The dawn broke pale and gray over the Dorne family estate, as if the sky itself mourned sothing that hadn’t yet been spoken aloud. A chill wind blew in from the northern hills, brushing over the narrow, misty roads of the marshland and creeping through the worn bricks and stone gates of the estate.
We had been here for three days.
And in those three days, I had seen more silent glances, more half-said words, and more grim-faced retainers than I cared to count.
Felix, unsurprisingly, had said little since our arrival.
He guided us through the halls of his ancestral ho like a ghost returning to a haunted house—familiar, yet ill at ease. Whenever he looked at the crests carved into the walls or the old portraits staring down from their fras, a flicker of sothing would pass through his eyes. Not nostalgia. Sothing heavier.
I didn’t pry. Not yet.
Instead, I did what any responsible instructor-slash-temporary babysitter would do: I kept the rest of Class C from burning the place down.
Julien had tried to duel a suit of armor that he claid "disrespected his aura." Wallace had gotten lost in the cellar and almost died of boredom. Garrick mistook a decorative spear rack for an enemy ambush and punched a sconce off the wall. Mira and Cassandra kept themselves relatively ta—the forr by locking herself in the guest library, and the latter by silently haunting the misty courtyards like a well-dressed ghost.
But Felix? He spent most of his ti alone. Or pretending he was.
So when he finally ca to that morning with the expression of soone about to perform emotional surgery without anesthesia, I set down my tea and gave him my full attention.
"Professor," he said, hands clenched at his sides, voice taut. "There’s sothing I need to show you."
"Unless it involves you finally growing a spine, consider cautiously intrigued."
He didn’t even flinch. That worried more than anything.
We walked together, past the old chapel, beyond the family graveyard, and into a shed that slled of damp earth and forgotten things. Felix opened a hidden hatch in the floor—a trick I suspected even most of his relatives didn’t know about.
A ladder led us down into darkness, and when I landed, I found myself in a stone chamber. The air was dry and cold, and the only light ca from a crystal lamp Felix had brought.
Books.
Not just books. Ledgers. Diaries. Reports. Letters. Dozens of them, piled in crates and organized with disturbing neatness.
Felix knelt before one of the boxes, pulled out a worn leather journal, and handed it to .
"My great-uncle kept records," he said. "Of everything the Dorne family did to keep its noble status after the last war."
I flipped through the pages.
And paused.
Kidnappings.
Bribes.
Experintal magic on unwilling participants.
A section labeled "Outpost 3 - Results: Unstable, Subjects Lost."
My fingers tightened around the edges.
"Your family... did this?"
"Not all of them," Felix said quickly. "My grandfather tried to stop it. He died under... vague circumstances. But most of the current elders? They continued it. Covered it up. They even got help from a few rogue researchers from the capital."
He stood, hugging his arms.
"I thought it was over. I thought with the funding cut, the whole thing collapsed. But... I found out they restarted one of the programs last month. Smaller scale. Discreet. They’re using one of the abandoned village sectors as a testing ground."
"And you were planning to submit a leave of absence to... what? Confront them alone?"
His silence said enough.
"You’re many things, Felix Dorne," I muttered. "But suicidal isn’t one of them. Until now."
He looked at , defiant. "They’re my family. My responsibility."
"No. They’re a liability. You’re a student. Your responsibility is to not die doing sothing this dumb."
I exhaled slowly.
"So what’s the plan?"
His brows furrowed. "What?"
"You brought here. You showed this. That ans you want help. So, again—what’s the plan?"
He hesitated.
Then, as if a dam broke, he laid it out:
There was a lab. Hidden beneath one of the old supply depots near the Dorne estate’s border. Guarded by hired rcenaries under the guise of logistics contractors. The villagers nearby had been relocated months ago under false pretenses of plague control.
"I have the passphrases and a rough layout. If I can get in, I can shut the core array that keeps the experints stable. Without it, the whole operation collapses."
I rubbed my face.
"You do realize that if the academy finds out we went on an unsanctioned raid during a ’vacation,’ I’ll be demoted to training squirrels in swordsmanship."
"I know."
"And you realize how dangerous dismantling illegal magical experintation infrastructure is, right?"
"Yes."
"And you also realize... I am absolutely coming with you."
Felix blinked. "Wait, really?"
"Of course. You think I’d let you get all the dramatic monologues and cool points for yourself? Not a chance."
He let out a shaky laugh. I clapped him on the shoulder.
"Go tell the others we’re extending the vacation. I’ll make sure they don’t follow us into the fire."
That night, under the veil of a starless sky, Felix and I moved out.
The marshes were quiet. Too quiet. Even the frogs seed to hold their breath.
We reached the depot by midnight.
True to Felix’s notes, the periter was guarded. Four n in leather armor, casual stances, but their weapons were enchanted—low-grade deterrents, enough to slow down any curious commoner.
"You take the left," I whispered. "I’ll take the loud ones."
He looked nervous, but nodded.
A few seconds later, I stepped out of the trees.
"Evening, gentlen. Lovely night for a stroll, isn’t it?"
They shouted. One reached for a horn. I threw a dagger through his sleeve.
"Tsk. Rude."
The others lunged. I danced between them, blunt side of my blade knocking one unconscious. Another tried to flank . I kicked him square in the gut, then stepped aside as Felix tackled the last from behind.
Clean. Efficient.
We dragged the bodies out of sight and entered the depot.
The floor was reinforced. Magic-imbued steel beneath the wood. The kind you didn’t use for storing potatoes.
Felix found the trigger. A lever hidden under a barrel of dried fish. Because of course.
The floor opened.
Stairs led down into a sterile hallway lit by glowing blue runes.
The air slled like tal and herbs. The hum of mana-infused machinery echoed around us.
"Welco to the heart of your family’s rot," I whispered.
We crept through, avoiding the occasional patrol. Felix found the core room without incident. The array glowed in pale violet, etched into a circular platform. Cables pulsed with mana, connecting to vats filled with...
"Are those... people?"
He nodded, jaw tight.
"Subjects. Most in induced sleep. So... aren’t responding."
"Can we get them out?"
"If I overload the array, it’ll shut everything down. But we need at least five minutes to disengage the seals."
"Start the tir."
He began working, hands flying over controls and glyphs.
? I took up position by the door.
And waited.
The alarms rang out at minute four.
Figures in cloaks charged the corridor. I t them halfway.
They weren’t soldiers. rcs, maybe. Not trained like academy knights.
Still, one got a cut on my side. Nothing deep. But enough to piss off.
"You want to play hero," one of them growled, backing toward the lab. "Should’ve stayed in your fancy tower."
"Funny. I was about to say the sa."
I activated a rune under my glove.
Ignition Sword.
My blade roared to life, runes along its edge glowing with searing red heat. I swept forward. Steel t flesh. Screams followed.
Felix shouted from the room. "NOW!"
I grabbed the closest body and tossed it aside. Slid into the lab.
The array exploded in a burst of light.
Everything went dark.
Then...
Silence.
We stood in the aftermath, breathing hard. The vats were dark. The hum had stopped.
Felix slumped to his knees.
"It’s over," he whispered.
I placed a hand on his shoulder.
"No."
He looked up.
I t his eyes.
"Now it begins."
Outside, the sun was rising again.
But this ti, it felt like the light had sothing to fight for.
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