Kael didn't go back to the academy. He couldn't. Not after the attack. Not after the letter. He needed answers. Real ones. And only one man might know. The Archivist. A former Guild mage who vanished after the last Guild War. Rumor said he went mad. Kael didn't care.
He slipped out through the east gate before sunrise. By nightfall he knew someone was following.
Footsteps. Always ten paces behind. Always stopping when he stopped.
On the second night he turned fast near a cliff trail. "Whoever you are just come out"
Silence. Then a voice. "You really thought you could leave without me"
Kael blinked. "Juno"
She stepped from the shadows cloak dusted in ash blade on her back smirking like nothing had changed.
"Why are you here" he asked
"To keep you alive obviously"
He didn't trust her. Not fully. But her presence calmed the mark on his arm. That was enough for now.
She tossed him a ration bar. "You eat like a dying squirrel"
He caught it. "Thanks"
They camped near a dry riverbed. Kael stared at the moon. "Did you know. About me. My bloodline. The abyss"
"No. But I knew you weren't normal. You hear things. You see what others can't"
"And if I become a monster"
"Then I'll be the one who ends you"
He nodded. Fair deal.
They slept back to back. Silent. Tense. Neither truly resting.
In the woods something watched. Not a hunter. Not a beast.
Something smiling.
Back in the academy the headmaster unsealed a scroll from the Guild Tower.
One line written in red ink.
Kill the boy before the abyss uses him first
The hunt had just begun.