Valerian Academy. Midnight
---
The fourth rose came silently.
No rustle. No breeze. Just... there.
Lying on Ivana's pillow like it had been growing from her dreams.
It wasn't black or white this time.
It was blood red, almost brown at the edges like it had bled out and started to die.
There was no note. No thread.
Only a word whispered behind her eyes:
Cassian.
She blinked.
Where had that come from?
"Cassian," she whispered aloud and the sound shook something in her chest.
Not fear. Not memory.
Something older. Deeper. Like grief.
She pressed her palm to her heart.
Her body ached like it had lost someone.
But her mind? Her mind didn't recognize the name at all.
By morning, the rose still sat untouched on her nightstand.
And the name Cassian still echoed beneath her ribs.
Ivana couldn't explain it.
She just knew it mattered. Like how you know when a dream wasn't just a dream.
She skipped her lecture. Again.
The restricted archive was easy to break into if you knew what to look for and Ivana always did. Even when she didn't know how she knew.
Something inside her unlocked the room like it had done it before.
She scanned the yellowed yearbooks.
Old rosters. Forgotten ledgers.
Nothing.
Then a torn slip of paper fell from a hollow book spine. A single name, faded but legible:
Cassian Vale
Affiliation: [REDACTED]
Status: Withdrawn — Presumed Deceased
Valerian Protocol: Memory Block Applied
Ivana froze.
Memory block?
Her fingers tightened around the page as a chill ran through her veins.
She hadn't imagined the name.
She'd been made to forget it.
"You're not supposed to be in here."
The voice was calm. Dangerous.
Leo.
He stepped out of the shadows like he'd been there all along.
Ivana tucked the page into her sleeve.
"What's Valerian Protocol?" she asked.
Leo's eyes narrowed.
"Where did you hear that?"
"I read it. On a student file."
He crossed the distance slowly. His expression unreadable.
"You found his name, didn't you."
She didn't answer.
He didn't need her to.
"Cassian Vale," he said, quietly. "People don't usually remember him. That was the point."
Ivana's heartbeat kicked up.
"Why would I?"
Leo tilted his head. "That's the question, isn't it?"
"What was he?"
"A mistake," he said. "Or a warning."
"To who?"
"Anyone who thinks blood oaths come without a price."
"And what did it cost him?"
A pause. Then, softly:
"Everything."
"Like I said, scholarship students do lurk around here. You better leave"
---
That night, she didn't sleep.
The crimson rose still sat beside her bed. The ache in her chest hadn't faded.
And when she pulled back the covers, there was no note just a small, cold object tucked beneath her pillow:
A silver fang charm.
With one engraved letter.
C.