Arcanum Academy's North Courtyard was quiet past midnight. Only moonlight washed the marble walkways, painting silver patterns across the still fountains and slumbering trees. Most students were asleep.
But not Kaela.
She crouched in the training circle, her twin daggers stabbed into the stone floor, breath steady, shoulders tense.
Tonight was the anniversary of the Culling.
She didn't need a calendar to remind her. Her body remembered. Her blood remembered. The night her entire village was burned by human hunters who saw beastkin as threats, not people. She'd survived by clawing through the ash and hiding under her mother's corpse.
She hadn't cried then. And she wouldn't cry now.
---
She didn't hear Riku approach.
"You always train at ungodly hours, or is this your version of sleepwalking?"
She didn't turn. "Didn't ask you to follow me."
"You didn't ask me to stop either."
He walked past her, sat by the edge of the ring. For a moment, silence stretched between them.
Riku stared up at the stars. "I saw her again. The woman from the vision. The one who marked me."
Kaela pulled her daggers free and began cleaning them. "She give you any answers this time?"
"No. Just more riddles. Apparently I'm a 'fulcrum.' Whatever that means."
Kaela gave a short, humorless laugh. "It means you're the one who breaks when the pressure builds."
---
Riku leaned forward. "Why are you really out here?"
She hesitated. Then:
"Today marks ten years."
He didn't need to ask what she meant. Her tone told him everything.
Kaela turned to him, moonlight catching the scar under her left eye. "They came at dawn. Slaughtered everything with a tail, a fang, or ears like mine. Said we were infected. 'Too wild to be trusted.'"
Riku looked away, ashamed of his world and its echoes.
"I was the only one who made it out," she whispered. "The only one they missed."
"You didn't survive by accident, Kaela. You're still here because you're strong. And no one decides who you are now except you."
---
From the shadows near the courtyard's edge, Professor Elrin watched them silently.
The elf's long silver hair shimmered faintly, his eyes like old glass. He'd once fought in the Great Wars, and though most students feared his cold aura, he understood pain better than he let on.
Tonight, he saw something in Kaela's stillness and Riku's presence beside her—two threads pulled toward a common destiny.
He turned away before they noticed him and vanished into the halls.
---
The wind picked up. Kaela stood and offered Riku one of her daggers.
"Train with me."
He blinked. "Right now?"
"You've got a glowing mark and apocalyptic dreams. What's more dangerous—me or your nightmares?"
He chuckled and stood, taking the dagger. "Fine. But if I get sliced, I'm blaming your trauma."
She cracked a smile. "Then don't get sliced."
---
Their blades clashed under the pale moon. Not like enemies. Not like sparring partners either.
Like two people learning how not to break.