"Thirteen," Alain said, holding up his ticket.
"Thirteen!" Lia raised hers with a triumphant grin. "Guess you're stuck with me."
For the first time that morning, Alain almost smiled. It felt like the world had given them a small kindness.
Then Lia's slip flickered. The runes etched across it shimmered once, dimmed, and changed.
Her smile froze. "Wait—what?"
Alain frowned, glancing at his. His ticket stayed gold. Group 13.
Around them, the other students' tickets began to flare and shuffle, names spinning into place.
Whispers rippled through the crowd:
"Did hers just change?"
"It's recalibrating."
Alain's name appeared under Group 13.
Theo leaned over Alain's shoulder, grinning. "Thirteen huh, what an unlucky number. Wouldn't want to be—"
Alain's ticket flared, etching the full list: Alain Vale – Theo Finn - Kai'el Doran
"...in that one," Theo froze.
Lia blinked between them, half amused, half dismayed. "Wait, you two are together?"
"Apparently," Theo said flatly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Lucky me."
"Guess that makes me Group 12." Lia held up her ticket again, trying for a smile. "Close enough, right?"
"Yeah," Alain said softly. The word caught in his throat.
He didn't know why it bothered him so much. It wasn't like they could've chosen anyway. Still, it felt like a cruel joke—being one number apart.
Then he felt eyes on him.
The Headmaster stood on the stage, bright and carefree, scanning the hall like a painter admiring her work. When Alain's gaze met hers, she smiled and winked.
His heartbeat faltered.
"Alright then!" she clapped her hands, "No point wasting time. Let's begin the weeding—I mean the assessment process!"
Groups started vanishing in flashes of gold. One trio, then another, then another, disappearing mid-sentence as the light from the artifact swept through the atrium.
Every complaint ended the same way: a flare of light, a fading echo, and empty space where students had been standing moments before.
Theo's head snapped up. "She's already sending them!"
Lia reached for Alain instinctively, but a pulse of white fire traced between them. Her hand vanished in light before it could reach his.
"Lia!"
The Headmaster's voice rang from the stage, bright as ever.
"Next up, Group Thirteen!"
The artifact flared. Alain, Theo, and Kai'el's outlines glimmered, their bodies already thinning into light.
Then the glow changed.
Gold bled into violet. The air thickened with the scent of iron and ash. A faint hiss spread through the hall, accompanied by the taste of ether going foul.
Her smile froze. Her pupils dilated. The taste hit her tongue a heartbeat later: metallic, bitter, foul.
"Something's tampering...Stop the transfer."
Silas turned instantly, reaching for the control sigils. "Dampeners—?"
"Now!"
She launched herself from the podium, robes flaring, wings of light flickering into being—
Too late.
The artifact convulsed midair, its runes fracturing. Violet smoke exploded outward, swallowing the three figures whole.
The only thing she could grasp was the empty violet smoke, one that's haunted her before.
Miasma.
Group Thirteen was gone.
***
Alain woke to the cold air brushing on his cheek.
The world was colorless: gray stone, drifting haze, foggy clouds, too still to be real. His back was pressed against solid ice, surrounding air burned like winter steel in his lungs.
The fog cleared just a bit for Alain to see the silhouette of his members. Theo lay facedown beside him, cloak stiff with frost. Kai'el was farther off.
Alain crawled toward Theo first, shaking his shoulder.
Theo stirred with a low groan, blinking through the mist. "Cold… really cold," he muttered, pushing himself up. "Where the hell did we—"
"Don't move too fast," Alain cut in, voice low. His breath fogged between them. "We're on ice."
Theo glanced down, then swore softly. Beneath the thin layer of frost, dark water rippled faintly.
A cough echoed out through the ice, Alain turned to see that Kai'el had stirred and was getting up on his feet.
"Kai'el!" he called, keeping his voice low but sharp. "Are you okay?"
A faint sound came back—a muffled grunt, then, "...Alive."
Alain exhaled a sigh of relief.
Theo pushed himself up, teeth chattering. "What's happening? Where are we—"
"Middle of a lake," Alain cut in, scanning the surface.
Alain didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the lake's center, where a faint ripple spread beneath the surface, too smooth to be caused by wind.
The fog around them seemed to shift with it, rolling outward in a silent ring.
He stood slowly, testing the weight of each step. The ice moaned under his boots, a deep, trembling sound that echoed through the valley like something alive.
"Don't move," he said quietly.
Theo froze mid-breath. "That's… not normal, right?"
Alain's heart pounded in his throat. He forced himself to listen, concentrating—like he had learned when sparks indicated if iron was hot enough to be malleable.
Beneath the windless calm, something rhythmically knocked against the underside of the ice. Slow. Heavy. The sound of something feeling its way toward them.
Alain's fingers flexed unconsciously, heat stirring beneath his skin, the familiar pulse of his rune urged him to fight. He clenched it shut.
Not here.
"On my mark," he whispered. "We move together. If we go fast, we can make it before the ice shatters."
Theo nodded shakily. "To Kai'el?"
"Yeah. Ten seconds."
The ripple passed under them again, closer this time. The ice bulged faintly upward between Alain's boots.
He didn't breathe.
Theo's whisper barely carried. "Alain—"
"Go!"
Each step cracked like glass under a hammer. Frost scattered from their boots, the lake groaning beneath them in slow protest. The air itself seemed to hold its breath.
Then came the sound, not a crack this time, but a shift. A deep, muffled roll that didn't echo, because it came from underneath.
The ice bulged.
Alain's eyes widened. "It's moving—"
The lake exhaled.
A column of air burst from the water, sending shards of ice flying like glass knives. The fog split apart, a gaping maw of black water opening beneath them as something vast surged upward.
The creature surfaced in silence first. An enormous, glistening mass, its back breaking through the ice like a mountain rising from the deep. The ice shattered around it, collapsing into whirlpools of blood-black water.
Then the sound came—a low, guttural moan that wasn't a roar so much as the death of one.
WHRIEEEAAAOO
...A Blighted Whale.
Its skin was pale gray and streaked with pulsing veins of red light, its surface crawling with rot and decaying skin cells. One eye, or what was left of it, glowed faint violet as it breached.
The sound hit like thunder trapped beneath the world.
A shockwave rippled across the lake, splitting the ice from center to shore. The ground bucked under Alain's feet, the surface fracturing into a spiderweb of cracks that raced toward them faster than thought.
"Theo—run!"
They sprinted, boots slipping on melting frost, every step echoing with the sound of ice giving way.
Behind them, the Blighted Whale continued to rise, an impossible mass pushing through the frozen surface like a mountain being born.
Theo's breath came out in sharp gasps, his eyes wide with panic. "It's—It's breaking!"
"I know!"
The ground tilted. Alain lunged forward, half-dragging him, the ice behind them collapsing in chunks that plunged into the black water.
Kai'el's voice cut through the noise, faint but sharp. "This way! Move!"
The shore felt impossibly far.
Each step sank deeper, the cracks chasing at their heels. The lake was coming apart, black water swallowing everything behind them.
Theo was ahead by a few strides, his boots slamming against ice that shifted with every step. Alain followed, lungs burning, mind empty except for one thought:
Move.
The ice groaned again, a hollow scream beneath their feet. They were so close, inches away from shore.
Alain's rune burned. A white-hot flare crawled up his arm, reacting to panic. He quickly drew the rune that was most familiar to him.
ᚱ — Raido(Push)
Light burst outward, raw and violent. The force kicked beneath his boots, hurling him forward like a sling. He hit the frozen bank hard, rolling through shards of ice and dirt.
Then he looked back.
Theo, eyes wide at the cracks right under his foot. "Alain—!"
The word broke in the air as the ice between them split. Theo's leg plunged through.
Alain didn't think. He reached out—too far, too slow. The ice around Theo shattered, pulling him downward in a spray of water and shards.
"Theo!"
The cracks widened.
"—No!" Theo's voice vanished under the crash of breaking ice.
For a heartbeat, all sound stopped.
Only the rippling black water remained, swallowing his reflection.