Two lines had formed on the dance platform—men on one side, women on the other—as the music shifted into a faster, more playful rhythm. One by one, the first in each line stepped forward, meeting in the center before launching into a spinning, hopping, foot-stomping dash across the stage. Cheers erupted with every pair, and tradition dictated that those still waiting clapped and stomped in unison—loud, lively, and full of joy.
Cane met Sofie at the front of the line. She grinned, and he stole a quick kiss—breaking tradition, but setting a precedent others were happy to follow.
With dancers constantly joining and dropping out, partners rotated quickly. After Sofie, Cane spun with Dhalia, then Mira, then Lorna—each round fast-paced and infectious.
Eventually, he found himself opposite Sofie once more, breathless and grinning. She laughed and tugged him off the platform, still clapping to the beat as they moved together.
"Where are we going?" Cane asked, falling into step beside her, their hands still linked.
He slowed—something in the air had shifted. His senses flared.
Without hesitation, he shoved Sofie aside.
A blade hissed from thin air, slashing the space where her ribs had been a heartbeat earlier. A second strike clipped Cane's shoulder, spinning him—but he was already reacting. He dropped to one knee just as a projectile screamed past where his head had been.
Blue and Starstrike were in his hands in a blink.
Shouts rang out. The music cut. Chaos rolled across the festival like a wave.
Cane scanned the space ahead, not seeing so much as sensing.
Then—Glacial Ice erupted near the dance platform. Someone from Gryphon Company was already moving.
Inspired, Cane slammed Blue into the ground, sending a pulse of frost racing forward in a jagged wave. The ice cracked and spread, snapping across the cobbles.
A curse rang out—the air shimmered.
A figure flickered into view, half-cloaked in a stealth rune.
Cane lunged.
Starstrike came down in a brutal arc, like splitting firewood.
The assassin raised crossed blades to block—too slow.
They shattered under the force and cold. A flare of defensive runes exploded from the attacker's cloak as they were flung backward into a stack of crates.
Cane didn't wait.
He turned, grabbed Sofie's hand, and sprinted toward the dance floor—where the real battle had only just begun.
Moriwynn was fighting twin shadows—blurs of motion that moved too fast for the eye to follow. Cane sensed danger on a level that made his skin crawl. A wall of ice, two meters high, split the dance floor in half, shielding civilians as half a dozen members of Gryphon Company stood guard, radiating cold.
"Get behind the wall!" Cane yelled.
Sofie nodded, her concern for him clear—even more than fear for herself. "Be careful!"
A wave of fire erupted from the far side, illuminating cloaked figures mid-stride. One turned directly into Cane's path.
Starstrike met the first with a quick thrust, flaring against a shield of defensive runes. Ice underfoot made footing tricky, but Cane adjusted, following up with a brutal kick that launched the figure into a second just as a fireball detonated.
A blood-curdling scream filled the air. With their protections spent, both attackers bore the full force of Fergis's strike. They survived—but only barely—vanishing in a flash of movement.
"You okay? You're bleeding," Fergis said, falling into step beside him as they retreated toward the ice wall. Behind it, Dhalia was healing wounded civilians while Labyrinth stood guard, her blade forged from Glacial Ice.
"Just a graze." Cane slowed, head tilting at the sudden silence.
The shadow wraiths Moriwynn had been fighting were gone—vanished with a final banshee shriek that raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
"They're gone," Moriwynn said, striding over. "Withdraw the wall."
Labyrinth nodded sharply. "Gryphon Company! Withdraw the wall!"
The wall of ice dissipated in an instant, leaving behind silence where chaos had reigned moments before.
Moriwynn stepped forward, hands glowing with silver light. She pressed one against Cane's injured shoulder. The wound closed, bone and tissue mending with eerie precision.
Cane shuddered.
He'd been healed before—by Neri, by Dhalia—but this was different. Cold and foreign. It felt less like warmth returning and more like rain falling on parched ground. His body struggled to accept it.
"Thank you," Cane managed. "What were those shadow things you were fighting?"
Moriwynn paused. Something flickered across her expression. "You saw them?"
"Not clearly," Cane said. "But enough to know they weren't flesh and bone."
"Even that much is impressive," she murmured. Then, louder, "Any casualties?"
Labyrinth shook her head. "A few townfolk injured. None of ours."
Moriwynn's gaze shifted toward Dhalia, her eyes narrowing as she attuned to the magic radiating from the healing focal.
"Northern Sea water," she noted. "Same source as our Glacial Ice runes." Her gaze snapped to Cane. "Did you craft that focal?"
"I did," Cane replied. "But the infused water is Dhalia's. We used a communal rune—infused both our elements at the same time."
Moriwynn tilted her head, curious. "You can form communal runes?"
"Yes," Cane said simply. Then, after a pause, "You've never healed a human before, have you?"
Moriwynn's icy blue eyes sharpened, unreadable. "How did you know that?"
"It felt… like a first," Cane said. "Skilled and strong, but like rainfall onto dry ground."
He hesitated, then offered his hand. "Thank you for helping, Commander Moriwynn."
She stared at him for a heartbeat, then clasped his hand carefully. "Just call me Mori."
Fergis approached, his face lined with fatigue. "Where's the guard?"
Cane glanced around, a thread of unease finally coalescing into clarity. "They should've responded by now. Let's check the guardhouse."
Fergis nodded and fell in step, but paused when Moriwynn spoke.
"Go with them, Sergeant."
Labyrinth inclined her head, her calm expression laced with curiosity. Her commander had just permitted a human student to call her Mori. As far as she knew, not even the other elves had that privilege. "Yes, Commander."
The trio headed down the stone-lined street. The guardhouse was less than a block away. There was no way the earlier attack could've gone unheard… and yet, no sign of the roving patrols.
"When's the last time you saw one of the guards making rounds?" Cane asked, glancing sideways at Fergis.
"Before the line dancing started," Fergis replied, brows furrowing.
Labyrinth studied the two first-years as they walked. "You know, you two have basically taken over."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Fergis asked, his energy starting to return.
"I mean where are the upperclassmen? You two were in the thick of it. Everyone else fell back behind the wall."
Cane frowned. "That makes it sound like they were cowards. Retreating in the face of an unknown threat isn't fear—it's tactical."
"Doesn't change the fact you two charged forward while everyone else didn't," Labyrinth said, raising a brow.
"Well…" Cane shrugged. "We're stupid."
"Complete idiots," Fergis added, nodding solemnly.
Labyrinth laughed, glancing between them. "You two make me miss this place."
"Go slow," Cane warned, approaching the bronze door to the guardhouse with Starstrike in hand. He paused, fingertips brushing the surface.
"Wait. The metal feels… off." He placed a flat hand against the door, letting his senses drop into the alloy. A moment later, his awareness was surrounded by light brown metal—dense, reinforced, sealed tight.
"Divide," he whispered.
Using the same technique he'd used to craft gossamer-thin metal sheets, he let his will seep into the structure. Runes flared—complex, foreign.
"Be cautious," a voice echoed beside him. Moriwynn appeared suddenly, entering the elemental field.
"I don't recognize all of them, but… this one feels like a seal. A time rune, maybe?"
Moriwynn narrowed her eyes. "Yes. It is. How would you—?"
"When I forged the Interwoven Adamantium Glacial Frost Robes," Cane replied, "Telamon placed one like it in the shop to let me finish in time. One week of work… only a day passed outside. Ten-to-one ratio."
Moriwynn touched the rune, her expression unreadable. "I can't open it. Not without consequences."
Cane pulled back from the metal, shaking his head. "Then we'll need to break it smarter. Fergis—you're the rune guy. Can you do anything?"
Fergis squinted at the door. "Probably. These kinds of runes are never perfect. It's nowhere near the kind of stuff Nos—"
"Of course not!" Nos declared, suddenly sliding sideways out of a tiny rift in the air.
Even Moriwynn blinked in surprise.
The old man stroked his mustache and squinted at the door. "What are you waiting for? Find the mistake!"
Fergis jumped, then nodded quickly and began circling the building. "Energy source here," he said, pointing to a brick that looked newer than the rest.
Nos cackled. "Don't state obvious things, boy. Keep going."
Fergis traced the wall with his hand; it radiated heat despite the absence of any visible flame. "I could cut the power source," he muttered, "but smarter runemasters build in anti-tampering spells."
"Hmph." Nos tapped his staff on the ground, irritated. "My beard is growing…"
Fergis stopped suddenly, palms pressed flat to the stone. "Here. The rune isn't complete. In fact, it's, um… leaking?"
Nos raised a bushy eyebrow. "Indeed. It began as a temporary time-freeze, but the outer structure's degraded. Time has begun to slip. The guards inside will be in danger within the hour."
Cane stepped back, letting Fergis work. He could draw runes he'd seen before, but Fergis had a feel for them—his instincts honed by both talent and Nos's relentless, often ridiculous training.
"Here—this is the trigger." Fergis pointed. "It's metallic. Can you reach it through the stone? Freeze the mechanism, and I can destroy the rune. The whole thing'll crack open like an egg."
"Maybe." Cane placed his hand against the wall, reaching for the trigger embedded within.
His senses recoiled—blocked, confused—but he didn't pull away. He kept pressing inward, deeper. Then a thought drifted toward him, unbidden:
The way Moriwynn pulled me in between… maybe…
He could've asked her. She might've helped. But first—he wanted to try.
This time, he didn't push or force. He reached not into the stone, but into himself. Not searching for the object, but for the connection.
All life shared a rhythm when broken down far enough. That was the nature of the forge too—heat, pressure, transformation. It was why in between felt familiar. Cane had been at its threshold many times. He couldn't step through like the elves, not without help, not without something transcendent.
But maybe he didn't need transcendence.
He was a smith. A maker. A shaper of metal and force. That was his grounding—not vision or aura, but touch.
So instead of searching for magic, he focused on his hands—on being his hands.
And with a soft, impossible pull—
—his fingers slipped through the wall like water breaching silk.
A collective gasp rang out—Fergis, Labyrinth, Moriwynn… even Nos.
"Almost…" Cane whispered, already inside.
He felt it—a silver sliver lodged in the stone, the trigger mechanism. Glacial Ice curled through his fingertips and froze it solid.
"NOW!"
Fergis struck.
The rune shattered.
The wall exploded—not violently, but as if it had never been stone at all. Dust and ancient air rushed outward as time snapped back into motion. The guardhouse stood hollow, its contents revealed.
Fergis blinked at the ruin, then turned to Cane, wide-eyed. "What was that?"
Light flooded the area as several weapons extended outward from inside the guardhouse. Inside, the sounds of confusion—curses, boots scrambling—echoed off stone walls.
"This is Cane, from the Academy," Cane called out, raising his voice just enough to carry but not alarm. "There's been an attack. This guardhouse was sealed by a time rune."
"Cane?" a voice answered. A guard poked his head out, eyes wide and blinking. "Why is it dark?"
"It's only late afternoon to him," Nos said dryly, leaning on his staff. "Unfortunately, all the roving guards were killed and replaced with imposters. Likely sometime just before the attack."
Cane muttered a curse under his breath. "I walked right past them… didn't sense a thing."
Fergis wore a matching grimace. "Same."
Labyrinth placed a hand on both their shoulders, her voice low and firm. "You're being too hard on yourselves."
Moriwynn nodded. "The guards avoided me as well. I assumed it was discomfort with my heritage. Clearly, I misread it. We all did. And we'll all adapt."
Later that evening, Cane and Fergis escorted Mira back to her family, then walked the quiet streets with Sofie at their side. The lanterns around the festival had been dimmed, but the warmth of voices and distant laughter suggested that life, for now, continued.
"The festival's two days, right?" Sofie asked softly. "Contests, dancing, everything. You think it's cancelled?"
Cane shrugged. "We'll see. After something like this… maybe not. Maybe people need it more."
"We should show up either way," Fergis said, his eyes scanning the rooftops. "This time, we stay vigilant."