Jim the Groundskeeper [Original Fantasy]

[Metel_Pen]

Jim the groundskeeper raked leaves at the edge of the courtyard, where the start of the school year at Riordan Academy for the Magically Gifted always brought a fresh wave of wide-eyed teenagers. Every last one of them looked certain they were the Chosen One, bound for glory before they'd even scuffed their boots.

He pressed his rake through a patch of stubborn, wet leaves that clung to the stone like fungus, the handle creaking in his hands. The smell of damp earth and chalk dust drifted on the breeze from the gates.

At the archway, the newcomers filed in — cloaks too clean, boots barely worn, eyes shining with that vacant, naïve hope that only existed before the world kicked the teeth in. One lad carried a staff so tall it wobbled like a drunk every time he moved; another girl kept tripping over her own hem, cheeks flushing crimson each time.

Jim snorted. Poor buggers.

Then he spotted him — Professor Elmsley.

The man's cloak billowed dramatically behind him, jet-black hair slicked back as though he were off to seduce a queen, and that same smug expression plastered across his face screamed, I've skimmed three whole books about leadership. He stood tall and stiff, chin high, as if the cobbles themselves might salute his presence.

Jim muttered under his breath, "Utter prick." His spit landed dark against the stone, and he dragged the rake through the muck with a little more force.

"Welcome, young magisters!" Elmsley boomed, arms flung wide in a grandiose gesture.

A swirl of his cloak, a flourish of his hand — pure theatre, the sort of thing that made him look like he thought the sun rose just to watch him perform.

"Welcome to your home for the year ahead, where you will learn to wield power beyond your wildest dreams!" His voice carried, rolling across the courtyard like he was addressing kings instead of a gaggle of children.

He thrust his hand forward. With a sharp crack and a hiss of smoke, a dazzling burst of blue and violet light exploded into the air. Sparks rained down over the students' heads, drawing a chorus of gasps and shrieks.

"Oohs" and "aahs" rippled through them, like they were watching gods descend instead of some puffed-up showman with a smoke charm.

Jim shook his head, leaning on his rake, the old wood digging into his shoulder. Every damn year.

"Now, follow me, children," Elmsley declared, sweeping around with dramatic flair. "Come, and witness the grand majesty of Riordan!"

He marched toward the academy's towering oak double doors, cloak billowing behind him like he thought he was the bloody wind itself. The students trailed after him in a loose gaggle, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, clutching their books and bags like ducklings desperate to keep up with their mother.

Jim leaned on his rake and watched them go, jaw working as he worried at the inside of his cheek.
Hmmm, he thought. Wonder how many of the poor buggers'll make it to the end of the year.

Last year… what was it—five? Six? He ticked them off in his head like tally marks carved into a stockade post. Two dead during the Riordan Games, carved up in the name of "healthy competition." Another three buried by those cursed Defence from Darkness lessons that were supposed to teach survival. And one lad… just gone. No body. No spell trace. Vanished like he'd been plucked clean out of the world.

And yet the school stayed open, doors polished, banners flying. Parents still packed their little darlings off with fresh cloaks and big dreams, eager to say they'd got a child in Riordan. They never saw the grave markers behind the east wall. Or didn't want to.

Jim shook his head. Madness. The lot of it.
He'd been in pitched battles with a lower death count than this bloody school. At least soldiers knew what they were signing up for.

He turned back to his raking, the scrape of metal against stone steady and familiar. That's when he noticed one of the stragglers at the back of the group.

Older than the rest — not by much, but enough to stand out in the herd. Pale skin, dark hair. Nothing remarkable there. But the eyes… the eyes caught him.

Not awe. Not fear. Not curiosity.
Something colder. Calculating. Almost like the boy already knew the odds and was wagering on them.

Eh, Jim thought, rolling his shoulders. I'm sure the "professors" will figure it out.
He went back to raking, spitting into the dirt.

About an hour later, Jim was knee-deep in dragon shit. Out in the paddocks, boots sucking at the muck, clearing the enclosures before feeding time. The air was thick with the sweet-sour reek of beasts and hay, and his rake clinked against a half-buried chain.

That's when he heard it — voices drifting over from the far side of the enclosure. Older students, second-years by the sound of them, already full of piss and bad ideas.

"Tonight," one hissed, low and eager, "we break in and see if we can't bond ourselves a dragon."

Jim froze mid-swing, rake heavy in his hands. His eyes narrowed.
What was his name again…?

"Castus, we can't," another lad whispered, his voice shaking. "It's too dangerous."

Ah. Castus.

Elmsley's bloody pet. That little arsehole had blown up Jim's rockery last summer during "practical spellwork" and hadn't even had the decency to mutter a sorry. Jim still found bits of stone lodged in the hedges.

"Are you a coward?" Castus snapped, his tone dripping venom like a snake baring fangs. "Because it sounds like you are."

The other boy shrank back, shame scrawled across his face as though branded there.

"Fine," Castus huffed, tossing his head like a sulking prince. "I'll bond one myself."

Jim stepped out from behind the feed shed, rake balanced casually across his shoulder. His boots crunched against the gravel.

"The fuck you are, lad."

Castus froze, lips curling in irritation.

"If you even try," Jim went on, voice flat as a hammer blow, "they'll tear your bloody head clean off. I'll tell you a simple fact: dragons only bond with folk who've got conviction — real conviction — and strength of character."

He lowered the rake, pointing its chipped prongs square at Castus's chest.

"And you, my lad, haven't got either one."

Castus squared his shoulders, chin lifting in mock bravado. "And why should I be taking advice from the help?" he spat.

Jim shrugged, expression blank. "Eh. Don't believe me. Give it a go." He turned back to the paddock gate with the weary gait of a man who'd seen this play out before. "Just don't expect me to mop up your organs when it all goes tits-up."

Castus's jaw tightened, but he brushed past Jim without a word, the arrogance practically steaming off him, and made a beeline for Aualine's pen.

She was the oldest dragon at the academy — massive, scarred across her flank, and far too clever for her own good. The kind of beast who'd outlived half the keepers foolish enough to try and "tame" her.

Jim leaned against the post, arms folded, and watched as the boy scrambled up the fence, knuckles whitening as he clutched the top rail like he thought he'd already earned the right to be there.

Jim caught Aualine's eye across the paddock. Just a small nod. Nothing more.

The dragon shifted, slow and deliberate. Her wings unfurled with a deep, leathery rustle that sent dust swirling from the ground. Castus froze for half a heartbeat, then clambered higher.

Aualine exhaled — a sound that could've been mistaken for a sigh if not for the low growl underneath.

Then, without warning, she spun. Her tail cut the air with a whiplash crack, whipping around like a siege engine loosed.

Crack.

Castus was swatted clean off the gate like a fly from a windowsill. He tumbled through the air, arms flailing, and hit the dirt with a winded grunt that knocked every bit of arrogance right out of him. He lay there coughing and gasping, mouth working like a fish dropped on land.

Aualine settled back down with a low, grumbling snort, her wings folding neatly as though nothing at all had happened. Within moments she had tucked her massive head back beneath a scarred wing and drifted toward sleep again, tail curling lazily.

Jim turned his gaze to the other lads, who were still frozen stiff. Wide eyes, jaws slack, faces pale. One had dropped his satchel, scrolls spilling out into the muck, but he didn't dare move to pick them up.

"He's lucky," Jim said flatly, jerking his thumb toward Castus. "She could've torn him in half."

The boys didn't budge.

"Well?" Jim barked, his voice like gravel dragged over steel. "What're you waitin' for? Pick your man up and fuck off."

That did it. Panic loosened their joints. They scrambled forward, scooped up Castus like a sack of grain, and bolted in a tangle of limbs and curses. As they hauled him away, Castus raised a trembling hand and pointed weakly back at Jim.

"You…" he wheezed, chest heaving. But no other words followed.

Jim just shook his head, expression caught somewhere between exasperation and amusement.

Ooh, I'm gonna get a hell of a telling-off from Elmsley tonight.
Ah well. What they gonna do — fire me?

He let out a low chuckle that rattled in his chest and walked toward Aualine's paddock.

The dragon stirred as he approached, pushing up from her haunches with the heavy grace of a creature who had outlived empires. She stepped forward, lowering her massive head until it hovered before him. Jim reached up and laid a calloused hand against her muzzle, the scales warm beneath his palm.

Aualine let out a deep, contented purr that reverberated through the ground, shaking his boots.

"Good girl," he murmured, scratching the scar at the ridge of her jaw. "Ya know… I wouldn't have minded if you'd hit a bit harder."

Aualine gave a soft, almost chiding whine, eyes half-lidded.

"Aye, I know," Jim sighed. "You're too kind for your own good."

He smiled and leaned into her warmth, the smell of smoke and iron lingering on her hide, and for a moment the world felt steady again.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim sat in his little shack on the edge of the academy grounds. The place was no more than four planks nailed together, with a roof that leaked when it rained and a door that whined like an old hound every time it opened. Through the thin walls, he could hear the cheers and laughter spilling from the main courtyard, echoing across the stones as the new students were sorted into their class groups and assigned tutors for the year.

In the beginning, he used to attend those ceremonies. Stood at the back with rake in hand, watching their bright, hopeful faces as they were called up to the peer tables. Watched them beam with pride, puffed up like little kings and queens. For a while, he'd even clapped along, caught up in the noise.

But as the years passed — and the deaths mounted — he'd stopped going.

He'd voiced his concerns, more than once. Told the Grand Magister himself how their reckless theatrics were filling these kids with a false sense of invulnerability. How all the coloured sparks and grand speeches would count for nothing if the war ever flared up again. How it would be a gods-damned bloodbath.

He remembered the last conversation clearly. Five years ago, after the Choosing Night — the one that left two students dead before the term had even properly begun. No battlefield, no Umbar ambush. Just training. And two coffins in the ground.

The meeting was held in the Magisters' hall, all senior tutors gathered at the long oak table. The place smelled of wax and parchment, banners drooping from the rafters, every candle polished until it gleamed. Jim had felt small in there, smaller than usual, but he'd spoken anyway.

"Sir, if we don't start instilling real-world survival skills into these kids right now, they'll be torn apart if the Umbar decide to kick things off again," Jim had said, hands braced on the table.

Plandorph had smiled — calm, serene, untouchable, like a statue carved from marble. "The war ended ten years ago, Jim. No need to fuss. We won."

"Aye," Jim had said. "We won. By the bloody skin of our teeth. Don't dress it up as anything else. Believe me, it was no easy win."

"I'm just saying," Jim pressed on, "we need to go back to basics. Teach 'em the fundamentals. I know I can't access the Source, but I know about staying alive. I could teach them a healthy level of respect."

That was when Elmsley had cut in, lips curled in that smug half-smile of his.

"Yes… you can't access the Source, can you?" he'd said, letting the words drip with poison. Then he'd turned back to Plandorph with a smirk, as though Jim wasn't even worth addressing directly. "Should he even be at this table?"

And Plandorph had said nothing.

Nothing at all.

Jim had looked around the room — not one of the others spoke up for him. Not a cough, not a word. Just silence, heavy as a stone.

So he'd stood.

"Aye. Just be warned," he'd said, voice carrying across the chamber. "You're teaching these kids to die with flourish."

And with that, Jim had walked out — boots echoing against the polished floor — and he never returned to a Choosing Day again.

Now, years later, the memory made him chuckle bitterly. He raised his cup — Highland whiskey, sharp and smoky, a little taste of home — and took a long sip. The burn spread through his chest, loosening the knot of old anger.

Then came the knock.

Sharp. Aggressive. Three quick bangs, like the door itself had offended someone.

Ah, Jim thought, right on cue.

He took another sip, leaned back on his chair, and waited.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

There it was. Just the right level of pissed off.

Jim stood slowly, joints creaking like old timbers, and wandered to the door with the cup still in hand.

"Who is it?" he asked, pitching his voice into mock innocence.

"Professor Elmsley," came the clipped reply from the other side, every syllable tight with fury.

"How can I help you?" Jim drawled, all sugar and sarcasm.

"Open the door, Jim."

"Alright, alright…" He made a show of unlatching it, taking his time.

The door swung open.

Elmsley stood there, normally pale face now flushed an ugly red, cloak askew, hair no longer perfectly slick. His eyes were sharp, brimming with the kind of anger that looked rehearsed — rage polished for effect.

But Jim didn't give him the chance to perform.

"I warned the lad about the dragons," Jim said flatly, before Elmsley could even inhale for his tirade. "He chose not to listen. He's lucky he didn't get eaten."

Jim met his gaze with a dead-eyed stare, the kind that carried twenty years of muck, blood, and bad memories behind it.

"Now fuck off."

And with that, he slammed the door in Elmsley's face. The sound echoed through the shack, a dull, satisfying thud.

Jim went back to his chair, dropped into it with a grunt, and took another long, slow sip of whiskey. The fire in the cup lingered, warming him more than the thin walls ever could.

He drank several more cups before deciding to turn in. By the time he lay down on his narrow cot, the bottle was lighter and his head pleasantly heavy.

As he pulled the threadbare blanket over himself, he wondered — would it be dreamless this time? The kind of sleep he preferred. No faces. No fire. No memories clawing their way up from the dark. Just black silence.

He hoped.

But his mind had other plans.

He woke before dawn with a sharp gasp, sitting bolt upright in the dark. Breath heaving, sweat clung to his brow in clammy beads. He wiped it away with the back of a rough hand.

"Fucksake," he whispered to the empty room.

Swinging his legs over the side of the cot, he groaned as his weight settled onto old bones. He rolled his shoulders, working the stiffness from scarred muscle, wincing when something popped in his back.

His joints creaked like old timbers in a storm.
Too many years. Too many ghosts.

Jim pushed himself upright. Best to walk it off. Walking the grounds always helped — cleared his head, shook the dreams out of him. And, with any luck, he'd stumble on some blackout-drunk prefect or tutor who'd passed out somewhere stupid. Wouldn't be the first time he'd dragged one back in before they froze stiff on the grass.

He pulled on his old wax coat, tugged his battered hat low over his brow, and grabbed his favourite poking stick — a splintered length of ashwood capped with a bronze tip. Ugly as sin, but sturdy, and it had never failed him.

He stepped out into the cold.

The air bit at his face, sharp enough to sting. Frost glazed the ground, crunching under his boots. Somewhere out in the paddocks, a dragon let out a long, rumbling exhale that rolled across the earth like boulders grinding in a riverbed.

Jim set off into the stillness.

The cool air worked on him, stripping away the last claws of the dream, dragging him back into the here and now. He followed his usual route through the woodland — old hidey holes, shadowed corners, the places half-cut prefects and tutors liked to collapse after "celebrating" their return.

He found the usual detritus: a few empty bottles glittering with frost, a lone boot someone had vomited in, the stale stink of spilled ale. But no bodies. No drunks.

Odd, Jim thought, scratching his stubbled chin. Usually someone's curled up in the brambles by now, half-dead from whiskey and bravado.

He made his way toward the dragon paddock, boots crunching softly through the frozen grass, breath clouding before him in pale puffs.

That's when he saw him.

A boy, face-down near the paddock fence. One of the prefects by the look of him — the black and purple of his coat already rimed with frost, stiff in the dawn light.

"Fuck's sake," Jim muttered, breath steaming in the morning chill.

He trudged over, boots crunching in the brittle grass, and gave the lad a shove with the tip of his stick.

No movement.

How drunk is this little bastard?

"Come on, mate. Ya need to get back to your dorm or you're gonna freeze to death."

He prodded him again, a little harder this time. Still nothing.

Jim frowned. The unease crawled in slow. He crouched down, knees creaking, and rolled the boy onto his back.

The cold hit him deeper than the air could manage.

It was one of the lads who'd been with Castus yesterday. The cocky one.

"Oi. Wake the fuck up, lad—"

He stopped dead mid-sentence.

No breath. No rising chest. The boy's eyes stared glassy at the pale morning sky.

Jim leaned closer, scanning instinctively like a soldier checking for the wound. His calloused fingers pulled open the coat, then the shirt beneath.

Blood.

A stab wound, deep and ugly, punched straight into the chest. The edges weren't clean — jagged, torn, like the blade had been forced in with a twist.

But what really turned his stomach was the mark around it. Blackened skin, a scorch spreading like cracked lightning across the flesh.

He'd seen that before.

Jim's throat tightened, his gut twisting into knots.

An ember knife.

He sat back on his haunches, staring at the corpse, the frost catching in the boy's hair like powdered glass. The silence around him pressed heavy, broken only by the distant rumble of a waking dragon.

"The fucking Umbar are here," he whispered.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim's mind ran miles in seconds.

Who the hell was he supposed to warn?

Not Elmsley — not after last night. That smug bastard would sooner blame Jim than believe him.

Plandorph, maybe.
Maybe he'd listen. Maybe.

His hand went to the inner pocket of his wax coat, fingers brushing the familiar lump of cold metal. He pulled out a star flare — old, dented, paint chipped away to dull brass, but still serviceable. Emergency-use only.

Well. This sure as shit qualified.

He held it up, aimed it toward the sky, and smacked his palm hard against the base.

With a thunderous whoosh, the flare screamed into the inky pre-dawn heavens, cutting a fiery orange arc across the black. It burst high above the academy grounds, a blinding flash that washed the world in molten light for a heartbeat.

Then darkness rushed back in, thicker than before. The silence that followed pressed on Jim's ears like a weight.

Within seconds, distant shouts began to echo across the grounds. Doors slammed. Boots pounded against stone. Figures spilled out from around the paddock — some running hard, others stumbling, still half-awake and clutching cloaks over nightclothes.

Two older students came into view first — a boy and a girl. Gowns disheveled, hair wild, eyes glassy from whatever they'd been up to.

Jim took one look at the way they avoided each other's gaze, at the hay clinging to their sleeves.
Probably snuck off to shag behind the hay bales, he thought, lips curling. Timing's bloody perfect.

"Go get some of your tutors," Jim barked. "Now."

The pair just blinked at him, bleary-eyed, confusion still swimming behind their pupils.

Jim stepped forward, jabbing a finger like a spear in their direction.

"Fucking go and do as I said, you dirty stop-outs!"

That did it. They flinched like whipped dogs, then turned and bolted, robes flapping behind them like limp sails in a dead wind.

Jim looked back down at the lad, really seeing him this time.

The boy's eyes were closed. No pain in the features. No fear twisted into his mouth. He looked like he was simply sleeping, out in the frost, waiting for dawn to shake him awake.

Jim hoped it had been quick.

He knelt beside the body, lowering himself with a quiet grunt as his knees cracked. Calloused fingers hovered, then pressed gently to the boy's forehead — a touch awkward, but steady.

Under his breath, he muttered a prayer. Nothing grand. No flowing scripture, no polished words. Just something half-remembered from another time, another place, where bodies lay thick on the ground and prayers were the only thing a man could still offer.

A battlefield thing. For those who didn't get a second chance.

When the words ran out, Jim exhaled hard, frost puffing from his lips. "I fucking hate this school," he muttered, rising stiffly and brushing frost from his knees.

Branches snapped behind him. He didn't need to turn to know who it was.

Elmsley came bustling through the trees, robes swishing, face sour as spoiled milk. "What in heaven's name is going on?" he barked, already puffed up, already ready to play to an audience.

Jim didn't even look at him. Eyes stayed on the academy walls.

"We've lost another one," he said simply, voice flat.

Then he turned and started walking toward the academy. Heavy steps echoed through the frost, each one loud in the silence.

Didn't wait for a response. Didn't care if Elmsley followed.

Let him.

Jim pushed through the double doors of the academy, his boots striking hard against the stone, the sound carrying down the cold, hollow halls.

Each thump of Jim's boots sent a dull reverberation up into the vaulted ceiling, like war drums that had forgotten how to stop.

He didn't slow.
Didn't nod at the few early risers who passed him, scurrying out of his way with curious glances.
Didn't speak.

He climbed the central staircase, heading toward Plandorph's chambers.

As he rose, the walls closed in with memories. Old war standards lined the stairwell — tattered flags and faded emblems of every unit that had fallen in the Great War.

Dozens of them.
Some he'd fought beside.
Some he'd watched burn.
Some had simply vanished without a trace, swallowed whole by the dark.

He kept his eyes forward. Tried not to look. Tried not to let the weight of cloth and history drag at him.

Silent steps.
Silent flags.
And all of them watching.

Jim finally reached Plandorph's door and knocked — hard, knuckles echoing down the corridor.

There was a rustle, then a croaky, startled voice from inside.
"What? What?"

"It's Jim," he called. "We've got a problem."

"Ah… Jim. Come in, come in."

Jim pushed the door open and stepped into the headmaster's chambers.

The place smelled stale, thick with the perfume of brandy and extinguished candles. A half-empty bottle sat tipped on the floor, its amber contents bleeding into the rug. Plandorph himself stood in a loose, flamboyant nightgown that had once been regal silk, but now just sagged off his stooped frame. His gut pushed soft against the fabric, his hair an unruly halo, his eyes puffy and bloodshot. He looked like a man caught halfway between dreaming and hungover, clutching at dignity with shaking hands.

"What brings you up here, Jim?" Plandorph asked, rubbing his eyes as though that might wipe away the years. "You mentioned a… problem?"

Jim took him in — the dressing gown, the bottle, the bleariness, the stench of last night's drink clinging to him like cologne.

"Aye, a problem."

"There's a lad lying out near the paddock," Jim said, voice flat and hard. "Dead. Been dead for hours. Stabbed."

"Oh dear," Plandorph murmured, blinking like a man roused from a nap he didn't want disturbed.

"Aye. And that's not the worst of it." Jim stepped further into the room, the floorboards creaking under his boots. "The wound was caused by an ember blade. You remember those, don't you?"

Plandorph paused, scratching absently at his chin. His eyes darted away.
"Err… would you be so kind as to remind me? My memory isn't what it used to be."

Of course you don't, Jim thought bitterly. Never seen a day on the front in your life.

He bit the words back. For the sake of diplomacy.

"It's a CQB weapon," he explained instead, his tone clipped. "Favoured by the Umbar. Leaves scorch marks on the flesh — wound's deep, but the fire's what puts a lad in shock. Less chance of him fighting back."

For a heartbeat, he saw it again — the trenches outside Brant's Hollow, the night sky orange with fire. He'd watched men crumple under ember blades, their mouths open in silent screams, eyes wide, the heat searing them from the inside out before the blood even had time to spill. He still remembered the smell. Meat, not men.

Jim blinked it away, jaw tightening.



Plandorph swallowed, the colour draining slightly from his cheeks. Suddenly he looked a little more awake.

"Ah, I can see how that's a bit of a problem," Plandorph said at last. His voice shifted, smoothing into that well-practised calm. He moved closer and draped an arm around Jim's shoulder like an indulgent uncle humoring a fretful nephew.

He began guiding him gently toward the door.

"Now, let's not go spreading panic," he said, tone warm, fatherly, infuriatingly measured. "Keep this between us, yes? I'll examine the poor lad's wound myself, and later today I'll address everyone — students and faculty — at assembly. How does that sound?"

Jim clenched his jaw. Just nodded.

"Do you want me there?" he asked quietly.

"Ah, of course, Jim," Plandorph replied with an easy smile, as though nothing at all was wrong. "I want you there."

He let go of Jim's shoulder and drifted back into his chambers, still smiling that gentle, practised smile.

The door clicked shut behind him.

Jim turned on his heel. "Smarmy twat," he muttered under his breath.

He marched down the stairs, boots echoing off the stone like cannon fire.

Don't get riled up, you knackered fool. Stay calm… stay calm, he told himself. His knuckles whitened around the rail as he forced his steps steady.

Halfway down the stairs, Jim stopped. His breath hissed between his teeth.

The old war standards hung heavy on the wall — faded cloth, stitched in blood and memory. Names and emblems of men who never came home. He could almost hear them whispering, the fabric shifting as if stirred by voices only he could hear.

His pulse climbed. Breath came short. Anger coiled tight in his chest like a snake ready to strike.

With a sudden snarl, he drove his fist into the stone wall.

Pain bloomed white-hot through his knuckles. He pulled his hand back — skin split, blood welling, knuckles bruised but not broken.

"Stop it," he growled under his breath. His voice echoed back at him, low and feral. "Work. I've got things to do."

He flexed his hand, hissed at the sting, then forced himself forward. Through the last steps. Through the great double doors. Out into the cold.

The air slapped him clean — crisp, sharp enough to bite.

That's when he caught it. A flicker of movement on the path.

The quiet, angry lad from the day before.

The boy walked past with stiff, deliberate steps. No eye contact. No word. No acknowledgment. Just a shadow slipping by.

But Jim noticed the smell.

Not sweat. Not the usual stink of unwashed cloaks.

Blood.

A copper tang clung faintly to the air, enough to make Jim's jaw clench.

He stopped. Turned his head just enough to watch the student disappear through the academy doors.

Hmm… one to watch, Jim thought, muscles tight, hand flexing again at his side.

He lingered there, watching the doors long after they had shut. Then he shook the thought off and trudged on toward the gardens.

The rest of the day passed in work. Clipping hedges. Clearing litter left strewn across the lawns from Choosing Day. Bits of ribbon, parchment scraps, half-eaten food. Mundane chores, grounding chores. All the while, Jim kept glancing at his watch. Counting down the hours, minutes, seconds until the assembly.

Finally, the time came.

He joined the tide of students as they flowed into the great hall, slipping into the current unnoticed. They filed into their seats, chatter fading to a hush. Up on the raised stage, Grand Magister Plandorph stood waiting, flanked by the heads of faculty.

The old man spotted Jim through the crowd and gave a small, beckoning gesture. An invitation to join them on the stage.

Jim's stomach turned.

Jim moved through the crowd and climbed the steps onto the stage. He took his place among the faculty, arms locked behind his back like a soldier on parade.

Elmsley shot him a glance — all contempt and misplaced confidence.
Jim smiled.
Mouthed the word: "Prick."

Elmsley's face flushed a quick, ugly red, but he said nothing. The man was too conscious of his stage.

Plandorph stepped forward, the picture of solemnity. His voice carried, calm and heavy.

"Under normal circumstances, this assembly would be for announcing the teams for this year's Riordan Games. However…" He paused just long enough to let the silence bite. "It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of the death of one of our most beloved prefects: Alkinan Bloos."

A ripple of gasps swept through the crowd. Students whispered, shifting in their seats. Jim stayed still at the back, arms crossed, jaw locked.

"I know some of you are wondering how. How did he die?" Plandorph spread his hands, tone soft, almost fatherly. "He celebrated a little too exuberantly, it seems. Took a midnight walk through Oakfall Wood and… most likely impaled himself on a fallen branch."

Jim's eyes widened. His breath caught sharp in his throat.
Impaled? Fallen branch? You lying sack of shit…

And in that moment, he wasn't standing in an assembly hall anymore. He was back in the mud at Red Barrow, listening to some pampered colonel tell a line of grieving men that their comrades had "fallen to illness" — even as the stink of burned flesh still rolled off the trenches. Men cut down by ember blades, written off as fevers and accidents for the sake of clean reports.

The same lie. Different lips.

Jim blinked hard, dragging himself back to the present. His jaw ground so tight it ached.

"And so," Plandorph pressed on, voice smooth as polished glass, "a memorial will be held tomorrow at noon. Team lists for the Games will be posted outside your dormitories. You are dismissed."

The murmur of whispers rose again as the students filed out, heads bent together, speculation buzzing like flies.

Jim didn't move. Neither did the faculty, not until Plandorph turned with a gracious nod. They followed him offstage in a neat line, ducklings trailing their drake.

Jim stormed forward, boots thudding against the wooden boards.

"What the fuck was that?" he growled, low but sharp enough to cut.

"You saw the wound. You saw the scorch marks. That was an ember blade."

Plandorph's smile slipped away like a mask set aside. His eyes hardened, cold and flat.

"It was an accident. End of."

And just like that, he turned and walked away, nightgown swishing faintly beneath his robes, as though the matter had been a spilled drink and nothing more.

No one else even glanced at Jim. Not a word. Not a breath.

He stood alone on the stage, staring out at the emptying hall, fists clenched.

What the fuck is going on here?

Jim watched the last of the students file out.

The very last one — the boy who carried that copper tang of blood — turned just before slipping through the door. Their eyes met across the empty hall. No words. No gestures. Just that silent, cold look.

Then the student was gone.

Jim let out a slow, ragged breath. His chest felt tight, like a furnace stoked too hot. He needed to vent. To someone. To anyone.

He jumped down from the stage, boots hitting the floor with a dull thud, and marched toward the paddock. Rage and confusion rattled inside his skull like bricks in a barrel, every thought slamming into the next, leaving nothing but noise.

Every time he tried to frame it in words, only one came to mind:
Why?

Why lie? Why cover it up? Why now?

By the time he reached Aualine's pen, his fists were clenched, blood still crusted across his knuckles from the wall. His whole body thrummed with fury.

Aualine noticed. Of course she noticed. The old dragon lumbered closer, pushing her scarred muzzle through the bars, brushing against his chest with a low, questioning rumble.

"I'm okay, girl," Jim muttered, running a hand along the warm ridges of her neck. The scales felt like stone under his calloused palm.

"Why the fuck is he lying? Is he trying to save face? Denial? What the hell is he doing?"

Aualine tilted her great head, one golden eye fixed on him.

"I know I need to calm down," Jim admitted, his voice rough. "But he's gonna get these kids killed."

The dragon poked him gently with her nose.

"I'm just the groundskeeper," Jim said, half to himself, half to her. "There's not much I can do."

She poked him again — harder this time, snorting hot breath into his coat.

"You think so?" he asked, raising a brow at her.

She licked his hand, tongue rasping over scarred skin, and let out a deep, thrumming purr that shook the bars.

"Aye… fuck it," Jim muttered, nodding to himself. "If those soft bastards won't lift a finger, then I will."

She licked him again, softer now, a sound almost like approval rising from her chest.

Jim patted her head, leaning into her warmth for a moment longer. "Thanks for the chat, girl. I needed this."

He turned to leave.

Aualine whined after him, the low sound following him into the cold air like a plea.

"I can't spend all day talkin' to you. I've got work to do."

Aualine snorted, a gust of hot breath rolling out like smoke from a bellows, then curled back into her bedding with a heavy rustle of wings. One golden eye lingered on him a moment longer before sliding shut.

Jim stepped out of the paddock, boots crunching against the frosted ground. His breath clouded in front of him, sharp in the cold air.

"If they ain't gonna do anything…" he muttered, jaw set, fists tightening at his sides.

He stared back at the academy — tall, proud, hollow.

"Then fuck it," he growled. "I will."

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim returned to his cabin and poured himself a glass of whiskey. He took a slow swig, let it burn, then set the glass down with a dull clink on the table.

At the back of the room sat his narrow cot. He crouched, reached beneath it, and dragged out a heavy wooden trunk. The thing groaned as if it hadn't been moved in years. Jim laid a hand on the lid, pausing — almost reverent — before opening it.

On top were leather-bound books, their spines cracked, and a neat stack of yellowed letters tied with fraying cord. He shifted them aside and lifted the false shelf beneath.

There it was.

A chainmail shirt, dark with age, a dragon's head embossed across the chest. The symbol caught the firelight, faint but unmistakable. He ran a calloused thumb over it, feeling the old grooves. Then, beneath it, a battered broadsword wrapped in oiled cloth.

Jim unwrapped it, stood, and drew the blade. The steel whispered free. Pitted. Scarred. Specked with rust. But the edge still gleamed sharp and hungry in the firelight.

He held it a moment, memories pressing close, then slid it back into its scabbard. He laid it carefully beside the whiskey on the table.

"Right," he muttered. "If ya gonna do this, ya gonna need a plan."

He scratched his chin, thinking.

"First thing… keep an eye on that quiet boy."
He lifted the glass again. Took another swallow.
"Second thing… keep as many of those poor bastards alive as I can."

The liquor burned on the way down, but it didn't warm him. Not this time.

He sat in silence for hours, watching the sun bleed itself out across the horizon. Long shadows crept like bruises across the academy grounds until the last light died.

Jim rose. Pulled on his waxed coat, stiff at the seams and heavy with old rain. Sleep wasn't coming tonight, so no sense wasting time pretending.

The door creaked as it opened, then shut with a dull thud behind him. The night air bit at his face, sharp with the promise of a coming storm.

The academy loomed in the dark, its old stones rising like the ribcage of some slumbering beast. Windows glowed warm with light. Laughter spilled careless into the night.

Jim walked toward it.

Jim entered through the front doors. The entry hall glowed with golden sconces, their light pooling over polished stone, the air thick with perfume, chalk dust, and the unmistakable reek of adolescent arrogance. A cluster of students loitered near the archway, half-dressed in academy uniforms, the other half draped in smugness and self-importance.

As he passed, their voices buzzed in his ears — optimism and ignorance bundled together, sharp as gnats.
"Do you think Castus'll win the Games this year?" one lad asked, leaning against the banister like he owned the place. His cloak was already hanging just-so, the kind of pose Jim had seen in green recruits trying to look like veterans.

"How can he not?" another piped up, voice cracking with eagerness. "He's top in Defence, smashed every assault course. He's always winning."

"Yeah, and if he gets the Cup this time, maybe Gerrel'll finally say yes to the dance," a girl giggled, her eyes shining with the sort of daft hope that only came with youth.

Jim didn't stop. Didn't speak. But the words were a thorn in his side, digging deeper with every step.
They had no idea what was coming.
Oblivious. Clueless. Laughing their way toward the end of the world, all because Plandorph — that smug bastard — chose not to tell them. Chose to keep them in the dark.

Jim shook his head. Focus. Remember the plan, old man. Stick to it.

He moved past the classrooms, halls dimly lit, their shadows stretching long. The stone seemed to carry the echoes of lectures, the ghosts of late-night cramming, and the faint, sour tang of spilled ink and stale sweat. His destination was the admin office — the heart of the place, where they kept records on every student, faculty member, and janitor fool enough to set foot inside these walls.

He wasn't after grades or glory. He was looking for the new starters.
One in particular. The quiet one.

Something about that kid didn't sit right. And Jim trusted his gut more than he trusted any prophet or prophecy-believer in this cursed academy.

He kept his eyes open and his steps soft, spreading his weight like he had a hundred times before on battlefields where noise meant death. Students sneaking about after curfew didn't worry him — that was tradition. But faculty? Faculty asked questions. And Jim hated questions.

So he moved smooth, not a march — just a shadow in motion. Boots placed with care, every step muted against the flagstones.

Then he froze.
A voice. Too familiar. Elmsley.

Jim slid into a nearby alcove, pressing himself flat into the cold stone until he felt like part of the architecture. He didn't need to see the man to know that posh, honey-dripped tone.

Elmsley strolled by, robes billowing with self-importance, Castus at his side like a well-groomed mastiff on parade.
"Sir, do you think I've got a real shot at winning?" Castus asked, his bravado stretched thin over nerves.

"Of course you do," Elmsley replied, every word polished and gleaming. "There's a great power in you, Castus. Potential for greatness. For wondrous things. You just need to believe."

Jim rolled his eyes in the dark. Didn't need to hear the rest of the tripe spilling from Elmsley's lips. He just needed them gone.

A minute passed. Then another. Their footsteps faded down the hall.

Good.

Jim stepped back out of the shadows, jaw set, eyes narrowed. The files waited.

He reached the office door. Tried the handle. To his surprise, it wasn't even locked.
Jim blinked. "Brilliant security, that," he muttered under his breath. "Whole damn world on the brink, and they can't be arsed to lock a door."

He slipped inside, movements casual but sharp, his body braced with the same readiness he'd carried into a dozen enemy trenches. He even had a speech ready — some bollocks about cleaning rotas and misplaced scrolls — just in case some bookworm was burning the midnight oil.

Turns out, he didn't need it.

The room was dark. Silent. Empty.

Of course it is. Why bother guarding the place that holds every kid's secrets?

Jim exhaled through his nose, slow, controlled, and made his way to the row of cabinets. His boots whispered across the polished floor. The air smelled of dust, parchment, and something musty — like a place left forgotten for years, save for the occasional magister checking his own reflection in the glass.

He scanned the labels until his eyes landed on the one he wanted. New Arrivals.

Bingo.

Jim slid the drawer open, slow and steady, careful not to let it screech and betray him. Inside were neatly arranged folders, each with a portrait clipped to the front. Always struck him as odd — why in the fuck did they need photos? Vanity, he thought. Parading faces before they'd even learned which end of a wand to hold. Still, tonight he was thankful for the magisters' self-indulgence.

He started flipping through them, one by one.

Too smug. Too loud. Too pretty.
He flicked past folder after folder, each face a fresh reminder of how soft this place had become.

Then he found it.

The portrait nearly made him stop breathing. It wasn't the hair, the jawline, or the posture. It was the eyes. Hollow. Not tired. Not weary. Hollow. Like the soul hadn't quite caught up with the body. Jim had seen that look before — in mud-slick trenches, in blasted wastelands where lads barely older than this one stared at nothing even as seraph blasts tore the sky apart.

It chilled him in a way nothing had in years.

"Found you," he muttered, voice low as gravel.

He slipped the file inside his coat, shut the drawer with slow precision, and gave the cabinet a light pat, like quieting a sleeping dog. Old habits — never wake what doesn't need waking.

Turning for the door, his jaw clenched, his pulse ticking faster. He paused with his hand on the handle, listening.
Nothing. No voices. No footsteps. Just the faint hum of lanterns and the ancient bones of the academy groaning in the night.

Jim eased the door open and slipped into the hall. Closed it behind him with the same care he'd give a trap-wire hatch.

He moved quick but quiet, retracing his route. The main doors were in sight when—

"Jim?"

He stopped dead.

Turned.

Plandorph stood twenty feet away. Robes half-tied, hands folded neatly behind his back, face unreadable. Bloody slippers. The man moved like a cat when he wanted to.

"What are you doing here at this hour?" Plandorph asked, tone mild, but his eyes sharp.

Jim didn't miss a beat. "Just doin' a pest inspection," he said, voice pitched tired, annoyed, bored. "Found rat shit near the paddock earlier — figured I'd make sure the bastards hadn't made it this far. Thought I'd lay a few traps. Precautionary measure."

Plandorph let out a long, measured sigh. "Ah… look, about earlier—"

Jim cut him off with a raised hand. "Not my concern. You've made it very clear I'm just the groundskeeper." His tone was flat. Cold as winter stone. "I know where I stand."

The two men stood there in silence for a beat — not angry, not friendly. Just weary. Like old soldiers who'd fought too many battles on different sides of the same war, and knew neither one was ever going to change the other's mind.

Plandorph inhaled slowly, his hands still folded neatly behind his back. "Would you care to join us for the opening of the Games next week? You're still part of the staff, after all."

Jim scratched his chin, weighing it like the words might turn into a trap if he answered too quick. Finally, he said, "I'll come. If I ain't too busy."

"Please do," Plandorph replied, offering a small, practised smile. "It would be nice, seeing you take an active part in some of this great school's traditions."

Jim gave a short nod. "I'll see."

And with that, he turned and stepped out into the cold night air. The heavy door clicked shut behind him, echoing off the stone like a gavel.

"You can bet your arse I'll be there," he muttered, tugging his coat tighter against the chill. "Someone's gotta keep you soft fools from getting more of these daft kids killed."

The path back to his cabin stretched quiet and dark. The night pressed thick around him, heavy as a cloak. The wind had died, and the trees stood too still, their branches clawing at the sky like black bones. That's when he felt it.

That itch. That weight between his shoulder blades.

He slowed his pace, letting the crunch of gravel fade beneath his boots until the silence swallowed him whole. Then, without a word, he stepped off the path onto the grass. Softer ground. Easier to listen.

And there it was.

Footsteps. Just behind him. Light. Careful. Trying not to be heard — but not careful enough for Jim.

He turned sharply, eyes cutting through the dark.

Nothing.

Just the shadows stretching long, the faint smell of damp earth, and the distant hush of owls calling across the fields. Whoever had been following him was gone. Melted back into the night.

Jim stood very still, breath slow and measured. Ears straining. Muscles coiled. The itch at his back didn't fade. Finally, he muttered, "Looks like I'm sleepin' with one eye open tonight."

He made it the rest of the way in silence, every step careful, every sense sharp. At the cabin, he shut the shutters tight, dropped the deadbolt, and checked it twice. Then he dropped into the old wooden chair at his table, the legs groaning under his weight.

Jim grabbed the whiskey bottle, took a long pull straight from the neck, and let the fire settle in his chest.

"Looks like they might be onto me," he muttered to the room, voice low, almost conversational with the shadows. "But how the hell do they know?"

He set the sword down beside him on the table. The steel drank the lamplight and threw it back in a dull, obedient gleam — honest metal for honest work. He liked the feel of it nearby; its presence steadied him like an old friend.

From the inner pocket of his coat he drew the file he'd lifted from the drawer. The name stared up at him in cramped handwriting: Emile Caloden. At last, a name to pin to the face.

He flipped the cover open and read, voice flat as he scanned the lines. "Orphan. Guardian of the state. Placed here due to magical potential." He frowned at the shorthand and the clipped sentences. "Extremely introverted."

Jim rubbed his chin, feeling the stubble rasp. "So. You don't play well with others, then… Emile." He let a tired half-smile crack and then died.

There was the portrait again — those eyes. Hollow. Not sad, not frightened, just… absent, as if someone had forgotten to put a soul behind them. Jim's stomach tightened. He'd seen that look in places that smelled of iron and smoke; it wasn't natural in a child.

He turned the page. The rest of the file was thin: no guardian listed by name, only a state-issued approval number stamped like a bureaucrat's cough. Medical notes? Blank. Early schooling? Nothing before his twelfth birthday. Just dates, a few scratchy reports, and official seals that begged more questions than they answered.

Jim tapped the folder with a knuckle. The sound was small in the quiet room, but it felt like a hammer on a tomb. "That's not a student file," he said, slow. "That's a planted record."

He sat back in his chair and let the implication settle over him. Either someone had gone to trouble to bury Emile's past — tidy, neat, deliberate — or there was no past to bury at all. Neither prospect sat easy. Both of them smelled like trouble.

He poured another shot of whiskey, the amber liquid slapping against the glass with a familiar, numbing burn. He kept the sword close, hand drifting to the hilt now and then as if to check it was still there, real and waiting.

Outside, the wind picked up and threw itself at the windows. The lamplight wavered; shadows jittered along the rafters. But Jim had stopped listening to ordinary noises a long time ago. He knew there was a watcher still out there — not the random footpad or prankster prefect, but something that had interest and intent.

He let his eyes go back to the portrait for a long moment. Then he folded the file closed and slid it under the table where he kept his maps and oddments. He rose, the joints in his knees complaining, and moved to the shutters. Twice he checked the bolt, twice the lock, then clogged the gap beneath the door with an old rag. Paranoia, he told himself. Habit. Preparation.

Still, as he sat back down, whiskey warming his belly and the sword a cold comfort at his side, he couldn't shake the sense that the hollow eyes in the photo were less a warning and more a promise: something unfinished, waiting in the dark, and very, very close.

 

[Metel_Pen]

The next day, Jim made sure all his duties kept him in and around the academy proper. Leaves could wait, the paddocks could rot — today he had one priority, and one alone. He had no intention of letting the boy out of his sight.

Thankfully, the stolen file included Emile's class schedule, neat as you please. Jim had worked these halls long enough to know them like the back of his calloused hands — which corridors fed where, which staircases creaked, which rooms spat out students in clumps and which in dribbles. He knew how long it took to shuffle a gaggle of magisters-in-training from one chamber to the next, and how many excuses he could invent to loiter nearby without raising suspicion.

And of course, Emile had been placed under Elmsley's tutelage.
Jim's teeth ground together at the thought. Naturally.

But he said nothing. He'd already promised himself not to start something — not yet. There'd be time for words, or worse, when the need came.

So he stayed close.
Not too close. Never obvious.

Jim became a shadow. The boy's own ghost.

When Emile sat through Defence Theory, Jim was down the hall, rattling old rat traps into place — most real, some nothing but empty props. When the boy took lunch, Jim was outside, fixing the cracked pane in the cafeteria window, back turned, ears pricked. When the students spilled out on break, Jim was at the hedge line, shears snapping, his eyes always flicking toward the lad with jet-black hair who sat by himself, away from the chatter and the cliques.

And Jim watched.

What he saw didn't sit right.

Emile struggled. At everything. Spells fizzled in his hands, or backfired with a puff of smoke. Books seemed to swallow him whole; he'd thumb the same page over and over, eyes dull, like the words slipped away before he could hold them. When called upon, he muttered answers that barely strung together. No spark of brilliance. No hidden cunning. Just a boy utterly out of his depth.

Except for one thing.

He kept glancing at one of the other new starters — a girl with red hair and freckles. Maizel, if Jim remembered right. Nothing leering in it, nothing sly. Just quick, furtive looks, like a boy trying not to get caught wanting something better. Quiet interest. Maybe even hope.

Jim noted it. He noted everything.

Days of watching had given him a picture — and the picture wasn't pretty. Emile was… awkward. Not the fake kind, not the clumsy charm some of these preening little bastards liked to put on when they wanted sympathy. No. This lad was a knot of nerves in boots. Shoulders rounded like he wanted to disappear into himself. Eyes always darting, never landing. Lips moving in little rehearsals of words that never made it to air.

He sat alone at meals, hovered just outside the edge of groups in the courtyard, flinched whenever someone spoke to him. A walking apology.

If this is an Umbar agent, Jim thought, then he's the best fucking actor I've ever seen.

Still, he didn't stop watching. Years in warzones had drilled one lesson into his bones: quiet doesn't mean harmless.

Several days bled past like that. Always the same pattern. Awkwardness. Silence. Dropped books. Spilled water. Cutlery clattering to the floor like it was spring-loaded. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Then, one night, something changed.

It was well past lights-out when Jim spotted movement from his cabin window. A slim figure slipped out of the east dorm's side door, wrapped in a dark cloak. Small frame. Careful steps.

Emile.

Jim was already reaching for his coat. He slung his sword over his shoulder — habit, not ceremony — and slipped into the night after him.

The lad moved with more purpose than Jim expected. He picked his way through the woods like someone who knew the paths, avoiding the noisy branches and deadfall with practised care. No wand in his hand. No whispered spells for light or warmth. Just quiet determination.

He stopped near an old cedar, its trunk gnarled and wide. From inside his cloak he drew something small. The lamplight didn't reach, but Jim knew the glint of steel when he saw it.

A knife.

Here we go, Jim thought, crouching behind a cluster of bushes. His hand settled on the sword hilt, pulse climbing. Show me what you're really up to.

Emile crouched and started sawing at something on the ground. Quick. Focused. Almost mechanical.

Jim's jaw tightened. If he's carving a sigil, I'll cut him down before he finishes the first fucking stroke.

The boy's shoulders hunched with effort. A few more strokes, and then he straightened, slipped the knife back into his cloak, and started walking away — toward the dragon paddocks.

Jim crept forward, keeping low. When he reached the cedar, he glanced down at the spot Emile had been working.

There, on the frostbitten grass, lay a snare. A rabbit — freshly skinned, its guts neatly set to one side, the fur peeled clean and folded like cloth. The sight made Jim's stomach twitch.

What the fuck is this little weirdo doing? he thought. Feeding something? Poisoning it? Maybe a ritual?

He picked up his pace, boots crunching softly on fallen leaves, every sense sharpened by suspicion. He reached the paddock fence just as Emile slipped through the gate, his cloak flicking behind him.

Shit. The dragons.

Jim jogged, then broke into a sprint, heart hammering against his ribs. He shoved the paddock gate open with a clatter that echoed across the frost-hardened ground.

"Get the fuck away from them!" he barked, sword already half-drawn, voice rough with command.

But then he stopped short.

The scene before him knocked the wind out of his lungs.

In the centre of the paddock, Emile stood perfectly still — a skinned rabbit dangling from one hand. And towering in front of him was Aualine.

She wasn't snarling. Wasn't rearing back or lashing her tail.
She was nuzzling him. Her vast, scarred head pressed into his chest, a low, rolling purr rumbling from her throat and filling the pen like distant thunder.

Moonlight streaked silver across her scales, catching on the sharp ridges of her jaw as she leaned into the boy like he was a trusted companion.

Emile looked up, startled at Jim's shout. His eyes went wide, mouth parted, still half lost in awe at the creature before him.

For a long moment, neither of them moved. Only the purring of the dragon and the mist of their breath in the cold air.

Jim lowered his sword slowly, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. "…The fuck are you doing, lad?"

Emile blinked, glanced down at the rabbit in his hand, then back up at Jim. His voice came soft, almost apologetic. "Feeding her. She won't take food from the handlers. Not unless it's fresh."

Aualine gave a slow, contented huff and pushed her muzzle harder into Emile's chest, nearly knocking him back a step.

Jim just stood there, stunned. This awkward, quiet little bugger… had managed something most of the faculty couldn't. Aualine liked him. Genuinely liked him. Trusted him.

He slid his blade back into the scabbard with a single smooth motion, his eyes never leaving the boy.

"I'm sorry, sir," Emile stammered suddenly, words tumbling out. "I didn't mean any harm. I thought it was alright — some of the others come down here sometimes and— I'll go, please don't tell Professor Elmsley. He already doesn't like me. I'm so sorry—"

He practically poured the words out, tumbling over himself, as though if he spoke fast enough he might outrun the trouble already snapping at his heels.

Jim lifted a hand, palm open, voice steady. "It's alright, lad. You're not in trouble. Just… slow down a second."

The words landed. Emile froze mid-babble, chest rising and falling like bellows, eyes wide and glassy.

Jim gave a slow, deliberate nod. "I won't tell Elmsley. Not if you answer a few questions for me. Fair?"

Emile swallowed hard, Adam's apple bobbing, then nodded rapidly. "Yes. Anything."

Meanwhile, Aualine hadn't the faintest care for the boy's nerves. She kept nosing at him, her enormous snout butting into his shoulder with an affection that rattled him more than calmed him. One particularly enthusiastic shove sent him sprawling backward into the frost.

"Oi, Aualine! Leave him alone!" Jim barked.

The dragon swung her scarred head toward him and gave a short, sharp bark of her own — more reprimand than roar.

Jim raised an eyebrow, lips twitching. "Don't give me that. He's still in one piece, ain't he?"

Aualine huffed like a spoiled noble, then promptly turned back to Emile. The ground thrummed with the thunder of her purring as she nudged her snout against his chest again, almost trying to press her way inside him.

"Oi! I said leave the lad be! You'll get your fuss after I talk to him, alright? Deal?" Jim called, his tone half-command, half-bargain.

The dragon's eyes flicked between him and the boy, slow and calculating. Then she let out a guttural, rumbling whine that carried all the petulance of a sulking child. With a reluctant stomp, she padded to the far end of the pen and flopped onto her haunches like a moody hound. But her eyes stayed fixed on them, molten and unblinking.

Jim shook his head, muttering, "Bloody diva."

Turning back to Emile, he softened his voice. "She seems to like ya, lad."

Emile rubbed the back of his neck, awkward and shy under the dragon's unwavering gaze. "Yeah… though I think it's just the rabbits I've been bringing her."

Jim let out a grunt that might've been a laugh. "Bribery's a fair strategy. Dragons or people, it works well enough." He tilted his head, fixing the boy with a look. "How long you been comin' down here?"

"Every other day since I got here," Emile admitted, his voice carrying the weight of someone confessing to a crime.

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

There was a pause. Emile didn't meet his eyes at first, staring instead at the dirt, at the rabbit's discarded fur, anywhere but at Jim. When he finally did, Jim caught it — that shimmer at the corners, the glassy stare of someone carrying more than they could ever set down.

"I just… needed someone to talk to," Emile said softly. "And she listens."

Those hollow eyes weren't so hollow now. There was something cracked and glinting behind them, fragile as broken glass catching the light. Jim didn't press. He'd seen too many lads snap when pushed too hard. Instead, he shifted gears.

"So," he said, scratching at the stubble on his chin. "Where'd ya learn to handle a dragon like that? She's usually a right stubborn beast."

Emile blinked, rubbed at his eyes with the sleeve of his robe like he could wipe away the shine. "Back when I was little," he said. "My dad used to train gryphons. Same temperament — proud, temperamental. You've just gotta treat 'em with respect. Don't be too forward. After a while, they start to like you."

Jim nodded slowly. "That explains a lot."

He flicked his gaze to Aualine, still sulking in the corner. Her head was turned away, but her ears were cocked toward them, every word soaking in.

"Must say," Jim muttered, "you've made more progress with her in a few weeks than most the staff ever did."

He let the silence hang for a beat, then asked gently, "You said used to. What happened? He get sick of it?"

The boy froze. That hollow, faraway look bled back into his eyes, a look that didn't belong on someone so young. His lips parted, then clamped shut again. Finally, he spoke — softer, like it hurt to drag the words out.

"They were killed."

Jim didn't speak. Didn't even shift. He just watched the lad, eyes narrowed, listening for the truth beneath the words. No twitch of a liar, no gilding of details. Just raw, ugly honesty.

"The Umbar?" Jim asked, though the answer already soured in his gut.

Emile gave the smallest nod, eyes falling to the dirt. "They… they'd taken the village. Said they were 'relocating' us."

Jim's jaw clenched until his teeth ached. He'd heard that word before. Relocation. A neat little lie dressed up for polite ears. He knew well enough what it meant in the Umbar tongue: burn it down, scatter the bones, and call it mercy.

"My dad…" Emile went on, voice catching in his throat. "He tried to stop them. Told them we'd done nothing wrong. Said my mum was pregnant, begged them to let us be."

He swallowed hard, blinking fast against the sting.

"They slit her throat in front of him. And then they beat him to death. I tried to scream but—" He stopped, breath hitching. He dragged in air, steadying himself. "Didn't matter."

The words hung heavy in the cold air, like smoke that wouldn't clear.

Jim didn't move. Didn't interrupt. He just let the boy spill his truth into the night air. The silence that followed was thick, heavy enough to press against the ribs.

"And what'd they do with you?" Jim finally asked, voice low, careful.

"They put me in a labour camp."

"How long?"

"I don't know. Two winters, I think. Maybe more."

At least a year, Jim thought grimly. Long enough to break most lads. "How'd you get out?"

Emile looked up for the first time since he'd started speaking. His eyes shimmered, but no tears fell. Stubborn, or maybe just wrung dry.

"We got rescued," he said. "Not by magisters. No magic. Just… soldiers. Men with swords."

Jim nodded slowly, something cold settling in his gut. That tracked.

"The guards must've known they were coming. Fled in the night. Soldiers found us in the morning — broke the gates open, gave us food, water… warm blankets. Took us back."

Jim stayed quiet. That explained it. The odd gaps in the boy's records, the blank years no one could account for.

Emile looked like he was about to keep pouring his story out, mouth working around words that hadn't been said in years. But Jim cut in gently, not unkindly, steering him away before the memories swallowed him whole.

"So," he said, jerking his chin toward the pen, "you like Aualine, then?"

Emile blinked, dragged back into the present like a lad waking from a nightmare. Some of the weight in his eyes lifted.

"Er… yeah," he said quietly, glancing over. "She's… she's beautiful."

At the sound of his voice, Aualine perked up. Her ears twitched, eyes brightening, and her tail gave one solid thud against the ground — the kind of gesture Jim had seen her reserve for very, very few.

Jim watched her, then looked back to Emile. "She's got good taste," he muttered. "Must see something in you."

Aualine let out a soft huff and rose to her feet, padding toward Emile with that slow, deliberate grace dragons carried when they trusted someone. Her scales caught the moonlight, silver rippling with every step.

Emile looked up at Jim, almost sheepish but hopeful. "Can I, sir?"

"Go for it, lad. And it's Jim," he said, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Keep the 'sirs' for the academy — I earned my living, not a title."

Emile reached out and laid a hand on her scales. Aualine leaned into the touch, eyes sliding half-shut, and let out a deep purr that rumbled through the paddock like distant thunder.

Jim folded his arms, watching the two of them, and something he couldn't quite name settled in his chest.

"Look, lad," he said after a moment, his tone firm but not harsh, "I've got a lot on my plate right now. Would you be up for lending a hand around the paddock?"

Emile's eyes lit up, wide and unguarded — not just surprise, but something dangerously close to joy. For a moment, he looked younger, lighter, like the weight he'd been dragging around had loosened its grip.

"Before you agree," Jim cut in, raising a finger, "it's proper work. Mucking out, watering, feeding — not just Aualine, the other scaly bastards too. And trust me, some of 'em are nowhere near as charming as her."

Emile nodded quickly, almost bouncing on his heels. "Of course, Jim. I mean it. I will."

Jim studied him for a beat, then gave a slow nod. "Right then. Just make sure you keep up with your classes… much good they'll do you," he muttered, half to himself.

He jabbed a finger at the lad. "And be warned — I'll be checkin' in. If I catch ya slackin', you'll be shovellin' shit from dawn till dusk. No dragon time. No fun. Got it?"

"Got it," Emile said, still wide-eyed, like even shovelling dragon dung sounded like a gift.

"Good." Jim jerked his chin toward the path. "Right, get back to your dorm. It's late, and you've got a pile of shit waitin' for ya in the morning."

Emile gave Aualine one last fond pat. "Thanks, sir — I mean, Jim!" he called as he bolted off into the dark, cloak flapping around his thin frame.

Once the boy was gone, Jim turned back to Aualine. She was already watching him, those great golden eyes half-lidded, wearing the smug look she always pulled when she thought she knew better.

"And why didn't ya say he'd been comin' down here, eh? Sneakin' treats, fussin' over ya?" Jim asked, hands on his hips.

She let out a soft chuff, almost innocent.

"Oi. Don't give me that," Jim grumbled, stepping closer.

Aualine whined, low and sheepish.

"Oh, so ya like him, huh?"

She gave a short, sharp bark — more laugh than sound.

Jim snorted. "Looks like I am gettin' paranoid in me old age." He scratched behind her ear, feeling the warmth of her scales under his calloused fingers. "Still, least I've got someone to pick up a bit o' slack now. About bloody time."

She pressed her massive head into his chest for a long moment, a deep rumble of contentment vibrating through him before she padded back to her bed and curled up like a mountain settling to rest.

Jim turned, staring out over the paddock, the night cold on his face. The fire in his gut cooled — not out, but banked, like embers smouldering in ash.

"Lost me only lead," he muttered into the quiet. His hand tightened on the rake still in his grip. "Guess I'm gonna have to start diggin' harder."

Jim reached into the inside pocket of his wax coat and fished out his battered old pocket watch. The silver plating had long since worn away, the casing dented and scuffed like it had been through the same wars he had. Still, the thing ticked on with that stubborn rhythm, steady as a soldier who refused to fall in line with time itself.

He thumbed it open.
Nearly midnight.

He let out a long, low sigh through his nose. A sane man would've called it a night. Got himself a few hours' rest. But Jim wasn't a sane man, and his gut wasn't giving him the luxury. It was twisting itself in knots, that instinct he trusted more than any prophecy or professor.

"Can't sleep with all this shit hanging over me," he muttered, snapping the watch shut with a sharp click.

He pulled on his coat, slid his blade into the loop behind his back — just in case — and stepped out into the dark.

Two hours later, Jim stomped back into his cabin. The door rattled in its frame as he kicked it shut behind him with a solid thud. He yanked the satchel from his shoulder and tossed it onto his battered little dining table. Files spilled everywhere — folders fanning out like the aftermath of a bureaucratic explosion, parchment fluttering to the floor. Thirty of them, at least. Thick, heavy, full of ink and redacted horseshit.

He shrugged off his coat, dropped it over the back of a chair, and dragged a hand through his hair.

"Second bloody file heist," he muttered, almost laughing.

It had gone smoother than it had any right to. No magical wards humming on the drawers, no enchanted ink biting at his fingers. Just unlocked cabinets, sloppy security, and the blind arrogance of magisters who thought their ivory tower walls were strong enough to keep the world at bay.

Well… almost smooth.

Jim scratched his jaw, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Bloody close call, though."

He could still smell it — mushroom vapour, cloying and sweet, sharp enough to sting the back of his throat. Bliss caps. Stronger than whiskey, outlawed in half the realms and frowned on in the other half.

Right as he'd turned the corner by the south archive stairwell, he'd nearly walked straight into Professor Aidra. And there she'd been — slouched in a shadowed alcove behind a crumbling tapestry, silver vapour pipe clutched in her ink-stained fingers. Her hat gone, her robes wrinkled, her hair falling loose across her face. She wore a lazy grin like she was watching stars explode inside her own skull.

Jim had frozen. Shit. That's it. I'm done.

But Aidra only giggled. Lifted a hand and waved. Not at him, but at the wall behind him.

Didn't even see him. Or if she did, she probably thought he was an angry-looking unicorn on a tea break.

He'd slipped past without a word, boots whispering over the stone as Aidra giggled at ghosts only she could see.

Now, back in the safety of his shack, Jim set the bolt on the door twice over, checked the shutters, then finally let his shoulders sag. He poured himself a generous glass of whiskey — more like half the bottle than a proper measure — and dropped into his chair opposite the pile of stolen folders.

The lamplight flickered across the battered table, catching the edges of parchment and sealing wax, turning the stack of files into a little fortress of secrets.

Jim raised his glass in mock salute, the amber liquid trembling against the firelight.
"To you, Professor Aidra," he muttered, voice dry as old paper. "Keep chasin' stars. And keep outta my way."

He threw the drink back in one, coughed once at the burn, then wiped his mouth with the back of his scarred hand. The glass clinked hard against the table as he set it down.

Then he dragged the first file off the top of the pile, squinting at the neat handwriting and the smug little portrait clipped to the front.

"Right then," he growled, cracking the folder open like he was gutting something. "Let's see what all you bastards are hiding."

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim yawned wide enough to crack his jaw and rubbed at his eyes until the pages in front of him stopped swimming. Dawn was bleeding into the sky, its first pale rays creeping through the grime-smeared window of his cabin. The weak light caught on the piles of parchment scattered across his table. He'd been up all night hunched over them, sifting through the files like some half-drunk librarian with a grudge and a hangover waiting in the wings. His back ached. His eyes burned. But he'd pressed on.

Thirty thick admission folders, all stacked like bricks, and he'd combed through every single one with the same suspicion and scrutiny he'd once reserved for enemy field reports. Each detail weighed, measured, filed away in the weary machinery of his soldier's brain.

Most were easy to toss aside — the usual crop of bright-eyed prodigies and nobles. Kids with glowing recommendations from families with more gold than sense. Ancient bloodlines tracing back to half-mythical heroes. Some carried flashy "chosen" birthmarks written about in prophecy books no sane man would trust. A handful wore curse scars like badges, others boasted of bearing "the mark of the dragon's breath," whatever that was supposed to mean. One lad apparently screamed magic the moment he was shoved into the world, nurses dropping him in shock. Another had a duchess for a mother who'd written a recommendation dripping with disappointment, as though her son's mere existence had ruined her weekend. One file even included a prophecy stitched into the baby's first blanket, the ink smudged from proud tears.

Jim rubbed his temple and muttered, "Born under a blood moon. What the fuck does that even mean?" He tossed that file into the discard pile and kept digging.

But then came the oddities. A handful of files caught his eye — not because of what was written inside, but because of what wasn't. No heritage, no noble blood, no divine omens. Just clean, dull records. Ordinary. Unremarkable.

Three boys. Two girls.

On the surface, decidedly uninteresting. Which, to Jim's weary mind, made them very interesting indeed.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbed at his eyes again until sparks flashed behind his lids, and swore under his breath. He shrugged into his waxed coat and rose, joints creaking like floorboards. When he stepped outside, the frost in the air bit at his cheeks and lungs with sharp little teeth, cruel and bracing — but it did wonders for his fatigue. Cleared the cobwebs better than coffee. The grounds lay silvered under morning light, every blade of grass stiff with ice, every breath of wind knifing cold. Jim hunched his shoulders and trudged back toward the academy, boots crunching a steady rhythm on the frozen dirt.

His mind kept working over the five files he'd marked. He needed to start narrowing things down, and he had a chance today. The Riordan Games were fast approaching, and someone had to make sure the arena infrastructure could hold several hundred teenagers hopped up on bravado, hormones, and poor decision-making. That someone, as usual, was him.

But the inspection gave him more than just work. It gave him cover. An excuse to snoop. His first target: Alfred Guckle, one of the three lads who'd landed on his suspicious list.

Jim pushed through the academy's front doors without a glance at the gaggle of students loitering in the foyer, their laughter buzzing like flies around a carcass. He made a beeline for the locked key press tucked behind the eastern stairwell. Pulled out his heavy ring, the brass clinking like old coins, found the right tooth among dozens, and slotted it into the cabinet. A turn, a click, a creak of hinges. He grabbed the arena key, locked the press back up again without a sound.

Then he took the long way around — what he generously called "the scenic route." The corridors wound like veins through the old stone, some half-familiar, some less so, shadows pooling in the corners where the torches sputtered. He walked them at his own pace, a man who knew how to make himself small, weaving through the academy's bowels until he reached what he was looking for.

Alchemical Studies 101 was etched in curling script above a thick oak door, the kind of pompous lettering that thought it belonged on a cathedral. Jim barely had time to sneer at it before the corridor split with a fizz-pop, sharp and wet, followed by a scream that ripped high and raw through the stone. For a heartbeat, his shoulders twitched like an old war reflex, then the rest of him was moving, charging forward as if the past twenty years hadn't dulled his instincts at all.

The stench met him before his eyes could. Acrid smoke, scorched parchment, and beneath it — copper. Blood. His boots hammered across the floor as he shoved through the doorway. Inside, chaos held the room in its teeth. A professor hunched helpless over a boy on the ground, robes billowing uselessly. The rest of the class froze, faces pale, like rabbits caught too long in torchlight.

Jim pushed them aside, dropped to a knee, and the sight carved its way straight into him. Alfred. Pale, trembling, his right arm gone clean at the elbow — sheared away like it had never been. Eyes wide, unblinking, the shock holding him hostage more than the wound itself.

"Shit," Jim spat, already ripping at his belt. He wrapped it round the stump, cinching tight until Alfred lurched and a sound like a broken groan spilled out. "You're not dying in this bloody classroom, lad," Jim growled, voice low but certain, as if his words could will the boy to obey.

No time to wait. He hauled Alfred up into his arms — dead weight, yet nothing Jim hadn't carried before — and stormed out of the room, the professor's useless hands still fluttering behind him. The corridor blurred around him. Students scattered. Voices gasped. None of it mattered. He kept moving until the infirmary doors burst open, his voice bellowing for medics. Only when hands seized Alfred from him and pulled the boy into frantic care did Jim finally stop, his chest heaving, the belt still biting into his palm.

Hours later, Jim stood outside in the cold, coat snapping against the wind. His hand dipped into a pocket, pulling free a crumpled sheet — names, notes, suspicions. He tugged out a nub of charcoal and scored a line hard through one: Alfred Guckle.

"Well," Jim muttered, breath steaming, "that's one mystery solved. Poor sod. Lost an arm, but he'll live." He folded the list, shoved it away. "At least it saved me some time."

The wind bit into his throat as he drew a deep breath, rolling his shoulders until something popped and settled. With Alfred's fate decided, the edge of him looked for something else to gnaw on — work. The arena, for once, was reason enough. The Riordan Games loomed just five days away. If he didn't get ahead of the problems now, he'd be the one dragging corpses out later.

He muttered as he set off down the path, boots crunching frost, "Wouldn't be the first time we had a collapse and some lad left with a femur full of splinters." His scowl cut deep. "And Elmsley called me a risk."

The keys in his pocket were heavy, iron teeth clinking with every stride. He gripped them like weapons as he picked up pace, boots hammering the rhythm of grim duty.

At last he came to Thornate Gate, the rust-bitten arch crouching like an old sentinel. The lock resisted, then surrendered with a groaning clunk. The hinges screamed as he shoved the gate open — a sound so sharp and pained it could've woken ghosts if any still lingered from the last bloodied spectacle.

Jim stepped through, climbing the narrow steps to the main viewing platform. The wind caught at him, carried the smell of dust and iron, and tugged his coat into a whip at his legs. From the top rail, his gaze swept the field below. Churned earth. Gravel. Empty now, silent and waiting. In less than a week, it'd be crawling with spinning blades, fire-belching pipes, collapsing platforms, illusions thick enough to choke in. A blood maze dressed up as tradition.

He sighed through his nose, shaking his head slow. In a decade here, he reckoned thirty had died in that pit. Twice as many maimed. The smiles of the survivors had always looked borrowed — as though some part of them had been left down there, buried in the dirt.

"All for glory and a cup," he muttered. "Fucking daft."

He spent the next hour circling the perimeter, boots crunching as he tested planks, slapped supports, checked pins. Rust bleeding through bolts, cracks spidering wood like veins on old skin — enough to make him frown, not enough to break. Not yet. He filed each problem away like an officer tallying rations: reinforce, replace, retighten.

When it was done, he descended the steps, boots thudding, and slammed the gate shut with a clang that rang against his teeth. The hinges shrieked again before silence folded over the arena once more. Just dirt and ghosts. For now.

He checked his pocket watch. Nearly six. The morning was biting in full.

"Right," he muttered, jaw tightening. "Better check in on Emile. Make sure the lad's not pissing about with Aualine."

His coat flared as he strode off, keys heavy at his side. If Emile had gone soft on his chores, there'd be hell to pay before breakfast.

He stepped through the paddock gate, braced for the usual chaos: mucked pens, dry troughs, a sulking dragon.

Instead, he stopped dead.

The place was spotless.

The fence lines were neat, hay bales stacked square as parade kit, and for the first time in years the main gate didn't squeal like a tortured banshee when Jim swung it open. He stopped just inside, boots sinking into the frosted dirt, eyes narrowing. Every pen he passed was… clean. Fresh-smelling. Not the half-arsed sort of clean where muck had been shoved into corners, either — proper tidy. Even the storm drake — foul-tempered bastard that it was — had a smug shine across its black scales, like it had been polished.

"What in the fuck…" Jim muttered, voice low, suspicious as a dog sniffing a locked meat cellar.

He moved slow, scanning each stall like an inspector waiting to catch the trick. Nothing. No half-finished chores, no stale stink, no squeaking hinges. The place ran smoother than it had in years.

Then he reached Aualine's pen.

And there was Emile.

The boy was knee-deep in muck and dragon tail, shovel in hand, sweat plastering his fringe to his forehead. Aualine circled him like a spoiled hound, nudging at his shoulder, letting out a whine so pitiful Jim almost laughed.

"Hey! Hey! I will fuss you up," Emile said, dodging a playful nudge with a lopsided grin. "But I gotta finish the work first, alright?"

Jim leaned on the fence, one eyebrow raised. That was a new sight — a dragon waiting her turn like a jealous schoolgirl while a lad shovelled shit around her feet.

"How ya getting on, lad?"

Emile jolted like he'd been caught smuggling wine barrels, nearly dropping the shovel. "Oh! Uh—hi, sir—I mean, Jim. Yeah, just finishing up this last bit," he stammered, nodding toward the half-full wheelbarrow. "Unless… unless you think there's more that needs doing?"

Jim let his eyes sweep the paddock. It was spotless. Cleaner than it had been in years. Even the water troughs gleamed, rippling full. The gates swung without a whisper. For once, the place didn't reek like a midden.

A faint grin tugged at the corner of his mouth before he caught it. "Nah, lad. Reckon you've done more in a day than I usually manage in a week," he said, folding his arms over his chest.

The effect was immediate. Emile beamed like he'd been handed a medal, teeth flashing, shoulders loosening. He gave one final shove of the shovel, dumped the muck, then wheeled the barrow out of the pen with the careful pride of someone guarding treasure.

Aualine huffed as she watched him go, her rumble rolling deep through her chest, almost proud.

Jim tapped the rail with two fingers, thinking. Might as well use the lad's good mood. "Do ya know any of the kids ya showed up with?"

Emile paused mid-shove of the wheelbarrow, tilting his head. "Erm… I did speak to some on the train ride down."

Jim nodded slowly. "Good. What about these lot?"

He reached into his coat, pulled out four worn photos. The paper was creased, edges dog-eared from too many nights of thumbing them over. He fanned them out like a deck of cards, each one marked in his head after poor Alfred's accident earlier.

Emile wiped his hands on his trousers, leaned closer, squinting.

"Oh, that's Jonns," he said, pointing with a muck-stained finger. "He's all right. Haven't talked to him much since we got here, though."

"Quiet one, is he?" Jim asked, studying the lad's reaction more than the picture.

"Kinda. He's really good with incantations and such."

Jim raised a brow, lip twitching. "Anything else about him? Odd hobbies? Glows under moonlight? Knows twelve kinds of ancient blood rituals?"

Emile chuckled nervously, shifting his weight from one boot to the other. "Not really. Oh—he did say he's part Elder One?"

Jim rolled his eyes so hard it nearly hurt. "Of course he bloody is. Bet he's already practisin' how to stand in the moonlight lookin' mysterious."

He tossed the picture into the dragon's water trough with a flick of his wrist. Aualine lowered her snout, blinked at the soggy scrap of parchment swirling in her drinking water, then gave Jim a look that was equal parts disdain and insult.

"Don't start," Jim muttered. "You drink out of puddles half the time. You'll live."

Aualine snorted a misty spray of water over his boots, thoroughly unimpressed.

"Right, what about the other three?" Jim asked, shaking his leg dry.

Emile leaned in again as Jim held up the next photo. "That's Oomah," the boy said, pointing to the face of a girl with wide-set eyes and hair tied in too many ribbons. "She's… a little weird."

Jim raised an eyebrow, tilting the picture toward the pale light so the ink caught. "Weird how? Weird like won't-eat-bread-ends, or weird like keeps jars of toenails under her bed?"

Emile hesitated, clearly unsure whether sharing was the right idea. "Well… she reckons her cat is the reincarnated prince of some ancient, long-lost civilisation."

Jim stared at him. "Come again?"

"Yeah." Emile nodded quickly, almost apologetic. "Apparently, he speaks to her at night. Gives her advice and stuff." He scratched at the back of his neck, cheeks colouring. "I think she's a little nuts, if I'm honest."

Jim blinked slowly, then looked back at the girl's painted face. "Prince cat, eh? Right." He let out a humourless chuckle, muttering, "Whole bloody academy's gone." With a flick, he tossed the photo over his shoulder like a bad hand in a card game. It fluttered lazily through the air before landing face-down in a pile of dragon dung.

Aualine snorted again, clearly amused.

"Right," Jim said flatly, dusting his palms like he'd just rid himself of a bad debt. "Next."

Emile leaned forward eagerly, pointing at the next image. "That one's Brazden. He's pretty normal, I think. Doesn't like me much, though."

Jim gave the boy a long side glance. "Why's that?"

Emile shrugged, looking down at his boots. "Dunno. Just gives me that look, y'know? Like I'm something he scraped off his shoe. Spends all his time hanging around this guy called Cas—"

"Castus," Jim cut in, voice tightening like a pulled bowstring.

"Yeah, that's it."

Jim gave a short, grim nod and slipped Brazden's photo into his coat pocket. The movement was small, but the grunt he made as the picture disappeared into the fabric was heavy, like he was storing away something rotten that still needed keeping.

"And what about her?" Jim asked, pulling out the final photo and holding it up between two fingers.

Emile's expression changed in an instant. His whole face softened, the tension in his shoulders easing, his tone quieter, warmer. "That's Maizel."

Jim didn't say a word. He just watched, letting the silence stretch. Silence always made people reveal more than they meant to.

"She's… lovely," Emile said, the word slipping out before he could catch it. His ears went red, but he carried on anyway. "Kind. Clever. Good at everything. Like, stupidly good. Doesn't have any weird stuff going on, at least not that I've seen. Everyone likes her."

Jim arched a brow, lips twitching like he might smirk. He didn't, though. He just tucked the last photo back into his coat, slow and deliberate.

"Lovely," he repeated under his breath. "That's always a bloody dangerous word."

Jim gave a slow nod, slipping Maizel's photo into his pocket alongside Brazden's. "Hmm," he grunted, the sound more like a verdict than a word.

Emile tilted his head, curiosity flickering in his eyes. "Why do you wanna know about them, anyway?"

Jim shrugged, casual as an old soldier could manage. "Little project I've got runnin'," he said, chewing the thought before spitting it out. "Nothin' for you to worry about."

Emile still didn't look convinced. His brows drew in just enough to show suspicion, but not enough to start an argument. He was young, cautious — didn't yet know how to press without getting snapped at. Jim liked that. Meant the lad wasn't entirely daft.

"Good," Jim muttered under his breath, turning slightly.

Behind him, Aualine was standing statue-still, her golden eyes fixed on Emile with the intensity of a mother eyeing someone who'd taken too long with supper. Her tail swished, slow and deliberate, each movement scattering dust across the pen floor.

"Now go on," Jim said, jerking a thumb toward her. "That big lass has been throwin' me death glares since you stopped fussin' her. Looks like she's ready to burn your face off if you don't give her more head scritches."

Emile laughed, a nervous, light sound, and hurried back over to the dragon. He buried his hands in her shimmering scales, scratching along her jawline. Aualine let out a deep, rolling purr that shook the fence posts, her great head leaning into him like a hound leaning on its master.

Jim watched for a moment, chewing on the silence. The boy's smile was unguarded for once, his hands steady as they moved over the dragon's hide. No nerves, no fumbles — just calm. Natural.

"Bloody hell," Jim muttered. "Maybe the beast's got better judgment than I do."

He turned on his heel and started walking away, pulling a half-chewed bit of twig from his coat pocket and sticking it between his teeth. The taste was bitter, bark scraping against the back of his tongue, but it gave him something to gnaw on besides the worry clawing at his insides.

"Well," he muttered around the twig, "that's me shortlist trimmed down to two."

His boots crunched over the frost-hardened dirt as he headed for his cabin, shoulders hunched against the creeping cold. The thought of a bed — even a lumpy, splinter-prone one like his — tugged at him like gravity. A night's rest. That's what a sane man would take.

Jim adjusted his coat, spat the twig into the grass, and muttered, "If the gods've got any sense left, they'll let me sleep without bloody interruptions tonight."

He didn't believe it for a second.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim allowed himself a lie-in — which for him meant waking at dawn instead of hours before it. The light through his cabin shutters was pale, the sort that never quite warmed your bones, but he let himself linger for once. His joints complained anyway. The price of getting older, he thought, tugging his coat on and stepping out into a world already coated in frost.

The morning blurred into labor. He spent the better part of it herding groups of half-awake faculty and excitable students from shed to shed, pointing out where the academy kept its collection of "sporting equipment." Old gates groaned, locks protested, and dust billowed out of hinges that hadn't been moved in a year. Jim's back twinged from the effort of hauling open a storage barn door that stuck halfway, the metal teeth grinding like they hated him personally.

He was halfway through dragging a rack of mock golem targets into the yard — wooden torsos bolted onto weighted stumps, their surfaces peppered with old scorch marks and half-melted dents — when he heard a voice like nails dragged down slate.

"Here," Elmsley said.

The single word carried all the warmth of a slapped glove. Jim turned, already scowling.

"Morning to you too," he muttered, brushing splinters from his hands before taking the folded sheet of parchment Elmsley thrust at him. "What's this supposed to be?"

"Updated list of participants for the Games," Elmsley said, tone clipped. "Plandorph wants the plaque changed."

Jim unfolded it, scanning the tidy script. "How many changes we talking?"

"Just one," Elmsley replied. His lips pursed like he'd sucked a lemon. "Alfred Guckle has been replaced. After his… unfortunate accident."

Jim bit the inside of his cheek, hard enough to taste copper. Gods, that man's voice pisses me off.

"Anything else?" Jim asked, voice deliberately flat.

Elmsley didn't bother to reply. He simply lingered long enough to deliver one of his patented superior stares — all nose-up disdain — before pivoting on his heel. His black robes flared behind him as he stalked away, the picture of a man who thought himself a hero out of a painting.

Jim watched him go, muttering under his breath, "Prick."

He looked back down at the list, eyes sliding to the replacement name. And his heart dropped straight into his boots.

Emile Caloden.

There it was, inked plain as day.

"Shit," Jim breathed. He folded the parchment, stuffed it into his coat, and checked his pocket watch. Nearly the end of lessons.

The mock golems could rot where they stood for all he cared. He shoved the rack back against the shed wall, shrugged into his coat, and set off with heavy steps toward the paddocks. His boots thudded against the cobbles with purpose, each impact carrying the weight of old fatigue. He wasn't angry — not quite. Just unsettled. And tired. Bone-deep tired, the sort that whiskey only dulled for a while before it came roaring back.

By the time he reached the paddocks, the sun was bleeding out into late afternoon, the sky paling at the edges. Jim sat himself down on a hay bale near Aualine's pen, elbows on knees, eyes fixed on the ground while his mind turned over like a millstone. He chewed absently on a sliver of straw he'd pulled from the bale, his jaw working slow and steady.

An hour dragged by. The cold bit deeper, the paddock fences creaked in the wind, and Jim didn't move. He just waited.

Then came the sound of boots scuffing dirt. A clatter of buckets. Emile wandered into view, juggling two heavy pails of feed, his thin frame bent slightly under the weight. He moved with his usual nervous energy — quick steps, shoulders hunched, eyes darting as though expecting someone to tell him off just for breathing too loud.

He didn't even notice Jim sitting there in the shadows until a low voice cut through the quiet.

"Afternoon, lad."

Emile jumped so hard he nearly spilled both buckets.

Why,?" Jim asked, voice low and flat.
"Shit—sorry! I didn't see—what?" he stammered, cheeks flushing as he bent to scoop the feed back into the pail with hurried, awkward hands.

"Why'd you put your name down for the Games?" Jim asked again, slow and deliberate, his tone unreadable so the boy couldn't guess what he was thinking.

Emile blinked, looking genuinely confused. "I… I didn't." The denial sounded small, brittle.

Jim rose, took a deliberate step forward, and fished a crumpled scrap of paper from his coat pocket. He smoothed it enough to show the inked list and held it out. "Well, it says here you did." He watched the boy's face the whole time he handed it over.

Emile snatched the sheet, eyes scanning the lines as his lips moved silently over the words. Colour drained from his face. "Oh… shit," he whispered, catching himself. "Sorry—I didn't mean to swear. But I swear I didn't put my name down! I wouldn't… I mean, I wouldn't want to. I can't even do half the spells they show in class. I—I didn't…" His voice trailed, tight with panic.

Jim watched every twitch and tremor, the way Emile's fingers worried at the edge of the paper, the way his breath hitched. He believed the boy. That made the whole thing worse — belief sharpened the danger like a knife.

"Someone must've put me down," Emile said, staring at his name as if it might evaporate under his gaze.

"Any idea who?" Jim asked, voice low, pressing without cruelty.

Emile shook his head, brow furrowing in concentration that went nowhere. "I don't. I can't think of anyone."

"No one you talk to? No one who might've done it as a laugh or to get you hurt?" Jim pushed.

Emile's answer came small and honest: "I… I only really talk to you. And Aualine."

Jim let a slow breath out through his nose, fogging the cold air. His eyes narrowed. "You do know the Games are a bloody death trap, right? Roughly a quarter don't make it out alive. And that's not counting the ones that crawl out missin' limbs or too twisted up in the head to ever come right again." The words were simple; the warning heavier than any scolding.

Emile's voice dropped even lower. "I can't back out. My house would get penalised, wouldn't it?"

Jim stared at him a long beat. "Who gives a shite?" he snapped, before the edge in his voice softened. "I do." The admission came quiet but real.

Emile's guard went up, panic and pride tangling. "I mean… it'd be cowardly. Dishonourable." The word fell awkward in the cold.

Jim arched an eyebrow. "Dishonourable? Lad, sayin' no to a foolish tradition that's more ceremony than sense—that ain't cowardice. That's common bloody sense. They'll feed you to the wolves in there and call it sport." He let the point sit in the air between them.

Emile's mouth set hard. "I still can't," he muttered.

Jim's tone hardened, the soldier in him stepping forward. "You said it yourself. You can't do half what the others can. You'll get yourself killed." He watched the boy's reaction closely.

Emile didn't answer straight away. His fists clenched at his sides, knuckles whitening. "That's not how I was raised," he said finally, voice quiet but steady.

Jim studied him. The lad wasn't trembling with fear; he wasn't putting on an act. He was stubborn — maybe stupid — but the stubbornness came from somewhere real, and that made it more dangerous than any lie.

Jim let out a long, tired sigh. He was about to speak when Emile cut him off.

"No," Emile said, firmer this time. "I'm doing it."

He turned and walked out of the paddock, boots crunching on the frosted ground, shoulders set as if he'd already decided his fate. Jim watched him go, the chill in his gut growing teethy.

"…Bloody idiot," he muttered under his breath.

Then, without warning, something shoved him. Jim felt his body lift and hit the hay-covered floor with a dull thud, the air knocked out of his lungs by the sudden impact. He rolled, trained reflexes taking him back to his feet before the dizziness could set in.

"Aualine?" he muttered, breath ragged. The dragon loomed over him, massive and composed, golden eyes narrowed as if measuring his insolence. Her chest heaved with low, annoyed huffs that puffed the straw around them.

"What the fuck?" Jim snapped, more startled than hurt.

Aualine answered with a disapproving bark, a quick, curt sound that held all the reprimand of a scolding housewife.

"The boy?" Jim guessed, rubbing the sting from his elbow.

She chuffed — a hot, low rumble — as if to say yes.

"Not my fault he's choosing to die," Jim muttered, pushing himself upright and brushing straw from his coat.

Aualine barked again, harder this time; the single sharp sound had the patience of a creature used to giving warnings that were often ignored.

"Look, what do you want me to do?" Jim asked, meeting her gaze.

She tilted her great head, then jerked it in the direction Emile had gone — a decisive, impatient motion that left no room for ambiguity.

Jim stared at her, jaw setting. "Oh, right. Go after him. Stand in the crowd and watch him get torn apart while everyone cheers?" he said, incredulity edged with bitter humour.

Aualine's eyes narrowed further and she gave a deep, rumbling chuff — not acceptance, not resignation. Something like insistence.

"No," Jim said, voice firmer than before. "I won't watch another life get snuffed out if I've got any say in it."

She barked once more — and this time the sound landed with a meaning that hit him hard, a single sharp note that cut through the fog of his irritation and lit a stubborn, dangerous ember under his ribs.

He did have a say. Not a big one. Not official. But enough to tip the scales if he wanted. A little shove in the right place. A touch of rough-edged, mud-soaked intervention.

Aualine reared up, wings half-spread, muscles bunching like she was about to knock him flat again.

"WAIT!" Jim barked, throwing both hands up, palms wide. His voice cracked louder than he meant it to. "I'll talk to him! I'll help him!"

She froze, then dropped back onto all fours with a heavy, ground-shaking thump. Dust shivered off the beams overhead.

Jim met her gaze. Big, unblinking eyes. Patient as the moon and twice as judging.
"I'll keep him alive. Okay? No promises. But I'll try."

Aualine rumbled, the deep, rolling purr of a creature content — or satisfied she'd won.

"Fuck," Jim muttered, rubbing his ribs where her earlier shove still ached. "You really have a soft spot for him, don't ya?"

She barked once, sharp, almost smug.

"Alright, alright — I'm going," he grumbled, grabbing his coat tighter around him.

He turned and took off at a run, boots hammering against the frozen ground, breath already burning in his lungs. The cold slapped his face raw, the kind of air that scraped every breath down your throat like gravel.

It took Jim ten minutes to catch up with Emile. By the time he did, sweat was sticking his shirt to his back, and every old scar in his legs screamed like it was the war all over again. He caught the boy's shoulder, leaned forward, and wheezed hard enough to bend double.

"Fuck," he croaked between ragged breaths. He spat into the grass, shoulders heaving. "It's been a while since I ran that far…"

Emile blinked at him, wide-eyed, unsure whether to laugh or bolt.

Jim straightened, dragging air in until his ribs quit protesting. "Right," he said, voice steadier now. "If you're dead set on this, then I'm gonna help you, lad. You've got, what — five days? I'll train you. Show you what to expect. How to survive."

He fixed the boy with a look sharp enough to cut. "I can't help with spells. Never could. But I can teach you how someone who can't touch the Source still lives through magic. How to dodge it. How to gut it. How to outlast it."

Jim stepped in close, tone dropping like a hammer.
"But first, tell me something. The truth. This ain't just about your house getting docked points, is it? There's more to why you won't back down."

Emile hesitated. His lips trembled before words formed. Then his voice came out soft, quiet enough the wind nearly carried it away.
"My… my dad. He didn't back down. So I can't."

Jim stood silent for a long second. The boy's face was young, but the weight behind the words was old — older than it had any right to be.

Finally, he gave a slow nod. "Aye, lad. I get that."

He clapped a hand on Emile's shoulder, the way soldiers once did before the charge — heavy, firm, meant to anchor more than comfort.

"Five days. It ain't much. I'd say we start tonight — but it's your call."

Emile looked up at him, that same flicker of stubbornness behind his eyes.
"Okay. We start tonight."

"Right then. First lesson: action," Jim said, cracking his knuckles like he was limbering up for a bar fight.

"Action?" Emile asked, brow furrowing.

"Yeah. Action. Movement. Striking first. Look—magic, conjuration, all that flashy shite—it's powerful, sure. But it takes time. And it's always bloody telegraphed."

Seeing the confusion still on Emile's face, Jim sighed, dragging a hand down his own weathered features.

"There's always a giveaway before someone blasts you. A build-up. A twitch in the fingers. A flourish. I've even seen some daft bastard do a little dance—no shite." He rolled his eyes.

"Long and short of it, you get a heads-up. And that's where action comes in. Move first, and most of the time, you live."

He jerked his chin at the boy. "So… what offensive spell can you do without cocking it up too bad?"

"Er… Isamiel's Blast?" Emile offered, hesitant.

"Good. I want you to hit me with it."

"What?"

"Blast me. Go on." Jim held up a hand. "Give me a second first."

He started stretching, groaning as his back cracked like firewood in the frost. His knees gave a loud pop that echoed across the paddock.
"Fuck me, I'm old."

Emile shifted uneasily. "Are you sure? It might hurt—"

"I'm sure," Jim snapped. "Now stop fucking about and blast me."

Emile swallowed hard, nodded, and began the spell's flourish — hands twitching, voice muttering syllables that sparked faint wisps of heat.

Jim moved before the spell even built. A sharp leap to the side, a roll across the straw, and then—

Thwack.

A boot to the gut. Emile hit the dirt wheezing, air blasted clean out of him.

Jim crouched beside him, grabbed him by the collar, and hauled him back up. "See, lad? Action. You can learn to level a mountain, but if it takes you ten minutes, there's nothing stopping someone from just twatting you in the bollocks before it's done."

Emile coughed, trying to pull in air.

"I've seen dozens of magisters get themselves killed 'cause of that exact thing," Jim went on, voice low, steady, like he was etching it into the boy's skull. "They get too used to the comfort of power. Too used to folk flinching when they wiggle their fingers."

He gave Emile a long, hard look.

"You ever hear of Grand Ickybod?"

Emile nodded quickly. "Yeah. He could take out entire companies with a flick of his wrist."

"Aye. And he did. Wiped out half a rebellion in the Northlands. Folk thought he was invincible." Jim paused, the corner of his mouth twitching in grim amusement. "Know how he died?"

Emile shook his head, wide-eyed.

"Dropped by a farm boy. Little bastard got close in the chaos, stuck a dagger between his ribs. Right in the armpit, where the fancy robes don't cover. Just like that — gone. All that power, all that flash — didn't mean shite when it came down to cold steel and bad luck."

He folded his arms, leaned back against the paddock fence like he had all the time in the world.

"Which brings me to your next lesson, lad: hubris. Overconfidence. Overreliance on magic. All of it'll get you killed just as quick as a blade."

Jim's tone darkened, gravel in his throat.

"Magic's a tool. Like a sword. And like a sword, it can fail. It will fail. And when it does, what've you got left, eh? Bugger all — unless you've trained your hands, your feet, and your instincts."

He jabbed a thick finger toward Emile. "Don't go thinking the Source is some divine shield. It's a hammer. A good one — but it only works if the one swingin' it knows what they're doing. You lean too hard on it, you forget the basics — that's when the world bites back."

He softened then, just a fraction. "Some of the best magisters I ever knew were bastards with a sword. They could hex you sure enough — but if the magic didn't land, they'd still drop you like a sack of shite. Be like them."

Emile swallowed. "How is it you know all this? You weren't always a groundskeeper… were you?"

Jim paused. His expression unreadable in the torchlight. He rolled his shoulder, the old injury creaking, and stared off past the boy — not looking at anything in particular, just remembering.

"No, lad," he said quietly. "I weren't."

A silence hung heavy.

"But that's a story for another night," Jim added finally, voice low. "And it ain't one that ends with me walkin' off into the sunset."

Emile nodded, sensing the line he wasn't meant to cross.

"Right," Jim said, clapping his hands together and shifting the mood. "Next lesson. Distraction."

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim awoke before the sun had fully risen, light barely bleeding through the edges of the wooden shutters. His body groaned in protest as he sat up, joints stiff and muscles sore from two days of hard graft. The thin mattress beneath him gave no comfort, only the creak of old springs and the faint smell of straw. Every part of him ached — back, shoulders, even the old wound in his thigh that always flared when the weather turned. His knuckles, too, felt like they'd been grinding against stone all night.

And yet, he smiled.

The pain wasn't unwelcome. No, it reminded him of who he used to be — who he still was, under the layers of gruff solitude and dragon dung. It was the kind of ache that came from purpose, not decay. A sign he hadn't completely rusted through yet. It wasn't age dragging him down — it was work. Honest, hard, necessary work.

"Glory days," he muttered to himself as he stretched, his back cracking like dry kindling. The sound filled the tiny cabin like a musket shot. "Oof... fuck me."

He grunted as he stood, every movement stiff but deliberate, like a soldier forcing himself through drill after a night on the march. He shuffled to the stove, filled the battered kettle with water that tasted faintly of iron from the old pump, and set it on the flame. The hiss of fire striking the bottom of the kettle filled the silence. While it heated, he rubbed the tension from his neck, rolling his shoulders to work out the worst of the kinks. Bones popped. Tendons pulled. He breathed through it.

Once the kettle hissed, he poured himself a strong, no-nonsense cup of tea — dark, bitter, and hot enough to burn the sleep from his throat. The first sip made his lips curl, but it also chased the fog from his head. He sat at his table, savouring the stillness, eyes half-lidded as he let the warmth seep into his bones. Outside, the first birds were just beginning to stir, their faint calls muffled by the thick shutters.

It'd been two days since he started training Emile, and the lad had surprised him. He learned quick — quicker than most, to be fair — but Jim still wasn't sure it would be quick enough. Three days left. That's all he had to stuff decades of hard-earned survival into a single boy's head. No pressure. No bloody pressure at all.

He drained his mug, set it down with a clink, and pulled on his coat. The heavy waxed fabric smelled faintly of smoke and dragon musk, but it was familiar, reliable, and tough as old leather. As he reached for his notebook — the one where he'd started jotting down his observations — he grimaced. Another long day of spying on teenagers. At his age, that was a bit of a sad hobby. Still, needs must. Someone had to do the watching. Someone had to keep an eye out for the shadows no one else bothered to see.

Braseen was first on his list.

The boy was never alone. Every spare minute not spent in a classroom was spent flanking Castus and his merry band of overconfident little bastards. Together, they swaggered through the academy grounds like they owned the place — all bluster, bravado, and bad decisions waiting to happen. The sort of lads who thought their voices carried weight just because they carried them loud.

Jim kept his distance, watching from corners and behind hedges, his expression unreadable as he scratched notes in the margin of the notebook. He'd seen lads like that before — in camps, in trenches, in taverns before a brawl. All puffed-up chest and no spine when the blades came out.

"Loud. Obnoxious. Probably peaked at fourteen," he muttered under his breath, the words scratching out of him like gravel. He added the line beside Braseen's name in the notebook, the charcoal catching on the page as if the paper itself agreed.

Maizel, on the other hand, was a different breed entirely. Calm. Measured. She moved through the academy with effortless grace, never running, never flustered, never caught looking like the rest of the students — tangled hair, ink-stained sleeves, half-eaten breakfast still on their breath. She carried herself as though the very stones of Riordan had been laid to hold her footsteps.

When she wasn't in class, she was buried in books — always in one of the Riordan libraries, nose-deep in ancient texts and dusty tomes like she was trying to read the world into submission. Heavy volumes with spines cracked from age, maps with ink so faded they looked like shadows, treatises written by dead men whose wisdom was more curse than comfort. She took it all in with the calm certainty of someone who never doubted her own place in the world.

Jim had to admit: it was impressive. Impressive and unsettling. Students weren't meant to be that composed. Not here. Not at that age.

"Too clean," he muttered, eyes narrowing as he watched her from a cracked doorway. "No one's that perfect."

He scribbled a note beside her name: Too good. Trust less.

With the morning slipping into day, Jim tucked the notebook back into his coat and exhaled, the breath long and slow. The sun was rising higher, glinting off the frosted tiles of the academy roofs, and there was still a mountain of work ahead — not least the fact he still had to stop Emile from dying horribly in front of a crowd.

Jim stepped outside, coat slung over his shoulder, and began his usual routine of pretending to be useful. He carried a few tools in one hand — a hammer, an old oil tin — just enough to make him look busy, just enough to avoid questions. Truth was, most days his work amounted to keeping an eye on people who didn't realise they needed watching.

He spent the morning shadowing Braseen, who — true to form — was lounging with Castus and the rest of that cocky little crew. They were all sat in a tight circle around Elmsley, who was gesturing like a street preacher on a sugar high. Jim couldn't hear what was being said, not from this distance, but whatever it was had the boys hanging on every word. Braseen looked especially rapt, eyes wide, nodding along like a dog begging for scraps.

Jim scratched at his chin, then pulled out the weather-worn notebook from his coat pocket. He scribbled a quick note beside Braseen's name:

Still stuck to Castus like a barnacle. All ears for Elmsley. Sycophantic or indoctrinated?

He glanced back at Elmsley — that man always rubbed him the wrong way. Too polished. Too cold behind the eyes. The kind of man who could dress his malice in velvet words and call it kindness. Jim narrowed his gaze. Could be a target, he thought. Or a doorway to one. He jotted a question mark next to Elmsley's name and underlined it twice.

Whatever the Umbar were doing here, they weren't after some trinket or trophy. No, they were after something — or someone — that mattered. Jim could feel it in his bones. He looked back at the group one last time.

If Braseen's not the knife, maybe he's the sheath. Or maybe just a dumb kid caught in the middle.

He slipped the notebook back into his coat and muttered, "Right. Let's see what Miss Perfect's up to."

With that, he turned on his heel and headed off in search of Maizel.

Jim found her in the main library — the oldest wing, where the ceiling arched high and the air smelled of dust, ink, and long-forgotten knowledge. The place was colder than the rest of the academy, a chill that seemed to sink into the bones of anyone who lingered too long. Shelves rose like sentries, their tops vanishing into shadow, each groaning under the weight of centuries.

Maizel sat at one of the far tables, surrounded by ancient tomes cracked open like sleeping beasts. She was calmly taking notes, quill scratching with precise, unhurried strokes, eyes scanning dense pages without so much as a pause. The other students in the wing looked harried, muttering to themselves, shuffling parchment, chewing quills down to splinters. But not her. She might as well have been carved into the stone, steady as the library itself.

Jim kept his distance, pretending to check the moisture traps along the stone walls. He'd done the same checks a dozen times already this month, but right now, they made for a useful excuse. He watched her from the corner of his eye. Composed. Focused. Too perfect by half.

As he moved, his elbow nudged a precariously leaned book on the shelf. It teetered, and he just managed to snatch it before it hit the floor.

"Bloody hell," he muttered under his breath, sliding it back into place. The sound echoed, embarrassingly loud in the hushed chamber.

He turned back toward her table.

She was gone.

Jim blinked. The chair she'd been sitting in was still pulled out, pages still open on the desk — ink drying mid-stroke, like she'd stepped away for half a breath. But Maizel herself? Vanished.

"The fuck…?" he murmured.

He spun around—and nearly jumped out of his skin.

She was standing right behind him.

"Oh! I'm sorry," she said sweetly, voice smooth as honey but with a sharp undertone that made Jim's hackles rise. Her smile was polite, pleasant even — but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Didn't mean to startle you," she added, tilting her head just slightly. The gesture was small, but it felt deliberate. Studied.

Jim cleared his throat and tried to play it off. "No, no… s'alright, lass. I was in my own little world."

"You're Jim, the groundskeeper, aren't you?" she asked, tone still friendly but... curious. Too curious.

"Aye, I am," Jim said, narrowing his eyes just a touch. "Why d'you ask?"

"No reason. Just… interested in people." She smiled again — the same surface-level sweetness, with something unreadable lurking underneath.

She glanced at the watch pinned to her blouse. "Well, I'd better be going. Class in fifteen minutes. I'll see you later… Groundskeeper Jim."

With that, she scooped up her books and walked off, graceful as anything — and silent as a ghost.

Jim watched her go, then exhaled slowly, the hairs prickling on the back of his neck.

"Fuck me," he muttered. "How the hell did she move so fast?"

He glanced at the old moisture trap in his hand and then back to the now-empty table.
Definitely need to keep both eyes on that one.

Jim moved off, circling Maizel's name in his notebook as he walked. He pressed the charcoal hard enough to tear the page a little, then shut the book with a snap. His stomach rumbled like a thunder god in a foul mood, echoing loud enough to make him swear under his breath. He checked his watch — lunchtime.

Perfect.

He made his way to the cafeteria, boots echoing down stone corridors that smelled faintly of ink and boiled cabbage. He pushed through the double doors and was hit with a wave of warmth, the air thick with steam, sweat, and the sweet tang of baking bread. Behind the counter, Alexa was elbow-deep in dough, kneading like it owed her money. Her sleeves were rolled up, forearms dusted with flour, hair tied back in a bun that was coming loose in strands.

"How do, Alexa," Jim said, flashing a grin that could almost pass for charming if you squinted hard enough.

The lean, hawk-eyed cook didn't look up. "What the fuck do you want, you old whiskey rat?" she said, smirking through the sweat.

Jim leaned against the counter, propping his elbows on the worn wood. "I've been sufferin' from a terrible case of… spiritual blockage," he said, voice deadpan. "Thought I might consult the wise kitchen witch for a remedy."

"Try a boot up your arse," Alexa muttered, not missing a beat with the dough.

Jim clucked his tongue and gave her his best wounded look. "Come on, love. I was thinkin' more along the lines of dysentery. Nothing clears the pipes like one of your meat pies."

Alexa barked a laugh — sharp, sudden, like a crow startling off a branch. She slapped the dough with extra spite. "You keep talkin' like that and I'll make sure yours has extra love in it."

Jim tipped an imaginary hat. "That's all I ask."

She reached under the counter and produced a gloriously golden puff pastry pie, the crust glistening with a buttery sheen. The rich scent hit Jim like a memory — steak and onion, thick with gravy, the proper kind made with lard and bad intentions. She slapped it down in front of him.

"Here ya go," Alexa said. "You've not been around this week. What's going on with you?"

Jim's grin softened, the kind that lived halfway between a smirk and a mask. He wiped his palms on his coat before picking up the pie. "Been a bit busy. The games, you know how it is."

"Uh-huh," she said, narrowing her eyes. Jim liked her — always had. Alexa wasn't one for fluff or flattery. She cut straight through most people, and that meant she saw more of him than he liked to admit.

He took a huge bite, the crust cracking perfectly under his teeth. The gravy was thick and dark, clinging to the meat like molten tar. The steak fell apart on his tongue, tender enough to make him close his eyes. A low moan escaped him before he could stop it.

"Still the best pies this side of the void," he muttered around a mouthful.

Alexa smirked without looking up. "Flattery'll get you nowhere, whiskey rat."

Jim licked the corner of his lip, wiped his sleeve across his mouth, and leaned one elbow on the counter like he wasn't just melting inside from the taste.

"So…" he said, trying for casual, "how're the first-years gettin' on?"

That made her pause. Just for a beat. She looked up from the dough, eyes sharp and searching.

"You've not asked that since that little dust-up with Plandorph five years back," she said.

Jim shrugged, playing it cool. "Just... figured I'd check in. Keep tabs. Nothing big."

She studied him for another second before her smirk returned. "You care, then?"

Jim scoffed, tapping the pie crust with his thumb like it was a drum. "I care about not having to shovel pieces of exploded teenagers off the arena walls, aye."

She laughed again, short and sharp. "Sure. But you're sniffin' around more than usual."

He didn't reply. Just took another bite of the pie, chewed slowly, and let the silence answer for him.

"It's good you're gettin' involved again," she said after a moment, softer this time. "The kids could use someone who's not blind to how the world actually works."

Jim gave her a crooked smile. "Eh, what can I say? I'm just a big softie."

She snorted. "You're a prickly bastard with a limp and a drinking problem."

He gave her a mock salute with the pie crust. "We all wear masks."

The cafeteria doors opened behind them, the rumble of students spilling in like an approaching tide. Shouts, laughter, the clatter of trays and boots.

"Looks like my time's up," Jim said, stuffing the last of the pie into his mouth and licking his fingers clean.

"Oi," Alexa called after him, voice raised over the din, "don't be a stranger, yeah?"

He raised a hand over his shoulder as he left. "No promises."

Jim headed off and, for once, actually did some work. He spent the next couple of hours patching a fence that didn't really need patching, then shifting hay bales from one side of the barn to the other — mostly just to look busy, mostly to keep his hands moving. The truth was, he needed the distraction. His mind was already ticking ahead to Emile and their next training session.

By the time the last bell rang and students spilled out of their classrooms like a burst dam, Jim had already slung his coat over his shoulder and was making his way down to the paddocks. The sky was painted in late-afternoon amber, long shadows stretching like fingers across the grass. The familiar scent of dragon feed, damp hay, and singed wood clung to the air.

Jim pushed open the front gate of the paddock and stopped just inside.

Emile was already there, pacing near the fence, chest rising and falling with sharp, shallow breaths, his nerves practically leaking out of him.

"You all right, you daft sod?" Jim called out, his voice carrying across the paddock like gravel rolling down a hill.

Emile looked up, flushed but determined, chest heaving like a bellows. "I ran here," he said between sharp breaths. "Don't have time to waste walking."

Jim gave a short, approving nod, letting the faintest ghost of pride creep into his face. "Good lad," he said. "Let's crack on before you keel over."

He reached into the rack and tossed Emile a training sword. The boy nearly fumbled it, catching it with both hands like he was saving a loaf of falling bread. Jim didn't comment, just stepped into guard, his own training blade held low and steady, weight balanced on the balls of his feet.

"Today's lesson," Jim began, circling slowly, eyes never leaving the lad, "is trust."

Emile frowned, raising his sword a touch awkwardly. "Trust?"

"Aye," Jim said, feet crunching against the packed earth as he moved. "Hard-earned, easily lost. Now I know it ain't the usual drills — parries, footwork, dodging fireballs — but this is just as bloody important."

They traded light blows, metal kissing with sharp clacks, nothing too hard yet, just a rhythm to match the words. Jim set the pace, each strike deliberate, each block measured.

"You're young, lad. And when you're young, you trust fast and easy. Not your fault — just the way the world bakes us at that age. You want to believe in people, think the best of 'em. But when the Games start…"

Jim flicked Emile's blade aside with a sharp twist and stepped in close, steel resting gently against the boy's ribs.

"…you can't trust a soul. Not your classmates. Not your housemates. Not even the wide-eyed girl who helps you study and sneaks you extra bread at lunch."

Emile swallowed and nodded, throat working hard, sweat already gathering at his temples.

Jim stepped back, resuming his stance. "Only one person you can count on in that pit — and that's you. You freeze up, hesitate 'cause you thought someone was your friend? That's how you die."

He let the words hang for a long breath before giving a sharp nod.

"Now again," Jim said. "This time, don't wait for me to make the first move."

Emile came in hard, blade darting forward with all the subtlety of a charging bull. Jim grinned despite himself.

"Good lad, keep up that pressure," he said, parrying the strikes with practiced ease.

Steel clattered, boots scuffed, and Jim felt the lad's determination through every blow. Quick learner. Scrappy too. But then Emile overreached — weight too far forward, swing too wide. Jim swept his leg without hesitation.

Thud.

Emile hit the dirt flat on his back, air leaving him in a groan. Before he could blink, Jim had the flat of his training sword pressed across his throat.

Emile stared up at him, chest heaving. "How can you go through life not trusting anyone?"

Jim stepped back, letting him up. "I didn't say that, lad."

He gave him a moment to stagger back onto his feet, brushing dirt from his robe and wiping his brow with the back of a shaky hand.

"I said treat trust like it's precious — because it is. Don't just hand it over to anyone who comes knockin'. Make 'em earn it. Most people don't deserve it, and the ones who do…" Jim's eyes softened, just for a heartbeat. "Well, they'll prove it in time."

He stooped, picked up Emile's sword from where it had fallen in the dirt, and tossed it back to him. The boy caught it better this time, grip tighter.

"Again," Jim said.

Several hours later, the two of them slumped against the paddock fence, drenched in sweat, hair plastered to their foreheads. Steam rose off their backs like smoke from a battlefield. Aualine lay nearby, tail twitching, golden eyes half-lidded, huffing every so often like she was unimpressed with the whole performance.

Emile dragged in lungfuls of air, chest heaving. "Can I ask you something?"

Jim took a long pull from his water flask, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and passed the flask over. "Depends what it is," he said. "But go on — give it a shot."

Emile hesitated, the flask halfway to his lips. "I still don't understand why you're helping me."

Jim let out a dry chuckle that didn't reach his eyes. "That's a fair question, lad. You can mostly blame our mutual friend over there." He jerked his chin toward Aualine. "If I hadn't stepped in, I reckon she'd have stomped me flat by now."

Emile frowned, squinting at him. "There's more to it than that."

Jim shrugged, the corner of his mouth twitching in something close to a smile. "Believe it or not, that is the main reason. But aye… you're right. There's more."

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, staring down at the dirt between his boots. His voice dropped lower. "I've worked this place for ten years. In those ten years, I've seen a lot of kids go into that arena with stars in their eyes and leave it in a box. Or worse — leave with half of themselves gone. Dreams snapped clean in half 'cause someone wanted a good show."

Jim glanced over at Aualine, who had started snoring softly, the sound rumbling through her chest like distant thunder.

"She's got a good nose for people. Doesn't take to folk easy. But she likes you. And I can't, in good conscience, let a lad she's taken to march into a godsdamned death trap without a fighting chance."

He paused, staring at his calloused hands. His fingers flexed, as if remembering the weight of something long gone. "You remind me of someone, too. That probably doesn't help."

Emile shifted, eyes uncertain. "Someone who died?"

Jim took another swig of water, throat raw. "Someone who didn't get the chance to learn the things I'm teaching you."

He paused, swiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. His eyes drifted somewhere far past the paddock, past the boy in front of him. "Or at least didn't learn 'em quick enough," he muttered.

Emile tilted his head, curiosity creeping through his fatigue. "If you don't mind me asking… who?"

Jim barked a laugh, short and jagged. Not amusement — more like something cracked loose inside and slipped out.

"Me," he said simply.

The word landed heavy, filling the silence between them like a lead weight. He didn't explain. Didn't need to. The tone carried enough — of mistakes made, comrades lost, lessons carved into scars.

For a moment neither spoke. Then Jim stood, joints popping as he stretched. "Time ya head back in. Key for good training is sleep. Go on, lad," he said, tossing Emile his robes.

"See ya same time tomorrow," Jim added.

Emile caught them with a smile, boyish even through the sweat and grime. "Thank you, Jim."

"You will," Jim muttered with a faint smirk as the lad tore off at a dead sprint, robes flapping.

When the boy was gone, Jim pulled on his coat and glanced at Aualine, curled in the straw. Her chest rose and fell in slow, thunderous rhythm. For once she looked at peace.

He turned, stepping out into the night. The cold pressed in sharp and biting, frost crackling underfoot. His joints complained, his thigh ached, and his breath fogged the air. He tugged his coat tighter, muttering curses about winter creeping into his bones.

Halfway down the path, he noticed his bootlace had come undone. Typical. He crouched to fix it.

That's when the air split.

Whoosh — something fast and sharp skimmed past his ear, close enough that he felt the heat of it.

Jim twisted instinctively, heart slamming against his ribs. A figure in black lunged from the shadows, dagger gleaming faintly with a dull ember-glow. They'd missed by inches.

"Fuck me!" Jim snarled, snapping out a kick.

His boot connected with the attacker's gut, staggering them a step. Jim scrambled upright just as the bastard came at him again.

Steel flashed. He batted it aside with his forearm, skin opening under the cut. The burn was instant, unnatural, fire crawling through the wound.

"Shit!"

The blade came again — low this time. Jim twisted, but not fast enough. The edge kissed his thigh. Shallow, but deep enough to bite. His leg screamed protest with every shift of weight.

His hand went instinctively to his hip. Empty.

Sword was in the cabin.

"Clever fucker," Jim growled, backing up, watching the way the bastard moved. Too quick. Too smooth. Every step flowed like it was greased with magic.

Ten minutes to the cabin.
Two to the paddock.
If he made it.

The attacker closed in, blade circling lazy, confident. Jim bent low, fingers clawing at the frozen dirt. He flung a fistful of soil and ice into their eyes.

They hissed, recoiling, swiping wild.

Jim didn't wait.

He ran.

Boots hammered the path. His lungs tore themselves raw, breath ragged and shallow. He spat phlegm, ignored the stitch clawing his ribs. Behind him — footsteps. Quick. Light. Closing.

The paddock broke into view through the trees, pale in the moonlight. Close. Too close to give up — but too far to reach before the bastard was on him.

Jim's eyes darted. There — one of the narrow windows set into the wall.

"Fuck!" he barked, and flung himself at it.

Glass exploded around him, shards biting his skin. He hit the ground hard inside, the impact driving the air out of his lungs. He rolled, coughing, ribs screaming. His hands scrabbled against straw, boots slipping, throat rasping as he tried to shout.

Only a broken gasp came out.

"H… help," Jim croaked.
The word rasped out of him like gravel, barely more than a breath.

Golden eyes snapped open in the gloom. Aualine.

Her pupils narrowed to knife-thin slits as her head swung toward him. Her nostrils flared, sucking in the scent of blood and fear, and then she moved.

She didn't just rise — she erupted. The dragon shot forward like thunder in flesh, claws gouging furrows in the dirt. She hit the iron gate of her pen with the force of a battering ram. Once. Twice. The third time it shattered, metal shrieking and wood splintering into useless pieces.

Aualine stormed into the open, spines flaring wide, wings half-unfurled as if the night itself might cower from her. She prowled in a slow, deliberate circle around Jim, every step heavy, deliberate, protective — a wall of muscle, scale, and fury between him and the dark beyond the broken window.

Jim dragged himself closer, body shaking, sleeve sticky with blood. He pressed a hand against her leg, the scales hot beneath his palm, grounding him. His breath came in ragged pulls, each one hitching like his lungs were full of knives.

Aualine's chest rumbled with a low, vibrating growl, deep enough to shake the ground beneath them. Her eyes never left the shattered window. Unblinking. Unmoving. Waiting. Daring. A statue carved out of rage and instinct, holding the line until the threat revealed itself.

Minutes stretched. The night wind hissed through the broken glass. Nothing moved. No footsteps followed.

Still, she stood guard, tail lashing, every muscle coiled to strike.

Jim let his head rest against her side, the dragon's warmth seeping into his bones. He coughed, spat blood into the straw, and managed the faintest grin.

"Atta girl…" he whispered, voice raw and ragged. "Didn't even have to whistle."

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim sat beside Aualine, his back pressed against the warm stone of her pen. The heat seeped through his coat, a small comfort against the night air slipping in through the busted window. Outside, the cold wind stirred what was left of the dark hours, pushing loose straw and dead leaves in restless circles. The place smelled of hay, old wood, and the faint sulphur tang that always clung to dragons.

He'd been silent for the better part of a quarter hour, breath slowing while his mind ran like a hound off the leash. Every creak of the rafters, every scrape of the branches outside seemed louder than it should.

At last he pushed himself upright with a grunt, joints cracking, brushing hay from his coat with short, irritated flicks.

"Well," he muttered, voice low, "looks like I'm a bloody target now."

Aualine chuffed deep in her throat, a sound balanced somewhere between concern and dry amusement.

"Where did I fuck up, eh?" Jim asked, rubbing at the rough line of his jaw. His thumb caught on a nicked scar he barely remembered getting. "How'd they clock me? That girl… Maizel. She noticed me. Too sharp for her own good… or mine."

He spat onto the floorboards, the spit dark against the pale wood, and his lips tightened. "Fuck."

When he looked down, Aualine was watching him closely. Her golden eyes caught the thin light, steady and unblinking, fixing on him like she could see more than he ever said aloud.

"If they're after me," Jim said slowly, each word heavy, "then they're gonna come for Emile too."

The dragon gave a low rumble, nostrils flaring, a puff of steam curling in the chill.

"I need to get him," Jim said, already moving toward the paddock gate. "He's not safe in there."

Behind him came the scrape of her claws on stone. He turned, finding her shadow filling the space, following as if the choice had already been made.

"No, you can't," he said quickly, waving her back with a rough gesture. "It's too dangerous. You'd draw too much attention."

She tilted her head, slow and deliberate, her gaze flat and unbothered. The look said clear as words: you daft bastard.

Jim stared at her a long beat before letting out a weary sigh. "Aye. Reckon it'd be safer if you were with me."

Aualine chuffed again, louder this time, the sound close to a scoff.

Together they stepped out into the night. The cold bit sharper now, frost catching on the edges of Jim's coat. His eyes swept the shadows as they went—treeline, rooftops, the long stretch of open ground ahead. Every flicker the wind stirred looked like movement until proven otherwise. Only the trees swayed, bending and bowing like drunkards.

They reached the main doors of the school, looming dark and heavy. Jim stopped and set a hand on her scaled shoulder. The heat beneath her hide pushed back against the frost in his bones.

"Right," he said, voice firm, "I need ya to circle around the place, keep an eye out. Anything moves that shouldn't, you come tearing in."

Aualine let out a low rumble that made the wood of the doorway vibrate. She pressed her snout against the heavy doors, testing them with a slow, deliberate shove. Dust drifted down from the lintel, and the hinges gave a protesting creak.

"No, no, no," Jim hissed, stepping in quick and shoving her back with both hands, though he may as well have been pushing at a mountain. He gentled the pressure, palms flat against her scales. "You can't go in. If you charge through there, half the bloody student body'll scream their lungs out and the other half'll piss themselves. We don't want that, do we?"

Aualine's eyes narrowed, her breath washing over him in a hot, sulphur-tinged huff. She snorted — unimpressed.

"Just fly patrol, aye?" Jim said, tone edging between pleading and command. He jerked his thumb toward the open sky. "Keep your ears sharp. If I whistle, that's your cue. You can crash through like death's bloody herald and bring untold carnage down on whatever bastard's got a blade for me."

She blinked once, slow and deliberate, then let out a short, sharp chuff. Agreement — or at least her version of it.

"Good lass," Jim muttered with a nod. He stepped back as her wings spread wide, the downdraft kicking straw into a wild dance around his boots. With a beat of muscle and scale, she launched skyward, her silhouette swallowed by the night until only the echo of her wingbeats lingered.

Jim turned back to the academy doors, shoulders rolling as if to shake the cold off. He slipped inside, the hinges groaning like old men woken too early, as though they disapproved of him setting foot within. The air shifted instantly — the chill outside replaced by the heavy warmth of stone walls that had been holding centuries of stale breath.

He kept his head down, moving quick but quiet. Each step sent his boots clicking faintly against the polished floor, echoes bouncing off the high arches like whispers. His shadow followed, long and thin, cast by the muted glow of lanternstones that hummed softly from their brackets.

The halls were mostly still. Only the faint creak of the building settling and the far-off scuttle of some night creature dared interrupt the silence. Dust motes turned lazy circles in the lanternlight.

Jim made for the main staircase, taking the steps two at a time, breath huffing out in small white clouds that hung in the dim air. Halfway up he stopped short, one hand gripping the cold stone rail.

"Shit," he muttered. The word fogged the air in front of him. He'd forgotten a crucial detail — he had no bloody clue which dorm Emile had been put in.

He dragged a hand down his face, palm rasping over stubble. Think, you daft old bastard. He'd read it somewhere — the lad's file. Something about his assigned house. He forced the memory to the surface, chewing it over like a bone until it clicked into place. Dauntless. That was it. Had to be.

With his course set, Jim climbed the rest of the stairs and hit the dormitory floor. Four heavy oak doors loomed ahead, each marked with neat brass signs. He started down the hall, eyes scanning the names.

Resolute. Not it.
Enduring. Wrong again.
Honourbound. Sounded like a haven for future politicians and brown-nosers.

Finally — Dauntless.

The sign above the door hung crooked, the paint cracked and faded with age, as if even the school couldn't quite be arsed to keep it polished. Jim tried the handle.

Unlocked.

"Security's a bloody myth in this place," he muttered, slipping inside with a curl of his lip.

The air within was close, carrying the faint mix of ink, damp wool, and the sour undertone of too many unwashed socks. As he crept forward, the old floorboards groaned under his boots, each sound sharp as thunder in the stillness.

The hallway stretched long and narrow, lit only by a handful of enchanted sconces. Their glow flickered against the stone, casting shadows that seemed to lean toward him as he passed. Brass plaques gleamed on the doors, each etched with two names — paired students forced to share their space and their secrets.

Jim slowed his pace, eyes narrowing as he scanned each one.

He paused outside each door, eyes narrowing, reading off the names like a roll call from a war he could half-remember and half-wished he could forget. His voice stayed low in his throat, silent syllables shaping themselves in his head as he moved. Behind the wood he caught faint scraps of life — the slow drawl of snoring, the restless rustle of sheets, a muffled cough from someone turned too hard in their sleep. Ordinary sounds. Innocent. The sounds of peace, of young idiots still safe in their ignorance. For now.

A dozen doors down the line, he found it. The brass plaque gleamed dull in the lanternlight.

Emile Calodon.
Beneath it, another name etched neat and smug: Castus Valen.

Jim's jaw worked. "Well, that explains it," he muttered, dry as dust. "No wonder the poor sod thinks talking to dragons is preferable."

He stared at the wood grain for a moment, teeth clenched. Of all the bloody people in this academy, of course Emile had been saddled with him. Fate always had a cruel sense of humour. Jim set his hand on the handle, the metal cool beneath his palm. He weighed the options — knock and risk questions, slip in quiet and risk looking like a burglar, or boot the damned thing open and deal with the racket after.

The choice was made for him. The door creaked as it swung inward, hinges complaining in the silence.

Emile jolted upright, eyes wide, breath catching in his throat. The sight of Jim — coat bloodied, sweat clinging to his brow, eyes wild and sharp — froze him on the spot.

"Jim? What the hell—what happened to you?" he whispered, words stumbling over themselves as his gaze darted to the red stains spattered across the old man's coat.

"No time, lad," Jim said, voice a rasp cut low. The look in his eyes made it clear: questions could wait. "I'll explain later. For now, you're coming with me."

"What? Why?" Emile's voice cracked under the weight of confusion.

"Just for tonight. Get your shoes on and let's go before that dickhead over there wakes up." Jim jerked his chin toward Castus, who was sprawled on the bed, snoring like a drunk ox after a festival.

Still blinking, Emile scrambled into his shoes and fell in behind Jim. The corridor felt colder when they stepped back into it, shadows stretching long in the glow of the sconces. Jim's eyes swept the corners without turning his head, old instincts whispering to him. That was when he caught it — a ripple in the dark, just at the edge of vision, where no ripple should've been.

He didn't slow, didn't let the boy see him react. Instead, his hand clamped down firm on Emile's shoulder, steady as a vice, steering him forward.

Emile leaned in, his voice hushed and urgent. "Jim, what's going on?"

Jim didn't answer. His eyes widened instead, sharp and warning.

Emile followed the look, turning his head just enough to hear it: boots pounding hard against stone, fast, closing.

Jim spun, muscles screaming protest, and caught a glimpse of a figure in black — lean, quick, blade flashing faintly as it caught the lanternlight.

"Go, lad, now!" Jim barked, voice cracking like a whip. "Get outside — move!"

They bolted for the staircase. Jim's breath sawed out of him, ragged, body already aching from the weight of the night. Behind them, the pounding grew louder, closer.

The two of them tore down the steps two at a time, boots hammering the stone, air burning in their lungs. The shadows stuttered with each flicker of the lanterns as they descended.

Jim risked a glance over his shoulder — the dark figure was gaining ground, closing the gap with each furious stride.

Fuck me, they're fast, Jim thought grimly, lungs already burning.

They hit the ground floor hard, boots skidding on the polished stone. Jim nearly lost his footing, catching himself with a hand against the cold wall. "Outside!" he barked, shoving Emile ahead with a rough push. "Now!"

They burst through the academy's front doors, the heavy wood slamming wide and rattling against the stone frame. Cold night air slapped into them like a wall of ice. Gravel crunched beneath their feet as they bolted into the open, the chill biting at Jim's skin. He barely noticed. His focus narrowed to the pounding rhythm behind them, the sound of pursuit that refused to fade.

"Where are ya?" he muttered, head snapping upward, eyes scanning the black sky.

The attacker cleared the doorway in a single bound, ember-lit dagger flaring as it caught the lanternlight. The glow danced along the blade like fire trapped in steel. Jim squared up without thought, planting his feet, teeth clenched. No time to weigh options, no time for clever tricks — only raw instinct.

And then the night split wide open.

A roar thundered down, vast and primal, rattling the stones under their boots. The air itself seemed to shudder. A gale slammed into them, gravel spraying as the wind tore across the courtyard.

Aualine descended like a golden comet, her wings outstretched, every muscle alive with power. She landed hard, claws gouging deep furrows into the gravel, her body coiling low in front of Jim and Emile. Her spines rose, sharp and menacing, and the glow of fire built in her throat — a dull orange that promised ruin.

The masked figure froze, dagger raised, eyes locking with the dragon's molten gaze for the briefest heartbeat. Whatever courage they'd carried fled in an instant. They turned on their heel and sprinted back inside, swallowed by the dark halls they'd crawled out of.

Jim staggered a step forward, chest heaving. Sweat mixed with the chill, running cold down his back. "Bloody hell," he wheezed, dragging air into lungs that felt too tight. "Good girl."

Aualine exhaled through her nostrils, smoke curling in lazy streams. The earth still vibrated faintly beneath her, as if her arrival had stirred something deeper.

"Next time," Jim muttered between breaths, patting the hot, ridged scales of her flank, "maybe don't cut it so bloody fine, yeah? I know you've got a flair for the dramatic, but this ain't the old days."

She snorted again, wings folding in with a soft rustle of scale and sinew, the sound like old parchment being crumpled.

Emile turned, face pale, eyes wide as moons. "Jim… what the hell is going on?"

Jim didn't answer straight away. His gaze swept the treeline, the corners where the dark pooled thickest, the rooftops where a shadow could crouch. Old habit. Old paranoia. Only when he was certain nothing else stirred did he speak.

"Let's get to my cabin," he said at last, voice low. "I'll explain everything proper there."

They started across the grounds. Each step crunched gravel underfoot, the sound harsh against the night's hush. The wind had dropped, whispering only faintly through the trees, carrying the sharp tang of frost and smoke. Jim's coat flapped with each stride, the night pressing in close around them, the tension clinging like a second skin.

"Remember what I said about trust?" Jim muttered, eyes still sweeping the dark. "Well… I'm gonna need a little bit of it from you now, lad. Just a bit, aye?"

Emile swallowed and gave a small, hesitant nod. "Okay," he said quietly.

Neither spoke again. They walked in silence, their breath steaming, until the familiar outline of Jim's cabin crouched at the edge of the grounds. It sat hunched against the treeline like a loyal hound waiting for its master — weather-beaten, plain, and dependable.

Once they reached the cabin, Jim slowed his pace, boots crunching to a halt on the frosted gravel. Aualine was already settling her weight into the earth, her chest lowering with a tired grunt as the ground gave a faint shudder beneath her bulk. Steam curled lazily from her nostrils in the chill, rising like smoke from a dying fire.

"I'm gonna need ya to stay outside and keep an eye out while I brief the lad," Jim said, jerking a thumb toward the cabin. His voice carried the flat edge of command, softened only by the faint rasp of exhaustion.

Aualine's response was a low chuff, the kind that rattled deep in her chest and sounded dangerously close to a grumble.

"Oi," Jim shot back, wagging a finger at her snout. "I know you've gone a bit soft lounging about in that paddock, but don't pretend like you ain't done sentry duty before. And besides—" he gave her a pointed look, one brow lifting under his furrowed brow—"I am doing you a favour keeping the boy alive, am I not?"

She huffed louder this time, flaring her nostrils, the hot air rolling over him like the backwash from a forge.

"Good. That's settled then."

Jim pushed the cabin door open, the hinges creaking like they hadn't been oiled in a decade. He glanced back over his shoulder. "And don't fall asleep. I know that trick, missy."

She let out a long, dramatic whine, the kind that had more theatre in it than actual protest, before curling herself down. Even so, she kept one golden eye cracked open, slit pupil glinting faintly in the lamplight leaking from the doorway — a sulking guard dog wrapped in scales.

Jim gave her a curt nod. "Atta girl."

Turning to Emile, he jerked his head toward the open door. "Come on, lad."

Emile followed, casting one last nervous glance at the dragon. The boy's shoulders twitched as though expecting her to lunge at him, but when she didn't, he slipped quickly inside after Jim. The door shut behind them with a drawn-out groan, sealing out the night's chill — and sealing in whatever truths Jim was about to share.

"Take a seat, lad," Jim said, gesturing toward the battered old table that sat square in the centre of the room. Its surface was pitted with knife marks, rings from old mugs, and a scorch or two that spoke of long nights and careless candles.

He moved to a crooked cupboard in the corner, its door hanging slightly askew on the hinge. Without needing to think, he reached for two mismatched glasses, one cloudy with age, the other chipped at the rim. "First things first — I'm havin' a drink. You want one?"

Emile hesitated, perched halfway into the chair. "Uh… depends what you've got."

Jim smirked, the expression more tired than amused. "Only got three things in this place: strong tea, stronger tea, and whiskey that could strip paint. I recommend the whiskey."

Emile blinked, then gave a wary nod. "Alright then."

"Good lad," Jim muttered, pulling a heavy bottle from the shelf. The cork came out with a dull pop, and he poured two generous measures, the liquid catching the lamplight like molten amber. He slid one across the table with a faint scrape of glass on wood and kept the other for himself.

Jim took a long swig, hissed the burn through his teeth, and let it warm the ache in his bones. The room smelled sharp now, the whiskey's bite rising to mingle with the faint scents of ash and oil that clung to the cabin.

"Right," he said at last, voice low and steady. "Let's start with the Umbar."

He didn't sit straight away. Instead, he leaned against the edge of the table, glass in hand, looking down at Emile like a man about to deliver bad news that couldn't be softened. The lamplight drew harsh lines across his scarred face, leaving half in shadow, half in weary glow.

"I'm not gonna insult your intelligence," Jim said, rolling the empty glass between his fingers like he might wring answers out of the dregs. "I know you know what they are—what they're capable of."

"They're bad," Emile said quietly, the words sounding thin against the heaviness in the room. He took a cautious sip of the whiskey, then coughed into his sleeve, grimacing. "Bloody hell."

"Aye," Jim muttered, lips curling faintly as he tipped back his own glass, already halfway gone. The burn sat warm in his chest, familiar as an old wound. "Bad doesn't even start to cover it. And they're here."

That pulled Emile's eyes up sharp. The boy's knuckles whitened where he gripped the rim of his glass.

"Don't know how long they've been sniffin' around," Jim went on, voice steady but low, "but I'd wager it's not recent. Parasites like them don't just stumble in. And I'm startin' to think it's one or more of the folks you arrived with. Could be coincidence, sure—but I don't like coincidences. Never did."

Emile's hands slid from the glass to the edge of the table, fingers digging into the wood as though he could anchor himself. "We—we need to tell someone. Professor Plandorph. He has to know. We should call the constables, or the city guard, or—hell, the bloody army!"

Jim raised a hand, cutting across the boy's words like a blade through rope. His tone was flat, cold. "Tried that."

Emile stared at him, wide-eyed. "What?"

"I told him," Jim said, leaning forward, his gaze pinning the boy in place. "Right after Atakin got killed. Told him someone dangerous was inside the school—told him we needed to shut things down, investigate proper. You know what he said?"

Emile shook his head slowly, throat too tight for words.

"He told me to let it lie." Jim's jaw flexed. "Said it was an unfortunate incident. Said not to go stirring things up. That it would 'resolve itself.'"

The words hung in the lamplight like smoke, bitter and choking.

Emile's jaw went slack. "But… that means—"

"Aye." Jim's voice came out like gravel ground underfoot. "That means he either didn't believe me, or worse—he did and still chose to do fuck all."

Emile sagged back into his chair, shoulders slumping as if the weight of the revelation pressed down on him. His glass trembled faintly where it rested in his hand. "But… I haven't done anything. I didn't know any of this. Why me?"

Jim looked down at his drink, swirling the amber liquid. The lamplight caught in it, painting his scarred hand gold for a moment before he knocked it back in one swallow. The heat seared his throat, but he didn't wince. He just exhaled slow, long, through his nose.

"Because of me, lad."

Emile blinked. "What?"

"I reckon your name ended up on that participant list 'cause you got too close to me." Jim's voice was quieter now, but harder for it. "Maybe it was Aualine, maybe it was the fact we talk too often, maybe it's just bad luck. Either way…" He set the empty glass down with a dull thud. "You're caught in it."

"But I'm not important—" Emile started, voice cracking as though he was trying to convince both Jim and himself.

"That's the point," Jim cut in, sharp but calm. "You're not supposed to be. That's what makes it so clean. Easy to write off. Another kid dies in the games, and the world shrugs. No one blinks. No one asks questions." His tone was flat, like he'd seen it too many times before.

He sat forward, the chair groaning under the shift, and fixed the boy with a stare that felt heavy as stone. "But something's shifted. They didn't wait for the games, did they? They came for me. Came now. That tells me one of two things: either I got too close, or they got impatient."

Jim leaned onto the table, both forearms planted firm, his voice dropping low but carrying a hard edge. "Either way, lad, you're in the crosshairs now."

"Fuck," Emile muttered, the word spilling out before he caught himself. His eyes darted up in guilt. "Sorry."

Jim waved it off with a rough flick of his hand. "Don't be. If there's ever a time to swear, lad, it's when you find out a genocidal death cult's put your name on a bloody list. I'd be more worried if you didn't let one slip." His smirk didn't reach his eyes.

Emile ran both hands through his hair, fingers shaking slightly, trying to smooth the panic out of himself. His breathing came fast at first, then slowed as he forced control over it. "So… what now? What do we do?"

Jim leaned back, the old chair creaking loud enough to make the moment feel heavier. He took his time answering, eyes half-closed like he was rolling the options around in his head. Finally, he settled on the one truth that fit.

"We keep going."

Emile blinked, caught off guard. "Keep going?"

"Aye," Jim said, voice steady, certain. "We keep training. You keep going to your lessons. We keep watching. And most importantly—we stay alive."

He pushed himself upright with a grunt, stretching until his shoulders popped. The firelight caught on the deep lines of his face, making him look carved out of old wood. "On that note, you're not sleeping in that dorm again. Not while they're sniffing around."

"But won't people ask questions?" Emile asked, frown furrowing. His voice had the brittle edge of someone trying to hold onto normality.

Jim smirked faintly as he reached for his glass. "Aye, they will. But they always do. And I'll tell 'em the truth—mostly. That you've taken to an apprenticeship with me in beastial care. Seems like a natural fit, given how much time you spend with Aualine."

Emile's brow furrowed further. "They'll just believe that?"

Jim gave a loose shrug, moving to grab a log from the stack beside the hearth. The bark scraped under his hand, sending dust into the air. "This is an academy, lad. Every other week some bright-eyed student changes their whole bloody course after a deep conversation with a squirrel or a particularly moving poetry recital. You training under the grumpy groundskeeper won't raise many eyebrows."

He tossed the log into the fire, sparks leaping up in protest. The flames swelled, throwing more warmth into the room. Jim dusted his hands and turned back, the faintest grin pulling at his mouth. "You can bunk in here or kip down with Aualine. She'll keep you safe—and she snores less than I do."

 

[Metel_Pen]

The next morning, Emile delivered the apprenticeship letter to Professor Elmsley — a parchment Jim had scrawled late the night before in his usual scratchy, half-legible script. The ink blotches and uneven lines made it look more like a tavern bill than an official academy note, but the words carried enough weight to pass muster. It explained how Emile had demonstrated a rare aptitude for bestial care, particularly with dragons, and that this would require extended hours, overnight observation, and sleeping quarters near the paddock in case of emergencies. The phrasing was stiff and formal enough to sound official, though anyone who knew Jim could have guessed it was written with one hand clutching a glass of cheap whiskey and the other wrapped tight around spite.
Elmsley skimmed the letter, lips pursed into his usual mask of bored disdain. His eyes barely touched the page before flicking to Emile with the faintest sneer.
"Well," he sniffed, folding the parchment once with dainty precision. "I suppose someone has to muck the pens and wipe the dribble off their snouts. Hardly a future in it, though. Bit of a waste, really."
Emile held his tongue. He'd been braced for this — Jim had warned him Elmsley was a pompous arse — but the man wasn't finished.
"Still," Elmsley went on, voice soaked in condescension, "I suppose not everyone's cut out for real magical study. If you're content being a glorified shit-shoveler, I won't stop you."
That one landed harder than it should have.
Emile's jaw tightened. His hands curled into fists at his sides, nails biting into his palms. His dad had been a groundsman. Honest work. Hard work. A man who fed a family with a shovel and scarred hands. A man who was dead now — killed defending people who would never even learn his name.
For a moment, Emile pictured that same shovel arcing up and cracking into Elmsley's powdered face. Just once. Not to kill, just enough to leave a scar and wipe the sneer away.
Instead, he forced a breath through his nose, shoulders steadying, and gave a single stiff nod.
"Very well," Elmsley said, already turning his back as though the boy no longer existed. "Report your hours to the quartermaster if you want your name added to the rosters. That'll be all."
Emile left without another word, fists still clenched — but not shaking. He'd expected resistance. In truth, he welcomed it. If they were sneering, it meant they weren't watching too closely.
And right now, staying overlooked was exactly what he needed.
The apprenticeship gave him something else, too — freedom. He could train with Jim without sneaking about or fumbling excuses. No more Castus breathing down his neck, no more late-night tiptoeing into the dorms, hoping prefects didn't catch him. It was a relief, even if that relief came tangled with uncertainty.
Because truth be told, Emile still wasn't entirely sure where he stood with Jim.
The old man had been kind — in his own gruff, sarcastic way. He'd talked to Emile, given him space, let him work with the dragons. But there were moments, small flickers, when Emile felt like a burden — like Jim only tolerated him because he had to. A sigh here, a sharp word there. A look, sometimes, that made him feel as though he'd overstayed his welcome.
But… he did save your life, Emile thought.
Yeah, another voice inside him replied, after he was the reason your life was in danger in the first place.
That struck harder than he wanted to admit. He kicked at a loose stone on the path, watching it skitter across the dirt before vanishing into the grass.
The only reason I need to train is because my name got pulled for the games. And I wouldn't even be in the games if I hadn't spent so much time around him.
Maybe he's just helping out of guilt, the voice whispered. Obligation. Nothing more.
He stopped walking. The stillness pressed in, and for a heartbeat the weight of those thoughts threatened to anchor him where he stood.
Then he shook his head — hard, enough to make the world blur for a moment.
"No," he muttered under his breath. "Stop it."
Those thoughts were dangerous. Poisonous. He couldn't afford to think like that. Not now. Jim had helped him. Was still helping him. And more than that… Jim had believed him. He didn't have to. He could've walked away.
One foot in front of the other, Emile told himself. One day at a time.
And besides… he smiled faintly despite himself… he got to spend time with Aualine.
He looked up at the sky, eyes narrowing against the morning light. There — a speck, almost invisible against the wide blue. To anyone else it could've been a bird, drifting lazy circles on the thermals. But Emile knew better.
Aualine.
She wheeled above them, golden scales catching the sun when she banked just right. She circled lazily, riding the currents, ever watchful.
Something stirred in Emile's chest. Comfort, maybe. Safety. It was strange, really — having someone up there, keeping guard. Not because they had to. Because they chose to.
For the first time in a long time, he didn't feel entirely alone.
And Emile let himself enjoy it — just for a moment. That strange, foreign sensation of being watched over. Protected. Cared for.
Sure, he reminded himself, he was still in danger. That hadn't changed. But it wasn't the first time.
His mind drifted — uninvited, but inevitable — back to the day his world ended.
When the Umbar came to his village, it wasn't with banners or war drums. No grand charge. No speeches. It was silent. Controlled. Precise. They moved like shadows slipping through the alleys, blades already wet before anyone thought to shout. Resistance died in its bed, cut down before it had a chance to scream.
One moment he'd had a home — a father bent over the fields, hands caked with soil, a mother humming tunelessly while she stirred a pot on the hearth — and the next… ash and silence.
And then the camp. Gods, the camp.
He remembered it more clearly than he wanted to. Over a year, maybe more — he'd stopped counting after the second winter. Time had no shape there. No clocks, no sun, no days. Just the churn of cold, hunger, and fear.
There was no safety. No kindness. If you limped, if you slowed, if you spoke too long to the wrong person — you vanished.
They always came at night.
Quiet.
Fast.
Efficient.
He remembered the sound too well: the soft creak of boots outside the barracks, the metallic click of the lock, the scrape of the door sliding open. Then the shuffle of feet, someone being dragged away into the dark. No shouting. No struggle. They made sure of that.
And in the silence that followed, there'd be crying. Not loud. Never loud. Just a whimper in the corner, a stifled sob from someone left behind — if they had anyone left.
Emile swallowed hard, jaw tight.
He'd survived that. He'd survived them.
So yeah — he was still in danger. The Umbar were still out there, maybe closer now than ever.
But here, in this moment — with a dragon wheeling high above the clouds and a grizzled old man willing to train him — Emile let himself feel it.
He wasn't helpless anymore.
Not completely.
—
Jim stomped his way through the stone halls of the academy, boots hammering against the floor, each echo rolling like a war drum. His waxed coat flared with every step, shadows pulling at the hem. His brow was furrowed into that permanent scowl he wore whenever he was focused — or pissed off.
Today, it was both.
He was hunting.
Brazden was mostly off the hook. The lad was a prick, aye, but the kind of prick who strutted about like a rooster in boots too big for him. No subtlety. No patience. Treachery required a certain finesse, and Brazden barely had the wit to keep his own shoes tied. Still, Jim kept a casual eye on him. Best not to be blindsided.
But his real focus was Maizel.
The little creepy bitch, Jim thought darkly. Too clever by half. Too perfect, too polished, like a doll that had learned to breathe. And that smile of hers — always just a fraction too late, or a hair too wide. Something unnatural in the way her face tried to mimic warmth.
"Oi, Jim!"
He stopped and turned. Alexa came into view, sleeves rolled high, cheeks flushed from work as she pushed a heavy cart piled with pots and kettles. The smell of root stew and iron polish clung to the air around her, wrapping the corridor in a homely, stubborn sort of scent.
"Where you off to?" she asked, breathless but smiling.
Jim hadn't expected to be waylaid. His mind stuttered for a half-second before he patched together a reply. "Ah… just checkin' the moisture traps in the libraries. Damp can play hell on old tomes, y'know."
Alexa tilted her head, eyes narrowing like she could smell the lie under his coat.
"You've been lurking around here more than usual," she said. "And I heard you've taken on an apprentice. You, of all people. Never thought I'd see the day." She shook her head with a grin. "Must be losing your edge."
"Aye," Jim grunted with a one-shouldered shrug. "What can I say? Must be gettin' soft in me old age."
But as he spoke, his gaze slid past her shoulder — and there she was.
Maizel. Moving quick down a side corridor, robes neat as ever, a stack of books clutched against her chest. Calm, efficient… but too fast. Too purposeful. Like she didn't want to be seen.
Jim's jaw tightened.
"Indeed you are," Alexa said, still smirking as she wiped her hands on her apron.
"Aye, well," Jim muttered absently. "Best get back to it before the mildew rises up and starts speakin' Latin."
He gave her a quick nod, stepping around the cart, his stride sharpening with purpose. Alexa called something after him — dinner ready by six, maybe — but the words slid off him like rain on oilskin.
His mind was elsewhere, locked on the faint flutter of movement, the whisper of robes vanishing into shadow.
Now where're you slinkin' off to, lass?
He lengthened his stride, boots quickening against the stone.
And then — a scream split the corridor behind him.
High. Sharp. Alexa.
"Fuck!"
Jim spun on his heel, coat snapping wide as he tore back down the corridor. His boots hammered the stone, each step a thunderclap in the narrow hall. His thoughts outpaced even his feet, colliding with each other in jagged bursts.
Did they hit Alexa? Did they think she knew something? Had she been watching too closely?
He took the junction hard, shoulder grazing the wall as he skidded round the corner. The smell of yeast and hot fat drifted faint from the kitchens, carried on a draft. He hit the staff entrance shoulder-first, wood shuddering under the impact, and stumbled into the room with his breath clawing at his chest.
The air struck him at once — the sharp copper tang of blood cut through the usual scents of broth and baking. The quiet hum of boiling stockpots went on as if mocking the silence.
On the tiled floor lay one of the kitchen cooks — a woman Jim recognised by sight if not by name. A carving knife jutted from her back, the hilt drenched red, and blood spread fast across the worn stone, soaking into the hairline cracks like ink on parchment.
Alexa stood over her. Both hands pressed to her mouth, eyes wide and shining. The scream had burned out of her, leaving her frozen, mute. She didn't move, didn't even flinch, just stared as though the body might suddenly sit up again.
"Shite," Jim muttered, his voice flat as stone. He slowed, chest heaving, but the words were all he had.
The doorway filled within seconds — staff stumbling in one after another, drawn by the noise. First one, then another, then a crowd. Gasps. Curses. A collective recoil as the blood kept spreading.
Jim didn't add a word. There was nothing useful to say. Not yet.
—
Several hours later.
Jim sat on the edge of a hay bale in the paddock, elbows braced against his knees, staring at the dirt like it held answers if he glared hard enough. The night pressed close around him, cool and damp, smelling of straw and smoke.
Why the cook?
The boy, aye, he could make sense of. A target. A warning. Maybe even bait. That fit.
But the cook?
She hadn't been involved. She didn't pry, didn't push, didn't ask questions. She worked. She fed people. She laughed too loud at bad jokes and burned the stew half the time. That was all.
So why was she lying cold on a kitchen floor?
Did she stumble into the wrong place at the wrong time? Did she see something she shouldn't? Or was it deliberate — a message carved in blood?
Jim didn't know. And not knowing was what gnawed at him most of all.
He barely noticed the crunch of gravel behind him until Emile appeared at the edge of the paddock, hands shoved deep into his coat pockets, brow furrowed like he was already bracing for bad news. The boy moved cautiously, as if the night itself might shatter if he stepped too hard.
Jim looked up slowly. His eyes were tired, ringed with shadows, but still sharp — the eyes of a man who hadn't slept but couldn't afford to blink. The lamplight caught in the lines on his face, deeper than yesterday, as though the weight of the day had carved them in by hand.
Emile stopped a few paces away, studying him. "What happened?"
Jim waved a hand, dismissive, as if brushing dust from his coat. "Nothin' to worry about, lad."
Emile frowned. He wasn't convinced. The signs were there if you looked — blood ground into the cracks under Jim's fingernails, the faint tremor in his right hand, the way his jaw clenched just a second too long before he forced it still. But he didn't push. Not yet.
With a grunt, Jim pushed himself to his feet. He dusted his coat with quick, rough slaps and reached for the training sword propped against the fence. "Right then. Enough brooding. Today's lesson—vigilance."
He tossed Emile the wooden blade, the weight of it thudding into the boy's palms.
"You need to learn how to keep your eyes open even when nothin' looks wrong. Trouble's polite, see. It doesn't come knockin'. It slips in the back door while you're makin' tea."
Emile caught the sword and nodded, his gaze still on Jim, still measuring him in silence. "Understood."
Jim gave a grim smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Good lad. Now come on. Show me you've been payin' attention."

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[Metel_Pen]

They'd trained hard. Brutally hard.
Two days of drills, sparring, theory, and every filthy, painful trick Jim could think of. Knife work, improvised defence, when to run, where to aim, how to make your death look like someone else's mistake — things no school syllabus would teach, but the sorts of lessons that kept you breathing when the nice words faded. There was still more he wanted to give the lad — still more clanking around in that rusted old head of his — but time had bled out faster than he'd expected.
Now, it was the final day.
Jim woke at six. Not to an alarm. Not to any polite noise. Just instinct — that hard, animal twitch that a man picks up after years of not being surprised by bad things. Twelve hours. Twelve bloody hours until the start of the games.
He lay a moment on his back, staring at the rough planks of the ceiling, joints complaining like old ropes. His ribs popped as he hauled himself upright. There was more to teach, more to cram into the boy's skull, and the thought tasted bitter. But it was too late; muscle and reflex couldn't be grafted in with a night's prayer. Emile needed rest now. If Jim shoved any more at him, the lad's brain might leak out his ears before the first call to arms.
Inky-blue morning seeped through gaps in the shutters, washing the cabin in cold light. Emile breathed slow beneath his threadbare blanket, a child at the centre of a storm who had not asked for the weather. Jim watched him, the softness in his chest surprising him like a draft under a door.
He dressed with the economy of habit, every movement practised until it required no thought. He skipped breakfast — food sat wrong today — and checked the knife at his belt more from habit than hunger for trouble. Then he stepped out into the chill, the air biting at his face and sharpening him like a whetstone.
Today he wouldn't tail shadows or chase ghosts down echoing corridors. Today he had work to do. If the academy was so keen on throwing boys into a meat grinder for sport, then by gods Jim would tilt the odds — even if it meant bending rules, twisting a few polite lies, and shaving corners where the administrators couldn't see. Just a little. Just enough.
He set his jaw, shouldered his coat tighter, and headed for the arena, stride long and purposeful. Let the boy sleep, he thought. I've got blades to dull and illusions to break.
He wasn't going to save them all. He knew that in his bones.
But he'd be damned if he didn't give Emile — and the rest of those poor, delusional little fuckers — a fighting chance.
At least for tonight.
Jim reached the arena gates just as the first grey hints of dawn began to chase the night away. He stepped through the iron bars, boots crunching on frost-stiff gravel, and followed the sloping path that led down into the grounds. His breath fogged faintly in the air, curling like smoke before the chill carried it away.
What he saw waiting for them made his stomach twist.
An obstacle course.
Of course it was.
It always started with one — a maze of death traps dressed in ceremony and fanfare. He looked it over with a cold, appraising eye. Sharp metal glinted like hungry teeth, false footing yawned like an open grave, and illusions were scattered across the course like sweetmeats left for greedy hands. And the worst part? The faculty had the gall to call it "a challenge of spirit."
Challenge my arse, Jim thought. It's a butcher's yard dressed up as a tradition.
He moved toward the first task — a set of spinning blades mounted on high arches. Four in total, spaced close enough that even a single mistimed step would leave someone in pieces. He stopped in front of them, lips thinning, and muttered, "Fuck me…"
Each blade caught the pale light and shone wickedly. Astral steel — absurdly durable, and worse, blood-honed. They didn't just cut. They grew sharper with every slice, every injury, like carrion birds fattening on scraps.
Jim stared for a long moment, jaw clenched so tight it ached. "Why the fuck would anyone use a metal that feeds on pain in a school event?"
He already knew the answer. Because no one really cared what happened to the ones who didn't win.
He dropped to one knee beside the housing unit at the base of the first arch. Years ago, he'd fixed half the machinery in this arena with his own hands. He still remembered the layout — the guts of the place were etched into memory like old scars.
He popped the panel open with a screwdriver hidden in his coat cuff, then drew his knife and got to work. Inside were thick, coiled hydraulic pipes — the veins that made the blades dance.
He didn't sever them. That would raise too many questions.
But he did slice just deep enough into the pressure tubing to slow them. Not enough for the eye to notice, but enough to throw off their rhythm. Make them stutter. Make them more predictable. More survivable.
He sealed the panel, wiped his blade clean against his coat, and moved on.

The next challenge: the Leap of Faith.
He'd always hated this one.
A deep pit, at least fifteen feet down, lined with illusions that showed nothing but blackness. Death. Panic. Fear. But hidden beneath the spellwork was a bridge — narrow, treacherous, invisible unless you already knew it was there.
And the real kicker? The damn thing wasn't even straight ahead.
It was two feet off-centre.
Any kid who charged it head-on — as instinct would demand — would plummet like a stone.
Jim crouched at the edge, frowning. He could feel the magic humming through the air, bending light and sound with smug precision. Clever spellwork. Bastard design.
He scanned the edge until he spotted a patch of loose, dry dirt clinging to the wall. He knelt, scooped a handful into his calloused palm, and stepped forward. With deliberate ease, he tossed the soil into the illusion.
The dirt scattered, pattering softly against something that shouldn't be there — invisible stone. Dust clung to the unseen path, revealing a faint, ghostly trail two feet to the left of centre.
Jim nodded to himself. "Won't last forever," he muttered, "but if just one of 'em sees it…"
He stepped back and carried on.
It took him another hour of crawling through dirt, undoing bolts with stiff fingers, and muttering curses under his breath before he reached the last obstacle — the golem pit.
He stopped at the edge, breathing heavy but steady, sweat prickling his back despite the morning chill. Below, in the centre of the wide sunken arena, stood the thing: a hulking clay automaton, easily eight feet tall, built like a brute and shaped like a man who'd never skipped arm day in his life. Its arms hung long, knuckles grazing near its knees, each hand broad enough to crush a man's head flat.
It didn't move. It never did — not until the first student stepped inside.
The task was simple in theory: dodge its strikes, get past it, reach the far gate, and you passed. Fail, and… well. Broken ribs were the usual tax. Dislocations, concussions, worse.
One poor bastard two years ago had his leg shattered like kindling.
But what made it worse — and what really pissed Jim off — was the lie.
They called it the "final challenge" of the first day. Survive, and you got a rest. A full day to recover. That was the story, all polished and reassuring for the spectators. But the truth? Every year the golem's strength and aggression had been dialled up another notch. What had once been a lumbering brute was now a bloody menace. And this one — this particular bastard — had already snapped two ribs clean in last year's games.
Jim dropped down into the pit, boots thudding against compacted dirt, dust puffing around his ankles.
The golem didn't react. It never did. Just stood there, a silent monolith with glassy eyes glowing faintly with runes. Two perfect orbs of reinforced alchemic glass — polished, cold, unblinking. It didn't feel pain. It didn't think. But it tracked movement with unerring accuracy. And those eyes — aye, those eyes were its weakness.
Jim's gaze swept the ground until he spotted what he needed: a rock. Heavy. Jagged. Palm-sized. He crouched, picked it up, and turned it over in his hand. Solid. Reliable. A weapon as old as the first man who thought to throw one.
"Alright, you smug lump of clay," he muttered. "Let's level the field a bit."
He stepped close — not too close — and hurled the rock with every ounce of strength left in his arm.
Crack.
It struck dead-on. The glass didn't shatter, but the sound told him it hurt. Jim stooped, grabbed another. Then another.
He pelted the brute until fine fractures began to spider across the glossy surface. Sweat stung his eyes, shoulders burning with each throw, but he didn't stop. Then he shifted to the other side, grunting with effort, fury sharpening every motion, and repeated the barrage.
Finally, on the seventh or eighth strike, it came — the quiet, delicate crunch of glass yielding.
Jim stood back, chest heaving, knuckles raw from hauling stones. The golem loomed, still silent, but its vision was compromised. When the time came, its swings would be wide, its aim dulled, its menace blunted.
"Good enough," Jim muttered, spitting into the dirt.
He gave it one last look — towering, battered, and just a touch more beatable — then climbed out of the pit.
The sky had turned to steel-grey now, morning creeping in fast. The games would start soon.
He rolled his shoulders, stiff and sore, and turned back toward the cabin.
Time to wake the lad.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim stood alone on the upper observation platform, coat pulled tight against the wind, looking down at the fresh-faced herd of students gathered below. The breeze tugged at his collar, carrying the mingled smells of oiled steel, damp earth, and too many bodies crammed into one space.

They stood in neat rows on the arena floor — fifty of them, give or take — all young, bright-eyed, and practically buzzing with excitement. Some exchanged nervous laughter. Others bounced on the balls of their feet, jostling each other like pups before a hunt. Their chatter drifted up in little bursts, eager, unbroken.

Like lambs before a slaughter, Jim thought grimly.

His eyes moved slowly across the field, scanning their faces. Determination. Confidence. Even joy. None of them truly understood what they were walking into. Not until the blades started spinning. Not until the first bone snapped and the smell of blood cut through the air.

Then he saw her.

Maizel.

She stood off to the side, at the far edge of the assembled students. Hands folded neatly in front, back ramrod straight, eyes fixed forward. No smiles. No banter. No nerves.

Just focus.

A cold, measured focus that didn't belong on a girl her age.

Her face was unreadable — serene, like she'd already memorised the outcome of the day and saw no point in reacting to it. Jim narrowed his eyes. There was something in the way she stood, something deliberate.

Too perfect, he thought. Too clean.

The quiet scrape of footsteps beside him pulled his attention. Plandorph stepped onto the central stage, robes trailing behind him in theatrical folds, and cleared his throat like he was about to bestow divine wisdom.

And then the waffling began.

"Today, young magisters," Plandorph intoned, "you stand not only as students, but as aspirants. You shall face hardship, and in doing so, reveal strength. Honour. Pride. Character. The very soul of Riordan shines through each of you—"

Utter shit, Jim spat, turning his head and letting the gob fly off the railing.

Down below, many of the students nodded along, swallowing every pompous word like it was gospel. Some even straightened their backs, eager to play the part of heroes in a story they didn't understand.

Jim folded his arms and waited.

When Plandorph finally wrapped up, he raised both hands dramatically. A weak puff of coloured light fizzled from his palms — more sparkle than spell — and burst into harmless fireworks above the crowd.

Some of the students in the stands actually oohed.

Jim didn't react. He just kept watching.

Watching Maizel.
Watching Emile.
And watching for any bastard who might try to rig the game back against them.

He shifted his weight on the platform, scanning the field again — and that's when he saw Elmsley.

The professor lurked near the edge of the assembled students, just outside the centre of attention, his black robes barely stirring in the breeze. Slippery bastard — always close enough to meddle, never close enough to be held accountable.

Then Elmsley stepped forward, just slightly, and leaned in toward Castus — the smug little prick standing tall with his arms folded like he already owned the podium.

Jim narrowed his eyes.

Elmsley said something — too low to catch, lips barely moving. But Jim read the shape of it: instructions. Strategy. Castus nodded along, jaw tight, eyes fixed forward like a dog being handed a bone. When Elmsley finished, he patted Castus on the shoulder, then drifted back, all innocence.

Helping his pet cheat, Jim thought. No doubt.

He grunted. He'd suspected as much. Elmsley was a man who bet on favourites, who tipped the scales so his chosen dogs never got mauled. It wasn't teaching. It was puppeteering.

Jim's gaze returned to the crowd. Past the hopefuls, past the grinners, to the one face that mattered.

Emile.

The boy stood near the middle of the pack, feet planted, hands at his sides, trying hard to look calm. It wasn't fear on his face — not exactly. More like resolve, cracked slightly at the edges.

Jim caught his eye and gave him a single, subtle nod.

Emile hesitated, then nodded back, the faintest smile tugging at his mouth. Just for a second.

Jim rolled his eyes. Soppy lad.

Still… the corner of his own mouth twitched. Just a little.

Then the gong rang out — a deep, thunderous boom that rattled the platform under his boots and rolled across the arena like the opening salvo of a war.

And just like that, they were off.

Dozens of students surged forward as one, a tide of colour and motion, their cloaks snapping behind them, their boots drumming against the dirt. The air filled with shouts, sharp breaths, and the wild thrum of bodies driven by nerves and pride. They poured toward the first obstacle — the spinning blades.

Jim leaned forward on the railing, arms braced, eyes locked, heart hammering slower than the rhythm below. From the stands, he caught the familiar buzz of the faculty heads muttering to each other.

"Slower than last year."
"Bit off tempo, aren't they?"

Jim let a thin smile crease his face. Too fucking right they are.

He never let his gaze slip from Emile, but he noted it anyway — the ten students at the front breezed through the blades with uncanny ease, ducking, weaving, and vaulting like they'd trained for this exact pattern. Too smooth. Too easy. Pets. Favourites. The chosen few.

Then it was Emile's turn.

"Come on, lad…" Jim muttered under his breath.

Emile hesitated, just a fraction of a second — enough to clench Jim's gut tight. The blades spun, slower now thanks to his sabotage, but still a wall of steel and teeth glimmering under the waning light.

Now.

Emile moved.

He sprinted through the first set, ducked the second with a half-turn, vaulted over the third — and just barely cleared the fourth, hitting the dirt in a rough roll that spat up dust. He popped back onto his feet, panting, blinking through grit, but alive.

Jim's fist pumped, a rare flash of raw emotion cutting through his stony shell. "Atta boy," he muttered. "That's how you bloody do it."

Emile steadied his breathing, then set off at a measured jog.

Good lad, Jim thought, folding his arms tight against his chest. Don't waste yourself too early. Long road ahead.

Others tore past him — some sprinting reckless, some stumbling, all of them driven by panic or pride. But not Emile. His stride stayed controlled, deliberate, eyes forward.

When he reached the Leap of Faith, he slowed. The pit yawned before him, a black void under the illusion, deep and endless, designed to tear at instinct. Even Jim, watching from above, felt his shoulders tighten.

Emile scanned the edge, chest rising steady. He didn't jump. Didn't flinch.

Two steps to the left.

Jim exhaled through his nose, realising only then he'd been holding his breath. Atta boy. You paid attention.

Emile stood there a moment, rocking slightly on his heels, nerves gnawing at him. Even knowing there was a bridge, the spell pressed hard against the mind — whispering fall, fall, fall.

Then he stepped out.

His foot wobbled — a slip — but he steadied himself with a long, deliberate breath, then took another step. And another. One slow, careful pace at a time, until he reached the far side and stepped off.

He kept moving.

Jim's fist curled against the railing, not in anger but in pride. That one's got grit.

But pride soured when his gaze dropped back into the pit.

There were others.

Several.

Students sprawled at the bottom, illusions broken, bodies twisted across the stone. They weren't corpses — not yet — but their screams carried even from this height. One cradled a broken leg, rocking in pain. Another clawed uselessly at the smooth wall, nails scraping until they split.

Jim's jaw set, muscles ticking.

No ladders. No rope. No safety net.

Tradition, they'd call it.

He called it bullshit.

Jim tore his eyes away from the pit and fixed them back on Emile — who was now jogging toward the next obstacle. The lad pressed on slow and steady, just as Jim had drilled into him.

He wasn't the fastest. Wasn't the flashiest. But he was methodical, and it showed.

Emile cleared the wall climbs with deliberate focus, hauling himself up one wooden grip at a time. He scaled the angled platforms in rhythm, breathing steady, never rushing. And when he reached the pit traps that had already claimed two unlucky souls, he avoided them without hesitation — because Jim had marked them.

Tiny scuffs in the dirt. A rock turned sideways. A faint line scratched in a place no one would think to check. Nothing obvious. Nothing an overconfident brat would notice. But for someone paying attention — someone taught to look — it was enough.

Jim stood high above, arms folded, eyes tracking every movement.

Good lad, he thought. Keep goin'. One step at a time.

Then Emile reached the rope climb.

On paper it looked easy — just a long vertical stretch of rope up the side of a wooden tower. A breather, compared to what had come before.

But Jim knew better.

The original rope was laced with electrosurge glyphs, subtle but brutal. Halfway up, the runes came alive — sparking through the cord into bare hands and forearms. Not enough to kill, no. Just enough to seize muscles, twist nerves, and send bodies screaming down into the dirt. They called it a "test of resolve."

Jim called it a torture device.

So, he'd fixed it. Swapped the rope out the night before with an identical one he'd pre-treated to nullify the glyphs. No surprises. No screaming, flailing sacks of meat dropping while the crowd roared approval. Not this year. Not if he had a say.

Emile didn't hesitate. He gripped the rope, planted his boots, and climbed. Hand over hand. No twitch. No jolt. No smoke rising from his palms. Just raw muscle and grit doing the work.

By the time he reached the top, his chest heaved, sweat glistened at his brow, but his hands were steady.

Jim gave a slow, approving nod.

Other students tore past Emile — scrambling, rushing, eyes wild with panic. Some made it, some didn't. But Jim didn't care. They weren't his.

He scanned the field again.

Still no sign of Maizel.

His eyes narrowed. Hopefully she fell in the pit, he muttered. Or got stuck behind that smug little twat Castus on the rope climb.

He snorted, shook his head. Or maybe she's watching, same as I am. Too clever for her own good.

But his attention snapped back to Emile — standing tall now, rubbing his arms, squaring up for the next stretch.

Jim's lip twitched, just a flicker. One step at a time, lad. That's how you win a rigged game.
Emile had nearly made it.

He'd worked his way through the course with quiet determination. Not fast, not flashy, but deliberate. Smart. Surviving.

Now he stood at the edge of the final trial.

The golem pit.

Jim leaned forward over the railing, eyes sharp, breath caught, hands gripping the iron so hard his knuckles blanched.

This is it, he thought. Come on, lad. You're nearly there. So close.

But Emile didn't move.

He paced the lip of the arena instead — back and forth, back and forth — his gaze fixed on something below.

Jim frowned. What is it, lad? What's going on?

Then he followed Emile's line of sight.

And his stomach dropped.

Shit.

The golem wasn't where it was supposed to be.

It wasn't lumbering in the centre of the pit, waiting to be provoked.

It was at the exit.

Hulking. Silent. Poised like a sentry carved from stone and clay.

But worse than that were its eyes.

They weren't glowing the familiar cracked blue. They burned a deep, violent red — pulsing with unnatural light, each throb sending a sickly gleam across the arena floor. From the sockets leaked a red mist, hissing into the air like steam off a kettle left too long on the fire.

A chill crawled up Jim's spine.

Someone had tampered with it.
Someone else.

He stared, wide-eyed, as the mist coiled upward in lazy spirals, writhing like smoke from a fresh wound. This wasn't a malfunction. No chance. This was deliberate.

Whatever enchantment Jim had broken? Someone had replaced it. Reforged it. Made it worse.

The golem's head shifted, slow and deliberate, tracking movement. Not the stiff mechanical twitch it should have had — but smooth, purposeful.

Jim's jaw clenched. This isn't a test anymore. This is a fucking execution.

His eyes swept the arena stands. The faculty weren't moving. Plandorph lounged with his smug face bent over a silver cup, sipping as if watching a play. Elmsley stood with arms folded, gaze sharp and intent.

They didn't know.
Or worse — they did.

Jim leaned over the railing, breath caught in his chest as he watched Emile creep closer to the lip of the pit.

The golem stood silent, a nightmare carved from clay, guarding the exit. Its red-lit eyes poured mist into the air, its hulking frame humming with corrupted energy like a forge about to rupture.

Jim's knuckles whitened around the railing until they ached. He shook his head, muttering low.

"Don't do it, lad… don't…"

Emile took another step, chest rising as he filled his lungs.

Jim's heartbeat thudded loud in his ears. "No. No—don't—"

And then Emile jumped.
Straight into the pit.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Emile hit the ground hard, the impact rattling his bones. He rolled, dust pluming up around him, and came up into a crouch with his palms already coated in grit. Sweat stung his eyes, though the fight hadn't even begun. His heart pounded so hard it drowned out the roar of the crowd above.

Immediately, the golem's head jerked toward him. Not a slow turn, not a lazy mechanical sweep — a snap. Sudden. Precise. Its burning red eyes locked on him like twin searchlights cutting through the dust.

Emile's stomach twisted into knots.

Right. What did Jim say?

His mind scrambled, spitting out fragments of advice like frightened birds bursting from a hedge: Keep moving. Watch the ground. Watch the golem. Don't stop. Don't get caught.

He bolted left, boots slipping on the packed dirt, arms pumping for balance. The golem didn't move. Not its arms, not its legs — but its head tracked him perfectly, turning smooth as oil to follow.

Emile's breath caught. Okay. Weird. But maybe it was slow to start? Maybe it only struck once you closed the gap?

He cut right, zigzagging across the pit, dust spraying from his boots. Still nothing. No swing, no lunge. Just those eyes, glowing like embers in a furnace, following him with eerie calm.

He slowed, blinking sweat out of his eyes.

What the hell is going on?

Jim had said it would charge. Had said to "lead it on a merry dance," tire it out, then leg it for the exit. That had been the plan. But this? This thing was waiting.

He paced sideways, feinting left then back right. The golem's head followed, mist curling lazily from its eyes, but its body stayed rooted. Like a statue. Like bait.

Am I doing something wrong?

He jogged the other way, faster now. Still nothing. No roar, no rush of clay and stone. Just watching. Waiting.

"I'm just… running around like a right twat," Emile muttered under his breath, chest heaving. "Any second now, it's gonna lunge and knock me flat like a sodding cork."

The pit felt smaller with every step, the high stone walls pressing in, the heat from the crowd above pressing down. His lungs burned. The golem hadn't taken a single stride, but Emile could feel it on his skin. The weight of its stare. Heavy. Suffocating.

He slowed again, boots dragging, and locked eyes with it.

It hadn't moved. Not fully. But with its arms hanging loose, its massive shoulders hunched, and that vile mist curling from its face, it didn't look like an opponent anymore. It looked like a trap.

A wall of clay and hate, daring him to make the first mistake.

Then his gaze caught on something. A gap. Small, but real. Between its legs — narrow, low, maybe enough. Just maybe.

His stomach turned over.

Alright. New plan.

He crouched, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet, trying to summon the courage. Jim's voice echoed in his head: If you go, lad, you don't stop. You don't flinch. You just go.

"Okay… okay," he whispered, teeth clenched. "Fast and low."

He launched forward, boots hammering the dirt in a dead sprint.

The roar of the crowd blurred into silence as his focus tunneled on that narrow space. He dropped low, sliding hard, arms tucked, body angled—

The golem moved.

It came alive with terrifying speed. Not a slow mechanical lurch, but a predator's strike. Its entire frame twisted, red mist pouring from its sockets, and its massive arm swung down in a brutal arc.

"—Oh crap!"

Emile twisted mid-slide, momentum dragging him sideways, dirt and grit tearing at his clothes. The golem's fist smashed into the earth behind him with a sound like thunder, cracking the ground where his spine would've been if he'd been a heartbeat slower.

He rolled, scrambled on hands and knees, and staggered back to his feet. His chest burned, lungs screaming for air, eyes wide with panic.

And out of the corner of his vision, he saw it.

The golem was moving.

Fast. Too fast.

It was already swinging again, faster this time — a low, sweeping strike that could've taken his legs off clean at the knees. Emile leapt backward, boots skidding, his arms flailing for balance. The golem's massive forearm cut through the space where he'd stood a heartbeat ago, and the whoosh of displaced air slapped his skin hard enough to sting.

Shit shit shit, it's faster now!

The golem's torso twisted, runes across its shoulders pulsing crimson, and it swung a third time. Even faster.

The blow missed by inches, but Emile felt the pressure of it. The ground quivered under the weight of its strike, a ripple running through the dirt like an earthquake. Every punch carried enough force to pulp a man where he stood. This wasn't just clay animated by spellwork. No. This thing was angry. Fueled by something darker.

He stumbled back, desperate to create space, lungs dragging ragged air. Jim's voice thundered in his memory: Lead it away. Pull it to the edge, then run for the gap.

"Alright, alright!" Emile wheezed, veering toward the pit's perimeter. He waved his arms wildly, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Come on, you oversized garden ornament! Over here!"

The golem didn't take the bait.

It didn't lumber after him like Jim said it should. Instead, it simply turned — slow, deliberate — always keeping itself planted between Emile and the exit.

It knows.

The realisation froze his blood. It's not just following me. It's thinking. It's… waiting.

His stomach lurched. He wasn't being tested. He was being hunted.

He staggered, chest heaving, boots grinding dust as he tried to circle again—

Then he heard it.

A heavy thud behind him.

Another figure dropping into the pit.

---

He spun, blinking sweat and grit from his eyes.

Maizel.

She landed light as a feather, her robes flowing like water, her stride already purposeful. Her face was unreadable — no panic, no hesitation, only that cold precision she carried like armour.

Emile's heart kicked. What is she doing?!

She was closer to the exit, well behind the golem. If it was going to target anyone, it should've been her. Logic demanded it.

But it didn't.

The golem's head snapped away from her, those red eyes blazing brighter, mist spilling like blood from a wound. And then — it charged.

At Emile.

What?!

It moved with terrifying intent, like it had made a choice. Not random. Not blind. A decision.

With a roar of stone grinding on stone, it raised its colossal arm and brought it crashing down.

The blow hit the dirt with the weight of a collapsing tower.

BOOM.

The shockwave blasted outward, a storm of dirt and broken stone that slammed into Emile's chest like a cannon. He was hurled back, flat on his spine, the breath blasted from his lungs. Dust blinded him, clogged his throat. He gagged, gasped, clawed at his face, wiping furiously, blindly.

All he could hear were the footsteps.

Thunderous. Relentless. Getting closer.

Closer.

He blinked. Rubbed. Everything was blur and sting—

And then, through the haze, he saw it.

The golem. Towering above him. Its fist rising again, higher, ready to descend like a guillotine.

Emile scrambled backward on hands and heels — and hit cold stone. The pit wall. Hard. Unyielding.

Nowhere to run.

Nowhere to dodge.

His chest heaved. His arms shot up instinctively, pathetic defence against something that could crush him like glass.

And then—

BOOM.

A blinding flash. A sickening crunch. And sudden, absolute silence.

Dust whipped past him in a sudden blast of wind, hot and choking. The ground trembled again — not from a strike, not from a fist, but from something deeper. A collapse.

Emile blinked through the grit, chest heaving, until the haze thinned enough for him to see.

The golem was down.

Flat on its back.

Its head was gone — blown clean off, shattered chunks of clay still raining down in dull thuds across the arena floor. The torso twitched once, runes flickering like dying coals, then went still.

Smoke curled in the air above the ruin. Not grey. Not black. Purple. A haze that shimmered faintly before thinning into nothing.

Emile turned toward the source.

Maizel.

She stood calm and composed, one hand still outstretched, the last wisps of violet energy curling lazily from her fingers like steam off quenched metal. Her eyes found his through the settling dust. Cool. Unreadable. Razor sharp.

She gave the smallest nod. Barely a dip of her chin.

Then — without a word — she turned on her heel and sprinted straight through the exit, robes snapping behind her.

Emile just stared after her.

Stunned. Filthy. Heart pounding. Still alive.

What the hell just happened?

Slowly, his gaze drifted upward toward the observation platform.

Jim stood there, coat snapping in the wind, his face twisted into raw confusion. Brows knotted, jaw set — a man staring at a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

Then Jim's eyes locked with Emile's. And the confusion vanished, replaced by urgency.

He started mouthing something. Hard, sharp movements of his lips.

Emile squinted, trying to make it out.

Jim repeated it, slower this time, stabbing a finger toward the open gate.

Go through the…

Emile blinked.

Then it clicked.

"Go through the fucking exit!"

He staggered to his feet, groaning with every motion, his body sore and battered but unbroken.

And then he ran.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim watched as Emile disappeared through the exit — battered, limping, filthy… but alive.

For a moment, his breath caught in his chest. Relief loosened the knot in his gut. Pride flared — sharp and unbidden. And underneath it all… something else.

She saved him.

Jim's eyes slid back to where the golem lay. A crumpled, headless heap of clay and stone, still steaming faintly, the last traces of corrupted heat leaking into the air.

Why?

His jaw clenched. That question, like so many these days, had no easy answer.

Why in the fuck did she save him?

It didn't add up. None of it did.

From the beginning, Maizel had been too clean. Too polished. Her movements precise, her words measured. Always in control. Always one step ahead — or at least looking like it. And now this? Dropping into the pit like a shadow, blasting the head off a corrupted golem without a flinch or a grunt?

And that smoke. That purple haze. That wasn't beginner spellwork. That was sharp. Refined. Lethal.

No panic. No warning. No wind-up. Just one perfect strike and done.

She wasn't a novice. Not even close.

Jim had seen battle magisters before — real ones. Hardened bastards who'd cut their teeth on front lines, their nerves tempered by fire and death. Even they didn't move like that.

She was something else.

But what?

Jim rubbed at his beard, eyes narrowing. The Umbar theory? Maybe. Maybe not. The way the golem ignored her, like it knew exactly who not to cross… that stank of command. Of leash and handler. But then — why save the boy?

If she was Umbar, why drag Emile out of the fire?
And if she wasn't… then what the hell was she doing here at all?

His teeth ground together. Every question led to another. Every thread frayed into more knots. And Jim was tired of questions.

He turned from the balcony at last, coat flapping hard in the rising wind.

First things first.

He needed to see the lad.

Jim found him in the winners' tent.

The place was thick with noise and sweat, forty-odd students crammed inside, most of them bandaged, bruised, or dazed. Some clutched wrapped ankles or cradled splinted arms, their faces pale with exhaustion. Others just sat staring, hollow-eyed, the shock not yet burned out of them.

But they were alive.

All of them.

Jim had checked. Properly. He'd walked the rows, leaned over the healers' shoulders, demanded answers. No deaths. No ruined bodies. A few broken bones, a handful of deep cuts, a dislocation here and there — but nothing final. Nothing a healer or time couldn't mend.

For once, the academy's bloodletting hadn't taken a life.

Jim let himself feel it. Pride. Not just for Emile, but for every one of the kids who'd walked out instead of being carried. Just this once, he allowed it.

Then he saw him.

Emile sat off to the side, alone, shoulders slouched, hands dangling loose between his knees. His hair was matted with sweat and dust, his knuckles raw. He looked small. But breathing.

Jim crossed the floor, boots heavy on the canvas beneath, and stopped in front of him.

"How ya farein', lad?" he asked, his voice low.

Emile looked up. For a heartbeat, his eyes were empty — the thousand-yard stare of someone still trapped in the echo of what just happened. Jim knew that look too well. He'd worn it himself, once.

Then, slowly, something flickered back behind the boy's gaze. He blinked, straightened a little, and forced a tired smile.

"I'm okay," he said softly. "Just… a bit of a long night."

"Aye," Jim muttered, folding his arms across his chest. "You've earned one."

He hesitated, then added in his usual rough edge, "Tell ya what. Time for another lesson."

Emile's brow furrowed, but the smile lingered. "Another one?"

"Rest," Jim said firmly. "Lesson is — you need it. You need to eat, and you need to sleep. I know your mind's racing, buzzin' with it all. But even just lying down, letting the weight off your bones… it helps. Believe me."

The boy nodded, slow but sure, that faint spark of trust still alive between them.

"Right," Jim said, turning slightly toward the boy. "Once you've eaten, you come find me. We'll talk."

He started to step away, then stopped.

"And Emile?"

"Yeah?"

"You did good."

He didn't wait for a reply. He didn't need one. He just walked out, coat catching the breeze as he pushed through the tent flap.

The sunlight hit him — sharp, hot, blinding. And almost immediately, so did someone else. Jim nearly collided with a wall of smug wrapped in black fabric.

Professor Elmsley.

The man's pristine robes didn't have a speck of dust on them. His hair was slicked back as though he hadn't so much as broken a sweat, and his face wore that same permanent sneer Jim had always wanted to slap clean off.

"Mind yourself," Elmsley said, sniffing, as though Jim had tracked manure onto his precious floor.

Jim let out a low, dry laugh. "Look who's talkin'."

The professor's eyes narrowed. "I assume you're checking in on your little stray?"

Jim didn't blink. "Don't worry — your pet made it through."

"So did yours," Elmsley replied smoothly, one brow arching. "Though… by the skin of his teeth. And, if rumours are to be believed… with help."

The smirk that followed was sharp enough to draw blood. Jim's fists twitched at his sides.

He chuckled once — hollow as a coffin — and stepped in, close enough for Elmsley to smell the whiskey still lingering on his coat. The professor tensed, shoulders stiffening.

Jim's voice dropped, gravel and steel in equal measure.

"If I find out you've got anything to do with what's going on here — the golem, the sabotage, the lad's name on the list — I won't waste time with questions."

He leaned in, his scarred forehead almost brushing Elmsley's.

"I'll gut you myself."

Before Elmsley could muster a retort, Jim snapped forward.

CRACK.

The headbutt landed square on the bridge of the nose. A sickening crunch followed by a strangled yelp. Elmsley reeled, clutching his face, blood seeping fast between his fingers.

Jim turned on his heel without another glance, coat swaying with the motion.

He had someone else to find.

The academy doors groaned open under his hand. Inside, silence.

Everyone was still up at the arena, buzzing over blood and glory, riding the high of survival. Down here, the school felt abandoned — an empty shell of stone and dust. The torches along the walls flickered low, their light weak, as if the place itself was tired.

Jim's boots echoed as he stepped in, but his ears weren't listening for voices. He was hunting something else.

Mud.

His eyes dropped to the flagstones. Worn smooth in places, scuffed in others. And then — there. Small boot prints. Still damp. Heading toward the library wing.

Got you.

He followed the trail with slow, steady steps, shoulders tense, eyes flicking over every shadow. The deeper he went, the quieter it grew. The kind of quiet that made a man feel like the walls were leaning in, listening.

The first library room he checked was dark. Shelves silent, the air stale.

The second was the same.

The third, though—

Light.

A faint golden glow spilling under the crack in the door.

Jim's jaw flexed. No point checking the handle. No one in this gods-forsaken place locked a bloody thing. Arrogance disguised as trust.

He pushed the door open with deliberate care, the hinges whispering a soft protest.

And there she was.

Maizel.

Sitting behind the librarian's desk like she owned it. Posture straight, hands folded neatly over a stack of tomes. Like she'd been reading for leisure instead of blowing the head off a corrupted golem less than an hour ago.

Jim stepped inside, slow and heavy. One step. Another.

"Me and you," he said, voice low but carrying, a weight behind every syllable.

"We need to have a proper chat."

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim didn't bother sitting.

He stepped into the room like a storm barely contained, his boots dragging heavy echoes across the stone floor. The air shifted with him, oppressive, charged — like the seconds before thunder cracked open the sky.

"Let's not piss about," he said, voice low and solid, the kind that carried steel under the gravel. "Who do you work for?"

Maizel looked up from the book resting in front of her. One blink. Measured. Too measured. Her tone, when it came, was featherlight. Innocent.

"Work for?" she repeated, tilting her head slightly. "I don't work for anyone. I'm just a student here."

Jim's stare sharpened.

"Cut the bullshit, lass."

For the briefest moment, her lips twitched — not quite a smile, not quite a tell, but enough.

"I don't think you're Umbar," Jim went on, stepping closer, his shadow stretching across the desk. "But I know they're here. And I think you know it too — no matter what that dipshit Plandorph says."

The words hit like hammer blows in the quiet. Maizel didn't move.

Jim's voice tightened, jaw working as he leaned in. "But you? You're not some bright-eyed schoolkid, fresh off the farm. That thing you pulled in the arena? Blasting a corrupted golem's head clean off without so much as a grunt?"

He shook his head slowly, eyes never leaving hers.

"That's battle magister work. Easy. And not just raw strength — control. Timing. Precision. The kind you only see on a battlefield."

His gaze narrowed.

"So tell me this — if you're not one of them, and you're not one of us… why save him? Why save the lad?"

For a moment, silence hung heavy in the room.

Her faint, airy smile drained away. Her posture straightened, shoulders set, chin lifted a fraction. The air around her seemed to cool.

When she finally spoke, her voice cut sharp — a blade sliding free of a sheath.

"So… what gave me away?"

Jim stepped closer, his boots crunching softly on grit. "Perfection," he muttered. "You know, maybe pretendin' to struggle once in a while wouldn't hurt. Makes a person seem… believable."

Her brow arched, but she didn't answer.

"So." Jim folded his arms. "What are you then? Army? Intelligence? Something murkier?"

---

Maizel's eyes glinted faintly in the lamplight. She didn't blink. Her only movement was a faint sniff, subtle but dismissive.

"I know who you are, Jerim Amad," she said calmly, as if reciting a fact from a file. "I read your file."

Jim froze, just a fraction, but it was enough. His weight shifted, his breath caught halfway through a reply.

"So I won't dance around it," she continued, voice hard as cold iron. "I'm part of the Atakin."

Jim's eyes widened. Only slightly. But she caught it.

"So you've heard of us," she said, almost a challenge.

"Aye," Jim answered, his tone dropping to something darker. "I've dealt with your kind once or twice in the past."

She inclined her head. Calm. Flat. Unapologetic.

"So you—"

The creak of the library door cut her short.

Jim turned sharply, hand already twitching toward the knife at his belt.

Emile.

The lad stood there in the doorway, shoulders rising and falling as though he'd half-run the halls. His eyes darted from Jim to Maizel and back again, confusion plain.

"What're you doin' here, lad?" Jim asked, his surprise spilling out rougher than he intended.

"You said to come find you," Emile said, sheepish, scratching the back of his neck. "I didn't think you meant… like, in a few hours. I thought…"

Jim groaned, rubbing his temples with one calloused hand. "I meant after I finished shoutin' at someone, not fifteen bloody minutes after I walked off—ah, never mind."

He looked at Maizel, expecting a smirk or a jab.

But she didn't even blink.

"Let him stay," she said, nodding slightly toward Emile. "He's as much a part of this as you are."

Jim's eyes narrowed. He glanced at her, then at the boy, then back again.

Finally, he let out a long, slow breath.

"Alright then," he said. "Let's have it."

Jim's voice cut through the quiet like a blade, low but solid, the kind of sound that made the shelves themselves seem to lean in and listen. The library air was thick with the smell of parchment and candle smoke, every word dropping into silence heavy enough to crack stone.

"Why is an agent of the Atakin poking around a school full of teenagers?"

Maizel lifted her head from the tome she'd been resting her hand on, her movements deliberate, controlled. She drew in a slow breath, like someone steadying themselves before a duel, and spoke without raising her voice.
"Because the Umbar are here."

Jim's eyebrow arched, though his eyes never softened. "That's not exactly breaking news. They've got shadow-hands scattered across the realm. You can't spit in a tavern without hittin' one."

She inclined her head slightly, as if accepting the jab. "True. But our intelligence suggests they're not merely watching this place. They're searching. Quietly. Precisely."

Jim's stare sharpened, his whole frame coiling tighter. "What?"

A short, humourless chuckle escaped her. "To be honest… we don't know. Not exactly. There are pieces missing. Threads we can't follow."

He tilted his head, jaw set. "That why you've been holed up in the libraries? Scratching through dead men's notes?"

Maizel nodded once. "That's right. It could be knowledge, a relic, an artefact hidden in plain sight. Anything that connects to the Source."

She hesitated then, just a fraction, as though weighing whether to say the next words aloud. When she did, her voice dropped.
"But I think it might be the Chrysalis."

Jim frowned, the name unfamiliar. "That's a new one. What is it, some kind of magical cocoon?"

Her posture shifted, leaning forward ever so slightly. "It's… more than that. In Umbar lore, the Chrysalis is the spark that ignited their magical culture. An object said to link directly to the Source — not filtered, not bound. Pure. Raw."

Jim didn't speak, but his jaw clenched tight enough that his beard bristled.

"It's said it can awaken the Source in anyone," she pressed. "Even those born with nothing. Turn them into magisters overnight. And those who already possess magic? It twists them into something else. Stronger. Sharper. Weapons of terrifying power."

The words lingered in the still air like a curse.

Jim's reply was flat, grim. "And some clever bastard thought the best place to stash a magical weapon of mass destruction… was a bloody school?"

"I know," Maizel said with a shrug that didn't quite hide her tension. "The old magisters had a flair for the dramatic. They loved their symbols."

Jim gave her a long, hard look. "So if you're meant to be keepin' low, why the hell'd you put your name down for the Games?"

"I didn't," she said plainly. "And I'd wager whoever put Emile's name in… put mine in too."

Her head turned toward the boy. Emile shifted uneasily under the weight of it but didn't open his mouth.

"That tells me someone's been watching us," she went on. "Closely. Deliberately. They wanted us both out of the way."

Jim grunted, arms folding. "Aye, well… that plan fell to bits."

"It did," she agreed. "Because someone sabotaged the course."

Jim's eyebrow climbed, suspicion sharpening in his stare.

"Don't be coy," Maizel said, folding her arms. "The dirt on the Leap of Faith? Just enough of a trail for someone observant, but not obvious enough to raise alarm."

Jim said nothing, the silence itself an answer.

She allowed herself the faintest smile. "Then the rope climb. No electrosurge glyphs. No tricks. Just rope. Ordinary, boring rope. The kind that doesn't fry teenagers."

"I'm a big fan of non-lethal rope," Jim muttered.

"But the golem," she pressed, her voice dropping cold. "That wasn't your handiwork."

Jim's expression hardened, every line of his face sharpening.

"It wasn't broken," she said. "It was altered. Its eyes were red. Its movements weren't scripted — they were predatory. That wasn't training, Jim. That was hunting."

She looked him dead in the eye, her voice quiet but carrying steel.
"Someone wasn't just trying to hurt us. They were trying to kill us."

Jim gave a short, derisive snort and leaned back a step, though his eyes stayed locked.
"Don't have to explain the obvious, lass. Pretty sure we've all gathered by now — someone's got it in for us. Me included."

He scratched at the side of his nose, gaze narrowing into a knife's edge.

"And up until about an hour ago…" He gave her a sideways glance, voice like gravel. "I thought it was you."

Maizel didn't move, but the shift in her posture was there — just a fraction. A stiffening in the shoulders, a flicker of something sharp and unguarded behind her eyes.
"They came after you?" she asked quietly.

"Aye," Jim said, his voice flat as he tugged his sleeve back and casually inspected the burn still healing across his arm. The angry mark ran jagged from elbow to wrist, ugly against the weathered skin. "Some cloaked bastard with an ember blade. Didn't come for a chat."

Her brows furrowed. "You're certain it was them?"

Jim gave her a dry look, one corner of his mouth twitching. "Didn't stop to ask for credentials, if that's what you mean."

For a moment, the tension eased — Maizel exhaled, not laughing, but releasing something that sat close to it. A brittle sound, the kind a person makes when things keep getting worse and all that's left is grim amusement.

"Maybe you got too close," she said. "To whatever they're guarding. Or maybe…" Her eyes traced him, sharp again, weighing his every scar like a map. "Maybe you're stirring up too much trouble."

Jim grunted, shoulders rolling in a shrug that carried the weight of years.
"Trouble's been here long before I stuck my nose in. I just don't have the luxury of ignorin' it anymore."

The silence stretched. Then Emile spoke up, hesitant, voice low but cutting through.
"So… are you not actually a teenager, then?"

The words hung there, absurd and blunt.

Jim turned slowly, giving the lad a sideways glance — the kind that said stop thinking with your bloody trousers, boy — but he didn't bother answering.

Maizel blinked once, clearly caught off guard. For the first time since he'd met her, she looked almost… amused. Just for a flicker, the mask slipped.

Jim cleared his throat hard, dragging the conversation back on track.
"So. What's next?"

Maizel straightened, composure sliding back into place. Her voice cooled again.
"Well. We keep doing the Games. Keep winning. Sooner or later they'll get impatient. Try to take us out directly."

Jim gave a short nod. "Aye. Sounds about right. And while me and the lad are playin' bait, what'll you be doin'?"

"I'll keep digging," she said. "Narrow down what they're after. And, if I can, where it's hidden."

"My money's still on the cocoon-thing," Jim muttered.

"The Chrysalis," Maizel corrected crisply.

"Right. That. Whatever it is, it sounds dangerous enough, so odds are it's that." He clapped Emile lightly on the back. "Come on. Me and hormones here need some rest. See you Wednesday night."

Without another word, Jim spun the boy around and marched them both out of the library.
The corridors stretched quiet as they walked, torchlight flickering against worn stone. Their boots echoed in unison.

Emile glanced up sheepishly. "Was it a stupid question?"

Jim didn't slow his pace. "Why the fuck did you even ask that, lad? She's got more poise than half the faculty, and eyes like she's seen a war through a keyhole." He sighed, the sound carrying more weariness than anger, and muttered under his breath: "Gods help me, I'm mentoring a lovesick puppy."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Not the awkward kind, but the heavy sort — the kind carried by men with too much on their minds to waste on chatter.

When they reached the cabin, Aualine was waiting. The dragon rumbled softly at the sight of them, smoke curling from her nostrils. She nudged Jim's arm with her broad snout, then butted Emile hard enough to nearly knock him off his feet — her version of affection. Once satisfied they were both alive, she curled by the doorway and settled, her deep, steady breaths filling the night like the rhythm of a living forge.

Inside, Jim went straight to the cupboard. Two mismatched glasses. A half-finished bottle of whiskey. He poured heavy measures, slid one across the table without a word.

Emile took it, nodded, and sipped. Jim knocked his back like medicine, the liquor burning a trail down his throat.

The silence sat between them until Jim finally exhaled, long and low. "Well."

Emile nodded, eyes still wide, voice small. "Yeah."

"What's the next challenge?" he asked after a moment.

Jim's mouth tugged in the faintest smile — tired, but real. "We'll talk about that tomorrow. Tonight… enjoy the fact you're still breathin'. Have your drink. Don't overthink it. And if you need to talk — talk."

Emile looked at him then, eyes searching the worn face across the table, trying to read the man who had somehow become his shield.

"Is this another lesson?" Emile asked.

Jim shook his head and leaned back in his chair, the wood creaking under his weight.
"Nah. Just advice."

Emile looked down into his glass. He didn't speak, but the long, slow breath he let out told Jim everything he needed to know. The lad was carrying it heavy already, and it wasn't even the second round yet.

Jim stood with a grunt, joints popping faintly as he crossed the room to the old trunk at the foot of his bed. The iron fittings groaned as he lifted the lid. Inside lay a scatter of relics from another life — belts, old kit, scraps of uniform too battered to wear, steel that smelled of old blood and oil. He reached down, pulled something from the depths, and returned to the table with deliberate purpose.

He laid the sheathed sword down in front of Emile. The leather was cracked, the hilt wrapped in worn cloth gone grey with age.

"Here," Jim said. "Considering what happened with the golem earlier… you might need this."

Emile blinked, startled, then reached out. The weight of it pulled his shoulders straighter the instant he touched it. He unsheathed it slowly — the steel catching the warm firelight, edges scarred and pitted from long years, but still sharp enough to whisper promise.

Jim watched him, eyes steady.
"She ain't pretty. She's seen more war than most kingdoms. But she won't fail you, not if you treat her right."

Emile swallowed, nodded, and tightened his grip. "Thank you."

Jim only shrugged, reaching for the bottle again, pouring himself another measure like it was just another night, just another fire, and not the first step of something that might break them both.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim had left Emile and Aualine to rest. The boy needed it — and so did the dragon, even if she'd never admit it. Aualine might grumble or rumble, but Jim knew the subtle signs of fatigue: the slower blinks, the longer breaths, the way her tail drooped when she thought no one was watching. She'd earned the rest, same as the lad.

Jim, on the other hand, wasn't built for resting. Not when he still had sabotage to do, enemies he couldn't yet name, and more bad ideas to chew on until they turned sour. Sleep, for him, had always been a luxury — one he'd learned to function without.

He'd given up hunting for the Umbar agent — for now, anyway. Whoever they were, they'd gone quiet. Too quiet. Which usually meant they were either laying a trap or waiting for someone else to do the dirty work. And Jim hated both kinds of silence.

So instead, he did what he was best at: watching. Waiting. Learning.

He'd spent the better part of three hours shadowing the work crews as they set up the next challenge. From a distance, it looked simple enough — a large hedge maze, thick and green, with a central tower looming above it. Standard fare for spectacle. The kind of thing parents in the stands might clap politely for, pretending it was noble instead of deadly.

But Jim had seen the plants they were weaving into the hedges.

Nightdeath flowers.

They looked harmless enough from afar. Roses, almost. Pretty, thorned, familiar. But one prick from those bastards and you weren't just in pain — you were down. Out cold. Straight into a coma so deep the gods themselves might've struggled to rattle you awake. There was no real cure, unless you caught it early. And even then, half the poor sods ended up drooling in a chair for the rest of their lives, staring at walls and forgetting their own names.

Jim knew. He'd seen it. Students who hadn't been lucky. Bright-eyed kids who just wanted to win a bloody game, condemned to live like shadows because someone thought poison flowers made for good theatre.

And if that wasn't bad enough…

He'd overheard the handlers talking. Redcaps. They were planning to loose a dozen of the little monsters inside the maze once it was sealed.

Now, the best way to describe a redcap, Jim figured, was this: take a garden gnome. Give it the aggression of a pub brawler on his fifth pint, the stamina of a bad hangover that won't quit, and a deep, heartfelt love for bare-knuckle fighting and cheap rum. Then kick it in the shins, drop it in a maze, and surround it with teenagers.

Yeah. That'd go well.

And of course, Jim thought bitterly, you could bet your arse they'd rile the bastards up first. Maybe wave a few wands, chant a summoning verse, toss in a keg of blackfire brew for good measure. Then clap when the carnage started.

What could possibly go wrong?

Jim scratched his chin, eyes sweeping the perimeter, already calculating. He wasn't sure yet how he was going to sabotage this one — but he would find a way. If the school wanted to send its students into a poison labyrinth full of drunken murder gnomes, then by gods, Jim was going to tilt the odds back in their favour. One cut vine, one rigged gate, one whispered trick at a time.

With a final grunt, he turned away, leaving the workers to finish setting up the death maze. He'd seen enough for now. There was a certain professor he needed to have words with.

Back at the cabin, Emile awoke with a start. He sat up quickly, heart thudding, glancing around the dim room. No Jim. No Aualine either — though he guessed she was curled up outside, keeping watch as always, her golden eye cracked open like a lantern.

But something else caught him. A smell.

Warm. Rich. Mouthwatering.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and followed his nose to the small wooden table. There, sitting in an old cast-iron pan, was a dishcloth-covered mystery. Emile hesitated, then lifted the cloth carefully.

Bacon. Crisp, still warm, glistening with just enough grease to make his stomach growl.

Beside the pan sat a thick slab of freshly cut bread, still shedding a trace of flour. And next to that — a folded note, scrawled in rough, hurried handwriting that looked like it had lost the fight with sobriety.

Eat it or Aualine gets it.

Emile let out a chuckle despite himself, shaking his head. "Grumpy bastard," he muttered, but the smile on his face betrayed him as he sat down.

He tore off a hunk of bread, stacked bacon onto it, and made himself a crude sandwich. The first bite was heaven — smoky, salty, and exactly what his aching body needed. He chewed slowly, savouring it, eyes drifting toward the cabin window where soft morning light filtered through the cracks.

For once, it was peaceful. No shouting. No drills. Just the crackle of the hearth and the smell of bacon in the air. The silence felt strange, almost unnerving — like his bones expected chaos but found none.

He finished the last bite, wiped his hands on a rag, and stood. The movement brought the stiffness back — settling into him like cold iron hammered into every joint. His shoulders ached, his legs felt like lead, and even his back had begun to knot up.

He'd trained with Jim for days now — gruelling, unrelenting, like the old man had a personal vendetta against weakness. Emile had known exhaustion before, the kind that came after long marches or sleepless nights. But this was different. This wasn't just soreness.

This was depletion.

He stretched his arms out slowly, joints cracking like kindling in a fire. His body felt like it had been carved from stone and then left out in the rain. Not merely bruised. Not merely tired. Drained — through and through.

He paced the cabin in slow, dragging circles, boots scuffing against the wooden floorboards. He tried to work the ache out of his bones, but it clung stubbornly — a weight in his limbs that refused to lift. This wasn't the usual soreness from drills. It felt… deeper. Hollowing. Like something inside him was leaking away, drop by drop.

Magic? Fear? The realisation that he might not walk out of the next trial alive? He couldn't pin it down.

All he knew was this — Jim had been right.

This place wasn't built to test students. It was built to chew them up, to grind them down until nothing was left but ash and memory. And now Emile understood why Jim fought so hard, why the old man sabotaged, schemed, bent every rule just to tilt the odds.

The ache reminded Emile of something he hadn't let himself remember in years.

The last week at the labour camp.

Back then, he'd been smaller. Frail. Just skin stretched over bones, living on scraps of bread and fear. Every step had hurt. Every breath felt borrowed. But he hadn't stopped. He couldn't.

Because in that place, weakness wasn't forgiven. If you faltered, if you slowed down even for a heartbeat — you vanished.

No one ever said where they went. The beds were just empty the next morning. No names spoken. No prayers offered. Just more work, more silence, more eyes watching the floor.

He remembered the final night before the liberation. How he'd lain there, staring at the rotten ceiling beams, convinced he wouldn't make it another sunrise. Not couldn't — wouldn't. He'd whispered apologies to ghosts, to the shadows of his parents, to anyone who might still be listening. Told himself, It's okay. This is what happens to people like you.

Looking back now — older, stronger, with dirt under his nails and a sword by his bed — it was madness that a child had ever had to think that way. But he had.

And then, the gates broke.

There hadn't been a trumpet. No banners, no golden heroes. Just men with swords. Hard-faced, bloodied, reeking of soot and rage. Men like Jim. They hadn't come for glory. They'd come with fury. And they'd torn the cages open.

Emile dragged himself back to the present, shaking his head as though to scatter the ghosts. But it was always the same — certain aches, certain silences, and the past clawed its way back up, uninvited.

With a steadying breath, he pulled on his boots and stepped outside. The air was sharp, the morning sky a dull slab of grey. Aualine lay curled nearby, her great golden eye cracked open as he approached.

"Alright, girl?" he muttered.

She snorted, a plume of steam rolling from her nostrils, and stretched her neck toward him — expectant.

He smiled faintly, running a hand along the smooth scales of her muzzle, scratching the spot beneath her jaw he knew she liked best. Her answering rumble was low, content, vibrating through the ground itself.

"Thanks," he whispered. "Don't suppose you know how to get rid of old ghosts, do you?"

Aualine blinked slowly, then sneezed into the dirt.

Emile chuckled. "Yeah. Fair enough."

Jim, meanwhile, was skulking around the botanical gardens, coat collar turned up, boots crunching soft over the gravel paths. He wasn't on duty. Not officially. He was hunting — for a stoner. A very particular one.

The place stank of damp earth and heady perfume. Creeping vines wrapped the old stone arches, mushrooms pulsed faintly in the shadows, and the air carried the sweet-sour tang of blooming nightshade. The kind of place that made your skin itch if you stood still too long.

Then he heard it.

"Oooh, that's it, my little darlings," a voice cooed from behind a particularly overgrown oak. "So round and firm and—oh my stars, is that new velvet on your caps?"

Jim's lip curled. He stepped around the tree and found her.

Professor Aidra.

She was kneeling in the dirt like a priestess in prayer, fingers stroking the bulbous heads of fat, purple mushrooms. Her dreadlocks swung gently as she leaned closer, eyes half-lidded, her face lit with the blissed-out grin of someone happily several miles above sea level.

Jim cleared his throat, sharp and deliberate.

"Aidra."

She turned her head slowly, blinking at him like he'd just sprouted from the bark itself.

"Ah… Jim," she said with a beatific smile, eyes glassy as moonlight on a pond. "What brings you to my nursery on such a dewy morning?"

Thank fuck, Jim thought. The way she'd been whispering sweet nothings to the fungi, he was half-convinced she was sampling her stock again. Though, judging by the sway in her stance as she stood, maybe she still was.

"I've got a new young drake coming in," Jim said, voice flat, arms folded across his chest. "Fiery temperament. Need something to cool its spirit."

"Fiery?" Aidra giggled, brushing soil from her robes, movements loose and dreamy. "Mmm. Dragon fire. Deliciously symbolic."

Jim blinked.

She's high, he thought grimly. Brilliant.

"Yeah, so…" Jim began, slow as molasses. "You got anything that'll do the job?"

Aidra blinked once, twice, then clapped her hands together. "Oh! Uh, yes! Yes, of course!" She sprang upright like a startled deer, scattering scrolls and dirt clods in her wake. "Follow me, follow me!" she sang, spinning on her heel and weaving through the greenery like she'd been born from it.

Jim rolled his eyes but followed, boots crunching over gravel.

She ducked beneath a curling arch of vines, stroking the glowing leaves as though they purred.
"You're growing beautifully," she whispered to a fern pulsing faintly with blue light.

"Oh, my darling," she crooned to a carnivorous vine as it twitched toward her hand, "look at your fronds!"

Jim trudged after her, muttering under his breath.
"Some days I swear I'm the only bloody sane one in this place…"

Eventually, they reached a wooden door buried behind a curtain of flowers heavy with pollen. Aidra slipped through without breaking stride.
"Come in, come in!" she called, sing-song.

Jim stepped inside — and immediately regretted it.

The air was thick, cloying. A heady mix of incense, citrus, pollen, and something sharper he couldn't name. Sweet. Spicy. Illegal? Whatever it was, it made his head swim after a single breath.

Her office looked less like a workspace and more like the inside of a forest that had taken liberties. Vines curled across beams, herbs dangled in bundles, and half-open blooms seemed to turn lazily toward him as if they were watching.

Aidra was already elbow-deep in a cupboard carved into the wall.
"No, not this… hmm, definitely not this… oh, unless— ooh, I'll save that for later… Aha!"

She spun, triumph lighting her hazy eyes, and presented him with a small wooden bucket of shimmering white powder. It sparkled faintly, like flour laced with stars.

"Here we are!" she declared, thrusting it into his hands like it was a gift. "This'll calm even the moodiest of drake broads. Like putting their fire right back in the egg. One whiff and they're docile as newborn kittens."

Jim raised an eyebrow at the glittering dust. "And how exactly do I use it?"

"Simple!" she chirped. "Toss it round the paddock, or give it a good whoosh into the air. Once they breathe it in—peace and serenity."

Jim frowned at the stuff. "And what happens if I breathe it in?"

Aidra tilted her head, dreamy as ever. "Ohhh… that's a question."

"Yes," Jim said flatly, "it is."

Her smile widened like she'd just been kissed by the cosmos. "You would become one with the stars. A note in the eternal music of life. A speck of sacred—"

"So I'd get off my nut?" Jim interrupted.

"Yes," she said brightly. "You'd get very off your nut."

Jim sighed, tucking the bucket under his arm. "Cheers, professor. Always a pleasure."

"Give the mushrooms my love!" she called as he left.

"Not a bloody chance," he muttered.

Jim awoke before dawn, same as always.

The sky outside was still a blanket of dark grey, the first hints of morning clinging low on the horizon. Cold air crept through the cracks of the cabin, sharp enough to sting his skin but familiar. Expected.

Last night had been… quiet. Comfortable, even.

He and Emile had eaten together — something hot and hearty, cobbled from whatever scraps were still lingering in Jim's larder. Root stew with too much pepper, a heel of bread, the kind of meal that stuck to your ribs more than it pleased your tongue. They didn't talk much. Didn't need to. The boy was tired. Jim was always tired. The crackle of the fire filled the gaps, the pop of resin in the logs marking the minutes better than any clock. Every so often, one of them would sip their drink — Emile nursing his, Jim swallowing his down like medicine — and that was enough.

It was the kind of peace Jim had learned not to trust. Peace had teeth. It always bit sooner or later.

He rose before dawn with a groan, joints clicking like worn clockwork. Dressing was a ritual: shirt, boots, wax coat. Fasten the cracked buttons with stiff fingers that never seemed to warm. By the door waited Aidra's gift — the wooden bucket of shimmering white powder. Even in the gloom it glinted faintly, like frost caught in a candle flame.

"Time to go calm some pissed-off gnomes," he muttered, hefting it.

The thought alone made his jaw tighten.

Redcaps. Mean little bastards at the best of times — fists like bricks, voices like gravel boiling in a pot, and tempers shorter than a mouse's shadow. Right now? They'd be worse. Drunk, angry, half-feral, and very aware of what was coming.

But that was why Jim was up before the sun. To do what no one else would. To stack the deck, tilt the odds, and make damn sure fewer names ended up etched onto plaques this year.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim stood on the viewing platform again, coat buttoned high against the bite of the wind, eyes scanning the rows of students below.

Fewer of them this time.

The lines looked thinner. Faces tighter. That illusion of invulnerability the one they'd worn on the first day like a cocky uniform had cracked. Some still wore it, holding the pieces together with bravado, jokes, or over-polished confidence. But others? They'd dropped the mask entirely, left standing raw, scared, honest.

His eyes found Emile in the second row.

The boy stood straighter than he had yesterday, sword strapped across his back, shoulders squared, jaw set. No quips, no nervous fiddling, no glances to see if Jim was watching. Just focus. Quiet, solid focus.

That's it, lad, Jim thought. You're in it now.

Three students down stood Maizel. Sweet little Maizel, smiling like butter wouldn't melt, waving at the crowd as if this were a graduation parade. No cracks, no tells, no tension in her hands or shoulders. Just poise.

Fuck, she's good, Jim thought, not for the first time.
But he'd seen too many masks to believe one that clean. Behind those calm eyes, something was ticking. He just hadn't worked out what.

Beside her was Castus, face locked in its usual sneer. Even from Jim's higher vantage point, the boy somehow managed to look down on everyone else. Arms crossed. Weight evenly distributed. Too casual, too measured. The lad's whole body screamed: rehearsed.

And then there was Elmsley, hovering just offstage like a choir director waiting for someone to miss a note. His nose was still bound in crooked bandages, bruises blooming in ugly purples and sickly yellows across his face. Jim couldn't help the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Maybe he'll think twice before running his gob next time.
Doubt it, though.

He rolled his shoulders and let out a slow breath. The platform creaked beneath him, a tired old plank echoing the heaviness in his chest. Another round of games. Another round of lives balanced on some bureaucrat's whim.

And here came the bureaucrat himself.

Plandorph waddled onto the stage, robes flapping half a beat behind him, eyes shining like he'd just discovered his own reflection. He cleared his throat with the drama of a dying ox and spread his arms wide.

"Tonight… is Game Two!" he declared, as though announcing a coronation.

"The Maze of Amisa … a challenge that shall test your mental acuity, physical robustness, and spiritual fortitude!"

Jim didn't even twitch. He'd heard this kind of speech too many times to count, and they'd all blurred into one. Noble intent drowned in soggy self-congratulation. Empty words for a spectacle dressed as tradition.

He crossed his arms, tuning the voice out, and let his eyes wander. Watching. Measuring. Looking for anyone who didn't belong. Trouble didn't always wear a mask sometimes it just forgot to blink.

Plandorph, meanwhile, had launched into his usual interpretive nonsense. Arms flapping, circling through the air, clapping three times like he was trying to summon divine insight. To Jim, it looked less like spellcraft and more like an old man's morning stretch.

He reminds me of those sages from the Eastern Reaches, Jim mused. The ones who wrestle the air every dawn like they're fighting ghosts.

Finally, with one last overhead clap hands trembling with the effort, Plandorph managed a tiny orange spark between his fingers. It fizzled in the air with all the majesty of a damp sparkler and went out.

Plandorph beamed like he'd just torn the veil from heaven.
"I now commence… Game Two!"

Jim blinked.
Can he even do magic? Or is he just hoping no one calls the bluff?

Either way, the gates of the maze creaked open. Iron hinges groaned, stone wheels grinding against earth. The sound made Jim's gut twist … that old, cold knot that had kept him alive when better men had already rotted in the ground.

Then the signal rang out.

The students surged forward. Some sprinted, eager despite everything. Others hung back, cautious now, remembering what the first Game had cost. Fewer cocky grins this time. Fewer whoops and jeers.

Good, Jim thought. They've learned. Game One left a mark.

Emile set off at a steady jog, sword bouncing lightly against his back. No bravado. No wasted movement. His posture was different now…less like a boy chasing a thrill, more like someone stepping into a fight he couldn't walk away from.

Castus, of course, tore off like a dog off the leash. Legs pumping, arms chopping, head forward, running not for survival but for victory. Always trying to be first, always trying to be best.

Too much speed, not enough sense, Jim thought. He'll be sucking wind before the first redcap even swings.

His eyes slid back to Maizel.

She hadn't moved.

While the others vanished into the green jaws of the maze, she stood rooted in place. A statue with breath. Head turning slowly side to side, eyes narrowed in that way predators scan the grass.

Then she stopped. Tilted her head. Focus sharpened like a blade being drawn.

There, Jim thought. She's seen something.

No hesitation. No cry of warning. No glance at anyone else. She just moved fast, low, deliberate bolting for the maze in a blur of speed that had nothing to do with panic. Not the loudest. Not the flashiest. But precise.

Jim's gut tightened.
What the hell did she spot?

He scanned the crowd. Just students, roaring with laughter, jeering, cheering, blind to anything that wasn't part of the spectacle. That kind of joy only came from people who'd never had blood under their nails.

Nothing out of place. Nothing but noise.

Still, the itch wouldn't leave his ribs. His eyes dragged to the maze perimeter. The hedge walls. The treeline beyond. The narrow gaps between stone pillars. He locked his gaze there, unblinking, as if sight alone could drag the truth out.

Nothing. No flicker of steel, no shadow darting where it shouldn't.

But the knot in his gut pulled tighter.
What the fuck did you see, girl? And why do I feel like we just stepped over a line I didn't know was there?

Emile jogged on, steady pace, soft steps on the dirt path.

What was it Jim said again?
"All well and good being in front… just means you'll be the first one dead."

Winning didn't matter. Points didn't matter. He didn't give a toss about cheers or applause or whatever bloody cup they were fighting for. He just wanted to finish. To prove he wouldn't back down, even if someone had signed his name just to bury him.

He rounded a bend, braced for thorns, pits, illusions.

Instead, he stopped dead.

Right in the centre of the path stood a little man.

Waist-high. Patchwork clothes. A red velvet cap perched on his oversized head. Skin like dried bark. Mud-crusted boots, stained with something darker. Eyes too round, too steady — fixed not on Emile, but through him, like glass orbs set in wood.

Emile tensed, muscles coiled. Ready to bolt, ready to fight.

But the redcap didn't move. Didn't blink. Didn't even seem to breathe.

Emile glanced back. Just hedges. Empty.

Turned forward again. Still there. Still frozen.

What is this?
A trap? An illusion?

He held himself still, waiting, watching.

The redcap remained a statue.

Carefully, carefully, Emile shifted his weight. Began to side-step, edging along the path, keeping his eyes locked on it, careful not to brush the hedges, careful not to make a sound.

But it was tight. Too tight. His boot nudged a loose stone.
He stumbled just a little and his shoulder clipped the little man.

The redcap teetered.

And then, like a felled doll, fell flat on its face with a soft thud.

Jim had given up trying to spot whatever it was Maizel had seen.
He'd scoured the maze's perimeter, scanned the crowd twice, even checked the tree lines.
Nothing. Just shadows and idiots.

If she saw something, she was either better trained… or more paranoid than me.

So, he refocused. Back to what mattered.
Back to Emile.

He spotted the lad further in, weaving cautiously through the maze.

Then movement.
A redcap. Small. Still. Eerie.

He watched Emile slow, shift to the side, almost clear.

And then clip it with his shoulder.

The redcap wobbled.

And toppled face-first into the dirt.

Jim blinked.
Well... maybe I overdid it with the dragon tranquiliser, he thought, folding his arms.
A bucket of white sparkle dust, and I've turned redcaps into garden ornaments.

He didn't grin. Not really. But one corner of his mouth did twitch.

Jim's eyes stayed locked on the maze. The noise of the crowd blurred into nothing, just a dull roar behind his ears. He wasn't here for spectacle. Not for the House points or the bloody pomp of Plandorph's speeches. He was here for one thing: making sure the lad made it out alive.

The hedges rippled faintly in the morning breeze, shadows moving like restless hands. Jim leaned on the railing, eyes narrowing. Every instinct in him screamed there was more waiting than just drunken gnomes. He adjusted his footing, coat whipping faintly around his legs. His gut didn't lie — and his gut was already coiled like a trap.

Emile moved on, alive and unbloodied, which was a small miracle in itself. Jim tracked him then glanced further down the corridor of green beyond him.

Something shifted.

A flicker.

A shape.

There… and gone.

Jim's brow furrowed. He adjusted his stance slightly, leaning forward on the viewing platform.

Another flicker to the left now.
It was fast. Too fast.

Maybe one of the other students? he thought.

No... that didn't move like a kid running scared. That moved like a shadow with purpose.

Gone again.

"Keep your head on a swivel, lad," Jim muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing.
Something's in there with you.

Down in the maze, Emile stared down at the fallen redcap, still unmoving — just a small pile of limbs and velvet in the dirt. He watched it for a few heartbeats longer, waiting for a twitch. A shift. A trap to spring.

Nothing.

He let out a slow breath. Maybe the dust worked after all, he thought.

His confidence rose — not cocky, but steadier now. Grounded.

He picked up the pace. From a cautious walk-jog to a steady rhythm, feet thudding softly on the path beneath him. The maze seemed to breathe with him, every turn whispering leaves, every wall pressing closer. The hedges weren't just obstacles; they felt alive, listening. His shoulders brushed cool air that smelled faintly of iron and sap.

Still no sign of pursuit. Still no new traps.

Dead centre, he reminded himself. Always dead centre.

He hit a series of dead ends, the twisting corridors looping back like they were playing tricks. Sweat trickled down his back despite the chill. The silence dragged — heavy, waiting.

Then he heard it.

Giggling.

High-pitched. Breathless. Like children mocking someone behind their back.

Then came cackling deep, throaty, too much teeth in the sound.

It crawled along his skin like claws.

He slowed to a walk, breath steady, and crept around the next corner.

There they were.
Half a dozen redcaps, just standing there in a clearing laughing.

Not fighting. Not moving. Just laughing.

Their little crimson hats were off, some holding them in their gnarled hands, others waving them around like flags. One was pretending to wear his sideways. Another mimed a little bow.

They weren't laughing at anything in particular.
Just… at each other.

The sound was unnatural. Too sharp. Too repetitive. Like a broken music box full of giggling gremlins. It bounced off the hedge walls, filling the space until Emile felt it in his chest — a vibration of wrongness that made his teeth ache.

He crept forward a step — and one of them noticed.

Its head snapped around like a puppet on a string.

The laughter stopped.

The others turned with it, eyes locking onto him in perfect silence.

Emile froze. Muscles tensed. Hands curled into fists. He was ready to run. Ready to fight. Ready to scream.

No one moved.

Then… slowly… the one in front raised a finger and pointed straight at him.

It opened its mouth.

And burst into laughter.

The others followed a beat later.

Shrieking. Wheezing. Doubling over like he'd just told the best joke they'd ever heard.

One dropped its cap. Another fell onto its back, little legs kicking in the air.

Emile stood there, chest tight, as they laughed at him like a pack of drunk hyenas.

Emile heard footsteps behind him.

Fast. Urgent. Heavy.

He spun, hand flying to the hilt of the sword strapped to his back, ready for anything.

Maizel.

She came into view like a blur of motion and panic. Her robes clung to her with sweat, her hair stuck to her forehead, and a thin, fresh cut trailed down her cheek. Her breathing was sharp and uneven.

But it was her eyes that stopped him cold.

Not the usual calm, calculating steel.
Not the sharp edge of strategy.
This was different.

Fear.
Real, raw, and unhidden.

Emile's half-smile faltered.

"We need to run. Now," she said, voice hoarse.

She didn't wait for his answer. She turned, eyes darting back the way she came.

Emile followed her gaze.

At first nothing. Just the twisting shadows of the maze, black and still.

Then… movement.

A faint red glow began to bleed into the air. Barely visible at first — just a shimmer.

And then it began to form.

Like smoke turning into shape.

A figure emerged from the dark tall, silent, wrapped in flowing black. A hood shrouded their face, but Emile could feel its gaze like a claw dragging across his spine.

The figure raised one hand to their side fingers slowly curling inward.

And with it came the red mist.

It seeped from the figure's palm like coiled smoke, curling around their fingers, growing with every breath.

Emile recognized it instantly.

The same red mist… from the golem's eyes.

The figure began to move its hand, forming signs. Unnatural gestures sharp, fluid, ritualistic.

And in response.

The redcaps stopped laughing.

Every single one.
Frozen.

Their heads turned in perfect unison toward the figure. Their grins remained, stretched wide and wrong, but their eyes…

Their eyes began to bleed mist.

Thick, red, writhing tendrils leaked from the sockets, curling into the air like steam from boiling blood. The laughter that had rattled through the clearing died all at once, leaving a silence so sharp it seemed to press against Emile's ears. The air itself felt heavier, harder to breathe, as though the mist was stealing the oxygen from his lungs.

Emile's heart skipped a beat. His throat tightened. Every instinct screamed at him to bolt, but his legs refused to move.

Maizel grabbed his shoulder hard and yanked him down until their eyes met.

There was no calm left in her. No poise. No control. Only raw, undiluted urgency.

One word:

"Run."

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim had been following Emile's progress from the viewing platform, eyes narrowed and arms folded.
The lad had already taken three wrong turns.

"Dozy bugger," Jim muttered, watching him disappear into another dead end.

I told him two lefts, then the mossy stone, then keep right. Bloody simple.

He shook his head as Emile turned again, walked straight into a clearing and directly in front of half a dozen redcaps.

Jim tensed, his weight shifting forward.

But they weren't attacking. Not yet.

They were too busy laughing their arses off.

It was like watching gremlins on mushroom gin caps in hand, some rolling around in the dirt. A couple of the bastards clutched their stomachs, shrieking with glee, like Emile's very existence was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.

Jim even let out a breath, almost amused despite himself.

Well… the tranquiliser's clearly still doing its job.

For now.

Then he saw her.

Maizel.

She came into view fast — sprinting, hair plastered to her face, eyes wide. A cut marked her cheek. Sweat glistened on her skin. Her movements weren't calculated now, not the perfect little performances she was so good at. This was raw. Desperate.

Jim leaned forward, suddenly alert. His gut went cold.

He followed her gaze, she glanced over her shoulder as she grabbed Emile's arm. And though Jim couldn't make it out clearly, he saw what they were running from.

Nothing.

Just shadow.

But… there was a pressure to it.

Something unnatural, like a storm cloud building behind a closed door.

And then… just for a moment — Jim thought he saw it.

A shape.

Or maybe the absence of one.

Not light. Not dark. Just… wrong.

What the fuck is that? he thought, squinting, pulse rising.

And then the redcaps changed.

They froze, all at once.

The grins didn't fade, but their laughter died.

The clearing fell into a silence that was worse than the noise.

Slowly, red mist began to leak from their eyes, curling into the air like smoke from a dying fire.

"Shit," Jim breathed, stepping back from the rail, hands tightening on the iron until it creaked.

Before he could track what the hell was controlling them, they moved.

Fast.

The redcaps spun as one and tore after Emile and Maizel, their short limbs pumping like wolves on the hunt.

The sudden shift — from laughing idiots to coordinated predators — made Jim's stomach twist.

He watched the pair run — weaving through the hedges like foxes dodging hounds.

Emile ran.

Hard.

Every breath felt like glass. His lungs clawed at the air, each inhale sharper than the last. Sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes and blurring his vision until the hedges became a green smear.

His boots slapped the dirt in frantic rhythm. His body screamed for him to stop, to collapse, to give in. But fear shoved him onward.

Maizel was ahead — still running like a machine, fast and smooth. Barely human. Her strides were even, arms pumping with perfect efficiency, like she'd trained for this exact nightmare.

He struggled to keep up. His legs were lead. His chest burned. His vision swam.

"Shit—shit—shit!" he gasped, the word rasping out between ragged breaths, half a curse, half a prayer.

She turned a corner, sharp and right disappearing down the hedge-lined path like a phantom.

Emile pushed harder, body screaming in protest, forcing one last burst of speed to close the gap. He could hear the redcaps behind them now the shrieks, the pounding feet, the guttural snarls of creatures who had stopped pretending to laugh.

A heartbeat later he rounded the same corner.

And she was gone.

Empty path.

No sound of footsteps ahead.

No flicker of her coat.

Nothing.

The silence hit him harder than the chase.

Just hedges, and dirt, and panic.
His heart hammered harder.
Where the fuck did she go?

Behind him the noise.
The redcaps.
Chittering. Yipping. Cackling again.
But now it wasn't drunken laughter. It was sharper. Focused. Hungry.

Emile bolted. Another turn. Right again.
She has to be down here. She has to be.
Nope.
Still no sign.

He kept moving, legs heavy, lungs ablaze. He threw a glance over his shoulder—
And then—
A hand.
Rough. Strong.
Yanked him into the hedge.

He cried out, instinct flaring, fists flying, ready to fight.
"Relax, lad."
The voice stopped him cold.
Gravelly. Grounded. Familiar.
Jim.

Emile sagged with relief, heart still slamming in his chest like a war drum.
"Shit," he breathed again, slumping into the hedge wall. "You nearly gave me a fucking heart attack."

Jim didn't let go. His head snapped toward the sound, the redcaps were closing in, shrieking, laughing and slapping bare feet against dirt as they charged through the winding maze paths, a ragged racket that scraped the air.

Without a word, Jim grabbed Emile by the collar and yanked him toward a side path, not too narrow, not too open. They ducked low into the turn, careful not to brush the hedgerows. The deep green brambles shimmered faintly in the moonlight, coated in the telltale bloom of night-death thorns that caught the light like a mouthful of tiny, hungry teeth. One prick and it's lights out.

Emile stumbled as they crouched into the alcove; his sleeve kissed a vine and Jim's hand was already there, snatching it back as if plucking a child from flame. "Careful," he growled under his breath. "One prick from these and you'll be pissing yourself while the redcaps paint their faces with your blood."

They dropped low, pressed tight between two thick hedge walls. The thorns made this a dead end, but also a shield. Damp leaves clung to their clothes; the air smelled of crushed green and something metallic far off. A perfect trap. Or a perfect hiding spot.

Emile was gasping, breaths sharp and panicked. Jim's grip on his collar tightened, then softened as he leaned in, voice like gravel. "Get control of ya body, lad. You breathe like that, they'll hear you from the next bloody hedgerow." Emile nodded, jaw working, trying to slow the tremor. "Deep. Through the nose. Quiet." Jim's eyes never left the path, pupils small and hard. "I know it's hard. Do it anyway."

The redcaps were close now. He could hear them snarling, panting, the wet slap of little feet. Their voices rose and fell in awful harmonies: a hiccuped cackle, a wet guffaw, teeth on breath. Then a shadow darted past the alley mouth. Then another. Then a third quick, like something small and hungry weaving between trunks.

One of them stopped. Right outside their hiding place.

Jim held still, shoulders a coiled brace, hand ghosting to the small knife tucked in his coat. He wouldn't use it unless he had to — but if it came to it, he'd gut the little bastard before letting it shout.

The redcap sniffed the air. Its head tilted, nostrils flaring in comic, unpleasant little twitches. For a breath it stood frozen, then it let out a wet, bubbling giggle that sounded like air pressed through mud. It took one careful step forward, eyes bright and hungry, and the world narrowed to that slow, terrible motion.

Its toe bumped against a thorn root.
The redcap hissed, jerking its foot back like it had touched fire. It sniffed once more, sharp and wet, then scuttled off, vanishing into the crooked paths after the others.

Jim didn't move. He waited. Five seconds. Then ten. He counted the beats of Emile's breathing, the way the hedge leaves trembled with the echo of passing feet. Only when the laughter dulled into the distance, swallowed by the maze's twisting walls did he finally unclench his jaw and turn to the boy.

"Better," he whispered, voice rough but steady. "But you can't run on panic, lad. You'll burn yourself hollow. Fear burns quick, but grit" he tapped his chest lightly, "grit burns slow. That's how you last."

He rose in one fluid motion, careful not to brush the venomous hedges. Every movement was controlled, deliberate like a man used to surviving by inches.
"Come on. We cut east through the centre fork. Avoid the left wall it's rigged with illusion markers. Keep your eyes sharp."

Jim glanced down the shadowed corridor, eyes narrowing at the faint shimmer clinging to one hedge like heat off stone. Illusions. Traps. Bloody faculty games.
"Let's get the fuck out of here," he muttered, already stepping forward.

But Emile's hand shot out and caught his sleeve.

"Wait. What about Maizel?"

Jim stopped mid-stride. His shoulders tightened, but he didn't turn.
"She's a big girl," he said flatly. "She can take care of herself."

Emile shook his head. His breathing was still ragged, but his eyes were steady now, stripped of the haze of panic.
"I don't think she can," he said, voice low. "Not this time."

Jim turned just enough to study him. His face was unreadable no scowl, no bark of dismissal. Just that steady, measuring stare.

"She saved me," Emile went on, forcing the words past his tight throat. "And we can't" he swallowed hard. "I can't leave her in here. Not with the Umbar after her."

The name landed like a weight. Jim's jaw flexed. A faint tic pulled at his temple.

"…That what you were running from?" he asked, voice quieter now.

Emile nodded. "Yeah. You didn't see them?"

Jim squinted into the maze. "I saw the redcaps. Saw something moving behind them but…" His eyes narrowed. How the fuck didn't I see them?

Emile stepped closer, his grip tightening on Jim's arm. Not pleading this time. Demanding.
"So are we going to help her… or am I?"

The silence stretched. Jim looked at the lad really looked. Fear still clung to him, yes, but beneath it was steel. A line of iron forming behind his eyes. Something earned in pain, sharpened by choice.

Jim exhaled through his nose. A quiet, measured breath that said more than a curse ever could.

He gave one slow nod.
"Aye," Jim said. "We will."

He turned toward the maze again, shoulders squaring, eyes scanning the forked paths ahead like a wolf picking up a scent. His hand flexed once, then settled.
"Let's go find your girl."

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim led the way, low and quiet, his boots barely whispering against the earth. The maze twisted ahead like a coiled serpent, its hedgerows high and thorn-laced, each one glistening faintly with the deadly sheen of night-death blossoms. The air here was damp, heavy, and carried the faint copper tang of blood or maybe that was just his memory playing tricks. Either way, it set his nerves on edge.

He kept his eyes on the ground, scanning with the precision of a man who'd tracked soldiers through sandstorms and monsters through blood-soaked fields. Every scuff, every mark mattered.

Footprints.

Most led one direction deep into the maze's heart. A trampling of boots, careless, clustered. Children running into danger without knowing what waited.

But one set…

He paused.

Small. Narrow. Well spaced.

Long strides. Light tread. Moving against the flow — and fast.

"Running," Jim murmured to himself.

He crouched, brushed two fingers along the dirt beside a print. Still fresh. Still crisp. The soil hadn't had time to settle. Even the dew clung around the edges, disturbed only moments ago. Whoever it was, they weren't far.

He stood, jaw set, and followed it.

Emile, wordless, kept behind him. His breathing was steady now. No clumsy steps, no questions. He was learning. Slowly. Painfully. But learning. Jim allowed himself a flicker of pride before smothering it. Pride got people killed.

They moved like ghosts through the dark, ducking beneath overhanging branches, always hugging the centre of the path. The hedgerows on either side rustled now and then, and with every sound came the telltale cackle of a redcap patrol, drunk on bloodlust. The laughter slithered along the hedges like knives on slate.

Jim raised a hand.

Both of them froze.

He pointed a narrow alcove in the hedge, shielded from the moonlight. They slipped in just as a trio of redcaps loped past, giggling, dragging something wet and soft behind them. The smell followed rancid, iron-rich. Flesh.

Neither man moved.

Not a breath.

Not a blink.

When the sounds faded, Jim gave a small nod and stepped out, silent as a shadow. Emile followed, not perfectly, but close enough. His boots scraped once against the dirt. Jim winced, but the redcaps didn't notice. Lucky.

They kept moving like that, hiding when the patrols surged past, slipping back into the winding corridors once it was clear.

Jim could feel it now — they were getting close.

The path widened. The hedgerows became taller, more twisted. The thorns grew thicker here, heavier. Like the maze itself was guarding something. Even the air changed — stiller, colder, as though the night itself was holding its breath.

Then they reached it.

The centre of the maze.

A wide clearing under the open sky, moonlight painting the ground in silver. At the heart of it stood a stone plinth, cracked with age, overgrown with crawling ivy. Strange sigils, half-erased by time, curled faintly across its surface. The air here felt heavier, charged, like the calm before a storm.

Jim raised a fist not in warning, but readiness.

Jim stood stock still at the edge of the clearing, eyes sharp, body coiled tight like a predator sensing a shift in the wind. The centre of the maze felt wrong. Too quiet. Too still. The thorns around the perimeter didn't just glisten they breathed, ever so slightly, like something alive was pulsing beneath the bark.

Emile crept up beside him, whispering:
"What is it?"

Jim raised a finger to his lips. Silence.

Then.

Movement. Fast. Sudden. Brutal.

Out of the shadows came a flurry of manic laughter and scuttling feet. Three redcaps, eyes glowing like coals, charged from the hedgerow like hornets from a nest.

Emile reached for the sword on his back, but he was too slow, one of the little bastards launched itself at him, slamming him to the ground with shocking force.

"Shit—!" he barely managed before he hit the dirt. The breath punched from his lungs.

The other two went for Jim. One lunged with a twisted blade, the other with claws outstretched.

Jim didn't hesitate.

He grabbed the nearest redcap mid-leap, lifted it with both hands, muscles straining with the sudden weight, and hurled it straight into the hedge.

A wet, fleshy snap echoed through the clearing as the thing hit the poison thorns. It gave a choked gasp, then went limp, a smear of red mist escaping its nostrils and hanging briefly in the moonlight like a bad omen.

The second was already on him, claws raking. Jim grunted, staggered back a step, then slammed the little bastard down and drove his knee into its ribs with a crunch that sounded far too loud in the quiet. The redcap squealed, a wet, animal noise, then went quiet as Jim's weight pinned it.

Emile, meanwhile, was locked in a desperate, fumbling war for survival. The redcap atop him was small, but dense — compact muscle and lunacy. Its grin was too wide, skin pulled tight over teeth that dripped that same crimson mist. Fingers closed around Emile's throat like iron. Each squeeze stole air; each slam of his head against the packed earth blurred the world with stars.

He clawed at its wrists, pulling uselessly, palms scrabbling in the dirt. Kicks that should have pitched the creature off caught nothing but air and tiny, furious limbs. The pressure built until his ears thundered. Time thinned to the beat of his heart: boom, boom, boom. Vision pulsed at the edges with black.

Then a shape loomed above him… solid, familiar. Jim.

Something sharp flashed in the moonlight and came down like a hammer.

CRACK.

The redcap went rigid, then slack. Air rushed in — a violent, overwhelming flood — and Emile sucked it like a drowning man finding shore. He coughed, blood and dust in his mouth, lungs grabbing at life.

Jim knelt, breathing hard, the knife slick in his fingers. He wrenched it free with a sound that made Emile flinch. "You alright?" Jim asked, voice low and flat like gravel.

Emile nodded, shoulders heaving, eyes wide and raw. He watched Jim wipe the blade on his trouser thigh in two fast, efficient motions, then slide it home with a small metallic click that somehow felt like the end of something and the start of another worry.

Then Jim froze, a stillness that wasn't rest. Movement shifted in the shadows, heavier now, deliberate. Not the quick, eager scuttle of the redcaps. Footsteps… a set, running, uneven, bearing down.

A figure burst into the clearing, cutting through the hedge's silhouette into the moonlight.

Maizel stumbled forward, chest heaving, sweat making her hair cling to her skull. A fresh gash split her brow and bled dark onto pale skin, but she barely noticed. Her robes were torn at the sleeve; her eyes were sharp, raw with something that might have been fear, might have been fury.

"Jim," she said, the single word slammed into the cold air like a thrown stone, heavy with meaning.

Jim didn't bother with pleasantries. "Aye. Shit got real, so I figured I'd stop playin' cloak and dagger," he said flatly, tone like the road outside town hard and indifferent.

He studied her, every twitch and cut, measuring what was said and what was kept. "How many after you?" he asked, voice low.

Maizel took a breath like she'd been running a long way. "One," she managed.

Jim's face tightened. A question lived in the set of his jaw. "Just one?" he asked, suspicion sharpening the edges of the word.

"Yes." Her voice was thin but steady.

He cocked his head, not convinced. The night hung heavy. The thorns around them seemed to shift closer, listening.

"And you couldn't blast them like you did the golem?"

She shook her head, frustrated, voice thin but urgent.
"I tried. I tried. I can feel the Source — it's right there, like it's humming behind my eyes — but I can't pull from it. It's like…" She looked off, searching for the words, hands twitching faintly as if trying to grab something in the air. "...like someone's put a sheet of glass between me and it. I can see it. Feel it. But I can't reach through."

Jim's jaw worked, then he turned toward Emile.
"Try it, lad."

Emile blinked, caught off guard. "What spell?"

"Any."

He hesitated, licking his lips. Then he lifted his hands and tried to mimic the gestures he'd seen the other students use a little flourish, a whispered word. He even shut his eyes, waiting for warmth, a spark, anything. Nothing. Just empty air.

He tried again. A tighter movement, louder this time. Still nothing. The silence mocked him.

Jim gave one slow nod, not smug, just grim. "Thought so."

Maizel's gaze narrowed at him, her lips tightening. Behind her fatigue, a flicker of defiance sparked.
"You still don't trust me, do you?"

Jim met her eyes square. His voice wasn't cruel it was honest, blunt as a hammer.
"Aye."

They stood there, eyes locked, neither blinking. Maizel's chest rose and fell in ragged rhythm, sweat tracing lines through the grime on her skin, blood crusting at her temple. She looked like she might collapse — but her stare didn't waver.

Emile could feel it radiating between them. Not just mistrust — a tension that pressed against the clearing like heat from a forge. He cleared his throat and edged a step closer, almost inserting himself between them if only to stop the invisible sparks.

"Sooo…" he started, voice cracking, then steadied. "Are we trying to escape, or are we going after this Umbar prick?" He tried to sound braver than he felt, shoulders squared, chin lifted just enough to look deliberate.

Both of them turned to him. Deadpan. Perfectly in sync.

"We get out," they said together.

Emile blinked. "Right. Yeah. Cool. Just checking."

For the briefest second Jim's mouth twitched into something like a smirk. Maizel's face stayed carved from stone.

"Right," Jim muttered, turning on his heel. "Let's get the fuck outta here before a fascist psycho and a gang of murderous manic midgets get their hands on us."

He'd barely taken two steps before Maizel's voice cut in, sharp as a thrown knife.
"That's not the exit."

Jim froze mid-stride. His head turned slowly, his whole body tightening as his brow furrowed.
"Come again?" His tone was flat, stone on stone.

Maizel stepped forward, serious despite the blood drying on her cheek.
"I know it's hard, but trust me — what you think is the exit isn't. They've laid a reality warp over the maze. What people see from the stands isn't what we're actually moving through inside."

Jim's eyes narrowed. A muscle worked in his jaw. "They've never done that before."

Maizel gave a short nod. "Plandorph decided the maze was too predictable. Said it needed more… spectacle."

Jim exhaled hard through his nose, the sound halfway to a growl.
"Fucking Plandorph."

Emile blinked between them. "So… all the memorising we did? The markers? The safe paths?"

Maizel shook her head once. "Useless."

Jim rolled his neck, joints popping like musket fire.
"Fuck it," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "We'll work our way to the edge, handrail the walls, and pray to whatever's listening that we stumble on the exit. Unless either of you two have a better idea?"

His eyes flicked between them, sharp, measuring.

Maizel only shook her head, her face unreadable — the kind of calm that offered no comfort.

Then Emile raised a hesitant finger. "Erm… yeah. How did you get in here, Jim?"

Jim frowned. "Through one of the drainage ditches. Why?"

Emile blinked, looking almost sheepish but holding his ground. "So… could we not just find that same one again? Or another one? Crawl out that way?"

A heavy beat of silence followed. Even the hedges seemed to lean in, listening.

Jim stopped walking mid-step. Slowly, deliberately, he pivoted on his heel and stalked over to Emile. Each boot fall ground against the gravel path with the steady weight of a man about to unload.

He came toe to toe with the lad and jabbed a calloused finger at his chest. The poke landed like a hammer tap on armour.
"Yes," Jim said, voice rising with sudden, almost manic enthusiasm. "Yes, we bloody well could. That" he gestured wildly in the air, like Emile had just handed him a golden ticket out of hell "is the first sensible thing I've heard since we got trapped in this gods-forsaken hedge maze full of drugged-up gnomes and fascist assassins."

He threw his head back and barked out a laugh that echoed off the hedgerows, half amusement, half self-directed irritation.
"Why didn't I think of that?" He gave Emile a rough pat on the shoulder, hard enough to nearly topple the lad. "Remind me to listen to you more often. You might just have saved our arses."

Maizel gave a faint smirk, folding her arms. "It's usually the quiet ones that come up with the escape plans."

Jim grinned, already turning back down the path. "Right. Change of plan. We're goin' ditch diving."

They kept low as they worked their way toward the perimeter wall. The hedges loomed on either side, high and oppressive, their thorned blossoms glinting faintly in the weak moonlight. Jim let one hand trail along the edge as they went, fingertips brushing the barbs just enough to remind himself this was solid. Real. Or at least as real as anything could be in this warped, trickster garden.

The deeper they pushed, the more the air pressed in. A subtle sickness wound through Jim's gut. Not the roll of seasickness, but a low, crawling unease that sat in the belly like spoiled meat. The colours seemed too sharp, the shadows too deep. Sound echoed where it shouldn't — their footfalls doubling back on themselves. Reality bending, just slightly out of true.

"Feel that?" Jim muttered.

"Yeah," Maizel replied, her voice low, guarded. "It's worse the further in you go. Like the maze is… breathing around you."

They pressed on in silence. Fifty yards. Maybe sixty. Jim counted his steps. Drainage ditches usually cropped up every hundred. If the builders hadn't warped that too, they'd hit one soon enough.

That's when something colder crawled up his spine. Not nausea. Not the bend of the maze. This was sharper. Old. Instinct gnawing at the back of his neck. The prickle of being watched.

He didn't break stride.
Instead, he bent mid-step, scooped up a stone smooth, heavy enough to hurt and without a pause, hurled it into the darkness behind them.

A sharp whistle. A crack. Then a grunt, low and pained, followed by a thud.

Maizel and Emile spun on their heels.
"The fuck was that?" Emile whispered.

"Trouble," Jim said simply. His knife was already in his hand.

He moved like a man who'd done this too many times before, charging the downed figure with zero hesitation. If it was an Umbar, they'd be bleeding out before they could even stand.

But as he closed the gap, moonlight spilled across familiar features, the perfectly sculpted nose, the pouty mouth that always looked one word away from a complaint.

Jim slowed, lips curling into a scowl.
"Castus."

The boy groaned, dazed, as Jim hauled him upright by his collar. His head lolled like a rag doll, eyes swimming from the stone's impact.

Jim gave him a shake. "Of all the bastards to sneak around in a magic maze full of poisoned hedges and bloodthirsty gnomes, why's it gotta be you?"

Castus blinked, winced, and sputtered, "You… you hit me with a rock, you savage!"

Jim said nothing. His silence carried more judgment than any curse could. He briefly considered whether he regretted not throwing harder.

He let the boy go, and Castus staggered, trying to get his feet under him. His bleary gaze darted between Jim, Maizel, and Emile.

"What are you doing in here?" he demanded, voice pitched with suspicion, eyes boring into Jim.

Maizel stepped in smoothly, her innocent smile flicking on like a mask. It was practiced, polished, the kind of expression that always made Jim's teeth grind.
"He's here because something went wrong," she said sweetly. "I was injured. He's just helping me get to the nurse."

Castus's eyes narrowed. She didn't flinch.

"And him?" He jerked his chin toward Emile.

"He found me," she said evenly. "He's the one who alerted Jim. Once I'm seen to, he'll return to the game."

The boy studied them, suspicion creasing his too-perfect features. Jim could see the gears grinding behind his eyes slow, entitled gears and knew another question was coming.

He was just about to snap at the lad himself when the sound hit him. A noise he hadn't heard in a decade.

His blood went cold.
"Everyone down!"

They all dropped instinctively just as a red wave, sharp and sudden like a reaper's scythe, screamed through the air above their heads. It wasn't only sound; it came with heat, a vicious sizzle like fat spitting in a pan. The very air boiled where it passed, moisture hissing into steam. The blade of magic carved a merciless arc through the hedges overhead, splitting thorn-thick vines in half. The stalks shrivelled and blackened before they even hit the ground, collapsing into ash that drifted like burnt paper.

Jim was on his feet in an instant, knees bending, lungs pulling tight, instincts roaring awake. That sound the crackle, the burn it dragged old ghosts up from the trenches of memory. He'd heard it before. He'd seen what came after. Rows of men cut down in silence, their bodies falling apart before their minds understood. The air stank now of ozone and cooked sap. His muscles bunched, body reacting before thought could catch up.

To his left, Castus was curled on his side, one hand pressed against his head, mewling. Emile didn't think he scrambled forward, ducking beneath charred tendrils that still smoked, grabbed Castus under the arms, and hauled him back into the thicker hedge-shadow.

Jim dropped to a crouch beside them. His eyes cut to the wound. Half of Castus's ear was gone, sliced clean away as though by a surgeon's scalpel. No tearing. No blood. Just a cauterised edge, puckered and black. The boy whimpered, glassy-eyed, not yet processing.
"He's lucky," Jim muttered. "An inch over and that'd be half his skull."

Then the air shifted again. Out of the dark stepped a figure. The same one Jim had glimpsed before but gone now was the subtlety, the illusion, the shadow play. No more half-measures. Whoever they were, they were throwing battlefield magic now, heavy and loud.

We're too close, Jim thought grimly. Or something's changed. They can't afford prying eyes anymore.

The Umbar raised a hand, fingers cutting through the air in precise, vicious sigils. Another blade of red energy seared into existence, sizzling as it ripped forward like lightning wrapped in steel.

Jim braced… too slow.
Then clang.

The air hissed, the red vanished. Emile stood in its path, sword raised. The old steel drank in the strike, the edge glowing faintly red. His chest heaved, eyes wild, but he didn't falter.

Jim stared at him, pride tightening behind his grit. "Good lad," he said, flat but firm.

No time to linger. He hooked Castus up by the collar and dragged him to his feet.
"What now?" Maizel demanded, scanning the dark. "We can't beat them. Not with the dampening field alive"

"We're not beating 'em," Jim snapped. "We're running."

He took off, Castus stumbling behind him, knife still in his other hand. Sparks flared as another blade cracked into the ground where they'd been. The gravel hissed, glowing embers spitting into the night.

Maizel sprinted beside him, voice raw. "It'd help if I knew what I'm looking for!"

"Divot in the ground!" Jim barked. "Shallow, wrong-coloured foliage! Won't match the rest watch for it!" His lungs burned, every breath grinding.

Then he spotted it — a break, foliage too bright, too neat. His eyes lit up.
"Got ya," he growled.

He spun, dragging Castus, and dropped to his knees. With one sharp sweep, he tore the false greenery back. Beneath it yawned a tunnel mouth, wide enough for two to crawl through.

"Down. Now. Take him with you." He jerked a thumb at Castus.

Emile nodded and dragged the boy into the dark.

Maizel lingered, eyes narrowing as Jim drew his knife.
"And what exactly are you doing?"

"Buying time," he said. His voice was low, final.

She arched a brow. "Not here, you're not. You're far more useful as a human shield in a crawlspace."

Jim shot her a glare.

"Worst case," she added, shrugging. Then she grabbed his arm and yanked him down after her. "Move. We don't have time."

Jim grumbled but followed, crawling into the cramped tunnel. Roots clawed at his shoulders, snapping against his coat, and loose dirt crumbled under his palms with every push forward. The air was damp and close, thick with the smell of mould and old water. Each breath came back at him in echoes, warm and stale.

Every few feet he twisted back to look over his shoulder. Once. Again. Then again, the soldier's paranoia wound tight as wire.

Then the moonlight vanished.

The entrance behind them was gone, swallowed by darkness, replaced by a faint glow. Red. Slow at first, then creeping, staining the tunnel walls like blood soaking through linen.

"Fuck," Jim muttered, teeth clenched. "Move faster!" he barked, his voice bouncing harshly down the crawlspace.

He knew it was about 150 yards to the exit, but the glow thickened with every heartbeat.

And then he saw it.

The Umbar.

Standing at the tunnel's mouth, backlit by pulsing crimson, the figure looked almost sculpted from firelight. Jim caught a glimpse of the face, eyes burning with focus, twisted in rage, yet unmistakably alive with joy.

The agent raised a hand. Fingers curled, deliberate. The spell leapt.

Jim flinched.

"Down!" Maizel's voice cracked like a whip.

He dropped flat.

The air above him warped, a violent ripple tearing past as the energy blade screamed down the tunnel. A heartbeat later.

BOOM.

The world shook. The tunnel behind them folded in on itself with a roar, stone, soil, and root collapsing in a choking avalanche. The red glow winked out, buried under dust and rubble.

Silence.

Jim lay there, ears ringing, grit filling his mouth. He rolled to his side, coughing through the haze, and looked ahead.

Maizel stood just forward, one hand still raised, smoke curling from her fingers like violet embers in the dark.

"You did that?" Jim rasped.

She nodded once, her eyes still locked on the sealed entrance. A tired grin tugged at her lips.
"Looks like we're out of the dampening field."

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim sat in his chair like a man carved out of stone, the weight of the last few hours pressing deep into his bones. His body ached in that familiar, quiet way — not from any single injury, but from a dozen little scrapes, strains, and the exhaustion that came from keeping people alive on nothing more than grit and spite. His knuckles were split in two places, his shoulder ached where something had caught him in the maze, and there was still grit in his hair from the collapse of the tunnel. He took a slow sip from his glass of cheap whiskey, letting it burn its way down like a cleansing fire, as though it might scour the night from his throat.
It had been five hours since they'd clawed their way out of that gods-damned maze.
Emile lay sprawled on the smaller cot, dead to the world, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. He hadn't even stirred when Jim had kicked the door open earlier — just collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, boots still on, sword discarded half a foot away. His hair was matted with sweat, dirt clung to his skin, and the kind of exhaustion painted his face that no sleep would cure in one night.
Maizel was curled up on Jim's own bed, limbs tucked tight, one arm cradling her ribs as though she feared they'd splinter if she let go. She hadn't said much since the tunnel. Hadn't needed to. Her breathing was deep now, but not quite peaceful — the kind of sleep that held tension just beneath the surface, like a coiled spring that might snap the moment the world shifted wrong. Jim didn't blame her.
They'd been lying there for three hours. Three whole hours of quiet. No screaming redcaps. No shadows shifting wrong. No blades of sizzling death cutting through the night. Just the creak of old wood, the tick of the wall clock, and the occasional soft grunt as his joints complained about still being alive. For a man like Jim, silence was rare. He didn't trust it, not really, but tonight he let it settle over him like a blanket anyway.
Plandorph and Elmsley hadn't even noticed they'd missed the actual maze exit. Too busy slapping backs and celebrating the fact that Castus — golden boy himself — had crossed the finish line. Never mind the state he was in. Shaking like a leaf in a storm, eyes wide and distant, still flinching at shadows that weren't there.
The boy had wanted to tell Elmsley. Of course he had. Castus was practically vibrating with the need to confess, to dump the whole mess in someone else's lap. But Jim had stepped in quick. Planted a heavy hand on his shoulder, leaned in close, and said with a smile:
"If you breathe a word, I'll tell the whole damn school you were saved by two first-years — and that you pissed yourself in terror. Which you did, by the way."
That had shut him up real fast.
Young men are so easy to manipulate, Jim thought, swirling the amber in his glass with a lazy flick. Bravado and pride — always the pressure points. He'd known too many just like Castus. Brave enough to throw a punch, not brave enough to admit fear. Useful in a fight. Dangerous in the aftermath.
He let out a long breath through his nose and leaned his head back. Just for a moment, he allowed himself to feel the calm.
Through the window, he saw Aualine pacing just beyond the cabin. Her sleek form moved in restless loops, claws clicking softly on stone as she prowled back and forth in a steady rhythm. Even from here, Jim could read the frustration in her movements — the low tail, the rigid shoulders, the occasional snap of her head toward shadows only she could see. She was restless. Agitated.
She hadn't been able to help during the maze. Hadn't even seen the danger, only smelled the aftermath when Jim returned bloodied and taut. For a creature like her — proud, protective, and perceptive — that was a wound deeper than any blade could inflict.
Jim sighed and stood with a quiet grunt, careful not to jostle the room's fragile peace. Emile remained dead asleep, a light snore escaping his slightly open mouth. Maizel, on the other hand, stirred.
The floorboard creaked under Jim's foot as he made for the door, and he turned to find her already standing, eyes alert.
"What is it? What do you see?" she asked quickly, her voice low but taut with concern.
Jim didn't answer right away. He studied her, watching how the tension pulled at her shoulders, how her breath caught between words. Maizel was a master at slipping into roles — clever masks, feigned warmth, fake smiles like veils over blades. But fear? Fear burned clean through all that.
She looked small in that moment. Not weak, just real.
He softened, just slightly.
"Relax, lass," he said, voice steady as a river stone. "Just tending to the woman of my life."
He nodded toward the window, where Aualine continued her tireless pacing.
Maizel followed his gaze, her brow easing just a little.
"Can I join you?" she asked, voice quieter now.
Jim gave a small shrug and gestured toward the door.
"Be my guest. But just 'cause I allow it…" — he raised a brow — "…doesn't mean she will."
Maizel gave a slight nod, the faintest smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
Jim stepped out into the dark. Maizel followed.
Aualine was pacing mid-stride, restless, her claws silent on the stone. When Jim called —
"Oi."
— she turned. Her eyes locked on him, and she let out a soft chuff, padding over with a kind of uncertain grace. There was something in her expression — as close to shame as a creature like her could show.
Jim reached out and gently ran a hand down the length of her snout and neck.
"Oi, oi… There was nothing you coulda done," he said softly.
She let out a small breath, her tension easing at Jim's words.
Then her gaze slid past him — and locked onto Maizel.
Aualine's head tilted, eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Her golden pupils burned sharp in the moonlight, reflecting back the cabin's faint glow. She stepped closer, slow and deliberate, each movement full of the kind of predator's grace that made the air between heartbeats stretch long.
Jim saw Maizel stiffen. She was trying to keep the cool, unaffected mask on — shoulders square, chin lifted — but it was hard to hold when facing down a scaled predator taller than a horse. They locked eyes. Neither moved. The night seemed to hold its breath.
Then Maizel exhaled. Slowly, carefully, she raised both hands, showing empty palms. No threat. No spell forming. Just surrender.
Aualine stepped forward, closer still, until her breath stirred the loose strands of Maizel's hair. Her nose hovered inches from the girl's face. She sniffed once, twice — long, deliberate inhales that carried the weight of judgement. Her gaze didn't blink. Didn't soften. She was watching, measuring, weighing.
Then — with a shift in posture almost too subtle to see — Aualine bumped her with her snout. A soft, solid gesture that carried more meaning than words ever could. She chuffed again, a low, breathy sound, full of warmth rather than challenge, and glanced at Jim.
The tension vanished from her frame.
Maizel barely kept her balance from the nudge, her boots scraping lightly against the packed earth, but she steadied herself quickly. Aualine gave her another playful shove, lighter this time — the same way she did with Emile or Jim when she felt comfortable.
And just like that, she turned, tail flicking in the air like a banner, and bounded off into the dark. Not to rest, not to retreat, but to keep watch somewhere nearby. Still alert. Still guarding. But no longer carrying the shame of being sidelined.
"She passed the test," Jim thought, a small spark of approval flickering behind his eyes. "Good."
Maizel looked at him, brow furrowed. "What was that?"
"She just weighed and measured you, lass…" Jim said with a faint smile, "…and you weren't found wanting."
He held out his glass. "Wanna drink?"
She took it without hesitation and knocked back the half-glass of whiskey in one go. Not a flinch, not even a blink. She handed the empty glass back without a word, the faint burn leaving a trace of colour in her cheeks.
"Want another?" Jim asked.
She nodded.
He ducked inside and returned a few seconds later with the bottle and a second glass. He poured them both a generous serving, the liquid glinting amber in the moonlight, and leaned back against the cabin wall.
"So…" he said, watching her over the rim of his drink. "How you holding up?"
Maizel took a long drink, then exhaled slowly, letting the whiskey's heat chase some of the night's chill from her bones.
"I'm… good," she said.
But Jim saw through it — the mask, the posture, the careful tone. Beneath it, he saw what she was really holding back: fear. Not the kind that made you weak. The kind that sat deep in the marrow, the kind that lingered even when you stood your ground.
He squinted. "This your first mission?"
She nodded.
"Aye. And what a shit show it is," Jim muttered, running a thumb along the rim of his glass. "No fault of your own," he added quickly, raising a hand before she could speak.
They stood in silence for a beat, nursing their drinks. The night hummed around them — the rustle of hedges, the distant creak of wood, the steady padding of Aualine's patrol out in the dark.
"What brought you to the Atakin Order?" he asked at last, voice low, almost casual.
Maizel looked at him for a long moment, then took another sip. Her shoulders eased just a touch, the whiskey loosening the edge she carried.
"Nothing," she said. "I didn't choose them. They chose me."
She shrugged, eyes flicking away.
"I was plucked out of a school — similar to this one. Showed some skill. Power. Then one day, they showed up. Gave me an offer. Promised I'd help save the world."
A bitter little smile tugged at her lip.
"I was young."
Jim shook his head with a low chuckle, the sound more breath than humour. "You still are, lass," he said, voice warm but edged with something quieter — regret maybe, or memory. "And if you don't like it... you still can change it. That's the bit folk always forget — you've still got a choice."
Maizel pursed her lips, considering that. She gave a slow, thoughtful nod but didn't meet his eyes.
"Do you still like it?" Jim asked, watching her closely over the rim of his glass.
She hesitated. "I… I like the idea of it," she said finally. "Of what the Atakins say they stand for. The ideals. The mission. All that." She looked down into her glass, the liquid catching faint moonlight. "But the methods? The politics? The way they treat people like tools to be spent?" She shook her head, lips tight. "That part I'm not so sure about."
Jim nodded slowly. "Aye. That's youth. Questioning things is how it should be. There's nothing stopping you from building something better. You're young, you've got time. And you've got a spine — most important part."
She took another deep drink, the liquid going down without a blink, then reached for the bottle between them. Her fingers lingered on the neck of it, knuckles pale in the firelight.
"Do you mind?" she asked, already tilting it as if the answer was a formality.
Jim shrugged, heavy-shouldered and indifferent. "Be my guest."
Maizel refilled her glass, the whiskey catching a dull gleam in the lamplight, then leaned her shoulder against the cabin wall. She studied him with a kind of sharpness that came only after exhaustion and liquor — that rising edge of drunken boldness.
"You say that," she said at last. "That we can build something better. But what about you?"
Jim raised an eyebrow, curious but unmoved. She continued, her words steady now, each one carrying weight.
"You could have done the same. Could've been an Atakin. Lack of access to the Source aside," she added, smirking faintly. "I read your file, you know. The stuff you got up to? It's borderline myth. You were the tip of the spear. You fought in the worst of it, when the Umber had half the east under their thumb."
Jim didn't reply at first. He just sipped his whiskey, eyes fixed on something far away — not the cabin, not the night sky, but some memory carved deep enough to still bleed.
"How many camps did you liberate?" Maizel asked, voice softer now.
"Seven," Jim said, his voice low and even. No pride. No flare of drama. Just a fact laid bare. Then he took another drink, slower this time, the glass steady in his scarred hand. "Seven officially."
Maizel looked down, the weight of the number settling between them like ash falling in silence.
"I also read," she said, swirling the whiskey in her glass, "that you went absent from duty."
Her voice was casual, but the words weren't. They cut.
"Which usually means one of two things — mental break… or rogue."
She paused to take another sip, her eyes never leaving his, studying him over the rim.
"I'm leaning more toward AWOL — but not from combat. That's not what your profile says."
Jim didn't flinch. He didn't argue. He just took a long pull from his own glass, the muscles in his jaw tightening as he set it down. Then he looked at her over the brim, eyes narrowed into tired slits.
"Aye. I did."
He exhaled slowly, the kind of breath that came from deep in the bones, and let the silence hang like a curtain.
His eyes drifted around the clearing — not looking at anything in particular, but searching for something invisible. Something lost.
"We were ordered to stop liberating the camps," he said at last. "Said it was slowing us down. Said the prisoners were too weak to fight. Just a drain on the logistics chain."
He gave a bitter little laugh, no humour in it. "Can't carry the war and the wounded, they said."
Maizel stayed quiet. The weight of it did the talking for her.
"So we decided," Jim said, leaning back against the wall, "to take a little break."
His tone was flat, but the heat under it hadn't cooled. Not in years.
Maizel raised an eyebrow. "You say 'we.' How many of you?"
Jim looked at the sky for a moment, as if counting stars, then back at her.
"Two. Just the two of us. Me and Eulana."
Maizel tilted her head, sharp curiosity flashing. "Eulana?"
He smiled faintly — not the grin he wore like armour, but something more fragile.
"She was… what you'd class as my mount," he said, reaching out to gently pat Aualine's flank. "Fine creature. Graceful. Strong. Loyal."
He glanced sideways at Aualine, who huffed, ears twitching at the sound of her name.
"Much like her."
Maizel didn't press — not yet. But she could see it in his face: that name meant more than he was letting on. That "break" wasn't a break at all. It was the line he crossed and never returned from.
"We hit every camp we could take alone," Jim said, voice low and taut. "And even a few we had no right to survive."
He took a deep swig of his drink, the glass trembling slightly in his hand as he forced it down.
"Saved thousands — women, children, men… barely more than bones, most of 'em. But we got 'em out."
He took another long drink. Didn't speak for a moment. The silence sat heavy, like smoke that clung and refused to lift.
Maizel watched him, saw the tension in his jaw. She knew he wasn't planning to continue — so she pushed.
"What ended it?" she asked. "Your one-man war?"
Jim let out a quiet breath. Then, almost too casually, he said,
"I got cocky."
He looked down into his glass, whiskey swirling in uneven circles.
"I chose Unaga."
Maizel's eyes widened. Just a flicker, but he caught it.
"Aye," he said, almost amused at her reaction. "You've heard of it."
She nodded slowly. "The Night Dancer stronghold."
"Aye. That one."
He rolled the glass in his hand, the amber liquid catching the moonlight.
"I fucked it. Hard. Once we breached the cloud cover, they were on us. Thick as flies. Swarming. I tried to fall back — make a fighting retreat — but we couldn't lose 'em. Not fast enough."
He tapped his temple lightly, the knuckle making a dull sound against bone. "Took a spectr-burst. Scalp wound. Blinded me with my own blood." His tone was flat, but there was grit in it, the kind that sanded words down to their bare edges.
Maizel said nothing. Just watched him speak, her glass paused halfway to her lips.
"Eulana… she fought us free," Jim continued, voice low but steady. "Carried me. Flew blind through storms and arrows and sorcery, like a bloody angel. Got us out, ten miles clear before she made landfall."
He stared past Maizel now, not at her but through her, eyes glassy but dry.
"I got my sight back. Washed the blood from my eyes. But once I could see…" He swallowed. Hard. His throat worked around the wordless weight.
"She was there, in the dirt. Broken. Torn up bad. Took the worst of it — my stupid bloody decision."
He paused, jaw tightening as though the memory itself pressed teeth against bone. His knuckles were white around the glass, fingers trembling ever so slightly with the strain of holding still.
"She was dying, and I… I couldn't do anything. Just sat with her. Held her head in my lap while she drifted off into the abyss."
The words were flat, but the silence after them screamed.
Maizel lowered her eyes, but Jim wasn't finished. His voice came again, quieter now, rougher.
"I stayed there. Sat with her till the sun began to rise. Till I saw the Night Dancers on the ridgeline, closing in."
He blinked slowly, finally looked back at Maizel.
"And I ran. Only time I ever did."
He emptied the rest of his drink with a sharp tilt of the wrist, the liquid burning down like penance, his face giving no sign of relief.
Maizel studied him for a long moment, her eyes scanning his face like a mirror she wasn't sure she wanted to look into. She watched the subtle shifts—the slight pull at the corner of his mouth, the faint narrowing of his eyes, the way his shoulders sat—not braced for battle, not weighed by guilt or pride, just… still. Solid.
There were no lies in him. No performance.
She'd spent her life mastering the art of misdirection, wearing roles like armour—student, agent, inquisitor, tool. Every word calculated. Every glance weaponised. She knew how to spot a mask. But when she looked at Jim, she saw no mask. No bluster. No self-pity. Just the raw, undressed truth of a man who had lived far too long in the company of ghosts.
Jim met her gaze, unflinching, but not challenging. Just there. Just him.
She took a slow, deep drink, draining the rest of her glass, the fire of it seeping down her throat like liquid honesty. Then she let the last of her pretence drop, like a weight that had finally become too heavy to carry. She wasn't Maizel the agent anymore. Not here. Not in this moment.
"I'm Jessica," she said quietly. "That's my real name."
Jim raised an eyebrow slightly, a flicker of something passing over his face before he gave a slow nod.
"Jess," he said, like he was trying the name out on his tongue. "Alright, then."
There was a beat of silence between them—soft, but full. Then she added, almost like an accusation but softer, "Why did you tell me all that?"
Jim looked back at her with a half-smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Like you said—you read my file. Thought you deserved the story that wasn't written down."
She let the weight of that settle between them, the meaning unspoken but felt all the same.
Then she gestured loosely at the bottle, the faintest smile playing at her lips.
"Another drink?"
"Aye," Jim said, picking it up with one hand and pouring them each a generous measure. "I think it's called for."
They clinked glasses, not in celebration, but in quiet understanding. Two tired souls in a world that rarely made space for truth, sharing what little they had left to offer.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Jim woke with a start, a low grunt catching in his throat. The light pouring through the windows was sharp and golden — midday sun, unrelenting and judgemental. His eyelids squeezed shut against it, lashes damp with sweat, and the familiar throb was already setting in behind his eyes.

"Fuck," he muttered, voice dry and gravelled. His tongue felt like sandpaper, his throat raw from smoke, shouting, and whiskey. His head was pounding like a war drum, each beat a reminder of how far into the bottle he'd gone last night. He remembered the inky blue tint of early morning, the hush after Maizel — Jessica, he reminded himself — had turned in. Talking about the past had pulled old wounds wide open, and whiskey had been the only bandage he could reach for. Not a fix, just a way to scab things over until tomorrow.

With a wince, he rose slowly, joints protesting. His body felt like rusted metal — overworked, under-rested, and liable to seize up at the wrong moment. He rubbed at his face, felt the stubble rasp against his palm, then shuffled toward the kitchen. A warm, savoury smell crept up to meet him.

Bacon. And eggs. Cooked fresh.

He blinked. The kitchen was empty — no one in sight — but on the table sat a plate, still steaming. He hovered there a moment, then eased into the chair like a man twice his age. His hand shook faintly as he picked up the fork. He stared at the food as though it might judge him, then gave a resigned grunt and forced himself to eat. Chewing was work. Swallowing felt like dragging gravel down his throat. But the salt, the fat, the warmth — it was life clawing its way back.

Halfway through, he heard it — a sound from outside. A deep, guttural purring, low and resonant, like a giant cat in contentment. It reverberated through the walls. He reached for the jug of water beside the plate, drank the whole thing in a few long gulps, then groaned as he got to his feet again.

The morning — no, afternoon — greeted him as he stepped out onto the porch. The air smelled sharp, green with cut grass and damp earth. Aualine was in the clearing, bounding with playful energy, her powerful frame moving like liquid steel. Emile laughed, breathless and bright, trying to keep up. And on the porch, legs crossed, a mug in hand, sat Jessica.

Jim walked over and stood beside her. She didn't look up right away, just watched the scene with a faint smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"How's your head?" he asked, his voice still rough.

She looked up at him with a squint and a teasing grin. "By the looks of it… better than yours."

"Aye," Jim grunted as he lowered himself to the ground, his joints cracking like dry twigs.

"Ah, Jim! You're up," Emile called, jogging over. Sweat glistened on his brow, his smile wide and genuine. "Did you eat?"

"Aye, lad. Cheers for it."

Emile's smile deepened — that quiet kind of pride you saw when someone did something small, but meaningful.

Before Jim could say more, Aualine thundered up behind Emile and gave him a playful shove between the shoulder blades. The lad staggered forward, laughing.

"Looks like the lady's not done with you," Jim said with a wry grin.

"Apparently not," Emile called over his shoulder as he took off running again, Aualine bounding ahead like an oversized, winged hound with a need to win every race.

Jim shook his head, the hint of a smile playing on his face. That lad had been through hell — and somehow came back brighter.

"Here," Jess said, stepping beside him. She held out a steaming tin pot in one hand and a battered old mug in the other. The sharp, bitter scent of strong coffee hit him like a punch.

Jim's eyes lit up. He set the mug aside and skipped the middleman, drinking straight from the pot in long, satisfied gulps.

"You're supposed to pour it, you animal," Jess muttered, sitting beside him.

Jim ignored the comment, still clutching the pot like a holy relic, draining the bitter, beautiful, much-needed ebony nectar in long, thankful gulps. Coffee — gods' blood, as far as he was concerned.

The rest of the day passed in rare, quiet peace. They spent it like people, not fugitives or agents or students — just three souls existing without monsters in the dark or spells overhead.

Except Jim.

He spent most of the day wrapped in a blanket of self-inflicted misery, groaning like a dying animal and swearing off booze with absolute conviction. Phrases like "never again" and "what in the seven hells was I thinking" were mumbled between sips of water and periods of catatonic silence. Every clink of cutlery was a personal attack. He even muttered once that the gods were punishing him for drinking, and he deserved it.

Evening came slow, soft. They all gathered around the dining table — Emile and Jess chatting quietly, still riding the fragile high of survival and connection. Jim sat hunched at the end, eyes narrow, face grim.

Then he reached under the table and produced a familiar bottle.

Emile raised a brow. Jess squinted at him.

Jim gave a lazy shrug and popped the cork. "Bit of hair o' the dog," he said, pouring a modest glass. "Swearin' off it's for folk with less experience."

Jess leaned back with a smirk. "You're incorrigible."

"Just consistent," Jim said, raising his glass in a shaky salute. "To survival — and regrettable decisions."

Jim was up before the sun this time. The air was still cool, damp with the fading breath of night, dew clinging to the grass like a thousand tiny eyes. He stepped out quietly, boots crunching on the gravel as he made his way to where Aualine had curled up beside the cabin. She always chose that spot — just close enough to keep watch, but far enough to give the others their space.

As he approached, he moved slowly, not wanting to startle her. But her eyes were already open, glowing faintly in the half-light. She uncurled in a long, deliberate stretch, sinewy and smooth, like a housecat — if housecats were the size of oxen and could melt steel with a glance. The movement rippled down her frame, muscles sliding under scales, and she let out a low chuff, deep in her chest, like gravel rolling in a barrel.

"Aye, lass," Jim muttered, voice hoarse with sleep. "I know it's early... but I need you."
He paused, then added softly, "Emile needs you."

That made her eyes lock on him — amber slits narrowing with focus, with something almost human in their depth. Understanding passed between them without another word. She huffed once, sharp and low, and rose to her feet, claws leaving shallow furrows in the dirt.

"Come on," Jim said, turning on his heel. "I'll explain on the move."

She fell in beside him without hesitation, her claws clicking softly on the stones. Together, they walked into the grey light of the coming day — towards whatever mess Jim was about to kick off.

Twelve hours later, Jim stood once again on the edge of the viewing platform, arms folded, jaw tight.

Below, the arena slowly came alive. The stands were filling — a steady, disciplined stream of students, teachers, and spectators pouring in through the gates in neat columns, then breaking apart like a tide over the stone seating. Excitement radiated from them, thick as heat on summer cobbles. This was the final game. The grand finale.

The air buzzed with energy. Cheers rippled here and there, groups chanting names, house colours flickering on banners, bets whispered and shouted over the din. The smell of roasted meat and spiced nuts drifted from vendors, mingling with the tang of sweat and cheap ale.

But Jim didn't feel the excitement. Not even a flicker of it.

He wasn't interested in pageantry. He wasn't interested in cheering crowds or students trying to prove themselves under illusionary glories. All he wanted was for it to be done. The sooner the game was over, the sooner he could resume the real work — hunting the Umber agent that had slipped through their fingers.

His fingers tightened on the railing at that thought.

After what happened in the maze — the blatant attacks, the shift from subtle sabotage to all-out magical artillery — he had no doubt they would try again. The enemy had shown their hand, and Jim knew the best chance at catching them would be when they felt most confident. Most desperate.

So he'd come early. Earlier than anyone.

For the last hour, he'd stood in place, scanning every face that entered through the arena gates. Students, staff, spectators, vendors — no one escaped his gaze. Not one.

He'd memorised features, movements, a hundred half-recognised stances and patterns.

No sign of Emile, Castus, or Jess yet. They hadn't arrived on the staging platform. That was fine. They had time. Jim wanted every moment he could get — not to prepare for the game, but to watch.
To hunt.

Jim watched the crowd filter through the arena gates, eyes scanning every face with the slow patience of a man who'd seen far too much. No one stood out — not really. Just a sea of eager smiles and painted faces, buzzing with the kind of energy only the dangerously misinformed could muster. Kids. Marching in to cheer on their peers as they got bruised, broken, and probably maimed — and doing it with popcorn in hand.

He exhaled slowly through his nose, then pushed off from the railing. No sign of the Umber agent here. Not yet. But he didn't trust still water, and today had the same feel as every ambush he'd ever walked into. Quiet. Too quiet.

Deciding to sweep the stands himself, he started through the student section first — winding through rows of noise and nonsense. Most were just loud and oblivious, draped in house colours or shouting dumb chants. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Well… unless you counted the half dozen students clearly tripping balls on forest mushrooms, giggling at the sky like it owed them money. Or the two passed-out lads who'd clearly gone all-in on pre-game drinks and were now sleeping it off under a banner that said "House Dominis — Victory or Death."

"Probably death," Jim muttered, stepping over one of them.

He worked his way up through the last row of student seats, boots thudding against the wooden planks, ignoring the smell of sweat, spilled ale, and sugar-rotted teeth. By the time he reached the faculty stand, the change in tone was immediate — quieter, colder, dressed in better fabric and thicker egos.

The stand was full this time. The last two games it had been half empty — too early in the term, too little interest. But now? Now it was the final game. Everyone wanted to be seen.

He stepped into the space, eyes already scanning, posture relaxed but alert. Elsmley was the first to greet him — if standing directly in his path and glaring could be called a greeting. His nose was still swaddled in bandages, and both eyes had bloomed into deep shades of purple and green, like bruised fruit.

Jim said nothing.
Elsmley said nothing.

But the stare was molten — bitter, humiliated, and far too proud to address the man who'd rearranged his face like a jigsaw puzzle.

Jim turned, deliberately slow, and met his gaze.
Elsmley looked away first.

Jim smirked — just a twitch at the corner of his mouth — and then turned his attention to the rest of the platform. Professors in fine robes whispered behind hands, old academy sponsors stood chatting with forced politeness, and a few Atakin brass loitered near the edge like wolves in ceremonial armour, polished to gleam beneath the morning light.

He walked past them without a word, hands in his pockets, eyes steady. He wasn't here for them. He was here to make sure nothing went wrong.
And if it did?
Well, then he was here to end it.

The air shifted. All the cheering dropped into silence, as though someone had thrown a switch.

Plandorph stepped forward, robes swaying with over-practised theatrical flair, flanked by the three students: Jessica, Castus, and Emile — the latter with the sword strapped across his back like a weight no one else could carry.

The trio stood shoulder to shoulder on the stage, lit by the overhead runes that shimmered faintly in anticipation. The crowd leaned forward, breaths held, the tension humming like taut string.

"This," Plandorph said, voice echoing unnaturally across the arena, "is the final game."

He let the words hang, milking the pause. "We began this season with many. Now only three remain — three fine exemplars of the ethos of Riordan Academy."

Jim arched a brow. Exemplars, was it now?

"They have come far," Plandorph continued, arms spread wide like a cheap stage magician. "But one final hurdle remains."

He clapped his hands together with a flourish — an overly grand gesture as though summoning thunder itself.

What actually burst from the tips of his fingers could only be described, in Jim's professional opinion, as the littlest whizz-pop ever conjured. A pathetic sputter of light and noise, like a firework sneezing itself to death.

Jim blinked. "Well," he muttered, "that was underwhelming as ever."

With the last pitiful fizzle of Plandorph's spell still hanging in the air like an embarrassed cough, a deep mechanical groan echoed from below. Jim's gaze shifted as a thick steel gate at the edge of the arena rumbled open, scraping against stone and gravel.

A guttural roar rolled out of the darkness beyond, long and raw, like thunder tearing through a mountain cave. The crowd collectively inhaled, awe and fear twisting together in their chests.

Then — glowing amber eyes pierced the gloom.

Claws raked against the gravel, carving deep gouges with each heavy step. The earth seemed to tremble as the creature stalked into view. Torchlight spilled across its form, revealing scales like burnished iron and smoke curling from its nostrils.

An enraged dragon.

Or, at least, one doing a bloody convincing job of pretending.

Jim's lips twitched despite himself, forming the faintest trace of a smile before he shoved it down.
Good girl, he thought.

Aualine stormed into the pit with theatrical fury, tail whipping, wings flaring, and eyes blazing. She let out another roar — one that sent a few students near the front rows scrambling back — then began to pace, bouncing on her feet like a boxer before a match. She was, to Jim's trained eye, hamming it up gloriously.

Emile, Jess, and Castus stood at the edge of the arena, eyes locked on the beast before them. Aualine stormed in like a living thunderclap, tail whipping behind her, claws tearing trenches into the gravel floor. Her roar rolled through the space like a shockwave, shaking dust from the rafters and igniting a fresh wave of cheers from the crowd.

Emile and Jess both slid into their roles with practiced ease. Jess wore a cold, unreadable mask — all quiet confidence and coiled tension. Emile's face was more raw, focused but barely containing the storm underneath. Then there was Castus… who looked like he was seconds from pissing himself again. Wide-eyed and stiff, he stood there like a boy trying to remember how to run.

The steel gate behind them groaned open. The crowd leaned in, breathless.

Emile and Jess stepped forward. Castus followed a beat later, hesitant, unsure.

The objective was simple enough on paper: tame the beast, or subdue it long enough to claim the glittering, oversized egg sitting behind it. No easy task. And if you were really bold, you could try to outrun death itself and snatch the egg without even touching the dragon. But that took teamwork — and Riordan hadn't exactly raised them to be comrades. More like rivals in matching uniforms.

The three of them entered the arena floor, stepping briefly in line. Jim watched from above, one brow raised as he took a drink.

Right. Let's see if you remember the plan.

Without a word, Emile broke left, fast and low to the ground, moving like a shadow across the torchlit dust. Jess broke right, swift and poised, her body language calm but alert. She didn't need a weapon — her posture alone was enough to make Aualine turn and track her with cautious eyes.

Castus lingered, clearly torn between the urge to run and the shame of doing it in front of an audience. He stumbled forward, half-heartedly committing to the centre line, his hands twitching by his sides as if unsure whether to fight, flee, or beg for mercy.

Aualine reared up and let out another roar, amber eyes blazing. She lunged, sending gravel spraying as her claws slammed into the earth just shy of Emile, who narrowly dodged the blow and rolled into a crouch, keeping his momentum. The shockwave of her landing rattled the first two rows of the crowd, drawing shrieks and exhilarated shouts.

The crowd exploded with cheers, whistles, and frantic bets shouted across the stands.

Jess didn't flinch. She sidestepped smoothly, locking eyes with the dragon. Her shoulders dropped just slightly — not in fear, but in control. Measured, precise. She didn't run. She didn't posture. She just was. And that made Aualine hesitate.

Jim caught the flicker of something like recognition in Aualine's movements.
That's it, girl, he thought. Make it real.

Aualine growled and turned, snapping her tail around in a mock sweep that sent Castus diving to the dirt, face first. Jess moved again, drawing her attention away.

And just like that, the show had begun.

They continued the song and dance, weaving around Aualine's thunderous stomps and snarled feints. Every now and then, if someone was really paying attention — someone not just caught up in the spectacle — they'd see her slightly mistime one of her mock attacks. A wingbeat too slow, a lunge that paused just long enough to give Emile or Jess space to dodge. Subtle cues, little tells. Jim glanced down at his watch — ten minutes had passed.

He caught sight of Jess slipping further away from the gaudy, gem-encrusted egg. Aualine followed, roaring and snapping for show. Good girl, Jim thought, the corner of his mouth twitching into a restrained smile. That's it, keep the crowd busy.

Emile, watching from his side of the arena, saw Jess luring Aualine away and nodded. Showtime.

He sprinted toward the egg, keeping low, legs pumping. The noise of the crowd faded under the thrum in his ears. But there was… something. An odd prickling in the air — like the skin on the back of his neck tightening, a static charge hanging in the air. He shook it off. No time for second thoughts.

Twenty yards.
He grinned.

Then the world shook.

Aualine slammed down in front of him, wings flared wide, tail cracking gravel behind her. Emile skidded to a halt, boots sliding. "No, no, no— You're not supposed to be here," he said, breath catching. "You're meant to be with Jess."

He said it loudly, hoping she'd snap out of whatever—

But then he saw her eyes.

Not the intelligent glint of the creature he knew — but a deep, rolling red mist, leaking from her eyes and nostrils. Flames danced at the edges of her mouth, yes, but it wasn't just fire anymore.

It was wrong.
It was tainted.

The hairs on Emile's arms stood straight.

"Oh shit."

"Run!"

He heard it — Jess's voice, shrill with panic, cutting through the chaos from the far side of the arena.

Aualine was crouched low, her wings flared wide, flames building in her throat like a furnace about to burst. Emile stood frozen, eyes locked on hers — still expecting the gentle giant he'd trained beside. But something was wrong. So very wrong.

Aualine's mouth glowed — not just with fire, but with something darker. Red mist leaked from the corners of her eyes, curling like smoke from a dying star. Jim saw it too.

"No…" he breathed.

Aualine let loose the fireball — but not at Emile. It tore to his left, scorching gravel and kicking up a cloud of ash. She missed on purpose.

She was still in there.

A strangled mix of roar and whimper came from her throat — not a war cry, but a scream. She was trying to fight it, trying to hold it back — and losing.

Jim's heart slammed in his chest.
Not her. Not Aualine. Please…

He saw it then. She was trembling, her claws gouging into the earth, her whole frame quaking. Her body tried to lunge but jerked back, like a beast on a chain. Every muscle screamed with resistance. Her will against whatever magic had sunk its hooks into her.

Jim spun, eyes sweeping the stands, scanning the sea of faces.

Faculty, brass, students, sponsors — hundreds of them. Their faces blurred into a grotesque gallery: confusion, awe, delight. Not one of them understood. Not one of them saw what he saw.

"Come on… where are you?" he muttered, words little more than breath. "Give me something. Give me time."

He moved. Fast. Reckless. Shoulders brushing through robes and polished boots as he forced his way down the row. A few startled professors hissed his name, but he didn't hear them.

Because if Aualine went under…
If they broke her…
There'd be no pulling her back.

And there'd be no pulling Jim back either.

He scoured the faces, jaw clenched tight. Elmsley stood smug and silent, nose still swaddled in thick bandages, his bruised eyes glittering with malice. Plandorph leaned forward with childlike glee, his fat hands clapping as if this were fireworks and not bloodsport.

Sick fuck, Jim thought.

And then he saw her.

Alexa.

Standing near the railing, robes neat, hair in place. Not cheering. Not afraid. Just… focused. Too focused.

Jim's gut turned cold.

He pushed through the last of the crowd until he stood at her shoulder. Followed her gaze. Down to the arena floor. To Aualine, still bucking, still roaring, still fighting the enchantment with every ounce of her soul.

Then back up.

Sweat rolled down Alexa's temple. Not nerves — strain. And her eyes… her eyes weren't confused. They weren't frightened. They were gleaming. Hungry. Enjoying it.

Just like in the maze.
In the tunnel.
Before it collapsed.

She turned to him then, her lips twitching into the faintest smile.

"What's wrong, Jim?"

"You're the agent," Jim growled. His hand snapped forward before she could even blink.

CRACK.

His fist smashed into her face. Bone crunched. She dropped like a marionette with its strings cut.

At that exact moment, Aualine let out a roar that rattled the bones of everyone present — not fury, not theatre, but a cry of agony and release. The red mist bled from her eyes like smoke sucked up a chimney. She sagged, collapsed in the dirt.

The stands erupted in chaos. Outrage. Shouts.

Elmsley jabbed a finger toward Jim, his voice shrill with vindication. "See! I told you! Violent — unrestrained! He's an animal!"

"What in the bloody hell are you doing, Jim?" Plandorph snapped, robes flaring as he stepped forward. Faculty swarmed Alexa, some hauling her up, others moving to surround Jim.

Jim turned on them like a wolf cornered. His eyes blazed, his snarl low and guttural. The sound stopped them cold. Even the boldest shrank back.

"You fucking pompous windbag," Jim snarled at Plandorph. "She's the agent. She killed the cook. She murdered that lad. You don't even remember his name, do you?"

Plandorph's mouth flapped open, empty. "It was… investigated. There was no—"

"Shut the fuck up," Jim spat.

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

All eyes snapped to Alexa.

She was rising. Blood streamed down her face — but worse than that, the glamour was gone. Cracked. Splintered.

Black glyphs writhed across her pale skin, crawling like serpents, etching themselves into her flesh. Lines of living shadow seared across her brow, her throat, her cheeks.

Jim's heart sank. He knew those markings.

"Glyphs," he whispered. His voice was ash. "Night Dancer glyphs…"

Plandorph staggered back as if struck, his cheeks drained of colour. "Fuck me…" he croaked.

Alexa lifted her chin. Met Jim's eyes. And smiled with bloody teeth.

"It was only a matter of time, eh?" Her voice slurred now, guttural, tinged with the slick cadence of Umber. The words dripped like oil.

Then she rolled her shoulders.

A shockwave burst out from her body—dark and heavy, like gravity tearing loose. The air itself seemed to buckle, groaning under the weight of it. Those closest were flung back as if struck by a giant's hand, robes whipping, limbs flailing, crashing hard to the stone. The sound of bones hitting marble rang out sharp and ugly.

Jim dropped low, instinct taking over. He rolled under the blast, teeth gritted, every muscle braced. Dust and loose parchment spun through the air as the wave passed. By the time he came up on one knee, his knife was already in his hand, gleaming dull silver in the rune-light. His chest heaved, heart hammering like a war drum.

He surged toward her, every step eating the space between them. His vision narrowed, the rest of the arena fading into blur. It was just him and her, predator and prey.
I'm not letting this bitch get away. Not after all this.

But Alexa didn't stand her ground.

Instead, she dived backwards off the platform — robes snapping, arms wide — and didn't fall.

Gasps tore from the faculty around him.

She landed in the air itself, as if invisible glass lay beneath her. And then she began to run.

Her bare feet tapped on nothing, each step sending faint ripples across the empty space. Wrong. So wrong. It was the Night Dancers' trick, the thing Jim had seen too many times before. Their answer to dragons. Their blasphemous mockery of flight. A cold, elegant nightmare that made the world itself their battlefield.

As she sprinted skyward, faster than any mortal had a right to, she threw her head back and let out a long, wobbling scream.

The sound was hideous — part shriek, part song, warbling in and out like a bone flute played by a madman. It cut through the lungs, rattled in the bones, made the air itself shiver.

A second later, it was answered — by dozens more.

Figures erupted into view all around the arena, bursting from shadow like crows scattering at dawn. Clad in shifting black armour that seemed to drink the light, their masks were stretched into grotesque bird skulls, eyes glowing with sickly amber fire. Night Dancers. A full cadre, sprinting through the sky as though it were woven strands of silk, their movements fluid, impossible, spiderlike.

"Fuck," Jim muttered, the word torn raw from his throat.

The arena erupted. Screams rose in waves, hundreds of voices breaking all at once. Some wailed, others choked on gasps, but the sound grew, swelling into the heavy roar of panic. Fear bloomed like a sickness, contagious and violent.

And Jim's voice cut through it all like a cleaver.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE ARENA!"

It wasn't a plea. It was a roar — command, survival, raw instinct. His voice boomed over the chaos, and for a heartbeat the mob froze. Then the spell broke.

The students bolted. Whole sections of the stands spilled outward, bodies trampling over benches, house colours tearing loose, banners crushed beneath boots. The faculty scrambled, too slow, trying to impose order on a tide of panic that could not be contained. The arena became a living storm.

Jim turned sharply, knife still clenched, eyes cutting to the pit below.

And his heart sank.

Emile and Jess were still down there, kneeling in the dust beside Aualine's slumped form. The dragon's wings twitched weakly, smoke curling from her jaws. Emile was shouting something, Jess's hands glowing faint with the dregs of magic — trying to rouse her.

"First things first," Jim growled. His throat was raw, but his voice carried, flat with iron.

And then he moved — launching himself down the stairs two, three at a time, boots slamming against wood and stone, never breaking stride.

The hunt was over. The war had just begun.

 

[Metel_Pen]

Emile and Jess knelt beside Aualine's massive, still body as Jim sprinted into the chaos of the arena. The roar of the crowd had collapsed into panic, a sound as thick and choking as smoke. Screams echoed off the high stone walls, sharp and panicked — the sound of students and faculty alike caught in something far bigger than themselves.

Bolts of blue, green, and violet arced through the air, streaking overhead like wild embers from a bonfire blasted apart by wind. The crackle of magic mixed with the stench of burning stone and scorched cloth. Some spells burst harmlessly against the marble stands in showers of sparks. Others found their marks with a sickening crack, hurling bodies backward or dropping them like stones.

Clearly, someone up there still had some fight left in them. Mages — teachers, maybe even a few desperate students — were trying to mount a defence, or at the very least buy time. Jim caught a glimpse of a cloaked figure on the far platform, their arms glowing, hurling spells in rapid succession with furious precision. The air around them rippled with heat. But it wasn't enough.

Here and there, bodies in ebony armour already littered the arena floor, dark shapes twisted in unnatural heaps. Night Dancers. Some had fallen. Good. But far too many were still running — weaving between bodies and through the battlefield with that same fluid, inhuman speed Jim had seen before. The way they moved made his gut twist; he'd seen that same blur once before, long ago, when he'd been foolish enough to take on a stronghold alone.

He skidded to a halt beside Emile and Jess. Both looked up at him, fear raw in their faces but still braced, still ready to hold their ground. Aualine lay motionless between them, her scales dulled, chest rising and falling in shallow, ragged heaves. Alive — but barely. Jess had her hands pressed to the dragon's cheek, whispering something low and urgent, part words, part desperate comfort.

Jim's gaze swept the stands, then the black sky above. More Night Dancers were circling closer, moving like hunting dogs tightening a ring. His voice came out low and hard, cutting through the panic like a blade.

"We need to move. Now."

"What about Aualine?" Emile blurted, his voice cracking, wide eyes locked on the dragon. "We can't leave her — I mean, is she going to live?"

Jim dropped to one knee, pressing his ear against the warm, ridged scales of her chest. For a long, dragging moment, the only sound was his own blood pounding in his ears. Then — faint, steady. A slow breath. The dull thump of a heart still fighting.

"Breathing and heartbeat steady," Jim muttered. Relief flickered across his face, but only for a second. The urgency never left. "She's out cold. Like a soldier down but still breathing."

He turned back, eyes sharp. "We need to hide her. Can either of you cast a glamour? Camouflage? Anything?"

There was a slight tremble in his tone — not panic, but something close. They couldn't move her, not in time, and Jim knew it.

Emile swallowed hard, then nodded. "I can… I think. Just—talk to me while I do it. Please."

Jess didn't hesitate. She shifted her stance, back to Emile, scanning the edge of the arena. "We've got you. Just focus."

Jim gave him a firm nod. "Breathe steady. You've got this, lad. I've seen you do harder things."

Emile pressed both hands flat against Aualine's side. The heat of her body thrummed against his palms as he shut his eyes. Magic shimmered, weak at first, flickering like a candle about to gutter out. His shoulders trembled with the effort.

Jim leaned close, voice steady, grounding him. "Picture her under the trees in the clearing. Dappled light on her scales. Think of her fading into the colours around her. Not hidden. Blended."

The shimmer steadied. Slowly, the massive form of Aualine began to blur at the edges, bleeding into gravel, scorched earth, and dust. Inch by inch, she seemed to dissolve into the battlefield itself, like a half-forgotten dream.

Jess kept her eyes outward, jaw tight. Jim's hand pressed once to Emile's shoulder, anchoring him. "That's it. Hold it. You're doing fine."

Finally, Aualine was gone from sight. Not gone — never gone — but masked under the thin veil of illusion, hidden from any quick glance.

Emile sagged backward, sweat beading on his brow, chest heaving. "She's there," he panted. "But they won't see her unless they're right on top of her."

Jim gave a short, firm nod. "That'll do." His eyes lifted again to the chaos raging around them.

"So… what's the plan now?" Emile asked, his voice tight, still high with adrenaline.

Jim didn't miss a beat. "We fight them."

Jess snapped her head toward him, sharp and immediate. "No. We follow them."

Jim raised a brow. "Follow them? Through the air? Into a bloody storm of Night Dancers?"

"Look." Jess jerked her chin skyward.

Above them, the night was alive with movement. Dozens of Night Dancers streaked past the arena, their dark forms rippling like smoke, heading not down into the pit — but outward. A tide of shadows flowing toward the old Riordan on the hill, their glowing eyes like a trail of dying embers in the dark.

"They're not after us," Jess said. "Not anymore. I think they've found what they were looking for."

Jim narrowed his eyes. His body was ready for violence — every muscle taut, every nerve alive — but now his mind had to switch gears. The fight was still there, simmering under his skin, but it had to be tempered into purpose.

"We need to make sure they don't get it," she pressed. Her tone had none of its usual cool detachment. It was urgent, almost desperate. "If they do… there's no telling what happens next."

"What is it they're after?" Emile asked, voice barely above a whisper. He already suspected the answer, but needed her to say it.

Jess hesitated, lips parting then closing again. Finally: "If it's the Chrysalis…" She looked Jim dead in the eye. "…then everything you fought to stop back then — every horror, every war crime — it'll come back. Only worse. A hundred times worse. We won't stop it. No one will."

For a moment, Jim was utterly still. That single word — Chrysalis — seemed to light something in him, as though she'd shoved a hot poker down his throat. His jaw tensed. His eyes darkened. Jess could see the hesitation there, the weight of history pressing on his shoulders like a millstone he'd carried for decades. She didn't know what he'd seen. But she knew enough to know he believed her.

Then his nostrils flared, and his lips curled into a grim snarl.
"Aye. Fuck it," he said. "Let's stop the bastards."

Jess nodded once, sharply.

Emile unsheathed the long sword strapped to his back and held it out to Jim, eyes wide with reverence. His hands trembled slightly, not from fear, but from the raw need to put the weapon into hands he trusted.
"Here—take it. You'll need it more than me."

Jim looked down at the blade, then back to Emile. He shook his head.
"Nah, lad. That's yours now. You've earned it. I'm sure I'll find another along the way."

He gave Emile a rough pat on the shoulder, a spark of pride flickering in his tired eyes, a silent don't break, boy — not now.

Then, with a grunt, he crouched low and began moving toward the shattered gate of the arena.
"Right," he muttered. "Let's get cracking."

Behind him, Jess and Emile followed — one a storm cloaked in calm, the other a flame burning with new resolve — as chaos painted the night sky in streaks of blue and green and violet fire. The air was thick with smoke, the tang of scorched stone and burnt timber clinging to the back of their throats.

They moved low and fast, boots crunching softly over gravel, ducking beneath crumbling arches and slipping through the smoke-hazed alleys that laced through the academy grounds. Shouts and screams echoed behind them, punctuated by distant bursts of magic and the mournful wails of wounded beasts. Somewhere, far off, a building collapsed with a groan like the earth itself giving up.

Then they saw him — Castus.

He stood frozen, barely concealed in a shallow alcove. His eyes were wide, wild, fixed on the battle above as if seeing ghosts. His chest heaved with shallow breaths, and his hands trembled at his sides, useless. Sweat ran down his face in rivulets, catching the moonlight.

"Castus!" Emile hissed and darted toward him before either of the others could speak. He grabbed the boy by the arm and tugged. "We have to move!"

"Leave him!" Jess snapped, skidding to a halt and glaring back. Her tone was sharp enough to cut stone. "He'll slow us down — or worse, get us killed."

Emile turned to her, eyes hard despite the fear behind them. "I can't. I won't just leave him here. Even if he is an arsehole — he's still on our side." His voice cracked, but the steel underneath it was real.

Jess's jaw clenched. She looked ready to argue, but Jim raised a hand, already watching the shadows ahead for signs of movement. His gaze never left the treeline, his ears pricking at every scrape of claw, every echo of magic.

"If we find a safe place, we stash him there and keep moving," Jim said, voice low but firm. "No heroics. Just smart choices."

Emile gave a grateful nod and turned back to Castus, who had begun to mutter something under his breath — a prayer or a curse, maybe both. He pulled him along, steady and deliberate, like dragging someone back from the edge of a cliff.

Jim watched them for a second longer, a flicker of pride blooming in his chest. Good lad, he thought. The world hasn't burnt the heart out of you yet.
He hoped it never would.

Jess's mouth drew into a flat line, but she didn't argue further. She simply fell into step, silent but taut as a bowstring.

They moved through the broken edge of the arena, slipping into the underbrush beyond. All around them, chaos still echoed — distant spells flaring like lightning behind trees, and the panicked shouts of students fleeing into the woods. The smell of moss and churned earth mixed with the acrid tang of burning stone.

Jim paused just before the treeline, eyes scanning both ground and sky. He saw no Night Dancers chasing the students — not yet. But several ebony shapes were still streaking through the air toward Riordan, long-limbed shadows against the moonlight, moving with that eerie, silent precision that made his blood boil.

Jess caught sight of them too. "We need to pick up the pace," she said, her voice sharp with urgency, every syllable laced with the knowledge that time was a knife pressed to their throats.

Jim turned his head toward her, jaw set. "We go as far as practicable," he said, low and measured. "Run in blind and we'll end up dead. You saw what one of those bastards did the other night — in a group, they're ten times worse. I can attest to that."

She met his eyes. He didn't need to say more. He could see the fire in her — the need to do something — and he didn't blame her. If she was right, if it was this Chrysalis thing… then yeah, the stakes were apocalyptic. But eagerness would get them killed.

"Look, lass…" he said, his voice softening, almost fatherly. "Just… trust me on this. Slow and steady. You rush in, you'll get your throat opened before you even see who swung."

Jess exhaled hard through her nose, jaw tightening, then nodded once. The storm in her eyes didn't vanish, but she leashed it.

Jim gave a small grunt of approval and turned back to the trees. He stepped forward into the brush, every movement measured. Despite the chaos behind them, barely a leaf rustled beneath his boots. Behind him, Jess and Emile dragging Castus followed — quiet shadows in a forest now holding its breath.

They moved like ghosts through the dark — slow, deliberate, methodical. Ten long minutes crawled by. Jim led with the precision of a predator stalking prey. Every few steps he paused, body angled, eyes scanning, ears tuned to the whispers of night. Emile trailed, watching the older man with a quiet awe. There was no hesitation in Jim's movements, no wasted motion. He didn't look like a man moving through danger. He was danger.

Then Jim raised a fist. Emile froze, instincts sharp. Jess mirrored him, crouching low.

Through a gap in the treeline, Emile saw it. A faint blue dome shimmered in the clearing, pulsing with every ragged heartbeat of the mage inside. Shadows circled it, deliberate and patient.

As they neared, the picture sharpened. Elmsley stood at the centre, arms raised, sweat pouring, his face gaunt with strain. Beneath him, two students lay unmoving, one groaning weakly, the other still. The dome crackled, thinning at the edges.

Two Night Dancers circled, blades and claws tapping the barrier like wolves toying with a crippled stag. Their voices were serpentine, slurred with Umbar's cadence.

"Let us in, Magister," one crooned. "We'll make it quick."

"You can't hold it forever," purred the other. "Night Dancers always get in."

Jim crouched low in the brush, jaw clenched. He turned to Jess, mouthed a single word: Flank. Then to Emile: Stay. His eyes flicked to Castus — the boy still muttering, pale as bone.

Emile wanted to argue. Wanted to move. But he swallowed it. Someone had to guard the dead weight.

Jess slid into position beside Jim, giving the faintest nod. Her fingers already glowed faint violet.

Then it began.

Jim exploded from the brush, knife drawn, every ounce of his frame uncoiled into lethal momentum. It wasn't a charge. It was an execution on legs.

At the same instant Jess struck — a crack of violet energy lanced through the air, tearing into the closest Night Dancer's shoulder. The limb disintegrated in a mist of blood and smoke, the body collapsing mid-scream.

The other spun, too late. Jim slammed into them like a landslide. One hand clamped their face, the other drove the knife. Neck. Spine. Ribs. The strikes came fast, violent, without rhythm — just sheer, ugly efficiency. The Night Dancer gurgled, shrieked, clawed at him, but Jim didn't stop until the throat opened in one clean line.

The body dropped at his boots.

Jim stood over it, chest heaving, knife dripping, eyes already sweeping the dark for the next target. Jess stepped from the trees, her own face taut but steady.

Behind them, the blue dome faltered and vanished. Elmsley collapsed to one knee, wheezing, his face slick with sweat. He blinked at the carnage — the twitching corpse, the blood, the knife still wet in Jim's hand.

"…Huh," Elmsley croaked, voice raw. "Thank you, Jim."

He tried to brush the blood from his robes where Jim had steadied him, but only smeared it deeper into the fabric.

Jim didn't answer. Not yet. He stood close, nostrils flared, eyes still cold as frost, chest rising and falling like a war drum. His body hadn't got the message that the fight was over.

He looked down at the two injured students slumped near Elmsley's feet, and his voice came low, gravelled, but steady.
"You did good, Elmsley," Jim said at last. "Held longer than most would've."

The man's hands trembled as he lowered them from the fading shimmer of his barrier. Sweat dripped off his nose, streaking the ash smeared across his face. His eyes flicked up, sharp with suspicion at first — then softened, just slightly.

Jim tilted his head, catching movement at the treeline. Emile and Castus emerged from the undergrowth, the younger lad practically dragging Castus by the wrist. Castus stumbled like a puppet with broken strings, muttering under his breath, his face pale and wet with tears he didn't even try to hide.

"We've got another for you to get to safety," Jim added.

Castus's eyes lit when he saw Elmsley — wide, desperate, clinging to something familiar. He tore free from Emile's grip and sprinted toward him, throwing his arms around the older man in a crushing embrace. The boy clung to him like a drowning sailor to driftwood, fingers digging into fabric as if afraid Elmsley might vanish if he let go.

Elmsley hesitated — just for a heartbeat — then placed a steadying hand on the back of Castus's head. His jaw worked, but no words came.

"Where am I taking them?" he asked finally.

"The paddock," Jim said without pause. "Drakes there. Big ones. The kind that want to chew through some Umbar bastards. Stay close to 'em and they'll keep you alive."

Elmsley gave a sharp nod and moved quickly, bending to help the wounded students to their feet. His fine robes were torn and soaked, more blood than cloth now, but he kept moving, jaw set with a stubborn resolve.

"I'll try to sweep up any others I come across," he said, already shifting his weight to support one of the students.

Jim gave a single nod, his bloodied hand tapping once on Elmsley's shoulder. "Appreciated."

As the group began to shuffle toward the tree line, Jim called after him, voice rough but carrying:
"Y'know you're still a pompous prick."

Without looking back, Elmsley raised a hand in acknowledgment. "I know," he called, faint amusement threading through exhaustion. "But even pricks can be useful."

Then they disappeared into the woods, swallowed by shadow.

Jim exhaled through his nose, wiped his knife on his ruined trousers, and stood still. The warmth of the fight still clung to him — breath ragged, pulse hammering, hands twitching from the surge of adrenaline. He looked toward Riordan.

The academy loomed less than two hundred yards away, its towers jagged silhouettes against the firelit haze. No more Dancers in the sky. No more arcs of violet or green cracking overhead. Just the great doors, yawning wide like the maw of something ancient, daring them forward.

The wind shifted, bringing the bitter stink of smoke, scorched stone, and blood. The silence was heavier than noise, pressing in around them, the kind of quiet that only came before catastrophe.

Jim turned to Jess and Emile. "You two ready?" His voice was steady, but the edge in it was unmistakable. "No telling what we'll find in there."

Jess didn't hesitate. Her expression hardened, the mask sliding back into place — not armour this time, but resolve. "It's my job," she said. No bravado. No swagger. Just fact.

Jim's eyes softened a fraction, a silent nod of respect. Then he looked at Emile.

The boy's face was pale, jaw trembling but set, eyes lit with something more than fear. Something heavier. Older.

"They… they ruined my life," Emile said. His voice shook, but the words were solid. "I need this."

Jim studied him for a beat longer, then nodded. "Good enough."

The three of them turned back toward Riordan, its shadow spilling long across the grass. Whatever waited inside — answers, nightmares, ghosts — they would face it together.

And this time, Jim wasn't walking in for someone else's war.
This time, he was walking in for his own.