CHAPTER 28
Ever since Zacchaeus entered the picture, Azi had become Sorayael's self-declared shadow.
From the moment morning classes began, he'd stroll beside her with that half-lazy, half-smug grin etched on his lips, arms crossed behind his head like he had all the time in the world.
Azi laughed, clearly unbothered.
And then, as if the universe loved irony, Zacchaeus arrived, precisely on time, like always, a book tucked neatly under one arm.
Sorayael blinked. "I wasn't looking for-" She paused. "Actually... thanks."
Azi glanced at the book, then at Zacchaeus. "Wow. You memorizing her reading habits now?"
Zacchaeus smiled politely. "Just observant."
Zacchaeus gave a small shrug, still smiling. "Nicknames don't mean much when actions speak louder."
Azi's grin faltered, just for a breath. "You're right. That's why I'll carry her bag today."
Azi turned to Sorayael with mock betrayal. "Feifei. How could you?"
The two guys stared at each other.
Sorayael walked off without a care.
Later that day during class, Zacchaeus passed Sorayael a fresh ink quill, her old one was cracked.
Azi noticed, ripped a page from his own notebook, and folded it into a paper flower with a scrawled note:
"For Feifei. In case the quill's not romantic enough."
She didn't react, just shoved both aside and kept writing.
At lunch, Zacchaeus reserved a table near the sunlit window.
Azi showed up with three desserts and said, "Feifei needs sugar. She's all stormcloud today."
Sorayael buried her face in her food. "I need peace. And for you both to vanish."
Their group exchanged exhausted glances.
Ravelia leaned toward Celene. "At this rate, someone's going to explode."
Celene tilted her head. "I'm hoping it's one of them."
Zarethian looked between Azi and Zacchaeus. "I give it a week before one of them challenges the other to a duel over napkin placement."
Karsen grinned. "I'm betting three days."
Zarethian, who sat beside Sorayael and had been watching in disbelief for days now, finally leaned forward and clapped a hand on Azi's back.
Azi, sipping from his juice, gave a strained grin. "I'm not jealous."
Zarethian raised a brow. "You're literally twitching every time Zacchaeus speaks."
Azi groaned and shoved his tray forward, looking away with an exasperated breath. "This is a disaster."
Zacchaeus, ignoring the commentary, asked gently, "Sorayael, you look tired. Did you sleep well last night?"
Before she could reply, Azi interjected, "Of course she didn't. She was probably up thinking about-"
The table went quiet.
Then, as if on cue, both Zacchaeus and Azi straightened and spoke at the same time:
Despite the chaos between them, a week had passed. Their punishment had officially ended, and with it, the midnight cleaning duties. The exhaustion ebbed, replaced by the familiar rhythm of Sterella Academy's intense curriculum.
But that night, as the moon cast long silver threads across the windows, Sorayael's eyes narrowed.
The upperclassmen, the ones who once tried to overpower Ravelia had returned.
They entered the campus like shadows stretching back into their place, quiet but charged with intent. And as they passed by the corridor outside Sorayael's classroom, their gazes lingered. One even offered her a thin, unbothered smirk.
Her instincts stirred and felt that something was wrong.
She didn't say anything to the others, but deep in her chest, the unease curled like smoke.
The past may have seemed settled, but vengeance has patience, and unfinished grudges always wait for silence to strike.
............
Late afternoon settled like golden silk over Sterella Academy, the sun staining the stone corridors with warm light as students filed out of classrooms.
Sorayael sat alone at the edge of the library's inner courtyard, a shaded nook beneath flowering trellises, the hum of distant chatter faint. A quiet breeze rustled through the ivy, carrying with it the scent of old parchment and sun-warmed blooms.
She stared at the envelope in her hand, the first of three.
The seal was unmistakable. The House of the Eclipse.
With a careful flick of her gloved fingers, she broke the wax.
S
he folded it neatly, pressing her thumb briefly over the ink as if to feel the pulse of its sender through the page.
'I need to gather information.'
Next, she opened the second letter, crumpled slightly at the corners, sealed with red wax in the shape of a lion's paw.
Krios.
A soft laugh slipped from her lips. It was always his letters that made her forget how cold the world could be. Her fingers traced the slight smudge near the end of the letter, where the ink had blurred.
'Probably his elbow again.'
Then came the last one. The parchment smelled faintly of ink and steel, the seal of House Aethenroth pressed firmly at the flap.
The Grand Duke.
Sorayael sat back, exhaling slowly.
A letter from the shadows.
A letter from warmth.
A letter from comfort.
All roads bent toward her.
She slipped the letters back into her coat, gaze lifting toward the sky above the courtyard. A few faint stars had begun to peek through the clouds.
She was sitting still until a voice broke the silence.
'Azi.'
She didn't turn. "Sometimes the world gets loud. I just like to breathe through it."
He stepped beside her, tilting his head. "Bad news?"
Azi blinked at her, then offered a rare, softer smile. "Yeah. But I tend to punch it when it arrives."
She laughed faintly, shaking her head.
And as the wind shifted again, her hand brushed over her coat pocket where the letters still rested.
Waiting like fate.
Far from the ivory towers of Sterella Academy, beneath the blood-red banners of the Imperium, the war room of the Imperial Palace stood silent, save for the low crackle of flame.
A single figure loomed over the obsidian table etched with the map of the continent. His eyes, sharp as blades, scanned the scattered markers of kingdoms, borders, and bloodlines.
Around him, advisors dared not speak. Not when his fingers, clad in rings carved from celestial ore, traced a path through territories like a god rewriting fate.
A pause.
He turned to the darkened window, where the sky churned unnaturally, one constellation blinking, as if winking in challenge.