Chapter 106: The Duke's Assessment
Kaelen did not cross the gap. He did not need to. As the last vestiges of the shadow-constructs bled back into the stone, a new sound echoed from the direction of the onyx staircase—not the silent flow of shadows, but the solid, rhythmic tread of armored boots and the murmur of tense, adult voices. Torchlight, warm and yellow and utterly foreign in this place of cold blue and black, spilled from the staircase opening onto our ledge.
A rescue party. Knights in the livery of the Academy guard, their swords drawn and faces grim under their helms. Two senior professors—Master Burke, the head of combat arts, and the stern Archmage Valerius, his hands crackling with suppressed defensive magic. They fanned out behind Kaelen, their eyes widening at the scene of carnage on the ledge: the blood, the pale, injured students, and the shattered remnants of practice weapons.
But Kaelen did not look at them. His gaze remained fixed across the abyss. On me.
