Chapter 146: Failed
The scroll was taken from Cassian by a servant who moved like smoke...nearly weightless. His robes were ash-gray, blending into the stone walls as if he had been born from them. He didn’t look at Cassian. He simply bowed and disappeared behind a velvet curtain at the rear of the chamber, taking Cassian’s failure with him.
Cassian sat rigid, fingers clenched around his knees to keep them from shaking. He didn’t know what was worse—the fact that he hadn’t even been able to attempt the test, or the dread pooling in his stomach as the instructor returned, now holding a fan of transparent crystal slips. They shimmered faintly with runes and shifting color, and he knew—without being told—that these were the results.
She handed them out one by one, moving down the row like a judge delivering sentences.
Each crystal glowed with faint hues—blue, green, silver... and then his.
Red.
A single, damning flash of scarlet pulsed on the rune at the center of his slip, burning with quiet shame. He didn’t know the full meaning of the symbols, but the color alone was enough. It screamed across his senses: failure.
"Lady Enira," the instructor said coolly, holding out the crystal with both hands. "Correct and precise. Your record continues to impress."
Lady Enira smiled without teeth. It was the kind of smile that said she already knew. She accepted the crystal with a graceful nod, her eyes never leaving the instructor’s face—until, deliberately, she let them drift toward Cassian.
She studied him like he was an insect someone had forgotten to squash. Her gaze lingered just a moment too long, sharp and assessing, as though cataloging exactly where to cut should she ever need to bleed him.
"Lord Sylen," the instructor continued, turning to the fae with silver hair and eyes like frost. "Correct identification, but you missed the secondary ledger. Acceptable, but not refined."
Sylen gave a shrug, his tone dry as crushed leaves. "Perhaps your records should be clearer."
The instructor didn’t dignify it with a response. She simply turned her back.