Dawn brought with it an unusual chill.
The fog crept along the corridors of the Valmere Academy like a silent veil. Ethan woke before the first bell could toll, feeling a strange weight in the air. His connection with his Ancestral Forest Stag was… unstable. Not weakened, but as if an invisible interference had distorted the bond for an instant.
That's when the message arrived.
A formal messenger, dressed in the colors of the administration, delivered an envelope sealed with the director's emblem. Ethan opened it carefully.
"Ethan Ward. Report to the Gray Hall immediately after the second bell. — Director Halvren."
The place was rarely used. Located on the lower floors of the Academy, almost subterranean, it was reserved for delicate meetings—and sometimes interrogations.
Ethan entered with firm steps, the Stag silently following him. The room was cold, illuminated by crystal globes embedded in the stone walls. At the center, a long table. On one side, Director Halvren, his face grave. Beside him, Mistress Vaela and an unfamiliar man: he wore a dark cloak with silver embroidery and carried a grimoire strapped to his waist.
"Take a seat, Ethan," said Halvren, without preamble.
Ethan complied.
"During the night patrol, one of our visual sentinels detected you and your beast near the western clearing… in the same location where, two days ago, an incident of energy distortion was reported."
"Yes," he replied firmly. "I went back to investigate on my own. Something called me there."
Vaela frowned.
"Did you see the creature again?"
"Not completely," he answered. "But I felt its presence. It communicates… or tries to. There is something ancient about it. It is not mere wildness. It is intention."
The man in the dark cloak leaned slightly forward.
"Ethan Ward, my name is Yorran. I am from the Guild of Researchers, Senior Researcher of the Arcanobiological Trail. And what you describe… fits with ancient records. Experiments with entities of pre-natural origin."
He placed a small mirror on the table. Its surface pulsed with soft lights.
"This artifact registered a signature in your spiritual bond last night. Someone—or something—touched your soul."
Ethan looked at the mirror, without surprise.
"I know."
Yorran exchanged glances with Halvren. The Director finally sighed.
"From today, you are under special observation. You will have restricted access to certain areas, but you will also be included in a new study program… a project that aims to understand and contain the anomalies that arise at our borders."
Ethan nodded. He knew he was crossing an invisible line—and that there was no turning back.
Upon leaving the Gray Hall, the sun had already risen, tearing through the fog. Yet the atmosphere at the academy remained strange. Students gathered near the exhibition field, murmuring with curiosity. Ethan approached and soon understood why.
A new beast was being presented.
Floating a few centimeters above the ground, enveloped in a freezing aura, was the Silent Ice Raven.
Its eyes were completely white, without pupils, like two icy moons. Its feathers resembled fragile shards of crystal, and each beat of its wings released a blue mist. Beside it, the handler—a girl with black hair and gray eyes, bearing a crest that Ethan did not recognize.
"She's from another region," someone whispered beside him. "From one of the northern academies."
Ethan couldn't tear his gaze away. For a moment, the Raven also stared at him. And the cold seemed to cut deep.
That night, in his quarters, Ethan recorded everything: the raven's gaze, the words spoken in the hall, and the strange gleam that his own eyes reflected in Yorran's mirror.
The world was changing. And he… was being prepared for something.