Over the next few weeks, I completely dedicated myself to training.

  Emberheart took over all of Silvani's classes, which meant he had no time for my private lessons. At first, I'd been disappointed. But it also meant I had even more free time to dedicate to figuring out how to help her.

  Mana Studies without Silvani felt different in ways I hadn't expected. She'd had this ability to make every concept feel relevant, to turn every lesson into an example we could immediately understand and use. Her classes had always felt like they were progressing, building toward something real.

  Emberheart's approach was more straightforward. Here's what you need to do. Here's how you do it. Less explanation about the why, more focus on the practical execution. It wasn't better or worse, just different. And it made me realize how much I'd taken Silvani's teaching style for granted.

  Reactive Spellcasting was almost the same, though Emberheart threw fewer water balloons at us than Silvani had. Which meant more time to actually develop our techniques instead of just dodging projectiles. In the end, it balanced out.

  I continued my Monday sessions with Lina in her room, though I was starting to find her methodical approach frustrating.

  "Okay, now try writing the rule with 'this' instead of 'the,'" she'd say, notebook open and quill ready.

  "Lina, I really don't think the specific article matters."

  "We won't know until we test it! This is science, Kai. We need to be thorough."

  She was making me test specific wording, grammatical structures, and different mediums for writing the rules. It was useful for understanding the theory behind my ability, sure. But it wasn't getting me any closer to healing Silvani.

  So I started researching on my own.

  It was faster, if riskier. Sometimes things went wrong—like the time I accidentally made my desk immovable. But I managed to fix every mistake to a satisfying degree, and I was learning more in a few hours alone than in entire sessions with Lina.

  I felt bad about it, but I didn't have time to waste on testing whether "the object is blue" worked differently than "this object is blue."

  Weekends became my only real breaks. Saturdays I continued my politics lessons with Aurora, though they'd evolved into something less formal. I was usually too exhausted from the week to absorb complex political theory, so we mostly just talked. About the academy, about her family expectations, about nothing in particular.

  It was nice. Normal, almost.

  Sundays I just rested. Sometimes I'd hang out with whoever was available—usually Erick, occasionally Lina if she wasn't buried in research.

  Progress on Silvani's condition was slow. She remained stable in the medical wing, whatever treatment Professor Greystar was using managing to keep the corruption from advancing. It just passively consumed her mana as her body generated it, but left her physical form intact.

  I visited when I could. She still looked like she was just sleeping, peaceful and quiet in a way that felt fundamentally wrong for her.

  Anya's brother also didn’t make much progress when I checked on him too. Every visit was the same. He'd just lie there, staring at the ceiling with empty eyes, showing no interest in anything happening around him. Anya would sit beside his bed in silence, Serin nowhere to be seen.

  I wanted to help him too. But his situation was much more complicated.

  I wasn't the only one training harder. Everyone seemed to be making an effort in their own way. The whole academy felt tense, like another attack could happen at any moment. Students walked in groups more often. Teachers patrolled the corridors with greater frequency.

  My own training did yield interesting results, at least.

  I finally managed to learn how to control the orb properly. Moving it around, making it follow me, even getting it to orbit at different speeds and distances. It was starting to feel less like a dead weight and more like an actual weapon.

  And with Lina's help, despite my frustration with her pace, we'd discovered something crucial about my powers.

  I actually had two different abilities working together.

  The first was the power to create rules that reality would follow. That part I'd known about.

  The second was the power to translate my will into ancient script automatically. Which meant that when I wrote rules in ancient script, it wasn't using my exact wording. It was translating my actual intentions into the proper symbols.

  "This is huge!" Lina had said when we figured it out, practically vibrating with excitement. "It means you're not limited by your understanding of ancient script. Your power understands what you want and writes it correctly!"

  "Does that mean I don't need to worry about wording as much?"

  "Well... you still need to worry about unintended consequences. But at least you don't have to worry about the script itself being wrong."

  It wasn't enough for Lina to stop worrying about me causing a magical catastrophe. But it was enough for me to feel slightly more confident.

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  Healing Silvani, however, was proving more difficult than I'd initially expected.

  The corruption inside her wasn't temporary. It behaved like the runes we'd found—self-sustaining and regenerating. Even if I removed the corruption completely, it would just come back whenever her body produced new mana.

  I'd tested variations. "Silvani has no corruption." "The corruption inside Silvani is removed." "Silvani's mana is pure."

  They all worked temporarily. But within minutes, sometimes seconds, the corruption would return.

  The only alternative I could think of was maintaining a constant rule that her body didn't produce corrupted mana. But that would essentially make her powerless, her magic constantly being purified before it could even form properly. She'd be alive, but she wouldn't be Silvani anymore.

  That wasn't acceptable.

  To help prepare for whatever came next—and to distract myself from constant studying—I also joined a dueling club.

  It was run by students from Emberheart's Magical Combat class who wanted to practice in a more practical setting than classroom exercises. They were all B-rank or higher, most of them second or third years.

  I was accepted immediately, which probably had more to do with my association with Aurora than my actual skill.

  "So, is Aurora really as strong as they say?" someone would ask between matches.

  "Does she ever talk about the competition?" another would wonder while we waited our turns.

  It became clear pretty quickly why they'd been so eager to let an unranked first-year join their club.

  Still, the practice was useful. I was getting better at moving the orb while casting spells, learning to split my attention between multiple tasks. And I used the sessions to practice writing rules in the air without actually channeling mana into them, just to see if it was possible to do the motions faster.

  The Prince also came back to the academy during the third week.

  But something had clearly changed.

  He wasn't talking to me at all anymore. Besides a few long looks from across the dining hall, he didn't even comment on Aurora sitting with us during lunch. No challenges, no subtle insults, no political maneuvering.

  Whatever had happened during his visit to the emperor had given him something else to focus on.

  "He's been weird lately," Erick observed one day. "Usually he at least makes some passive aggressive comment when I walk by. Now he just ignores me."

  "Maybe he's finally realized you're not worth his time," Lina suggested.

  "Or maybe something big is happening we don't know about," Aurora said quietly.

  That was the most concerning possibility.

  The fragile peace that had settled over the academy lasted a bit more than a month.

  It ended during lunch on what had seemed like a normal Wednesday.

  We were sitting at our usual table—me, Aurora, Lina, and Erick. Mary had stopped joining us regularly after the Prince returned, probably to avoid any appearance of divided loyalty. Anya rarely came to lunch at all, spending most of her time either in classes or at her brother's bedside.

  We'd been talking about our morning classes, Erick complaining about a particularly boring lecture on magical history, when Nico and Mira appeared.

  They didn't ask if they could sit. Just pulled out chairs and sat down, their expressions serious enough that our conversation died immediately.

  "What's wrong?" Aurora asked, picking up on their tension instantly.

  Nico glanced around the dining hall, checking who was nearby. Then he leaned in slightly.

  "The academy knows who attacked Silvani."

  The words hit like a physical blow. I felt my hands clench under the table.

  "Who?" I asked before I could stop myself.

  Mira shook her head quickly. "Not here. And not... it's complicated."

  "What does that mean?" Erick leaned forward.

  "It means they're being careful," Nico said quietly. "They don't want whoever's behind this to know they've figured it out."

  "Behind this?" Lina's voice was barely above a whisper. "You mean there's more than just the person who did it?"

  "Corruption mages don't work alone," Mira said. "At least, that's what the teachers think. If they arrest the attacker now, the others might disappear. Or worse, strike again."

  Aurora's expression had gone carefully neutral. "So they're watching. Gathering information."

  "Exactly," Nico confirmed. "The director wants to understand the full network before making a move. It's strategic, but..."

  "But Silvani's still lying there," I said, anger creeping into my voice.

  "I know." Mira looked genuinely distressed. "Believe me, I know how awful it sounds. But if they act too soon and miss the bigger threat..."

  "Then more people could end up like her," Aurora finished.

  We sat in tense silence for a moment.

  "Who else knows?" I asked. "About the attacker's identity?"

  "The director, Greystar, maybe one or two other teachers," Nico said. "They're keeping it very quiet. Even most of the faculty don't know yet."

  "Emberheart doesn't know," Mira added. "They're specifically not telling him."

  That made sense. If Emberheart knew who hurt Silvani, there wouldn't be any careful investigation. There would just be immediate action.

  "Can you tell us who it is?" Lina asked nervously. "Or is that too dangerous?"

  Nico and Mira exchanged a look.

  "Not here," Nico said finally. "Too many people. But we can talk tonight. Somewhere private."

  "I know a place" Aurora said. Giving us the directions to an abandoned classroom.

  We all nodded in agreement.

  Nico and Mira stood to leave, but Mira paused, looking at us.

  "Just… Be prepared. You won’t like the answer at all."

  They left, disappearing into the crowd of students.

  "Well," Erick said after a moment. "That was ominous."

  "They're right though," Aurora said quietly. "If there's a larger group of corruption mages, we need to be smart about this."

  "I hate waiting," I muttered.

  "So do I." Aurora gathered her things. "But we don't have a choice. Tonight we'll learn who it was, and then we can decide what to do."

  You won’t like the answer.

  Who could it possibly be?

  The afternoon classes dragged by. I couldn't focus, my mind constantly wandering back to the conversation. Who could have attacked Silvani? And why would the corruption mages risk infiltrating the academy?

  By the time evening came, I was restless with nervous energy.

  The others were already gathered when I arrived. Aurora, Lina, Erick, Nico, and Mira, all waiting in the empty room.

  I closed the door behind me and looked at Nico.

  "Okay. Tell us who it was."