I imagined his fingers in the earth, already cold. Clutching a handful of dust, as if trying to say something one last time. Though it was just an illusion. Aris's body remained in the mine beneath the rubble, merged with the darkness he had loved so much in life.

  Silence hung between us like a heavy blanket. Val, pale by nature, now looked almost transparent, slumped against an old oak's trunk. Tara was bandaging someone's arm, probably Kyle's—I wasn't paying attention. Mira stood apart, her gaze fixed somewhere in the distance, as if trying to see something beyond the horizon.

  Our first loss. For what? So some creature could call me a "curious sample"? What the hell kind of sample?

  Val broke the silence unexpectedly, struggling to his feet.

  "We need to do something. My family has a tradition..."

  He didn't finish, but everyone understood. We gathered branches and built a small funeral pyre. The fire was small—not a proper burial flame, just a symbol.

  Kyle pulled something from his pocket.

  "I have this."

  A strange amulet—a small figurine of black stone, resembling a human silhouette surrounded by shadows.

  "He dropped it on the first day of class. I meant to return it, but kept putting it off."

  I took the figurine and nearly dropped it. Warm. Almost hot. As if something alive.

  "Put it in the fire."

  Kyle looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. Without his usual mockery or challenge.

  "I hate to admit it, but you were right about the demon in the mine. And about the danger. And you... fought better than any of us."

  I placed the figurine in the center of the pyre. The flames didn't touch it for a while, as if hesitating, then suddenly engulfed it completely. The black stone began glowing from within.

  Mira whispered so quietly her words almost dissolved in the crackling of flames licking the black stone.

  "I never knew he was into carving..."

  Val spoke next.

  "Of all of us, he was the most... real."

  Strange words from Valentin Nors, who had always been so proud of his lineage and noble arrogance.

  "I was unfair to him. Thought him weak because of his fear of darkness. And he..."

  Tara finished the thought.

  "Died in darkness, saving one of us."

  The fire crackled, devouring dry branches. The figurine in the center glowed brighter and brighter, as if Aris's soul was showing its true light in farewell.

  Kyle approached me unexpectedly.

  "I pulled Val out of the mine at the last moment. The demon almost got him."

  He spoke low, so the others wouldn't hear.

  "But you... You didn't even try to run. You attacked that thing. Without magic."

  I said nothing. What was there to say?

  "A guy who got dumped into Class Thirteen because he had no magic..."

  Kyle forced something like a smirk, but there was no humor in it.

  "And you fought like you'd done nothing else your whole life."

  "Maybe I have."

  Kyle extended his hand.

  "No more rivalry. If something like this happens again, we need to be ready. Together."

  I shook his hand: much larger than mine, calloused from constant weapons training.

  Tara approached us with a small knife in her hands.

  "There's a witch tradition. A blood oath. Not magical, just... a promise."

  She drew the blade across her palm quickly, decisively. Skin parted, releasing a thin red thread. Not a sound, not a gasp.

  "I swear to find out what really happened in that mine. And to avenge Aris."

  Mira followed her lead. On her pale skin, the blood looked almost black in the firelight.

  "I swear to use my gift to uncover the truth, whatever it may be."

  Kyle took the knife silently and made a deep cut.

  "I swear to protect all of you, even at the cost of my own life. And follow whoever sees the bigger picture."

  Val approached last. His hands were already covered in cuts from using blood magic.

  "House Nors does not swear oaths. But today I'm not a representative of my house. I'm just the one who should have died instead of Aris."

  He sliced his palm in one precise motion.

  "I swear by blood that none of us will be left alone in the darkness again."

  I was last. When the blade touched my skin, I felt a strange warmth spreading from my palm through my whole body.

  "I swear we'll learn the truth. And that no one else will die like Aris did."

  Five palms came together over the fire. Five different fates. Five streams of blood mixing into one. Strange heat now ran through my fingers—into the blood, into the veins. The fire blazed brighter, as if welcoming our oath. At that moment, the figurine in the center of the pyre crumbled apart with a soft chime.

  I barely noticed the small scythe fragment I'd been clutching in my pocket all day bite into my palm. Blood mixed with something black on the metal—Aris's last gift.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  A sharp roar cut through the air above our heads. Everyone flinched and turned. A silver shape of an otherworlder craft appeared from behind the clouds: thin wings, predatory body, sleek and deadly like all their creations.

  The machine circled above the mines and hovered for a moment. Something dark separated from its belly. A second later, the mine entrance flared with blinding light. The ground shook beneath our feet, and with a rumble, a torrent of earth and stone collapsed, burying all traces of our presence. And traces of the demon.

  Val hissed through his teeth, watching the metal bird return toward the city.

  "They want to bury us along with all the evidence. Or maybe they're cleaning up their own failure..."

  Mira and I exchanged glances. She understood without words: someone badly needed us to never learn what happened in those mines.

  The academy greeted us with silence and cautious glances from around corners. Rumors travel faster than disease. Especially bad ones. Students parted when we walked down the main corridor, as if we carried a curse. Maybe we did.

  A younger student ran up, blurted his message, and immediately vanished, as if afraid to catch our bad luck.

  "The director is waiting for you in the dean's office."

  "Go without me. I need to... be alone."

  No one objected. Even Mira just nodded with understanding.

  Reaching my room, I collapsed onto the bed fully clothed. My body felt like lead, my head buzzed. But sleep wouldn't come. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the spike piercing Aris's chest. His shadows dissolving, intertwining with Val's blood. The demon looking straight at me and calling me a "sample."

  Hours slipped by one after another, and still sleep wouldn't come. Somewhere deep past midnight—a strange pulsing. Like someone's heart beating nearby. The scythe fragment I'd placed on the nightstand seemed to radiate warmth. I picked it up, and the dried blood on the metal seemed to come alive, becoming wet.

  Something foreign stirred in my head. Not a voice, but an image. A sensation, as if someone was quietly scratching inside my skull. Darkness threaded with red veins, pulsing in time with my heart. Within this darkness, figures emerged, similar to the symbols we'd seen in the mine.

  I reached for the pencil on the desk and began drawing on a scrap of paper, barely looking. Lines laid themselves down as if someone else guided my hand. At some point the pencil broke, and without thinking, I continued drawing with my own blood, reopening the barely healed wound on my palm.

  The symbols formed a pattern—a distorted infinity inscribed in a pentagon, with lines spreading from it like tree roots or blood vessels. In the center—an eye.

  Blood dripped onto the paper, and I felt myself falling into it. Instead of my room, cave walls appeared around me—not stone, but something like living flesh. They pulsed, moved, breathed. The same symbols I'd been drawing crawled across them, glowing with reddish light.

  I walked through these caves but felt no fear. More like curiosity. Somehow I knew where I was going, though I'd never been here. The tunnels widened, becoming an enormous cavity studded with strange growths resembling cocoons.

  In the center of the cavity—darkness. No, not just shadow. This was something alive, material. A substance with weight and texture, something tangible and ancient. It flowed into itself, sometimes taking anthropomorphic outlines, sometimes breaking into many smaller shadows.

  "In-ter-est-ing."

  The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. As if the air itself gained sound, every molecule vibrating with the word.

  "You came on your own."

  "Who are you?"

  The darkness gathered into something like a human figure—indefinite, fluid, but with features that seemed strangely familiar. As if I'd seen this entity before, but in another form.

  "I am the one who creates new paths."

  The voice changed with every syllable: male, female, childlike, elderly. As if hundreds of beings spoke through one mouth.

  "The one who sees the whole picture. Sometimes I am the flower, sometimes the root. Sometimes the child, sometimes the elder."

  "Are you that serpent silhouette?"

  The figure rippled, as if with soundless laughter.

  "Not serpent, not dragon, not god, not demon..."

  It laughed, sound like rustling autumn leaves.

  "The point is, you found the network too soon. Too. Soon."

  "Did you send that demon to the mine?"

  "I sent no one. You came to their home yourself. They live there to change the world."

  "Why?"

  "Because the world needs liberation. From lies, from chains, from the illusion of freedom. But you... You're a complicated case. You were created for something else."

  The figure suddenly recoiled from me, as if seeing something frightening.

  "His brand remains. Hidden, but present. We're not ready for this conversation yet. You haven't fully... become what you are."

  "What are you talking about? Who am I?"

  "Return when you understand what to do with this gift. Or I'll find you myself. In this world, or..."

  A touch to my forehead broke the contact. Sharp inhale, like surfacing after too long underwater. Reality crashed in like a wave. Above me—Tara's face, frightened, worried. Her eyes, green with golden flecks, were so close I could see my reflection in them. She held my head in her hands, and her long red hair almost touched my face.

  She exhaled with relief.

  "Luten! You're back."

  I realized the awkwardness of our position: Tara practically hovered over me, her face mere centimeters from mine. I could smell herbs from her hair and feel the warmth of her breath.

  "What... what happened?"

  I tried to pull back, but she still held my face in her palms.

  "You fell into some kind of trance."

  Tara wasn't hurrying to let go, peering intently into my pupils.

  "Your eyes... They went completely black. And you were speaking in a language I've never heard."

  Past Tara's shoulder, I caught Mira's face. Furrowed brows, pressed lips. She watched us with something in her eyes I couldn't place.

  "How do you feel?"

  I noticed Mira's slight frown as she observed us.

  "I was talking to... something."

  I spoke, trying not to look at Tara's flushed cheeks.

  "With whatever creates the network beneath us. And it knows me. Knows about what happened in the mine."

  Over the next three days, we turned the academy's abandoned garden into our personal training ground. I sketched a preparation plan that accounted for everyone's strengths.

  By the evening of the third day, results were obvious. Kyle and Val attacked a straw dummy in sync: while Val distracted attention with blood clots, Kyle delivered a precise strike from behind. Tara learned to throw her potions accurately from a safe distance, and Mira created a signal system that let us coordinate without words.

  Tara followed our training scenario.

  "The demon turned!"

  I rushed forward with my makeshift scythe. This time everything worked as it should: Val didn't hesitate, instantly forming a shield between me and the imaginary attack. Mira was already in position, ready to fall back and cover Tara while she prepared the next batch of potions.

  "Behind you!"

  I spun, making a wide sweep with the scythe, and watched Kyle duck precisely under the blade to deliver his strike to the "enemy's" vulnerable spot. Once we would have collided and ruined the attack. Now we moved as a single mechanism.

  Val almost smiled, wiping sweat.

  "Now that looks like a team."

  Even his aristocratic pride had retreated before the fact: together we were far stronger.

  Training ended. Everyone scattered to their own business. I was about to leave when a kid literally burst from the bushes—scruffy, out of breath.

  "Hey, you Luten Caers? I was told to deliver..."

  He held out a sealed envelope.

  "Lady in a blue cloak. Said you'd know."

  I tore the seal as soon as the boy disappeared.

  "L., The situation is changing faster than I expected. There's news I can't share in a letter. I've found a solution to the problem with our 'technological friends.' Documents they can't ignore. Soon they'll lose interest in you—officially. But please, be careful. What happened to A. in the mines wasn't an accident. The new director receives instructions not only from the otherworlders. The expedition leader G. is looking for me. If you see him—RUN. I'm well and safe. Guard the flame, not the ash. A."

  I read the letter twice. Alice was alive. She'd found a way to free me from otherworlder pursuit. But what documents? And who was "G."?

  The last phrase was our old code. "Guard the flame, not the ash" meant: stay alert, the danger hasn't passed. I burned the letter, as Alice had taught me. No traces.

  Returning to the dormitory, I felt a strange split: on one hand—hope of escaping constant surveillance; on the other—alarm from the words about the new director.

  And one more feeling, unfamiliar and frightening. Hunger. Not hunger for food. Something older. Something that craved power. Power I'd felt when I touched the demon's blood. Power that now beckoned me, promising answers to all questions.

  I clenched my fists. Training first. My friends first. And this... This could wait until I understood what was happening to me. And what I'm turning into.