Octis 23
The common room felt dimmer than usual, though the lanterns still burned and the hearth crackled quietly. The five of us had returned from the sealed chamber in silence, each step up from the tunnels heavier than the last. Myself, Shara, Garnexis, Ardorion, and Aster entered without a word, trailing in like shadows across the threshold.
The image of Halven, frozen, afraid, alive, burned behind my eyes. I hadn't realized how badly I needed him to be okay until I saw him like that, suspended in ice, his expression frozen in fear. I hadn’t even realized I was crying until we reached the room and Lo gasped at the sight of us.
We barely had time to gather our breath before we were met with two sets of crossed arms and matching expressions of impatience.
Elio, his fiery auburn hair pulled back in a thick, loose braid over the shoulder of his academy robes, stood with Lo at his side. He was a solid presence of muscle and stone, and his warm amber eyes burned with impatience. Lo, slighter and with sharp, intelligent features, had her own quiet intensity. Her long, bluish-white hair cascaded over her shoulders, and her large, translucent wings, like those of a dragonfly, were folded neatly behind her, shimmering faintly over the dark fabric of her academy robes. Her dark, almond-shaped eyes were fixed on them with unwavering focus.
“What the hells is going on?” Elio’s voice was a low rumble, cutting through the quiet.
No one answered right away. The silence stretched until Elio raised a hand.
“Actually, never mind. We already know what you’re doing.” He looked directly at Shara, then me, then Ardorion, then Garnexis. “Halven is our friend, too. He’s our quadmate. Why are we being left out of this?”
Lo shifted beside him, her gaze sliding past me. “I know Halven and I haven’t been dating long, but I care about him. This isn’t just your fight.”
Shara moved toward the center of the room and gave them both a short nod. “You deserve to know.”
Before we could begin to explain the labyrinth of glyphs and visions, we quickly summarized what we’ve found, the words tumbling out in a rush of shared horror. We spoke of the secret passage, the glyph on the door, and the dual magic needed to open it. What we found waiting in the chamber. The block of ice. The truth.
Both Elio and Lo paled during the retelling, their faces a mask of shock at the revelation of Halven still alive, but frozen in a way none of us yet understood. Lo’s hand dropped from her arm to curl around her wrist instead, knuckles white.
Elio sank into the arm of a nearby chair and didn’t speak for a long moment, his mouth parted as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t decide what.
Then the door opened, and Orivian stepped into the room, pulling off his gloves with quick movements. His silver hair was slightly mussed, his usual composure offset by a glimmer of anxious curiosity.
“I came as soon as I could get away,” he said, his green-gold eyes sweeping over our shaken faces. “What did you find?”
We recounted everything we had found in the frozen chamber: Halven, alive but trapped and the magic in the chamber and the ice. Orivian listened intently, his brow furrowed as we explained the impossible scene. When we finished, a heavy silence fell over the room.
“So Halven’s alive,” Orivian finally managed, his voice rough. “But trapped. By Lady Isa.”
“And Veyn and Neir are somehow involved,” Garnexis added, her tone flat and sharp as steel.
The names, spoken aloud, were a triad of betrayal that settled deep in my bones. Neir. His face, his voice in my dreams, the feel of his kiss in the library—it all felt like a lie now. I sat near the hearth, arms wrapped tight around myself, not for warmth, but to keep the pressure inside me from breaking loose.
Shara had been pacing, but suddenly stopped. Her gaze swept over us. “I think we need to connect everything we know so far. Halven’s notes said he heard voices and that he went to Wintermere. He wrote that something was wrong, but the part where he named who not to trust… that part was water damaged.”
My own voice came out as a soft whisper, the memory of my dream a phantom touch against my skin. “In my dream, he warned me not to follow. I didn’t understand it then. Maybe he knew what would happen to him. Or what could happen to us.”
Shara turned toward me. “Lady Isa’s magic is keeping Halven a prisoner. And Professor Veyn’s magic is woven into the spell. Neir’s magic is in the lake along with Lady Isa’s. Every one of them is part of this.”
A heavy silence pressed in, and then something inside me snapped. The quiet grief, the shock. It all burned away, leaving a cold, hard anger in its place.
“Isa owes us the truth,” I said, my voice ringing with a firmness that surprised even myself. My gaze found Shara’s. “We should confront her. Don’t you agree?”
Shara hesitated, her usual certainty clouded with doubt. “I don’t know. I think she should answer for what she’s done, but we don’t know what she might do if we push her. We don’t know the strength of her magic, or how it could be used against us.”
“Absolutely not,” Ardorion said, his fiery hair flickering with agitation. “We go to her, and she shuts us down. Or worse, expels us. Then we can’t help Halven at all. Whatever we decide to do, it doesn’t leave this room.”
Garnexis shifted where she leaned. “He’s right. We don’t win this head-on. Not like this.”
“If Professor Veyn is involved, you’re talking about one of the most powerful fae in Nythral.” Elio’s usual boisterous energy had been replaced by a grim seriousness. “Going up against him and the Grand Magister? It’s suicide.”
Lo had been mostly quiet until now, her wings trembling slightly behind her as she stepped forward. Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. “So what? We just do nothing? She has Halven locked in a block of ice and we’re supposed to sit on our hands? I’m ready to confront her. I don’t care how powerful she is.”
Aster, who had been a silent, watchful presence, turned to me. “Do you know the extent of Neir’s magic?”
I shook my head. “I’ve only felt him use it once. It was powerful, but I don’t know enough to compare.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Orivian cut in, his voice calm and measured. He had the authority of someone who had seen more of the academy than we had. “As a fourth-year student, I’ve had more training than any of you, and I know for a fact that I couldn’t go up against Lady Isa and Professor Veyn. Even two quads of fourth-years would struggle. And we aren’t all full fae…”
His words hung in the air, a quiet, painful truth. Hybrid fae weren’t as strong. And two of us were hybrids. Garnexis and me. I looked down at my lap, a hot blush creeping up my neck. My magic had always been weaker, and even now I could feel how shallow my control was. I wanted to argue. But it was true.
But Garnexis stood up fast, her boots hitting the rug with a thud. “Magic isn’t the only kind of power we can wield.”
Orivian didn’t flinch. “Then let’s find allies. We could confide in other faculty. Get them on our side and even out the scales.”
“Unless they’re part of it too,” Garnexis snapped. “We go to the wrong person and it’s over. Isa is involved. The others? We don’t know.”
“I still think we should confront her,” Aster said. “We can’t keep avoiding this. If she sealed Halven, then she knows how to unseal him.”
The room erupted in voices rising together, each louder than the last. Aster and Lo argued for confrontation. Elio and Garnexis pushed for a more strategic approach. Orivian and Shara were firmly against a confrontation, and Ardorion just wanted a fight.
My own conviction began to waver. I wanted to confront them, to demand answers from Isa, from Neir. But what if my quad mates were right? What if I was letting my anger lead us into a trap? The anger itself felt foreign, a hot, coiling thing in my soul. It was anger at Lady Isa, at Neir, but also at myself. If I hadn't broken up with Halven, would he have even been at the academy early enough to hear the voices?
Was this, all of this, my fault?
The noise, the shouting, it was too much. I couldn’t think. I raised my hands.
My magic flared on instinct. Shadows spilled across the room, slipping over the sconces, covering the flames in silence. One by one, the lights vanished until only faint outlines remained.
The room fell silent. Everyone turned to me. Shadows clung to my skin, a cool, quiet cloak, and for the first time, my magic felt strong. It felt angry.
“We can’t pretend Isa shouldn’t be held accountable,” I said, my voice steady in the sudden dark. “But if we rush into anything, we’ll lose Halven. We have to be smart about what we do next. Halven is what matters.”
One by one, the lights returned as I let the shadows recede. It left the air heavy and quiet.
“So,” I said, softer now, “we find out how to free him. And while we do that, we get information. From Neir.” I looked at Shara. Her heart was breaking over Veyn; I could see it in her eyes. “And from Professor Veyn.”
Shara nodded, and the ache in her eyes made my chest pull tight.
Shara, though her heart was clearly breaking, took charge then, her mind already forming a plan. “While Rielle and I get more information, the rest of you should focus on learning anything about magical containment, especially involving Water and Wood magic. That’s what we felt in the ice. Aster, maybe you can try some experiments with your magic. Just see if there’s anything familiar in the structure.”
Garnexis gave a small nod. “We should also keep watching them. Isa. Veyn. Neir. See what they’re doing, what they say to other students, what they’re involved in.”
“And go back through our notes,” Shara added. “Everything we’ve collected so far. Maybe there’s something we missed.”
Orivian looked thoughtful. “I just remembered something. It might not help, but it’s stuck in my head. Last year in history, we covered the old lore from Agondray, Lady Isa’s homeland. The continent fell under a curse. It’s a continent of ice now. And the one who spoke the curse, the Snow Princess, is trapped in ice there. Probably just like Halven.”
Garnexis narrowed her eyes. “Who trapped her?”
“Lady Isa’s cousins,” Orivian replied. “The last of the Ice Dragon Princes.”
Shara crossed her arms. “That just proves Isa knows how to do it. Unless there’s a record on how to undo it, I don’t know how it helps.”
Orivian shrugged. “Maybe it doesn’t. But it started with a curse. Halven didn’t just stumble into that room. He heard voices. Something pulled him there. Like it’s happened before. That article from 639, the one about the students hearing voices? What if the same thing started again and Halven stopped it before it could spread?”
Ardorion raised a brow. “That’s a big leap. But it sounds like something Halven would do.”
“Then we have our tasks,” Shara said. “Everyone should work in pairs, though. If anything happens, no one should be alone.”
My gaze lifted. “Except me. I want to talk to Neir alone. He might open up more if I go by myself.”
The thought of facing him, of looking into those golden eyes and not knowing if they held truth or lies, made my stomach churn. But I had to know. The pull toward him hadn't faded, but my certainty in him wavered. His magic was in the ice of Wintermere, but not in the ice trapping Halven. It was possible he was not working with Isa, that he was not responsible for what happened to my friend and ex-lover.
Shara spoke, pulling me from my thoughts. “Same for me and Veyn.”
Ardorion smirked. “Just make sure you stop kissing them long enough to ask your questions.”
Garnexis slapped him on the shoulder. “Do you really think they’ll be kissing the guys who might be responsible for Halven being frozen solid?”
I turned my gaze downward. Please don’t let Neir be involved. Please don’t let what I feel for him be misplaced.
Ardorion winced dramatically, clutching his arm. “Ow.”
Then he looked at Aster, a goofy grin spreading across his face. “I guess I’m already kissing the enemy.”
Aster rolled her eyes but a small smile curved her mouth.
A smile. A real one. It surprised me. Aster rarely smiled. It warmed something inside me for a moment. But the warmth faded quickly, replaced by the cold knot that hadn’t left since I saw Halven frozen in the chamber.
The cold knot bloomed into dread. I had to talk to Neir. Maybe his magic didn’t trap Halven, but his face had been beside Isa’s in that newssheet.
I would look for him, talk to him. I didn’t know if we were still… Whatever we were when two lovers met only dreams and only for kisses. I didn’t know what that meant. So I had to find the truth, even if it broke what was left of my heart.
