The hours following the tournament are a blur of activity.
The recruits are checked and double checked by the healers in the infirmary, their wounds treated, their energy levels restored.
Yulian is already back on his feet. He loudly recounts his battle with Keyona to anyone who will listen. His voice booms with unbreakable spirit.
The rest of the city is alive with a different kind of energy. A joyful preparation for the evening’s graduation festival.
On a quiet balcony overlooking the bustling Marble City, Akira Kendo stands alone. His arms are crossed, his gaze fixed on the horizon.
The usual arrogant mask is gone. Replaced by a look of quiet, troubled thought.
Replaying the final moments of his fight with Carter in his mind. The insane gambit with the unicorn horn. The shocking mastery of teleportation.
The raw will to win.
Hearing soft footsteps behind him, he turns. His cousin, Ruby, walks towards him. Her expression is a mixture of concern and gentle frustration.
“There you are,” she says, her voice soft.
“I figured I’d find you hiding out here. You know, for a guy who just won the entire tournament, you don’t look very happy about it.”
“I won,” Akira replies, his voice a flat statement of fact.
“That is all that matters.”
“Right.” Ruby rolls her eyes, leaning against the railing beside him.
“So, are we going to talk about it? Your little obsession with Carter?”
Akira is silent for a long moment. His gaze is fixed on the city below.
Akira begins to think about Ruby’s question.
His movements are undisciplined.
His spell casting is raw, and inefficient.
He relies on instinct and brute force.
Its unacceptable.
And yet…
“He’s a tactical error,” Akira says finally, his voice a low murmur.
“He was given an OP power he didn’t earn. A power he doesn’t deserve.”
“I saw him as a flaw in the system. An idiot with a gift that needed to be reminded.”
“And now?” Ruby asks, her voice a quiet prompt.
A new look enters Akira’s eyes. A look of grudging respect.
“And now… I see that I may have been a little wrong.”
“The Dissonance he was under… it should have stopped him. But he fought through it.”
“The self inflicted wound…” He shakes his head, a single, sharp movement of disbelief.
“It was insane to do that. But it WASN’T the act of an idiot. It showed strong resolve.”
Turning to look at her, his red eyes burn with a conflicted intensity.
“His form is a mess.”
“His strategy is chaos.”
“He is a liability.”
He pauses. His final words are a reluctant admission. A correction to his own flawless analysis.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like him.”
“But… he’s more of a rival than an enemy.”
While Akira contemplates his new rival, Carter finds himself in the quiet heart of the Medical Branch.
Lady Seraphina’s private chambers are a world away from the sterile infirmary.
The room is a calm, almost magical space. Bathed in the soft glow of large, fist sized pearls that float in tall tanks of clear water.
The air is warm and humid. Filled with the calming scent of salt and strange aquatic plants.
The only sound is the soft bubbling of the tanks and the soft hum of the glowing pearls.
Carter sits on a comfortable examination table. The effects of Paige’s fruit have long since faded, leaving behind the dull, throbbing echo of his earlier Dissonance.
The unicorn horn’s purification was a powerful but temporary fix. A magical adrenaline shot that had burned through his system.
Now, the deeper, spiritual “bruising,” as Seraphina called it, remains.
She moves around him in a fluid, graceful dance.
She runs a smooth, glowing crystal over the gash on his shoulder. He feels a deep warmth that soothes his bones.
She places a cool damp cloth, infused with a shimmering silver liquid on his forehead. The dull throb in his mind begins to fade.
“The unicorn horn’s purification is a powerful but crude tool,” she explains, her voice a soft murmur.
“It should always be a last resort.”
“It cauterizes the spiritual wound, but it does not heal it. This potion will help mend the deeper damage.”
“You were… reckless today, Carter. You pushed your body and your soul far beyond their limits.”
“I did what I had to… I wanted to win,” Carter replies, his voice a low, tired rasp.
“I know.” A gentle, motherly smile appears on her face.
Finishing her work, she pulls up a stool, sitting opposite him.
“But it is not just the Dissonance that I am concerned about.”
She pauses. Her turquoise eyes meet his. Her expression is one of deep, sorrowful empathy.
“Gabriel told me you spoke with him. About your… nature.”
The question hangs in the air between them.
Carter takes a deep breath. He is not talking to a Branch Head now. He is talking to a healer.
“He told me I don’t have a Gate,” he says, the words still feeling strange on his tongue.
“He said… he said that only magical creatures are born without them. He asked me if I knew who my biological parents were.”
Seraphina’s calm expression softens.
“I know,” she says, her voice a quiet whisper.
“I was the one who told him.”
Carter looks at her, a new, deep understanding in his eyes.
“You knew? From the first day?”
She gives a single, slow nod.
“When I first examined you, after you arrived… I saw it. The absence of a Gate.”
“A perfect, unbroken connection to the flow of magic. I have never seen anything like it.”
“I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew that it made you… different.”
“I knew that it could make you a target.”
She sees the look on his face. The quiet horror of a young man questioning his own humanity.
She offers him a small, sad smile.
“I know what it is like to feel like you do not belong, Carter.”
“To feel like you do not belong in your own skin.”
In a moment of deep, quiet trust, she raises a hand to the side of her face. The air around her shimmers. The world holds its breath.
Her pointed, fin like ears grow longer, becoming more delicate.
Shimmering scales, the color of a sunlit sea, appear on her cheeks and arms. Their turquoise light fills the room with a gentle glow.
Her transformation is not monstrous or terrifying. It is beautiful. A quiet, breathtaking revelation of her true, impossible nature.
“I am a ‘partial’ magical creature,” she says, her voice a low murmur.
“A half mermaid.”
“Not through blood, but through an incomplete transmutation process.”
“A mistake. An accident.”
“For a long time, I saw myself as a failure, a being caught between two worlds, belonging to neither.”
She looks at him, her turquoise eyes filled with deep wisdom.
“But I’ve learned that being different is not a curse, Carter. It can be a gift.”
“It is a unique perspective. And in a world as broken as ours, it is a weapon. Our weapon.”
Seraphina finishes his treatment, and leaves Carter to rest.
After a few hours, Carter leaves the infirmary. His body is “mostly” healed, but his mind reels from Seraphina’s revelation.
No longer just a mage, not just a Resonant. He could be something else entirely.
An anomaly in a world of anomalies. And luckily, in this new place of his, he is not alone.
A strange, unsettling thought. And yet, a comforting one.
Returning to his room, the weight of the day settles over him. The battles, the pain, the truth.
Walking to the large, arched window, he looks out. Evening has fallen, and the Marble City has transformed.
The city below is no longer a quiet sanctuary of white stone and gleaming domes. It is a living, breathing celebration of light and life.
Thousands of floating lanterns, each a different color and shape, drift through the air like a slow river of stars. Their soft light paints the marble buildings in crimson, emerald, and sapphire.
High above, magical fireworks explode in the twilight sky.
They do not just burst into sparks. They bloom. They blossom. Taking shape, creating shimmering, temporary sculptures of light and magic.
A massive, roaring griffin with wings spread wide. A large 4 legged bird, with the body of a lion and the head and wings, of an eagle, scaled to match the large size of a lion’s body.
A perfect, glittering form of the creatures from the aviary.
A great, coiling dragon. Its scales a cascade of glittering, golden light, its fiery breath a shower of harmless, beautiful sparks.
The streets below are filled with music and laughter. Pure joy.
Mages in colorful, festive robes perform incredible feats of magic for cheering crowds.
Carter sees a woman weaving light from the lanterns into a beautiful starlit sky.
He sees a man making a fountain dance.
The water rises into the shape of a leaping whale before crashing down in a shower of rainbow colored drops.
The air is filled with hope.
A celebration of their survival. Of their defiance. Of the vibrant, beautiful magic they are all fighting to protect.
A celebration for the new graduates. The promise of a bright future for the Library.
His eyes find a large stage in the main plaza, where a band of magical creatures is playing.
A satyr plays a joyful melody on a set of panpipes.
A dryad keeps a steady beat on a drum made from a hollowed log.
A pixie flits through the air, her laughter a shower of glittering, musical notes.
But the lead singer, a powerful centaur with a deep voice, has captured the attention of the entire city.
He sings a song of hope and defiance. Of the long, dark night and the promise of a new dawn.
His voice, amplified by magic, soars through the city. A powerful anthem filling every heart with a new sense of purpose, of strength, of hope.
The final note of his song hangs in the air.
A hopeful promise in the clear, starlit night.