Stovall and Aurelia led me back toward the gates. My thoughts were still spinning, so tangled I barely noticed the courtyard had emptied. Only Asher waited, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

  “How’d it go?” he asked as we approached.

  “About as well as we could have hoped,” Aurelia answered before I could speak. Her gaze sharpened into an annoyed glare. “Though the little matter of Bryn not knowing Sirius was a prince might have been worth mentioning beforehand.”

  Asher’s grin spread, all roguish ease. “Ah, that. I figured it was better if you were the ones to spill that bit of information. Keeping secrets from Bryn was getting frustrating, and I thought it might land better coming from you.”

  I stopped in my tracks, staring at him. “Wait — you knew?” The words came out harsher than I meant, though even as I said them I realized of course he had known.

  “Why does everyone know except me?” The exasperation bled through before I could rein it in.

  Asher’s smile softened, his tone dropping lower. “Because when King Strider makes a request of you, Bryn, you do not refuse him. That’s the way of it. And I suspect the day will come when such a request may be made of you, too.”

  He sighed, then added, “I am sorry you were kept in the dark about so much. I do believe this is the best opportunity for you. I was not trying to manipulate you into it. I gave you my honest opinion, and you made your choice. If you had chosen another path, I would have supported you.” His eyes flicked briefly toward the headmasters. “Even if not everyone else would have.”

  I shifted on my feet, uncertain how to answer. My chest felt tight, too full of questions to let any words out.

  Stovall broke the silence with a dismissive wave, his tone almost casual. “Will you be staying in the eastern quarter during the announcement? It would be… reassuring to know the Razorwing was close at hand.”

  At that name, the air itself seemed to harden. Asher’s expression sharpened, the easy grin vanishing. For a heartbeat, the world turned to razors, and I felt as though we all balanced on the edge of a blade. Then, just as quickly, the moment passed. His smile returned, light as ever.

  “I will be nearby,” he said. “Mainly to watch over the boy. You may not see me, but I will be around for the first few weeks at least.”

  Stovall and Aurelia exchanged a look, then offered him a nod of thanks. Without another word, they turned back toward the academy, their figures fading into the glow of the white walls.

  Asher clapped me lightly on the shoulder. “Come on, kid. I am sure you have a thousand questions, and I am starving. We can settle you in tomorrow morning before the ceremony. With the changes, classes are being delayed a week anyway—gives the other nations time to arrive.”

  So much had happened in the last few hours that the sheer flood of information and change felt like trying to control my tremor sense in those early days.

  I followed Asher numbly to a nearby tavern. We ate a meal I could not even recall, and afterward he arranged a room for me to stay the night.

  It was not late, but I felt completely drained. The moment my head touched the pillow, sleep swallowed me. I slept longer than I could ever remember. Normally, I needed little rest, yet this time I did not stir until Asher’s knock jolted me awake the next morning.

  I had barely asked a question over our meal the night before. That was my habit. I tended to swallow my stress and struggles, locking them down where no one could see. It was probably a bad reflex, a scar from growing up the way I did, but it always made me feel safer, stronger, less exposed. Weakness had no place in survival.

  But over breakfast, I realized I was slipping back into that same retreat. It was the old rhythm of my life. When I fell into a rut, Sirius would show up again, full of stories and mischief, dragging me into sparring or recounting some adventure beyond the capital. This time, there was no Sirius. Just silence.

  I sat there chasing thoughts in circles until Asher finally broke it. “Why don’t you tell me what the headmasters said? I will help you fill in the gaps, and you can ask for clarity where you need it.”

  I nodded and began to speak. I told him everything. About why I was admitted. About Sirius being a prince. About how the powerful of Velmine had been watching me all along. About the tablet, and the strange results it gave.

  But I surprised myself. The words did not stop there. Something broke loose, and poured out of me. I spoke of grief, the kind I had buried for years. I spoke of how much I missed my parents, and how the ache never faded. I confessed that no matter what people said, I felt like an outcast. Not only an orphan, but a scarred one. My pale arm, my strange skin, the marks of the wyrm.

  I told him how training was just another way to run. Another way to strike until my thoughts were drowned in the rhythm of hitting something, anything, hard enough to silence the noise inside.

  By the time I realized it, I was exposed. Stripped bare in front of him. And it struck me for the first time — I was stepping into a world where I had no one to lean on. Sirius was gone. My parents were gone. And I felt… utterly alone.

  Asher had said he would stay nearby for a short while, but even that was borrowed time. His guild needed him. The Wild Wardens could not spare him forever.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Asher never interrupted. He did not scold or advise. He just listened, steady and patient, as though he knew I did not need answers right now. His presence was enough, like shade that cools you when the heat threatens to consume.

  And when the words finally died away, I realized something. It was not the changes that frightened me most, not the secrets, not even the strange truths revealed about who I might become. What I feared most was the silence that follows when you realize no one is there to catch you. What I feared most was being alone.

  As if reading my thoughts, Asher finally spoke after a long silence.

  “Kid, you may not believe me, but I know what you feel. I lost my parents at a similar age to you. I ended up in the same orphanage. Mistress Elora cared for me just as she did for you.” His eyes had drifted away, unfocused, as if seeing a life long past.

  “I did not have as extreme a story as you, but the reason I survived was because I was not home when the raiders came. I had been out in the woods, pretending to be a ranger, when they struck. By the time I returned, they were gone, and my parents were dead.” He exhaled slowly. “I had been trying to tame an owl I found. What I did not realize was that the bird was young and orphaned, too. It imprinted on me.”

  His lips tugged in the ghost of a smile. “That owl never left my side. At first, I thought it was luck, but over time, I learned it was more. It was not an ordinary bird. It was an oreowl, rare as they come. They consume metal, weaving it into their bodies. With their aether, they can hurl blades of the metals they have consumed enough of, among other things.”

  “The bond changed me. Because it happened so young, it altered me more than it should have. Oreowls are not meant to bond with people. They live in communities, not as solitary hunters. But because of that bond, I became something different. The first bond drew others. Now, I am followed by a flight of oreowls that answer my call.”

  He looked back at me, and for a moment there was a heaviness in his eyes. “I felt the same loneliness you do now. The owl became my constant, my companion in the nights when I had no one else, until I found brothers and sisters in the guild. It reminded me I did not have to be alone.”

  As if summoned by his words, a rush of wings stirred the air. An owl, feathers streaked with veins of dull metal, swept through the open tavern window. It landed lightly on Asher’s shoulder, eyes gleaming like hammered steel. He lifted a hand to stroke its chest, and the bird leaned into the touch with quiet trust.

  “This one,” Asher said softly, “has been with me since that day. Emerilia — my first bond. My proof that even in the ruins of everything you know, you can find something, or someone, that keeps you standing.”

  The moment I saw Emerilia, a sharp realization struck me. Memories flooded back in an instant. Countless times, I had glanced up to find an owl perched on the orphanage roof or settled in the branches across the yard. I had always thought it strange, even amusing, that the bird seemed to linger there. A constant shadow.

  I remembered nights when loneliness pressed in like a weight too heavy to bear. I would lie awake, staring into the dark, and hear the soft rhythm of an owl’s call drifting through the window. Those sounds had comforted me, a reminder that I was not entirely forgotten, not entirely alone.

  Only now did I see it clearly. Asher had always been there in some way, even when he could not be at my side. One of his bonded had been my unseen companion. His owl had been my unknown protector.

  I swallowed hard, my throat tight. “It was you,” I whispered, eyes still locked on Emerilia. “All those nights… when I thought I was alone. When I heard her call, or saw her perched above the orphanage. That was you, wasn’t it? You were watching me, even then.”

  Asher’s eyes softened, but he did not speak. He just gave the smallest of nods.

  Something inside me split open. Relief and gratitude surged up, tangled with a sharper edge I did not expect. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” My voice wavered, betraying more than I wanted it to. “I thought I was going mad sometimes, thinking an owl was following me everywhere. I thought it was just me trying to imagine… that I wasn’t as alone as I felt.”

  Asher leaned forward, resting his hand lightly on the table. “Because you needed to believe you could stand on your own. I could not take that from you. But I could make sure, in my own way, that you were never as alone as you feared.”

  The words stung and healed all at once. I wanted to be angry at him for keeping it from me. But more than that, I wanted to hold on to the truth of it. I had never truly been abandoned. Not entirely.

  I reached out, brushing my fingers against Emerilia’s feathers. She tilted her head, regarding me with those sharp golden eyes.

  Then she turned toward Asher. He gave the faintest nod. With a beat of her great wings, Emerilia launched into the air and swept out through the open window.

  I sat there, puzzled, until she returned moments later. Her talons curled gently around a smaller form, and as she hovered, she released it onto the table between us.

  My breath caught. It was a young owl, not much larger than my hand, its light fluff giving way in patches to sleek feathers. But what held my gaze was its left wing—or rather, what remained of it. Two-thirds were gone, torn away as though by some merciless strike. The little owl shifted uneasily, letting out a faint rasp of a call.

  “What happened?” I asked, my voice low.

  Asher’s expression tightened, and for a moment he looked older than I had ever seen him. “Emerilia went hunting for her brood. When she returned, all her chicks had been slaughtered. All but this one. She found it barely clinging to life, bleeding from the torn wing.”

  The words were somber, and I looked down at the small creature again. Its eyes, impossibly bright for something so broken, met mine.

  Asher leaned closer. “Emerilia and I thought…” he hesitated, choosing his words with care, “if you were willing, you might try to bond with this one. It could grow as your constant companion. Wounded, yes, but not helpless. With time, it could still guard and guide you in some ways. It will claim one of your companion bonds. That is not a small thing, Bryn. The decision should be made carefully.”

  I tore my gaze away from the owl long enough to look at him. His eyes flicked to my pale left arm, then back to the maimed wing.

  “We already tried to heal her with both aetheric magic and potions,” Asher said quietly. “Nothing restored the wing. If you did not know, bonded companions can sometimes borrow or even gain the abilities of the one they bond with. If the bond takes, and she inherits even a fragment of your regeneration…” He let the thought trail off, leaving the possibility to hang between us.

  The little owl shifted, tucking her ruined wing tight, her gaze fixed on me with a sharp, unblinking intensity.

  It was probably irrational. It was probably unwise. But in that moment, none of that mattered. What Asher had said was like a melody that sang in my soul.

  I could not walk away. This could be my chance to have a companion, not to walk this path alone. Even if she never flew again, even if her wounds stayed with her always, we already shared something. Loss. A wound beneath the skin that never quite healed.

  I reached out my hand. My breath caught as the space between us closed.

  With startling speed, the owl snapped forward and cut across my finger with her beak before hopping back toward Emerilia.

  I hissed at the sting, jerking my hand back, but when I looked down, the wound had already closed leaving only a pale white scar.

  Beside me, Asher gave a crooked smile. “I think she likes you.”

  I let out a shaky laugh and rubbed the back of my neck. “Well… this may be harder than I thought.”