Chapter 36: This Is Not A Game Of Hand And Heart
As I stood among my Valery blood, I could hear their voices quiet, unsure, but real.
"Hey, uh... I’m sorry. About that day..."
"Yeah... me too. I think we were just frustrated."
They didn’t say Her name. Didn’t need to.
Regret doesn’t always require formality. It just needs to be heard.
I glanced down at my uniform.
It was the Valery special issue deep velvet, dark as twilight, the fabric catching the overhead lights in quiet glints of pride and tradition.
Strapped across my back was the academy-issued compression pack a cheaper substitute for real dimensional storage.
It used basic enchantments to shrink supplies just enough to carry what we needed: food, gear, tools. Nothing too large. Anything heavier, and the spell would snap.
But I had more than what was issued.
Tucked inside a hidden pouch along my waist were thousands of particle-blades, compressed so small they looked like nothing more than dust until I called them. Shards of stone. Liquified metal. A few colorless potions
A pocket arsenal. Silent. Deadly. Unseen.