The next few weeks unfolded like a gentle dream, passing in a haze of golden sunlight and cool evening breezes. Time at the academy felt different. Slower, yet slipping away faster than sand through fingers.
Seyana often told herself she would keep her distance. She reminded herself of her father's sharp eyes, the expectations of the Solaris court, and the dangerous fragility of her position. I will just focus on my studies, she would promise herself in the mirror every morning.
Yet, somehow, like a compass needle finding north, she always ended up near Kairos.
It wasn't intentional. They didn't plan secret rendezvous. It was just gravity. If she was in the library, he was two tables away. If she was in the garden, he was walking along the path. In those quiet spaces between lessons and meals, everything changed.
One late afternoon, when the sky was streaked with orange and violet, the academy announced exhibition matches for the first-year students. It wasn't a graded exam, but a tradition to test practical application in a chaotic environment.
Students gathered around the raised wooden stage in the central training grounds. The air buzzed with excitement and the smell of roasted nuts from a nearby vendor. Instructors moved through the crowd, pairing volunteers based on their magical signatures.
Kairos stood at the edge of the crowd, trying his best to look invisible. He stood with Luna and Velanor, arms crossed, leaning against a weapon rack.
Seyana watched from the opposite side of the field. She stood with Raksha, her hands pressed together unconsciously, her eyes scanning the crowd until they found him. He looked calm, bored even, while everyone else was jittery with nerves.
Kairos didn't raise his hand to volunteer. He shifted his weight, looking ready to slip away to the dorms.
But that didn't stop the forces of chaos otherwise known as his friends from dragging him into it.
"Oh come on, Vedaryan!" Velanor shouted, grabbing Kairos by the shoulder and shoving him forward into the line of sight of the instructor.
Kairos stumbled, glaring back at him. "Velanor, I swear..!!"
"If you don't participate." Velanor whispered loudly, a wicked grin splitting his face, "I'm going to tell Raksha about how you spent twenty minutes practicing your 'cool smile' in front of the mirror this morning so you could.."
Kairos slapped a hand over Velanor's mouth instantly, his ears turning pink. "I did no such thing."
He stepped into the ring immediately, preferring physical combat to social humiliation.
Luna stood nearby, watching the scene with a faint, weary sigh. "The loyalty between friends is dead." he observed dryly. "Sold for the price of entertainment."
The instructor looked at Kairos, then scanned the crowd for a suitable match. He pointed to a senior student a third-year known for brute strength and earth-enhancement magic.
The crowd buzzed with sudden interest. The senior was twice Kairos's width, with arms like tree trunks.
"That's not fair." Raksha whispered to Seyana, looking worried. "That guy breaks rocks with his head for fun."
Many expected Kairos to be crushed. He was lean, unassuming, and had a reputation for silence rather than power.
The match began.
The senior didn't waste time. He roared, channeling mana into his skin until it took on the sheen of granite, and charged with unbelievable speed for someone his size. The ground shook with each of his steps.
Seyana flinched, her breath hitching.
But Kairos didn't move. He stood perfectly still, hands hanging loosely at his sides, until the very last second.
Just as the senior's fist heavy enough to shatter bone came crashing down, Kairos simply shifted his feet. It wasn't a jump; it was a glide. He let the attack pass him by inches, moving like a flowing stream around a jagged rock.
The senior stumbled, carried forward by his own momentum. He spun around, angry now, and launched a flurry of strikes.
Kairos's movements were smooth, controlled, and utterly emotionless. He dodged a hook with a tilt of his head. He evaded a kick with a twist of his waist. He wasn't fighting force with force; he was fighting force with emptiness.
Whispers rose among the students like a rising tide.
"Is he holding back?"
"No… look at his eyes. He's reading every move before it happens."
The senior grew frustrated. His face turned red, his mana flaring wildly. He swung fiercely, a clumsy, rage-fueled haymaker aimed at Kairos's head.
Kairos didn't dodge this time. He stepped into the guard. He blocked the arm with his forearm, deflecting the force, and then tapped his opponent lightly in the center of the chest with the blunt end of his training sword.
Tap. It wasn't a hard strike. It looked like a friendly pat. But he had hit a pressure point, disrupting the mana flow to the senior's lungs.
The senior froze. His eyes went wide. The air left him in a rush, and his granite skin faded back to normal flesh. He dropped to one knee, wheezing, unable to continue.
The match ended like a whisper. Not loud, not violent, just... finished.
For a second, there was silence. Then, the audience cheered. They cheered not for the violence, but for the artistry. Even without showing his full strength, Kairos had displayed something undeniable.. a mastery that went beyond simple school lessons.
He didn't bow to the crowd. He didn't smile at Velanor.
He only looked at Seyana.
Across the chaotic field, through the dust and the cheering students, his eyes found hers. They locked onto each other. Neither of them smiled. Neither of them looked away. It was a moment of recognition an acknowledgement that in this crowd of hundreds, they were the only two people who truly saw each other.
And that became a memory neither would forget. That night, the atmosphere of the academy shifted from competitive to spiritual. It was the night of the Star-Fall Lantern Festival. It wasn't a grand, royal event like in Solaris, just a local tradition of the Zephyros region.
The courtyard was transformed. Mana lights were dimmed, allowing the natural light of the moon and stars to take over. Students gathered in clusters, holding paper lanterns inscribed with runes of flight.
"Come on!" Raksha pulled Seyana toward the center of the field, her face glowing in the candlelight. "You need to enjoy it before you go home next week! Solaris doesn't have festivals like this, do they?"
"No." Seyana admitted, allowing herself to be dragged. "Solaris festivals are… formal. Structured. We watch fireworks from a balcony. We don't participate."
"Well, tonight you participate." Raksha declared, handing her a lantern and a small brush. "Write a wish. Light it. Let it go."
Luna and Velanor were already lighting their lanterns nearby. The warm glow illuminated their faces.
Kairos stood a little to the side, looking unusually perplexed. He was holding his lantern in one hand and a ribbon in the other, struggling to tie the knot that would hold the mana crystal in place. His fingers, so nimble with a sword earlier that day, seemed clumsy with the delicate string.
Velanor, never one to miss an opportunity, immediately swooped in.
"Look at this!" Velanor announced to the group, his voice dripping with mock pity. "For a guy who defeats seniors like it's nothing, you're being absolutely destroyed by a piece of string. It's tragic, really."
"Shut up and tie it." Kairos replied, his voice tight with embarrassment, though there was no real anger in it.
Velanor sighed dramatically, taking the lantern. "There, my son. You're welcome. What would you do without me?"
"Live a peaceful life." Kairos muttered.
Everyone laughed, the sound mingling with the crackle of magic. The sky soon filled with glowing lanterns, floating upward like soft, drifting stars. The darkness was pushed back by hundreds of tiny, warm lights.
Students closed their eyes, whispering wishes before releasing their lanterns.
Raksha held hers with both hands, her expression devout. "Let me protect the people I love." she whispered, releasing the paper. It bobbed uncertainly before catching the wind and soaring up.
Velanor grinned, releasing his with a flourish. "Let fate tremble before my confidence."
Luna released his silently, whispering something without anyone hearing, his face a mask of calm mystery.
And Seyana… she stared at her lantern for a long time. The paper felt fragile in her hands. She thought of her father. She thought of the crown. She thought of the boy standing a few feet away.
She released it without a word, watching it join the river of light in the sky.
Kairos watched her quietly. The orange glow of the lanterns reflected in his dark eyes. He lifted his own lantern, the one Velanor had tied for him.
He whispered his wish without looking away from her.
Seyana noticed his gaze. She stepped closer, the noise of the crowd fading into the background.
"What did you wish for?" she asked softly.
Kairos shook his head lightly, a small, secretive smile playing on his lips. "If I tell you, it won't come true."
She smiled back, a genuine, unguarded smile. "Fine. I won't force you."
But inside, his wish echoed in his mind, louder than the cheers of the students.
I wish I can stand beside you forever. Not in secret… not in shadows… but freely.
That wish burned brighter than any lantern in the sky.
When the festival ended, the courtyard slowly emptied. Raksha, yawning and exhausted from the excitement, went to her room early. Luna and Velanor had wandered off to argue about whose lantern had flown the highest.
This left Seyana alone in the courtyard.
She sat on the edge of a stone fountain, the water reflecting the few remaining lights in the sky. The air had turned cold, a biting breeze coming down from the mountains. It brushed her hair across her face, sticking to her lip.
She reached up to slide it behind her ear, and when she turned, Kairos appeared beside her.
He moved so quietly she never heard him coming.
"You're not going in?" he asked.
"Just needed fresh air." she replied, looking back up at the sky. "And… I don't want the night to end. Going back to my room means waking up tomorrow closer to leaving."
He nodded and stood beside her without saying anything. He didn't try to fix it. He didn't tell her it would be okay. He just offered his presence, a silent anchor in her shifting world.
For a while, they simply watched the last few lanterns fade one by one into the vast darkness of the heavens.
Then, Seyana spoke, her voice barely louder than the wind. "Do you ever get afraid of the future, Kairos?"
Kairos answered without hesitation. "Yes."
She turned to him, blinking. That surprised her. He was always the steady one, the calm one, the one who caught teacups before they fell and defeated giants without sweating.
"What do you fear?" she asked.
Kairos looked down at his hands, the hands that could wield a sword and channel wind, but struggled with a simple ribbon.
"That no matter how strong I become," he said slowly, measuring each word, "it won't be enough to protect the people I love."
Her breath caught in her throat. She looked at his profile—the sharp jaw, the serious brow. She didn't know if he meant her. She hoped he did. She feared he did.
"What do you do with a fear like that?" she whispered. "It feels… paralyzing."
He looked straight ahead, his eyes hardening with a resolve that made him look much older than a first-year student.
"I don't let fear decide the ending." he said. "I decide it."
Her heart trembled. It wasn't just a brave thing to say; it was a challenge to fate itself. She wanted to be that brave. She wanted to decide her own ending, too not to be a chapter written by her father, but a story written by her own hand.
But she didn't know how. Not yet.
They stood there for a long time, saying nothing, letting the silence knit them together.
Eventually, Seyana whispered, the confession slipping out before she could stop it.
"You're becoming someone I can't forget."
Kairos didn't react with shock. He didn't startle. He didn't answer immediately.
Because he didn't need to.
He looked at her, and in the silence, the answer was loud and clear. He already knew… that she was becoming someone he could never forget either.
And that memory would remain.
Long after the academy gates closed behind them.
Long after the battles that were yet to come.
Long after the world changed and tore them apart only to stitch them back together.
Chapter 5 ends - Memory remains always!