Chapter 19 – Quiet Departures
The academy at night was a cathedral of silence.
Stone corridors breathed mist. Reeds rustled in the wind beyond the outer walls. Even the spirits seemed to slumber, content beneath starless skies.
Kael moved without sound. His cloak was pinned close, steps deliberate as he glided past the sculpture garden toward the maintenance tunnels near the cliffs. Behind him, Joran trailed at just the right distance—close enough to assist, far enough not to echo his steps.
Every path had been memorized. Every lantern passed had been mapped and timed. No night patrols at this hour. No wards over the broken arch gate.
The only thing they hadn't accounted for… was who might be watching.
Hours Earlier
"Final check," Joran whispered, closing his pack. "Two resonant rings, five sealed ration pills, ink thread, three breath stabilizers, and two practice blades."
Kael nodded, folding his own cloak. "Suppression crystal stable. Map's etched. System's quiet."
They glanced once around the room. Plain. Unmemorable. Exactly how they wanted to leave it.
"Once we cross the eastern ridge," Kael said, "we're off grid. No more safety net."
Joran gave a quiet grin. "Since when did we ever have one?"
The South Tunnel
The tunnel mouth yawned open behind a collapsed stairwell—the entrance half-covered by moss and erosion. Older than the academy itself, it led under the cliff base to an abandoned glider port once used by traveling instructors.
Kael shifted the stone slab carefully, and damp earth greeted them. Joran stepped in first, activating a small threadlight. The path was short but steep, sloping into darkness like a swallowed breath.
Neither of them noticed the figure standing in the topmost tower of the academy, three floors above the east hall.
Elsewhere – Mavren
Principal Mavren Duskfall stood alone at the edge of the Lightning Spire balcony, robes unmoving despite the rising wind.
He hadn't slept. He rarely did.
His eyes, pale gold and reflective as stormglass, remained fixed on the cliffs beyond the academy wall. He'd felt it the moment Kael's suppression crystal flexed—just enough to ripple through his perception like a tremor in still water.
Two auras. Moving low. Controlled. Intentional.
Runaways? No.
Survivors.
His lips pressed into a line. He didn't move to stop them. Didn't call a guard or send a pulse flare to the instructors' quarters.
He only whispered, "Six months is not much time."
Then he turned back into the spire's depths and sealed the door behind him.
The dorms – Zero
High in the eaves of the north dormitory, another figure crouched.
Darkness curled around him like fabric.
Zero Black didn't need light to see. His perception was sharper than scent or sound—it was weight. Shift. Disturbance.
He'd felt Kael leave the dorm before Kael himself knew he would.
He tracked them only with stillness, eyes flicking from roofline to ridge, watching as they slipped through the tunnel path far below.
He said nothing. Reported nothing.
He didn't need to. The wraiths may control him. But not truly. He is remembering.
They're not fools, he thought. Desperate, maybe—but not foolish.
His eyes narrowed. The wind around Kael moved differently than around others. As if it made room for him.
Zero leaned back into the shadows and disappeared again.
The Eastern Slip
By the time Kael and Joran reached the broken path of the Eastern Slipstream, dawn's first blue had touched the horizon. Wind howled across the cliffs, chasing gulls through spirals of white mist. The trail forked in three directions:
• Moonlace Hollow, for meditation.
• Whispergrove Ridge, where low-tier beasts often roamed.
• The Slipstream Crag, an unstable formation where wind pressure carved narrow paths into the cliff walls.
Kael crouched near a twisted pine, pulling the old parchment from his cloak. He marked their location with a single red dot.
"We'll rest at Moonlace," he said. "Let the water settle before we move on."
Joran's eyes stayed on the trees. "And after that?"
"Core hunts."
Joran pulled his blade half an inch from the sheath. "We'll need to be ghosts. No fire. No signs. The wrong people find us out here—"
"They won't," Kael said quietly. "We can't afford it."
Behind Them
In the academy, silence lingered.
No bells were rung. No warnings given.
But two figures now knew of their departure.
One, bound by deeper motives, chose patience.
The other, built for killing, chose observation.
Neither would interfere.
Not yet.
System Notification
Location: Out of Bounds
Suppression Crystal: Stable (91%)
Affinity Risk: Moderate
Objective Progress: 9%
Warning: External Beast Presence Detected – 1.3 km
Resonant Link: Active
Tracking Status: Undetected
Later That Night
Kael sat beneath the twisted root of a hollow tree, the ground cool beneath him, Moonlace Hollow silent except for the soft bubbling of spring water.
He closed his eyes.
Wind.
Water.
Breath.
He would need them all.
Not to win.
But to endure.
And someday—when the world was watching again—not just survive…
But rise.