Alisia von Valerion — POV
The corridor was quiet.
Too quiet.
Not the peaceful kind. Not the calm-before-bed kind.
The kind of quiet that feels like the world is holding its breath right before it screams.
I stood with my back pressed against the cold stone wall, just around the corner from the interrogation room where Alden had disappeared. My hands were clenched so tight my nails dug into my palms. The sting kept me grounded. Kept me from doing something reckless.
'He said to wait.'
His voice echoed in my head—calm, steady, annoyingly logical.
'Even if something major happens… promise me you won't step forward.'
I had promised.
I had looked him straight in the eye and told myself I could do it. That I could be disciplined. That I could be the composed Valerion heir he needed instead of… this.
And then I let him walk into a room with a monster.
Liam von Ravel.
Even thinking his name made my throat burn. An SS-ranker who treated people like numbers in an equation he got bored solving.
I stared at the shadows stretching across the floor.
'One minute.'
'Two minutes.'
My mana started leaking.
I didn't mean for it to. It just… happened. The air reacted before I could stop it. The temperature in the hallway plummeted. Moisture crystallized into fine diamond-dust snow that hovered in the still air. The stone under my boots groaned as frost forced itself into microscopic cracks and spread.
'What are they doing to him?'
I shut my eyes and reached out—not physically. That would trigger the alarms.
I extended my senses through the Academy's mana grid. Subtle. Careful.
I felt… nothing.
The room was sealed. Void-sealed.
That was worse.
'He's alone.'
'He's alone with someone who can dismantle a mind like a child pulling apart a toy.'
My hands trembled. I looked down at the bracelet on my wrist—the cheap blue bead he'd tied there during our "date." It looked ridiculous on me. Fragile. Out of place against my pale skin.
'If he dies…'
The thought didn't bring tears.
It brought something colder.
If he died, the world would just keep going. The sun would rise. Classes would continue. Students would laugh. People would eat, breathe, live.
And I would freeze it all.
I would turn this entire island into a mausoleum just so the silence wouldn't feel lonely.
'No. Stop. Don't think like a villain.'
'Alden is strong. He has secrets even I don't know. He has that strange, impossible luck.'
But luck has limits.
And Liam von Ravel doesn't roll dice.
Then I felt it.
A faint fluctuation through the floor. So small most students wouldn't notice.
But I'm a Valerion.
I know what it feels like when a soul is being forced open.
My eyes snapped open.
'They're breaching him.'
The promise shattered.
"No," I whispered.
I pushed off the wall. Ice cracked and fell like shattered glass.
I didn't care about the Inquisition. I didn't care about the Council. I didn't care if this started a war between noble houses.
I walked toward the door.
Each step echoed. Ice formed beneath my boots. A localized blizzard swirled around me, violent and contained. The torches along the walls flickered, then died, their flames unable to survive in my presence.
'I'm coming, Alden.'
I reached the corner. The iron door stood there. Heavy. Silent.
I raised my hand.
A spear of absolute-zero mana formed midair. It rotated slowly, humming like a dying breath. I was going to blast the hinges apart. I was going to freeze Liam von Ravel until he shattered.
"Alisia."
The voice came from behind me.
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't angry.
It was immovable.
I froze. The spear hovered, trembling.
I turned slowly.
At the end of the hallway stood a man in a dark coat. Silver-streaked hair tied back. Eyes like mine—except steadier. Colder in a different way. Not panicked. Not shaking.
Orion von Valerion.
"Father," I said. My voice sounded brittle.
"Stand down."
"Move."
He didn't blink. "You know I cannot do that."
"They're killing him," I said, my voice cracking. "Do you feel that? They're tearing his soul apart!"
"I feel it," Orion replied calmly.
"Then why aren't you helping?!" I screamed.
The single spear multiplied. Three. Five. Ten. They hovered around me like a crown of execution.
"Because," he said, stepping forward slowly, "if you enter that room, you confirm everything they suspect. You turn suspicion into execution."
"I don't care!"
"You should." His voice hardened. "If you attack Liam now, Alden dies immediately. Liam will snap his neck before your ice touches the door. Is that what you want?"
I faltered.
The logic sliced through my rage.
'If I fight, he dies.'
'If I wait, he might die.'
"Then what do I do?" I whispered. Tears froze against my cheeks. "I can't just stand here."
He stopped a few feet away. His SS-rank aura pressed against mine—not crushing, but containing.
"You survive," he said gently. "And you let him survive."
"He might not."
"Then you mourn," Orion said. "And you avenge. But you do not throw your life away on a gamble you have already lost."
I looked at the door.
I could feel Alden's presence getting smaller. Dimmer. Like a star being swallowed whole.
"I promised him," I said weakly. "I promised I wouldn't leave him behind."
I looked back at my father.
And for the first time in my life—
I hated him.
"I am going in."
I turned.
I threw the spears.
They shot forward, aimed perfectly at the hinges.
They never landed.
Space twisted. Gravity inverted.
My spears shattered into harmless snow before reaching the door.
I spun around, mana flaring for another attack—
Orion was already in front of me.
He didn't strike.
He didn't cast a spell.
He simply placed his hand on my forehead.
"Sleep, my daughter," he murmured.
A pulse of condensed authority slammed into my mind.
White.
Everything went white.
My knees buckled. The cold, the rage, the fear—all of it dissolved into a grey, soundless void.
As I fell, the last thing I saw was his face.
He looked… tired.
'Alden…'
Darkness swallowed me.
*****
Orion von Valerion — POV
I caught her before she hit the ground.
She was light.
Too light for the weight she was trying to carry.
I held her for a moment in the freezing corridor. The frost she'd created was already beginning to melt now that her consciousness had faded. Her face was pale, tear-streaked. Even asleep, her brows were furrowed in pain.
"Foolish girl," I murmured, brushing a strand of silver hair from her face.
I looked down the hall.
The iron door stood silent.
But I could feel it.
The resonance.
Liam was using Soul Sifting.
Forbidden—technically.
But the Inquisition lives in grey zones.
And Liam?
He lives in black.
A sharp pressure tightened in my chest. Not quite guilt. But close enough.
I liked the boy.
Alden. Polite. Observant. That rare kind of person who knows exactly how weak he is—and refuses to let it define him.
But Alisia was right.
They were tearing him apart in there.
I adjusted her weight in my arms and stood straighter.
I could intervene.
I could walk down that corridor, kick the door open, and challenge Liam.
It would be a war.
An SS-rank clash inside the Academy would level the sector. Students would die. The political aftermath would fracture the fragile peace between noble houses and the Council.
And for what?
A student?
An anomaly?
'For her.'
The thought was quiet. Persistent.
If I saved him, I saved her heart.
But if I saved him, I exposed my house. I declared open hostility against the Inquisition.
"Choices," I muttered bitterly. "Always choices."
I turned my back on the door.
I am a father.
But I am also a Valerion.
And Valerions do not act on emotion.
We act on calculation.
Alden von Astra walked into that room on his own.
If he is truly the monster I suspect he might be…
He will have to walk out on his own as well.
I began walking down the corridor, carrying my unconscious daughter toward the exit.
"Survive, boy," I thought, glancing once more at the silent iron door. "Prove me right. Prove you're worth this pain."
Behind me, the hallway remained empty.
Still.
Silent.
But deep beneath the stone—faintly, almost imperceptibly—
I thought I heard a scream.
I tightened my grip on Alisia.
Faced forward.
And walked into the light.