I stood at the academy gates, unable to bring myself to enter. Cold wind whipped at my cloak tails, creeping under my clothes, making me shiver. But that was actually helpful—the cold sobered me, helped gather my thoughts.

  Almost a year had passed. A year of imprisonment, pain, and searching for answers. And here I was again, before Arcanum's high walls. Strange, but nothing stirred inside. I felt neither nostalgia nor excitement. As if all this was happening to someone else. Perhaps it was?

  I'd barely taken my first step toward the gates when I noticed her. Selena stood at the far edge of the inner courtyard, leaning against the wall between columns.

  She no longer seemed like the thin figure I remembered. There was something new in her posture—bearing, dignity, but without pretense. Even... confidence that hadn't been there before.

  Her white hair had grown longer. It no longer fell carelessly but was neatly gathered, though a bit windblown. Her face had matured. The familiar features remained—chin, nose, gaze—but something different had appeared in them too. Not strictness, no. Rather a soft, mature depth.

  Against the gray sky she no longer seemed fragile. There was a calm in her that made me want to look away, but I couldn't.

  I froze. Thoughts that had been so clear a second ago tangled completely. Go to her? Pretend I hadn't noticed? This meeting wasn't in my plans. At least, not like this, not now. But there was no choice anymore.

  Selena turned her head. Our gazes met. Her face wavered, as if she'd lost her footing for a moment. In those eyes—the same color as before, but somehow deeper. More. Surprise, disbelief, joy, confusion—everything flickered before she took a step forward... and stopped. As if waiting for me to take the first step now.

  "Luten? Is it... really you?"

  Her voice. I'd forgotten what it could be like, but still replied.

  "Hello, Selena."

  I approached closer, maintaining distance. Hoped my face wouldn't betray the inner storm.

  "Where were you all this time? We searched for you. Everywhere. Sent search parties, tried to get answers from the otherworlders. Alice nearly went out of her mind."

  Selena's voice carried frustration and relief in equal measure.

  "Long story."

  I lowered my eyes. Didn't want to look at her directly, too afraid of revealing too much.

  "And that's all you can say? 'Long story'?"

  Irritation appeared in her voice. I raised my gaze and saw her clenching her fists. Squeezing them so hard her knuckles go pale.

  "I didn't disappear by choice."

  "I know. Alice understood that immediately."

  Selena said quietly.

  We fell silent again. The air hung with tension—not hostile, but heavy, like pre-storm tension. I studied her face, which had become slightly more mature, slightly stricter. The changes were almost imperceptible, but I saw them clearly. Apparently, I'd changed too.

  "You can't even imagine what I had to go through."

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "Tell me. Tell me everything."

  She stepped closer, eyes searching my face. I shook my head.

  "Not here and not now."

  Selena sighed but didn't insist. Instead, she unexpectedly reached out and touched my shoulder. A light, almost weightless touch, but it broke through something inside—the wall I'd been so carefully building all this time.

  "I'm glad you're back."

  I wanted to answer something clever or cold. Something that would maintain the distance between us. But the words stuck in my throat.

  "Let's go."

  Selena suddenly smiled, and her face lit up for a moment, just like before.

  "I think you need to eat. And talk to the others."

  She took my arm as if it were the most natural gesture in the world. As if there hadn't been this year of separation. I didn't pull away, though I probably should have.

  "Do they... know I'm coming back?"

  "No. It'll be a surprise."

  We headed toward the main building. The academy hadn't changed at all—same majestic spires, same stone gargoyles on the roofs. But I myself had changed. And Selena felt it, I saw it in her gaze, but she didn't rush. Didn't demand explanations.

  "Your brother worried a lot. He didn't show anyone, but I know."

  I nodded. The thought of meeting Elliot caused a strange feeling—something between fear and hope.

  "Is he... alright?"

  "He's gotten stronger. In every sense."

  We stopped at the dining hall doors. From inside came the hum of voices—ordinary lunch noise. So familiar and yet already foreign.

  "Are you ready?"

  I took a deep breath. No, not ready. But there was no choice.

  "Let's go."

  Footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. I felt dozens of invisible gazes on me, though no one was nearby.

  I wonder how many rumors had already been born after my appearance in the dining hall? How many theories about my disappearance had curious students invented?

  After meeting with Elliot, Selena escorted me to my room. The same one, number 228. As if they'd been waiting for me all this time. I touched the door handle and froze for a moment. How many memories did these walls hold? How many moments that couldn't be returned?

  Inside, everything remained almost untouched. Elliot's bed neatly made, my things long since removed. In their place—a stack of new uniforms, folded in the same spot. Someone had taken care of this.

  I sat on the edge of the bed and looked around the room. It was strange to return. Like trying to put on old clothes you'd long outgrown.

  A knock came at the door. Without waiting for an answer, Elliot entered. He froze on the threshold, gripping the door handle. His gaze, heavy and impenetrable, swept across the room, stopping on me.

  "You really came back."

  It wasn't a question. More a statement of fact he was still trying to process. In the dining hall he'd only nodded to me, barely said a couple words. Now, alone, something in him broke.

  I stood up from the bed.

  "Elliot, I..."

  Before I could finish, he crossed the distance between us in two strides and hugged me tightly. His arms squeezed me with such force it became hard to breathe. I felt him trembling—or was I trembling myself, hard to tell.

  "You son of a bitch! A whole year. A whole damn year!"

  He pushed me away as sharply as he'd hugged me. In his eyes splashed a strange mix of relief and fury.

  "Do you even understand what we went through? What I went through?"

  I stayed silent. What could I say? That my suffering was greater? That I hadn't planned to disappear, it wasn't my choice?

  "Alice nearly died trying to find you. We lost people in the search parties. And I... I saw you dead every night."

  "I'm sorry."

  "Sorry? That's all you can say?"

  He turned to the window, ran a hand through his hair.

  "You know what's worst? I kept feeling you were alive. Couldn't explain how, but I knew. And still couldn't do anything. Absolutely nothing!"

  At that moment I noticed what I hadn't seen in the dining hall. Elliot had changed. Not just externally—a scar crossing his right eyebrow, a harder jawline—but something deeper. In his posture, his gaze. He was no longer my shadow. He'd become... himself.

  "The others are waiting in the common room. They want to talk."

  I nodded but didn't move.

  "Won't you ask where I was?"

  Elliot looked me straight in the eyes, and I saw something new in his gaze. Distrust?

  “Will you answer?”