The day Clara returned to herself had not gone the way Vel imagined.
He had pictured a quiet room and a chance to actually speak with her.
Instead, the moment word spread that she was awake, guards went running. Officers arrived. Then came the people with titles and names, and none of it was any good for the state Clara was in.
Arguments over custody. Over what was to be done with her. Voices talking across one another while the woman at the center of it had barely opened her eyes.
Elyssia had held them off. A few days, enough for Clara to recover and for the room around her to empty again.
There was a great deal Vel had wanted to say. But he had seen her face when the memories came back, and she needed the time more than he needed the words. Whatever had been done to her, she would have to find her own footing first.
As long as someone kept watch on the collar and it held, the rest could wait.
---
Today was meant to be the day he finally went to her, but the Royal Forces got to them first.
The order had come the day before, delivered to every student, and it left no room for refusal. Everyone was to report to the Academy and give a full account of the invasion.
That was the reason they gave. But the students suspected another, a net to catch anyone with ties to the cult.
The paved road to the Academy stretched ahead of Vel, Hileya a step behind him as always. He had left room at his side again, he realized. Even now, he had yet to get used to it.
He still could not name what he carried. It would have been easier if it were only grief. But grief was for the dead, and Celia was just waiting behind the ice for him to become good enough to reach her.
The feeling had nowhere to land. It subsided when his mind was occupied, only to resurface each time he woke. Another day without Celia.
The gate came into view, and with it the reason he had been called.
Carriages stood in a row across the approach, each one flying the Kingdom's banner.
One sat apart from the others, larger, its frame worked in gold and dark lacquer.
Two lines of soldiers had formed up from the gate, spears grounded, watching the road.
"They're here," Vel said, and kept walking toward them.
Up ahead, the crowd funneled in through the gate, their voices drifting back to him.
Two of them kept low, close enough to catch.
"I didn't even want to come. Still dream about it. This place was supposed to be safe."
"Skip it and they'll just have more questions for you. Better it stops at the Academy."
A third didn't bother. He smirked and gave the first one a light punch on the shoulder.
"Cravens, the both of you. There's a reason we learn how to fight here."
The stream carried him toward the gate, and a guard stepped into his path, eyes catching on the blade at the small of Hileya's back.
"Halt."
His spear came down a fraction, barring the way.
"Why is this servant carrying a weapon?"
Not this again.
Vel sighed. Behind them, the line bunched up, a few heads turning their way.
"Protection. Is something wrong with that?"
The guard's face stayed flat.
"Maybe not. But with the royal family here, I'm not waving an armed lesser maid through."
"Lesser?"
Hileya's hand found his sleeve before the rest could follow.
"It's fine, Master," she said, her other hand already moving to the strap. "I'll leave it with you."
That would solve it.
But the whole point of the dagger was for her to protect herself. Even now, he still wasn't sure who he could trust.
"No, Hileya. We've seen what happens when a threat catches you unprepared."
"Let those two pass."
A voice he had come to know too well.
Past the gate, the students parted, and Kein came walking back through them against the flow, making straight for the guard.
"These two are Prince Eldrin's friends."
A murmur moved through the students close enough to hear it.
The guard looked at him, then back at Hileya.
"With respect, they're commoners. What relation would the prince have with them?"
"They are important witnesses to the invasion," Kein said. "If you have a problem with it, take it to the third prince."
Heads turned, not to Kein but to Vel, trying to fit the words to the face.
The guard's gaze caught on the crest at Kein's collar, and something in his posture gave.
He held them a moment longer, then stepped aside and tipped his head toward the gate.
Vel and Hileya passed through and stopped beside Kein, who kept his eyes forward, expression unreadable, his voice low and meant only for him.
"Finally given up on being subtle, have you?"
Vel said nothing to that.
"I had a feeling something like this would happen. Go on, and don't thank me. This is for hitting you, nothing more."
"Wasn't going to," Vel said.
Kein showed no intention of walking with them.
So they went on, into the inner grounds.
The central field opened ahead of them, and Vel stopped at its edge.
For a moment, the scene threw him back to the entrance test. Crowded, chaotic, loud. Except this time every student wore the same navy blue, the whole school held in one place under the Crown's eye.
Yet at the center of it all, an empty circle had been cleared, a wide ring of open ground with nothing set to fill it. The soldiers were the barrier themselves, standing shoulder to shoulder, facing the crowd.
What's the space for?
Then the sound reached them.
Wingbeats. Slow and heavy, somewhere far above. A shadow swept over the crowd, wide enough to dim the gray light for a breath.
Every head tipped back.
Recognition rippled through the ranks, backs snapping straight, a few heads lowered before the rest knew what was happening.
Names passed between them in whispers, too low to catch. Some sounded surprised, others closer to panic and disbelief.
A creature came down into the cleared space, its wings throwing a wind that flattened the grass and drove the front rows stumbling. It struck the ground, and the whole field felt the weight of it.
It had the wings of a giant bird, feathered and catching the light in every shade of a rainbow from spine to tip. The head was a wyvern's, the neck a serpent's, and fins ran from the tail up along its lower back.
"Is that... a wyvern?" a student murmured somewhere behind him.
No, Vel thought. That's an amphiptere. One of the weaker draconic breeds, but far smarter than any wyvern or wyrm.
And for someone to have tamed a beast like this...
The creature breathed once, heavy through its nose, and the crowd leaned away.
Two riders sat astride it, and both were young.
The younger of the two jumped down first, and the field's eyes went with him.
His face carried a line Vel knew, the same cast, the same coloring, only older. And with the garments the two of them wore...
Deep red cloaks over black, hung with gold cords and tassels. Spotless white gloves.
There was only one thing they could be. The Crown family.
Stillness spread faster than the whispers had.
The younger surveyed the crowd like a prince at a festival, easy with the attention. The elder dismounted without hurry, and where his gaze swept, voices died and heads dropped, row after row, instructors and students alike.
Except for Vel.
Their eyes met. Vel didn't bow. Or rather, he didn't know he was supposed to. Even Hileya had gone down beside him.
"Master," she whispered, "the Crown's successor. You must bow."
So he did, a little too late.
The first prince stayed on him a moment longer.
Then he turned, pulled a banner from the amphiptere's saddle, and planted it in the ground. His voice carried over the field, loud and commanding.
"Today, the Crown graces your Academy's grounds. You will conduct yourselves accordingly, and you will follow orders."
He gestured a nearby instructor forward. It was Caldwen himself who answered, quick to close the distance. Words passed between them, low and brief. Then Caldwen bowed and turned to the field.
"His Royal Highness, Prince Edrick, will oversee today's accounting in person," Caldwen called, loud as he could make it. "Students of noble blood, attend His Highness. The commons and the rest, report to Prince Emeric."
With that, Edrick turned and made for the main hall, head held high, hands clasped at his back. Half the field went with him, the noble houses falling in behind.
Emeric stayed where he was. He wore a faint smile and made no move at all, watching until his brother had passed from view.
"What should we do, Master?" Hileya asked.
That was the problem. For everyone else here, the account was simple. Say what you saw, sign it, go home. But what half of them had seen was him. Vel stood at the center of it all, and he still didn't know what he meant to hand over.
The truth? Or something bent enough to hold?
"Is that him? Vel!"
The voice reached him before the faces did.
Tomas, Rohen, Mira, Enya, the whole gang, shouldering through the navy blue toward him. And Konomi with them.
She looked almost the way she always did. Almost. Vel caught the heaviness behind the look, and he didn't need to guess at the cause.
"Where have you been?!" Rohen got there first, half a shout. "We tried to reach you. The caretaker wouldn't even let us in!"
"Sorry about that," Vel said. "There was something urgent I needed to do."
"We... heard from Tomas," Enya said, quieter. "About what happened."
No one filled the pause that followed.
"We're sorry. About Celia," Mira said.
Konomi stepped in closer.
"If there's anything alchemy can do, a potion, a reagent, anything that could help her, tell me right away."
"Me too!" Enya said at once.
"Same here." Rohen nodded.
Then Tomas, who had been quiet through all of it, finally spoke.
"Vel... we're going to keep coming by. Even if the door stays shut. Celia's our friend too."
Vel looked at them, one by one. His friends. What he carried felt a little lighter with them here.
Once, this was exactly what he had wanted. People he could rely on. Now he still couldn't decide whether that was something to be grateful for... or afraid of.
"All of you there! Follow Prince Emeric! Do not fall behind!"
A soldier's call cut across them before he could settle on an answer.
They turned. The remaining students were already on the move, following Emeric's lead off the field, carried along by soldiers instead of instructors. Their group trailed a few paces behind.
"Today we learn politics instead of magic," Vel said, letting out a long breath. "Let's get this over with."