Aurelia POV
Aurelia stood motionless as the crowd thinned, her silver hair catching stray beams of enchanted sunlight from the tower above. Around her, conversation buzzed—scattered, reverent, awestruck—but none of it reached her.
Her eyes were fixed on the space where he had stood.
The way he moved. That stance. The tension in his off-hand as a counterbalance to the blade. She knew it. Felt it before in that strange, brutal elegance of SwordWannabe—the partner who bested her once and became her obsession ever since.
But this wasn't the Crucible. This wasn't the Ashglass Arena.
This was real life. In the real world.
And he was here.
She reached into the pocket of her uniform coat and slipped out her personal communicator—a sleek obsidian slab inset with a thread of spellsteel running down the side. It shimmered softly, sensing her mana signature. Connected instantly.
"Liora," she said.
The assistant's voice was immediate. "Yes, Lady Aurelia?"
"I need a name," Aurelia said. Her voice was low, controlled. "There was an incident in the eastern courtyard. A student fought Korrin Drestal and beat him like the thug that he is. I want to know him."
"His name?"
"Everything," Aurelia clarified. "Enrollment file. Dorm assignment. Combat class, casting aptitude, realm access records—everything."
There was a pause, then: "Understood. I'll escalate the request and pull public data first. Estimated timeframe?"
"One hour."
She ended the call without waiting for acknowledgment.
Then she turned.
Half a dozen lower-year students lingered nearby—still buzzing from the fight. One of them, a boy with dyed emerald hair and a glowing sash that pulsed in time with his heartbeat, was reenacting a part of the duel with exaggerated gestures.
Aurelia stepped forward.
The moment they saw her, the air shifted. Two of them stopped mid-laugh. The green-haired boy straightened, color draining from his face.
She let them squirm for exactly two seconds.
Then: "Did anyone record it?"
They blinked.
"I—uh—yeah! Yeah, I got the whole thing!" the emerald-haired boy said quickly, yanking a memory crystal out of his pocket. He activated the projection—a shaky but vivid holo of the fight flickered into the air between them.
Aurelia stepped closer, eyes narrowing as she watched it again.
It wasn't just his technique.
It was the steel behind it. The calm. The refusal to be theatrical.
He didn't posture. He didn't grandstand.
He dismantled.
And when Korrin went down, he didn't gloat. He just checked on the kid and walked away. Like it was a regular occurrence.
"Send it to me," Aurelia said.
The boy nodded furiously, syncing the file to her communicator with shaking hands. "It was wild. He—he just tanked a shock spell and then cracked Korrin's wand! That guy's insane."
"Transfer student, maybe?" someone else added. "I've never seen him before."
"Did you see his sword? Didn't even have any enhancements. It wasn't better than a training blade."
Aurelia tuned them out.
Her communicator buzzed—the file received.
She opened it again, more slowly this time. Watched frame by frame. Paused on the exact moment he disarmed Korrin. Rewound the part where he shifted his weight to absorb the brunt of a shock spell rather than dodge. It wasn't a mistake. It was a choice. A brutal, tactical, personal choice. Yet he tanked it—and somehow grounded the spell.
She sent the file to Liora with a short tag:
"This is the one."
Then added:
"I want everything on him. Not just academic. Social. Financial. Who his parents are, who they aren't, where he sleeps and what he eats. Favorite foods, family, romantic engagement, likes, dislike If he's ever even looked at a realm gate, I want to know what kind."
The assistant responded almost instantly.
"Understood. This may require private sources."
"Then use them."
Aurelia lowered the device and drew in a breath.
She hadn't been like this in years. She hadn't cared like this in years.
And it wasn't because she'd finally seen someone humble one of the highbloods who deserved it. That was satisfying, sure. But it wasn't the point.
It was that he made her feel the same way SwordWannabe did during their spars.
He made her forget she was Aurelia Vael Taranis.