“You are the Queen of Shadows, right?”

  The sounds of pages turning, keyboards tapping, and soft murmurs of students who studied best when they read aloud faded into the periphery. Eydis’s thoughts aligned like teeth in a gearwheel.

  If this boy knew her secret, he was either lying, confused, or secretly dangerous.

  Yet nothing about him read as a threat.

  This made absolutely no sense. Her true identity was not something plastered on billboards, unlike in this reality where politicians apparently live-streamed their breakfast muffins.

  How could this boy, a stranger in every sense of the word, possibly know her secret?

  She studied his face. Sharp, but soft-edged. Intelligent eyes. He wasn’t striking in the way Damien or Theo were, but he was still distinct, still memorable, certainly not someone she would forget.

  Unless she already had.

  Unless Adam was also a fragment of her stolen memories.

  But if that were the case, why hadn't he approached her sooner, if he was indeed an ally? And if he was an enemy, why hadn’t he acted when she had been powerless?

  Eydis searched for any trace of malice, envy, even admiration or terror—the reactions she was accustomed to evoking in her realm. But in Adam’s crystal-clear blue eyes, there was none of that.

  Only a depth of curiosity, a mirror to her own.

  Perhaps human virtues were truly a foreign language to her, as baffling (and frankly, as dull) as Theo's unwavering chivalry. But, human shadows? That, she understood. And right now, she sensed no danger in him at all. He didn’t know who she really was.

  Which meant only one possibility remained.

  The gold in her eyes flickered as she finished her analysis. Background noise returned. Footsteps. Whispers. A distant groan from the rug-bound casualty behind them.

  “Where did you hear that name, Adam?”

  He quieted his voice. “Your handle. Obsidian Legion. You were active on the forum for a while. Then you disappeared after the Tiffany incident.”

  Eydis narrowed her eyes. Obsidian Legion… forum sounded like a secret cult. The way Adam said it implied she had chosen this ‘handle’ herself, which dragged up a more troubling question.

  Had the teenage version of Eydis somehow knew about her, the Queen of Shadows?

  Teenage Eydis remained an unresolved variable. Neither Natalia nor Astra seemed to know her. Only scattered remarks and an embarrassingly persistent attachment to her roommate remained as clues.

  Humiliating, or it should have been. The truth was, Eydis no longer found the thought entirely revolting. A problem for another day.

  Anyway, aside from her... questionable taste in romantic interests, this girl had been clever. Almost too clever. Near-eidetic memory. Intellect on par with the Queen herself. And yet, her grades hovered squarely in the middle of the Talented group.

  Right. At. The. Middle. Always. As if she was deliberately average. To blend, to… hide?

  It hadn’t saved her from Tiffany’s attack.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Why suppress that much ability? Why fake mediocrity? Eydis had yet to answer that, left with nothing but a blank phone and a school laptop. But perhaps she hadn’t written things down at all.

  Perhaps she had left her thoughts somewhere harder to trace.

  Behind a handle.

  Behind a forum.

  Obsidian Legion…hmm.

  Eydis returned her attention to Adam, who clearly hadn’t expected her to know him, or even his name. She could use that.

  She tapped a finger against the cover of a glossy romance novel between them. Her eyes gleamed with false innocence.

  "Obsidian Legion? Sounds like a boutique eyeliner brand. Or maybe a coven for the black-magic-inclined. Those who prefer their coffee black and their humour even darker?"

  Adam followed her line of sight to said cover, where a moonlit couple clung to each other in theatrical despair.

  “Coven? Black magic? You mean ‘black hat,’ right? I wouldn't exactly call us that... more like..." He tried searching for the right words as he processed her rapid-fire question, then smiled awkwardly. "Though, when you say it like that, it does sound kind of… dramatic.”

  Black hat. What is that suppose to mean?

  Brushing it off, she lied, “That’s why I haven’t been active. Just a phase I’ve grown out of.”

  “A phase? But you were brilliant.” He raised his voice slightly, then caught himself and dropped it to a whisper. “One of the best. Why would you walk away from that?”

  Just when Eydis was about to spin something suitably vague, a deep voice cut in.

  “Adam.” Elias drew closer, emerald hair slipping down his back, his shirt parted to reveal a tribal necklace set with a sizeable rhombus-cut emerald.

  He deliberately avoided eye contact. His features were refined, high cheekbones and a narrow jaw. Not Theo’s classic kind of handsome, but softer, more unconventional, and strikingly… pretty.

  Of course. The peacock. The dismissive one who never bothered to look at her, or anyone, except Adam.

  She was about to put him in his place but paused when she saw a black pin on the green blazer slung casually over his arm.

  Gifted. D-Class.

  Another one? She borrowed Cerberus’s perception and tasted the power hiding beneath Elias’s skin.

  Interesting.

  Stronger than expected.

  A lot stronger.

  “Elias, just give me a minute,” Adam said, but Elias cut him off with a hand on his shoulder.

  Elias’s emerald eyes skipped over Eydis and dropped to the stack of books on the counter. “Come on, Adam.” He picked them up. “Training in five. Surely this can wait?”

  Elbows on the desk, Eydis leaned in until she was close enough to catch the scent clinging to him: pine needles and wet moss. Nature affinity, then?

  "You're absolutely right. Such trivial chatter shouldn't interfere with your Gifted Training.”

  Elias’s eyes narrowed just a fraction.

  “Still, I should probably scan these volumes before you leave. Just a precaution, of course.” Eydis softened her tone just enough to fool Adam, and just enough to threaten Elias. “We wouldn’t want unauthorised information slipping through the cracks. Would we, Elias Kivi?”

  He took a step back, but quickly smoothing his scowl.

  Did I strike a nerve? How intriguing. Eydis catalogued this reaction for future exploitation.

  Elias set the books down. “Go ahead. Do your job.” His eyes dropped to her name tag, then back to her eyes. “Eydis.”

  Adam, now clearly sensing the tension, offered his ID awkwardly. She accepted and scanned it without saying anything else.

  “We’ll talk soon, alright?” Adam said gently. “I’ll be around.”

  Elias tossed his hair over his shoulder and walked toward the exit. Adam gave her a sheepish, apologetic glance and left with him.

  The moment they were gone, Eydis sank into her chair, her fingers drifting to the keyboard.

  She wasn’t going to confront Adam again until she understood what the Obsidian Legion really was. She was cartain this “phase” wasn’t just teenage rebellion.

  Her doppelganger was turning out to be far more complicated than the quiet, bookish girl she’d first assumed.

  Maybe Tiffany hadn’t been the reason she was pulled here. Maybe not even Damien.

  Maybe the girl who once lived in this body had a hand in all of it. But why? And how?

  Eydis began to type, a smile tugging at her lips in spite of herself.

  “Aren’t you fascinating, my dear self?”

  Thomas Blackwood’s phone pinged at exactly 12:00 p.m. A message appeared on his encrypted phone. Chimera. Punctual, as always.

  Setting down his utensils, he reached for a napkin and dabbed the corners of his mouth, then opened the file attached to the message.

  “Theo Whitlock, Water-affinity. Figures.”

  He skimmed through the PDF, picking up keywords. It was highly detailed, school grades included. Chimera certainly didn’t disappoint.

  Silverkeep. Alpine nobility. Known for ice magic and chivalric tradition. Water mages, fluid in ability, but rarely unpredictable. Bound to protect, not destroy.

  He opened the second file, and froze.

  "A mind reader?"

  As if the words had summoned it, a curl of violet smoke unfurled like a translucent ribbon in the air. A deep voice drifted from the mist.

  “How curious. I wasn’t aware this realm bred so many capable of manipulating minds.”

  “Just like that Adrian bastard,” Thomas seethed.

  “Perhaps this Athena is related to him.”

  “That’s not the issue. If she’s a true telepath, she could expose everything.”

  The mist laughed. "Not if you expose yourself first."

  “I’m sorry—what?”

  “Press conference. Tomorrow.” The mist darkened to poisoned purple. “You’ll begin the next phase.”

  And then it was gone.

  Elias Kivi — St Kevin’s Student (Gifted)