The next night, the Seal pressed cold into my bones. Frost crept along the desk where papers lay scattered in uneven piles. Across the far wall, the ice glowed faintly, Halven’s hand pressed flat to its surface, his body trapped inside the block that held him suspended. His face lay calm in the blue sheen, but the sight tightened something deep inside me.

We gathered in a half circle before the elders, to include Yukari.

Isa’s presence carried the weight of command, yet tonight even she kept her voice level, as if straining to hold it steady.

“Tonight we attempt what has failed before. Fusion to keep the lake stable. Binding to return the entities to their prison. But first, the Transmutation. The increased power will give us what we need to maintain the spell and keep the entities from attacking us.”

Unease shifted through the group like a current. None of us had been told who the Transmutation would claim. That silence pressed biting against my ribs. Aster’s arms folded tight, her eyes darting toward Isa, then Yukari, then away again. Garnexis crossed her arms over her armor, chin high, jaw locked against doubt. Shara glanced once at Veyn, gaze lingering on him as if willing fate to pass him by. Rielle stood stiff beside me, eyes fixed on Halven, deliberately refusing to glance at Neir though his presence loomed near her.

The chamber held not only the four of us but also Lo and Elio, watchful in the back, and Orivian, his posture taut with restless energy. None of them spoke, yet their presence pressed close, a reminder that this night demanded everything from all of us. And we were ready for it, to gain our friend back.

Isa let the quiet settle. “Now you know the order. But not the one who gives up their life tonight.”

The tension thickened. My pulse jumped hard in my throat.

Yukari stepped forward. Her body blurred at the edges, wraithlike strands of silvery-blue mist rising from her arms and dissolving before reforming again. Hair the color of water drifted in the cold current, threaded with streaks of frosted white. Luminous blue eyes swept over us, unblinking. “It is me. I will be the one Transmutated.”

The words cut through us like a blade drawn across stone. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She spoke as though she had announced the weather, not her own death. Yet I couldn’t help but to feel relieved that it was her and not any of our teachers, or Neir for Rielle’s sake.

Elio staggered a half step forward, his voice cracking, shaking his head. “I don’t know about anyone else, but Transmutating a person is a lot different than a plant. You cannot ask us to kill you, or anyone.”

Yukari’s mouth curved, part pity but mostly humor. “While I appreciate your honorable nature, dragon, I am not asking. I’m telling you. My hands have ended more lives than all the combined years you all have been alive. A thousand times over. Whole villages destroyed under my command. Minds broken while they begged for death. Some deserved it. Many did not.”

The silence in the chamber was unlike anything I’d ever heard. None of us, save for Garnexis, would know what she spoke of. We grew up in peace, where death often came only when a person was ready to move on to the afterlife.

Her voice hollowed, carrying the weight of centuries. “That debt binds me more tightly than any chain. Tonight, it ends with me. Tonight, I begin my redemption before seeking it in the eight hells.”

Silence swelled. My fists pressed against my thighs. The wrongness of ending her life clawed at my chest, but something hot stirred beneath it. The sheer force of what she carried, what she meant to give, promised a power I had never felt before.

Her blue eyes lifted to Isa. “When the Transmutation is done, Neir, Rielle, and Aster will need to bind what remains of me into Isa. Once complete, Isa will have access to my energy to use in the Binding of the entities to the lake.”

Isa inclined her head, her expression unreadable.

Yukari’s form flickered again, mist curling off her shoulders and drifting into the air before snapping back into her shape. “This is how you will save everyone, so don’t weep for my corrupted soul.”

We closed a circle around Yukari as she knelt in the center, her form steady, the mist at her edges rising and curling like ribbons of smoke.

Isa lifted her hands, her voice carrying across the chamber. “Find your element within her. Draw all of it free.”

Power stirred as each of us reached inward for the strength to control our element. Each of my friends either battled their own revulsion or embraced their determination. Maybe both.

Rielle’s breath shook, but Neir’s hand hovered near hers, guiding her without words. Shara braced herself, teeth clenched, every motion taut with the battle between relief and guilt. Garnexis stood with arms planted firm, her focus unbroken, her resolve fixed on Halven’s frozen hand against the wall.

My own magic strained against the task. Yukari carried Winter in every vein. My fire scraped for a spark, any trace of heat hidden inside her endless cold. For a moment there was nothing, only ice, only silence. Then I caught it. Faint warmth, the fire born from the smallest reactions deep inside her body, hidden but alive. I seized it and pulled.

Light gathered around her like a net spun from all directions. Threads of vine, stone, current, and breeze tangled with mine. Her body began to unweave, strands of water, shadow, and moonlight dissolving into the circle. She sagged but her expression held peace, eyelids lowering as if she surrendered herself to a long-awaited rest.

The power we drew from her built higher than anything I had touched before. It roared through me, fire braided with ice, a storm that burned hotter for the resistance of its origin. The plant we had unraveled in training had carried only stillness.

This carried a mind. Each thread pulled from her soul whispered memory, choice, and the burden of centuries, filled with terrible decisions.

Yukari’s edges thinned, the shape of her dissolving, eerily similar to how she often dissolved into mist before reforming. But this time, her form collapsed into brilliance, every last strand of her unraveling until nothing remained but a seething mass of radiant mist suspended.

My chest heaved, sweat chilling against my skin. Awe gripped me. That much power could tear us apart. Yet it would not. It would save Halven. It would save us all.

The mass of energy Yukari had become writhed in the chamber, blazing like lightning contained inside a storm. Threads of power lashed outward, striking at the air, threatening to rip free of us. If it scattered, everything we had done would vanish with it.

Isa stepped forward, her jaw tight, her body trembling with the strain of trying to master the energy. “Now. Bind it to me, to my center in my womb.”

Neir lifted his hand, steady as always, Rielle and Aster following suit on either side of him. Threads of silver, blue, and lavender climbed toward Isa, twisting together. My fire wanted to flare hot beside them, but I held it. This wasn’t about me. My strength had to be steady, not loud.

Rielle’s voice shook when she spoke the intention with the others. “We bind what remains of Yukari into Isa, so her power may guard Wintermere.”

Neir’s tone cut through hers, firm, anchoring. His control pressed down on the storm, like stone over flame. The spell shoved Yukari’s essence toward Isa, and it slammed into her like a flood into a single vessel. She staggered, a cry tearing through the chamber, but she held her ground.

Light gathered in her abdomen, a glow steady and pulsing, alive with Yukari’s power. Isa straightened, her chest heaving, and the storm quieted at once. The pulse of energy light also faded. The Binding was complete.

Isa moved to the block of ice where Halven waited. Veyn and Neir stepped with her, the three of them casting long shadows in the glow of my friend’s prison.

The rest of us spread out along the wall. Aster’s hand pressed against mine, palm to palm, fingers steady. The warmth of her skin steadied me as much as the certainty in her eyes. For the first time, I believed this would work.

“Begin Aster and Ardorion.” Isa’s command rang loud in the chamber.

We began the Fusion spell, our magic twining together and plunging deep into Wintermere. Fire coiled with water, and the lake trembled. Cracks spidered outward across the frozen surface, jagged lines threatening to split as they had before.

Then Isa blazed. Yukari’s power erupted inside her, and the chamber filled with light so fierce it erased every shadow. The air roared, wind surging in circles around us. None of us could look at Isa, her form swallowed by brilliance, but the command in her voice rang out again. “Begin the Binding spell.”

I tore my magic from the Fusion spell, and Aster and I immediately turned toward our shared intentions for the Binding Spell. As the stronger magic user, she placed her palm on the ice, and I laid my hand over hers. She took our combined magic and anchored it to the water before hurling it into the greater spell. The one Veyn brought together to anchor before using it to bind the entities.

All of our magic burned bright together. Fire colliding with threads of Water, Moon, Wood, Air, Earth, Sun, and Metal. All of us pouring everything into the wall. The entities answered with their howls, voices clawing through the ice, furious and endless. The wall shook with their rage.

Then Isa’s glow surged into frozen lake, Yukari’s energy coursing like a beacon through her. The fight in the entities faltered. Their cries weakened. The fractures in the ice sealed over in luminous frost, hardening until the chamber quaked with silence.

Neir pressed a hand to the ice, his eyes closed in focus. The magic he wove sank beneath the surface, hidden from me, but the lake stilled. We all knew he used a spell to put the entities deep into dreams. Sleep had at last claimed the monsters.

Our magic retreated, but the Seal remained bright. Isa and Veyn then cast their power into the ice prison holding Halven. The glow unraveled whatever spell took hold there, the frozen wall melting into streams that coursed across the stone floor. Halven collapsed out of it, his body striking the ground, skin drained of color but breath stirring in his chest.

We moved to catch him. Veyn was there first, raising him to his feet. The two exchanged a glance and a weary smile, and I remembered now that they had been friends for several years before Veyn even attended the Academy as a student.

A cheer rose in my throat, choked by the awe of it all. We had done it. Against everything, we had brought him back.

Then Lo darted forward, flinging herself around Halven, her lips pressed quick and desperate against his. Elio stumbled after her, clasping Halven’s shoulder, laughter breaking through his ragged breath.

I shoved through the tangle of limbs and threw my arm around his back, giving him my own solid clap between the shoulders. “Missed you, bro. Don’t do that again unless you want me to replace you as captain of our bro squad.”

His mouth curved, though his voice barely rose above a whisper. “Thanks.”

We all paused with his first word in months, and he looked at all of us, meeting each of our gazes. He smiled and his brown eyes held genuine warmth.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I stood a little taller. I also felt wetness hit my cheeks. I brushed away tears as I backed away for Shara. She gripped Halven’s hand from the side, anchoring him as Lo refused to let go. Not that Halven complained as he kept one arm firmly around her waist.

When I backed away, I noticed that Rielle and Garnexis hadn’t moved forward.

I understood why Rielle wouldn’t. Lo was Halven’s girlfriend. Rielle was his ex.

But Garnexis surprised me. She lingered at the edge, looking almost like she was ready to leave, though Halven’s gaze caught hers across the chamber. Their shared nod carried more than words, something forged in battles none of us could name. Yet even with that exchange, Garnexis didn’t seem anymore settled. Something was going on with her, but Halven’s laugher drew my attention.

The laugh had been hoarse but real to something Elio was saying. I only caught the end of the conversation.

“You’d better start studying tonight if you want to pass finals.”

Laughter shook through the chamber, tangled with sniffles. The sound loosened something tight inside my chest, a knot I had not known had grown so heavy. For a heartbeat, it felt like nothing had changed, like the nightmare we had lived through had been nothing more than a bad dream.

The chamber quieted, the silence filled only by the rasp of uneven breaths. Yukari was gone, her sacrifice sealed inside Isa. The glow in Isa’s body had faded, but it lived there, a reminder that victory came at a cost.

My gaze drifted to Aster. She stood close, her hand brushing against her arm as though she wished for distance. I swallowed the ache to reach for her, to take her hand and promise her I would never let her stand alone. I didn’t plan to wait much longer before telling her, before trying again to make this thing between us work.

Isa’s voice carried, steady though her face shone with exhaustion. “The lake remembers what you’ve done for Nythral. And it always will. You should feel proud of what you’ve accomplished here, Docilis. I know I do.”

I grinned at Halven, even as my throat burned. “Hear that, bro? We’re legends now.”