Chapter 28: The Morning Threshold
Cold grey light touched the edge of the glass before the academy bell rang.
Elara sat up on the side of the bed. Her long white hair fell over her bare shoulders in messy strands. Sticky white fluid leached slowly from between her thighs, running down the soft skin of her inner leg onto the rumpled sheets. She didn’t look at the mess. She didn’t look at me right away either.
She reached down, picked up her linen shirt from the floor, and pulled it over her head.
I stayed propped against the wooden headboard, watching every move she made in the pale morning light.
Her fingers moved fast over the buttons, working from top to bottom with practiced speed. Her blazer came next, heavy dark wool with the silver trim of a Rank 1 student. Then her skirt, her stockings, and her leather boots. She stood up beside the bed, straightened her collar, and pulled her white hair back into its neat Rank 1 style.
The cold, perfect Duke’s daughter was back on the surface.
Only her red cheeks, her swollen lips, and her quick breathing gave her away.
She turned near the wooden door. Her golden eyes met mine for one short second across the dim room. No anger. No sharp words. No haughty noble posture. Just a heavy, quiet look that stayed between us longer than it should have.
Then she opened the door, stepped out into the cold hallway, and pulled it shut behind her.
The lock clicked soft.
I was alone again.
---
I sat up on the edge of the bed and pressed my right palm against my lower ribs.
The warm pulse under my skin felt different this morning.
It was denser. Warmer. The continuous nights with Elara had changed the mana pool inside my body. In the original novel world of Aetherion, mages and knights measured their strength in seven distinct stages called Ascensions.
Most lower-tier nobles and commoner scholarship students stayed stuck at the Second Ascension for their entire four years at the academy. Geniuses like Elara, Caelum, and Prince Lucien had already reached the Third Ascension peak and were actively working toward the Fourth Ascension threshold.
My public record in the academy registrar listed me as a lower-mid student at the Second Ascension.
I had kept my public mana output low on purpose to avoid drawing attention from the research board.
But as I focused on the heat pulsing under my ribs, I could feel the real state of my body. The raw residual energy from the sealed Black Sun Calamity was dark and volatile on its own. Left unrefined, it would have corrupted my internal channels. But passing through Elara’s pure Ice bloodline during our nights together had cooled and purified the energy, turning it into stable power.
The purified residual had built up a thick, solid core inside me. My internal mana pool wasn’t at the Second Ascension anymore.
It was sitting right at the edge of the Fourth Ascension threshold.
One more strong push would break the wall.
I stood up, walked over to the small porcelain washbasin in the corner, and splashed cold water over my face.
Power was good for survival in a dangerous world. But power built from residual energy also carried massive risk. If the research team scanned my mana pool during an official check and saw a sudden jump without years of documented meditation, they wouldn’t call me a genius.
They would call me a risk. A possible carrier of the Black Sun Calamity.
I dried my face with a towel, put on my black academy blazer, and buttoned it all the way to the top collar.
---
Morning mist hung thick over the stone arches of the West Wing.
Groups of second-year students walked down the wide marble corridor toward the main lecture halls. Gold-trimmed cloaks from the high-noble houses stood out against the plain silver trim of minor barons and commoner scholarship students. Sunlight came through the tall arched windows, but the morning air stayed cool and crisp.
I kept my hands in my pockets and walked along the outer wall, keeping a steady, unremarkable pace.
Whispers floated from a small group of third-year mages standing near the central courtyard fountain.
"The board approved it this morning," one of them said, leaning in close to his companions.
"Floor Twelve?"
"Yes. The Mid-Term Enigma Dungeon Expedition starts in two weeks. All second-year combat squads are required to participate."
I slowed my steps slightly without turning my head toward them.
"They said the mana flow down there is unstable this term," another voice chimed in. "The deep seals under the continent are vibrating again. The research squad was down there yesterday reinforcing the warding stones."
My stomach tightened.
I remembered that event clearly from the original novel plot. The Sophomore Enigma Dungeon Expedition.
In the original story, that expedition was where the old Leo Vance met his end. He had been framed for sabotaging a squad’s warding stone during a sudden monster breach on Floor Twelve. The high-noble houses had used the incident as an excuse to execute him without a formal trial.
I had changed my behavior over the past month specifically to avoid that death flag.
I had stopped bullying scholarship students. I had dyed my hair black. I had buttoned my blazer neatly every morning.
Yet the academy calendar was moving inexorably toward that exact same dungeon expedition.
If I wanted to survive when those heavy stone gates closed behind us on Floor Twelve, staying weak in secret was no longer an option.
---
Across the central courtyard, a group of high-noble girls walked past the archery range toward the Rune Wing.
Soft pastel-blue hair stood out immediately in the middle of the group.
Celestia Raine.
She wore her neat blue blazer and carried a leather-bound notebook pressed against her chest. She looked quiet, gentle, and refined. Exactly like the First Prince’s promised fiancée was supposed to look in public.
Since I told her to stop on the east path, she had kept her distance completely. No open doors. No waiting in empty practice sheds. She had followed my order to the letter.
As her group passed the fountain, her gaze shifted sideways.
Our eyes met across twenty paces of open courtyard.
For one long second, neither of us moved.
Color flooded her cheeks instantly. Her fingers tightened on her notebook until her knuckles turned pale white. Her lips parted slightly as if she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
She tore her eyes away first and walked faster, her head lowered as her blue hair swayed over her shoulder.
She looked almost panicked.
I kept walking toward the lecture hall without changing my pace or expression.
She had stayed away from my physical path. But the way she had looked at me just now across the open courtyard proved one thing.
Keeping distance hadn’t fixed anything inside her.
---
**Celestia’s POV**
My room in the high-noble wing was quiet when I returned after the morning lecture.
I locked the oak door, walked over to my bed, and sat on the edge with my notebook still pressed tightly to my chest.
My heart was beating far too fast.
I had seen him standing near the fountain. He had been walking alone with his hands in his pockets, his blazer buttoned neat, his black hair falling slightly over his forehead.
He hadn’t smiled. He hadn’t called my name. He had just looked at me.
And my whole body had gone warm from head to toe.
I lowered my notebook and looked down at my hands. They were trembling.
I had done what he asked. I had stopped going to the east storage room. I had stayed away from the archery path. I had avoided every corridor I knew he used.
I thought if I stayed away, the strange, shameful feeling inside me would go away too.
It hadn’t.
Every night when I lay in my bed, the room felt far too empty. When I closed my eyes, I didn’t see Lucien’s polite, handsome smile. I saw Leo standing in the half-open doorway of that dark shed, watching me while I touched myself.
I had tried touching myself last night in the dark.
I had tried thinking about Lucien. About our future imperial wedding. About House Raine’s honor.
Nothing happened. My body stayed cold and dry.
Then I had pictured Leo’s dark eyes on me again. The way he had stood there in the light without laughing at me. The deep, heavy sound of his voice when he told me to stop.
The moment I thought of him, heat had flooded between my legs like a wave. I had come so hard I had to bite the corner of my sheet to keep from crying out into the quiet room.
I covered my face with both hands now, hiding my burning cheeks.
"What is wrong with me?" I whispered to the empty room.
I was engaged to Prince Lucien Ardent. He was kind. He was handsome. He was the future Emperor of the realm.
Yet my body only reacted to the baron’s son who had caught me in my shame.
I looked over at the window. The grey mist outside was starting to clear, letting in pale afternoon light.
The Enigma Dungeon Expedition was coming in two weeks. Everyone in the high-noble wing was talking about it.
I dropped my hands to my lap and stared at the heavy oak door.
I knew I shouldn’t go near him again. But deep inside, where the shameful heat stayed locked, a small dark thought whispered that two weeks was a very long time to wait.