I Enrolled as the Villain

As I locked eyes with Lucia, the Mythrigan Eye tightened not in pain, but recognition.

Something old.

Something that should’ve stayed buried across three eternities of dream.

The arena had gone quiet.

The students that had encircled the field began to part, slowly, wordlessly, as if instinct told them I wasn’t someone to stand in front of.

I stepped forward.

Alone at first.

Then, the faintest sound behind me soft shoes against stone.

One of the Valery blood. A petite girl. No older than me, maybe younger. She walked with hesitation but didn’t stop.

Then another followed.

And another.

Soon the Valery students were behind me — not out of fear, not entirely — but as if something ancestral in them still remembered what the Eye meant.