the main ritual grounds..."
I nodded, not entirely convinced but unwilling to make a scene. "Lead the way."
Instead of heading toward less crowded areas, however, Alyssara guided deeper into the Palace complex, through corridors I'd never seen despite months of residing at the Academy nearby. The Festival crowds thinned, then disappeared entirely, until we were alone in a small garden enclosed by walls of living crystal that humd faintly with mana.
"This should be far enough from the interference," she said, though she made no move to remind to try my communicator again. Instead, she seated herself on a bench carved from what appeared to be a single massive ruby, patting the space beside her. "Sit with , Arthur. Please."
I remained standing. "What is this place?"
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