The yard had gone quiet.
The teacher's eyes moved from the fractured ground to Kal's clenched hands. No scorch marks. No residue. No recoil.
It wasn't destroyed, she thought. Mana doesn't vanish like that.
Her gaze slid, slow and measuring, toward Lucien.
Absorbed, she realized. The same way Miles's wings collapsed. Someone drank the spell.
Lucien shifted under her stare, lips already twisting.
"Teacher," he said quickly, voice pitched small. "He's teasing me."
Kal stepped forward at once. "That's not true. He started it. Ask anyone."
The teacher closed her eyes for half a breath.
Children, she thought. Always noise when fear begins to show.
She took Kal's arm and drew him toward Lucien, firm fingers, controlled strength.
"Enough," she said aloud. "Say sorry. Both of you."
She held them between her palms, forcing stillness into their small frames.
"Sorry," Kal muttered first.
Lucien shrugged. "Yeah. Sorry." His eyes never met Kal's.
The teacher released them, breath leaving her heavier than it should have.
This one… she thought, watching Lucien already turn away.
Lucien ran back to Aaxina and Caelen, laughter too loud, too fast.
A shadow crossed the yard.
A knight approached, long coat whispering against grass. He leaned close.
Words brushed her ear.
Her smile died where it stood.
She straightened at once and gathered the students with a sharp clap.
The lessons did not end after that day.
They multiplied.
Days folded into weeks. Each morning, the same circle.
A stone was dragged before them, tall enough to block half the children's view.
"Watch," the teacher said.
Her body shimmered.
Mana kissed her skin. She struck.
The stone exploded.
Dust rolled like smoke.
"This," she said calmly, "is enhancement."
She moved beneath a tree. The shimmer withdrew, flowing upward, condensing into her eyes.
Leaves fell.
She caught every one.
A gasp rose from the children.
"Wahhh!"
Fists flew.
Some stones shattered. Some cracked. Some barely chipped.
Kal's split but did not break.
"Ah..." He clenched his fist. "I can't."
He breathed, forced everything inward.
The stone gave way like clay.
Virelle ran forward. "Teacher!"
The woman knelt. "Yes?"
"What happens," Virelle asked, eyes bright, "if someone punches us with mana while we're focusing it all in our eyes?"
The teacher smiled, thinking.
"Then," she said lightly, "you die."
She winked.
Virelle swallowed. "Then how do we fight?"
"Later," the teacher said, resting a hand on her head. "After your test. After you advance." Her gaze hardened. "Magic isn't beautiful. It's worse than ghost stories."
Her eyes found Sonia.
"What are you doing?"
Sonia startled. "Listening," she said, smiling too fast.
Sweat traced her temple.
Kal noticed.
Then Miles called him away.
A bird landed beside Kal.
Its shadow stretched long across the field.
Kal smiled.
He stepped into it.
The world tilted.
He sank.
"Miles...!"
The bird startled and took flight.
Kal clung to darkness as the ground dropped away.
"Tch," he muttered. "I just wanted to give him a ride."
"I can step into any shadow," Kal muttered, "but control only works on tiny animals
and entering the shadow shuts off my other ability."
Below, trees rushed past.
He aimed for one.
That was when he saw Sonia.
She sat beneath another tree, drinking water.
The bird circled.
A voice rose,cold, and wrong.
"Sitting alone."
Sonia froze.
Her legs would not move.
Her breath vanished.
A hand closed around her.
"Got you."
Her mouth was covered. She was lifted from the ground.
Tears soaked into grass.
The bird shrieked and dove, pecking at the man's head.
"What the...!"
A punch.
Feathers burst.
Blood darkened the dirt.
The shadow shattered.
Kal erupted from it, gasping.
The man smiled. "What are you doing here?"
Kal tried to move.
His body would not listen.
"I...I can't..." His voice broke. "Mom..."
The man tilted his head. "Since you saw me…"
But Sonia funneled her mana into her teeth and bit down on his hand, hard.
"Tch... you little shit!" he yelped, dropping Sonia.
"Ahhhhh...help!" Sonia screamed at the top of her lungs.
Knights came running. The teacher with them.
"Shit! Next time..."
The man vanished.
"What happened?" the teacher asked, kneeling as Sonia sobbed and Kal shook.
Miles pushed through. "What happened?"
"A man," Sonia whispered, voice trembling. "He tried to take me, but Kal appeared."
Lucien burst out laughing. "That's it? Pathetic. If it were me, I'd have broken the man's arm before he even blinked."
Aaxina leaned forward, eyes sharp with amusement, then pointed outright. "Teacher, look. Kal wet his pants."
A ripple of laughter spread through the room.
Lucien wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. "A hero who pisses himself. Impressive." He tilted his head toward Kal. "Did the scary man hurt you too badly?"
Aaxina smirked. "Careful, Lucien. He might cry next." She clicked her tongue mockingly. "All that talk about shadows, and this is what comes out when things get real?"
Laughter rippled.
"No," Kal cried. "I didn't!"
"It's fine," a knight said. "We'll find him."
The second knight stepped forward.
He fell.
So did the first.
A voice rose behind them.
"Did you really think," the man said, "I would leave without Sonia?"
The teacher turned.
Blood bloomed at her lips.
She collapsed before she hit the grass.