Shadowbound: The Awakened Fool

The hallway beyond the training ground was quiet.

Dimly lit, lined with murals of past war mages and elemental champions, it curved toward the instructor's wing, off-limits to most students.

But Kairo Vale walked it without hesitation.

He'd been summoned.

By her.

At the far end of the corridor, the door to the personal training chamber opened with a soft hiss of dispelled magic.

Professor Elira Dawn stood inside.

Her coat was off, hung neatly by the wall. She wore a fitted sleeveless combat tunic, runic bracers faintly glowing on her arms. Her eyes, normally calm lightning-gray, burned tonight with focus.

"Kairo Vale," she said evenly. "Step inside."

He did.

The door closed behind him, locking with a soft click.

Silence stretched between them.

She circled slowly, studying him like a weapon she hadn't yet decided whether to dismantle or wield.

"No injuries from the duel?" she asked.

Kairo shook his head. "No, Professor."

"Strange," she murmured. "Considering your opponent used forbidden augmentation magic."

He said nothing.

She stopped in front of him.

"You reacted faster than anyone in your class. You moved without delay. You suppressed and inverted a wind technique in midair and didn't cast a single visible array."

Still, he remained quiet.

Elira's voice sharpened.

"That's not the product of luck."

Kairo tilted his head slightly.

"Should I have held back?"

Her jaw tensed. "I'm not criticizing your victory."

"Then what am I being questioned for?"

She didn't answer immediately. Her gaze searched his calm, unreadable.

Finally, she stepped back.

"I want you to demonstrate your magic. Now. Not as an opponent. As a student under evaluation."

Kairo raised an eyebrow. "What kind?"

"Lightning."

He didn't hesitate.

Mana surged quietly through him, invisible to most, but not to her. It coiled like a silver current under his skin precise, pure, disciplined.

Then

Snap.

A bolt cracked across his arm, forming a controlled arc of lightning from wrist to elbow. It flickered silently, casting pale light across the chamber.

Elira's breath caught.

That wasn't wild or unstable lightning.

That was cultivated lightning refined to the point of near-elemental purity. The kind trained under elite storm sorcerers, or born from high-tier bloodlines.

"How long?" she asked, voice low.

"A few months," he replied.

Lie.

Elira narrowed her eyes. She knew it was a lie. But it was delivered with such flawless control, so smoothly embedded in his tone, that she couldn't find a seam to press.

She folded her arms.

"No one gains this level of command in a few months. And your file still lists you as 'Unmeasured.'"

Kairo let the lightning fade, his hand lowering slowly.

"I awaken late. I train alone. I learn fast."

"Or you're hiding something."

"Then you should report me."

Silence again.

Then Elira turned away, walking toward the control crystal on the far wall.

"No," she said. "Not yet."

She paused at the doorway.

"But I'm watching you, Kairo Vale."

He inclined his head slightly. "You wouldn't be the first."

The door closed behind him.

The next morning, whispers traveled faster than truth.

"Kairo Vale was interrogated."

"Elira took him to the private dueling chamber!"

"He used lightning like, real lightning."

"I thought he was just a brawler. Or a flame dud."

Ren Vale nearly choked on his breakfast. "Wait, lightning?! Since when?!"

Freya didn't speak. She had watched the duel herself. She had felt it.

That last moment when Ronan's spell collapsed, it hadn't been lightning. It hadn't even been mana as she understood it.

Something about it was wrong.

And Kairo's silence was the loudest answer of all.

Across campus, preparations were underway.

The Inter-Academy Tournament would begin in just over a week, a ten-day competition where the top five magical schools in the country would send teams to compete.

Victory would bring:

Full funding for two academic years

Artifact access licenses from the Magisterium

And one granted entry into the Secret Magic Agent Archive

The final selection for academy representatives was already underway.

And one name had unexpectedly appeared on the nomination list:

Kairo Vale – Flame Division, Class F3.