The tension from the hallway didn't dissipate. It condensed in their dorm room, thick and silent. Raven sat at the small desk, a heavy tome on elemental affinities open but unread. Wren fidgeted relentlessly, his new daggers a dark blur in his hands as he practiced flipping them, the sound of blades clearing leather the only noise.
Kael stood by the window, his back to the room, a statue watching the courtyard. He had not spoken since returning.
Adam sat on his bunk, trying to push the image of the smirking instructor from his mind. He needed to focus on something he could control. He turned his attention inward, to the new presence within him, Draconic Vitality.
The knowledge was instinctual. He could feel the potential channel, a direct conduit between his mana pool and his life force. He focused on understanding its shape. The principle was simple: sacrifice magical energy for physical repair. He tried to gauge the cost. It felt hungry. Like pouring water into a cracked vessel. It would hold, but it was a blunt instrument. A last resort.
Across the room, Wren finally sheathed the daggers with a sharp sigh. "Okay, the silence is officially worse than the weirdness. Someone say something. Anything."
"Your daggers seem to have taken the enhancement well," Raven said, his voice too measured. He did not look up from his unread page.
"Don't," Wren snapped, standing up. "Don't do that. Don't talk about daggers like we didn't all just see... that." He gestured vaguely toward the door.
"What would you prefer to discuss?" Raven asked, finally looking up, his expression tight.
"How about why Kael looked like he was going to vomit in the hall? How about who that guy was?" Wren's voice rose. "We're a team, right? Or is that only when we're fighting beasts? When it's a person, we just get silence?"
Kael did not turn from the window.
The door opened then, and Lira stepped in. She had changed, her hair damp. She took in the scene, the tension vibrating in the air. "I could hear you down the hall," she said flatly, closing the door. "So, are we talking about it now, or just shouting around it?"
"Kael isn't talking," Wren said, throwing his hands up.
"Maybe he needs a minute," Lira said, but her eyes were on Kael's rigid back, concerned.
"We don't have a minute!" Wren exploded. "If some creep from his past is here, wearing an instructor's robe, and it scares him that much, what does that mean for us? He's our fifth! If he's in trouble, we're in it too!"
"That's enough, Wren," Raven said, standing.
"No, it's not! He walks in here, white as a sheet, tells us it's nothing, and we're just supposed to—"
"He smirked."
Adam's voice cut through Wren's tirade. Quiet, but certain. All eyes turned to him.
He was looking at Kael's back. "The instructor. When he bumped you. He didn't look surprised or angry. He smirked. Like he'd been waiting for it."
Kael's shoulders tightened. A minute tremor ran through his frame. He slowly turned from the window. His face was still pale, but his eyes were now dark with a storm of emotions: fear, fury, and a desperate warning.
"You don't know what you're talking about," Kael said, his voice low and dangerous.
"I know what I saw," Adam replied, holding his gaze. "It wasn't an accident. He meant to do that. To you. Why?"
"I said, it's not your concern!" Kael's control snapped. He took a step forward, his usual coolness shattered into sharp, anxious fragments. "This isn't a beast you can hit with your sword, Adam! This isn't a trial you can power through! This is... This is old. And it's dangerous. And the best thing, the only thing, you can all do is stay out of it!"
The outburst left a ringing silence. They had never heard Kael raise his voice. They had never seen this raw, terrified anger.
Lira stepped between them, physically placing herself in the middle of the room. "Okay. Everyone, stop." She looked at Kael. "We're scared for you. That's all. You don't have to tell us anything. But don't ask us to pretend nothing happened."
Kael looked at her, then at Raven, at Wren, finally at Adam. The fight drained out of him, leaving behind a profound exhaustion. The wall was back up, but it was cracked. "Just... trust me. Please. Asking questions is how you get noticed by people you do not want to notice you. Let it go."
He shouldered past them, left the room, and the door clicked shut behind him.
The remaining four stood in the wreckage of the argument.
"Well," Wren muttered, slumping onto his bunk. "That went great."
"He's hiding something to protect us," Raven said, though he sounded unsure.
"He's scared," Adam corrected quietly. "And whatever he's scared of, it's inside the academy now."
They spent the evening in fractured quiet. They went to the cafeteria, pushed food around their plates. Kael did not join them. Later, Lira returned to her own room. The three young men prepared for bed, the silence between them heavy with unspoken fears.
As the lights went out, Adam lay in the dark. The image of the smirk was etched behind his eyes. A new, grim understanding was forming. The challenges here were not just monsters and trials. They were people, secrets, and old shadows wearing new robes. A deep, instinctual certainty settled in his gut: he needed to find out who Tobey was, and what he wanted. The path forward was no longer just about getting stronger. It was about seeing the threats hidden in plain sight.