He didn't enter the hall perilously.
Making his entrance feel even worse.
He had walked in as if the room already belonged to him, disappointed by the state in which others had kept it, even though he had never used it.
His uniform was immaculate, black and white trimmed with broad violet accents that caught faintly under the Aether lamps. His hair was dark, almost blue-black beneath the light, cut short at the sides and swept upward in sharp, unruly angles that gave him a more dangerous edge than polished elegance ever could. His face was lean and sharp, and handsome in a way that felt more severe than inviting. There was a faint, knowing curl at the corner of his mouth that made him look as though he found the room beneath him. His eyes, narrow and watchful, moved over the crowd with cool, open disdain.
They paused on Randel.
Then on Ryn.
Then on Taron.
Then on me.
A faint smile touched his mouth.
"Ah, I knew I would find you in here," Darius said, "the dirty slums of the Academy."
Ryn's jaw tightened.
Randel took one step back despite himself.
Taron rose fully to his feet.
I remained still.
Darius's gaze settled on me.
Then his Aether leaked into the room.
It wasn't an attack.
Not purely.
But pressure spread from him in a cold, dark violet wave. It moved differently from other Aether pressure I had felt. Cyril's had been heat and command. It was similar to Professor Orin's, but his had been suffocating authority. At the same time, Darius's felt less devastating but sharper, more abstract, and more invasive, as if invisible fingers were testing the structure of the room and finding everything inferior.
My chest tightened.
Randel grimaced.
Ryn's shoulders tensed, one hand moving slightly as if ready to force out Ventus by reflex.
The pressure was controlled, precise and cold.
[AETHER SIGNATURE DETECTED]
[SUBJECT: DARIUS RENORA]
[CORE STAGE ESTIMATION: AETHERFLOW INITIATE]
[TRANSITION RECENCY: HIGH]
"So he's at the Aetherflow stage now," I mumbled.
That made sense.
But complicated many things.
Before the pressure could settle fully, Taron stepped forward.
What looked like green Aether flared outside of him.
It was bright.
Searing.
And felt alive.
It filled the room like a galestorm given colour, pushing against Darius' violet pressure with sharp, elegant violence. The air between them twisted, with faint discharge forming and breaking as their individual Aether collided with one another.
Taron stopped directly in front of Darius.
His smile returned, but it was not the cafeteria version.
It was sharper.
"Fancy seeing you here, Darius," Taron said. "I wouldn't have thought you'd know about places like these."
Darius's eyes moved to him slowly.
"Oh, Taron, Taron, Taron." His tone was smooth, contemptuous. "Please. I'm a Renora. There is no room in this academy I wouldn't know."
He glanced past Taron toward us.
"But do tell me."
Taron's posture remained relaxed, though the green Aether around him continued to burn.
"And what would I tell you, Darius?"
Darius's smile widened.
"Is this a new hobby of yours, or have you always taken an interest in hanging around trash?"
Ryn inhaled sharply.
Randel went pale.
My fingers curled once at my side.
Taron's expression did not change.
That was more concerning than if it had.
"Funny you say that," Taron said softly, "because I'm currently debating whether I should incinerate the trash right in front of me."
The room went very still.
Darius's smile vanished.
The violet pressure sharpened.
"You Caelvarins," he said, voice dropping. "Always so arrogant. Perhaps it's time I put you in your place."
A thin structure of dark violet Aether began forming near his hand.
It wasn't a full cast.
At least not yet.
But it was close.
The green Aether that enveloped Taron curled around his own fingers in answer to Darius.
"I could say the same thing to you," he said. "Filth of Renora."
The suppression arrays layered throughout the training hall walls began to flicker.
Ryn whispered, "Oh, this is bad."
Yes.
Really bad.
The pressure in the room started to rise; hues of violet and green clashed. Renora against Caelvarin, two heirs standing in the middle of the commoner training hall, preparing to turn each other's personal insults into cause for a political incident.
My body moved before my mind could.
[AETHER PRESSURE THREAT DETECTED]
[USER PROTECTION PROTOCOL INITIATED]
[TEMPORARILY CUTTING OFF USER PERCEPTION TO AETHER]
The feeling of the world changed again.
It did not go silent.
But something vanished.
The crushing sense of pressure disappeared as cleanly as if someone had cut off a wire inputting the information to my skull. The violet weight pressing on my body was gone. The green flares pressing against the room were gone. I could still see their Aether faintly, still recognise its light, but the sensory force of it had been severed from me.
Exactly as it had been with Professor Orin.
'Ha, this is definitely useful, but just like last time, it's still concerning.'
I stepped in between them.
Ryn made a startled sound behind me.
Taron's eyes flicked toward me.
Darius's gaze sharpened toward me with an immediate interest.
I turned slightly toward Taron first.
"Thank you," I said quietly, "for defending my friends and me, but I can fight my own battles."
Taron's jaw tightened.
For a second, I thought he might protest the movement.
Then he said, low enough that only I could hear, "I know you can."
His green Aether remained bright.
"I just didn't like the look on his face."
Despite everything, that nearly made me smile.
Then I turned back to Darius.
Standing this close to him, I could see the faint violet glow beneath his eyes. His Aether still moved around him in controlled threads, but without the pressure invading my senses, it looked less like an overwhelming force and more like a hidden structure waiting to be understood.
Darius stared at me.
For a moment, his expression wavered.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Curiosity.
He was trying to understand why I was unaffected.
Not that I was ever going to tell him.
"What do you want from me?" I asked.
Ryn made a slight move in anticipation; I could tell he was preparing to do something in case anything happened.
Randel held his breath and stood still where he was.
Taron stayed just behind me, but close enough to intervene if necessary.
Darius looked directly into my eyes.
His own narrowed slightly.
Then he smirked.
"Hmph."
The dark violet surrounding his body had faded.
"There is nothing in the world that a peasant like you could give me."
His voice was quiet now.
There was more danger to it.
"I simply wanted to see the person blocking me from joining the Prestige Electives… in person."
'So he did know.'
Of course he would.
Professor Anlor had either told him directly, or enough people in their elite circle had whispered it for the information to reach him.
I wasn't surprised.
I was, however, increasingly annoyed by these tedious events.
I opened my mouth.
Darius interrupted before I could speak. Something he probably intentionally planned.
"But alas," he said, gaze sweeping over me with visible disappointment, "my curiosity is gone."
His eyes flicked briefly to Taron, then back to me.
"I'll take my leave, for now."
He turned halfway toward the door, then paused.
"I CANNOT wait to see you on the island."
The words were calm.
The intent behind them was not.
"Try your best not to be eliminated before I see you, okay?" Darius said. "Although I doubt you'll amount to much."
Then he left.
No Aether explosion.
No dramatic spell being cast.
No final burst of pressure.
He simply walked out of the commoner training hall as if the atmosphere he had ruined belonged to him.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
The room felt colder after he was gone.
Not because his Aether remained.
Because the implication did.
Randel released a breath.
Taron's searing green Aether faded slowly.
Ryn stared at the doorway with open hatred.
I felt the Codex restore my Aether perception in a clean, quiet shift.
[AETHER PERCEPTION RESTORED]
[THREAT LEVEL: REDUCED]
I flexed my fingers once.
The sensation returned like water pouring back into a channel.
Ryn stepped up beside me.
"That," he said, voice lower than usual, "is who you're gonna have to face to get into the top ten, by the way."
I kept looking at the doorway.
"I know."