Full Chapter – Ayesha's View of Ashen Chaos
Location: Ashenwell Academy – Day One of Second Year. The sun is out, the courtyard's full, and five semilegendary siblings are now officially enrolled. One is calm. The rest? Unleashed.
The First Page
Ayesha sat alone at the back of her favorite classroom, scribbling.
Not doodling.
Not daydreaming.
Documenting.
"Max arrived 7 minutes early. Sat without speaking. Still avoids eye contact when angry.
Hadi argued with the window — again.
Tristan flirted with a first year before entering the room. Her older sister chased him.
Sparks attempted to eat a glowing pencil. Claimed it was 'shiny and looked like candy.'
Grim? Silent. Watching everything. As usual."
She tapped her pen on the edge of the paper.
"Day one. Already tired."
Chaos Class
Their teacher entered.
Professor Vendel. Long nosed. Perpetually disappointed. A sigh in human form.
"Sit down—wait, you're already sitting. Good. Don't explode anything today."
He turned.
Sparks raised her hand.
"Hypothetical question: If one accidentally triggers a pocket dimension inside a desk, and that dimension contains a flaming squirrel… whose fault is that?"
The professor blinked.
Max pinched the bridge of his nose.
Tristan leaned over to Hadi. "Five seconds. That's a record."
Hadi giggled. "I was betting three."
Ayesha Observes
While the class unraveled — Hadi sparking with too much energy, Sparks accidentally creating an electric flame fox under her desk, and Tristan trying to charm a girl named Leona while her brother watched in horror — Ayesha listened.
Not with her ears.
With her flame.
She could hear something wrong in the academy's pulse.
Faint echoes. Faint disruptions. Hidden energy signatures in the walls. Someone was listening back.
She began to trace it through the aether.
And found a line connecting… to Professor Vendel.
"Interesting," she murmured.
Sparks's flame fox burst into real fire. Vendel screamed. Class dismissed early. Again.
Outside – Family Time
The siblings regrouped at the outer courtyard.
Tristan was still being chased by Leona's brother.
Hadi was laughing while levitating upsidedown.
Max leaned against the wall, arms crossed, pretending none of them existed.
Sparks was playing tag with her summoned lightning fox, who may or may not have eaten someone's sandwich.
And Grim?
Just watched. Quiet. Calm. Unmoving.
Ayesha sat beside him on the ledge.
"This what you imagined, returning?"
"No," Grim said. "But it feels like home."
"Even with all this insanity?"
"Especially with all this insanity."
They sat in silence.
Until Sparks crashed into Hadi, Tristan tripped into the fountain, and Max sighed like the world had betrayed him.
Ayesha finally smiled.
"Maybe we're still broken. But at least we break things together."