This chapter isn't really sitting right with me so it could be subject to change.

  Cale

  The day the princesses and the duke’s son actually started school at Arclight Academy was a special kind of stupid and crazy.

  Rich people on the Upper Planes had way too much time on their hands.

  There was an atmosphere, though. You could feel it in the air—like a storm that had passed overhead but left the pressure wrong. The Academy had spent an entire day cycling assemblies about recent events, about security enhancements, about confidence in institutional response. No one said the Ghost’s name out loud, but everyone danced around it like the word itself might break something.

  By the end of it, the interim Headmaster finally brought the three of them forward.

  Mrs. Dantain stood at the center of the platform, plain-looking, composed, and utterly unbothered. A legend in the Technica department, she handled the moment with the calm authority of someone who had seen systems fail before and survived them.

  First impressions were predictable.

  The princesses were pretty—strong mana tended to do that—but that was where the similarity ended.

  Princess Elain of Lysara stepped forward first.

  She was shorter than people expected a princess to be—compact, solid, her posture so controlled the stage felt built around her rather than the other way around. She waved like she’d been trained to do it since childhood, but her eyes didn’t drift the way performers’ eyes did.

  They tracked. They cataloged.

  Her smile was real enough to sell the moment, but not soft enough to make her harmless.

  Princess Maeryn of Threniel followed.

  She was tall, willowy and appeared composed to the bone.

  She looked like a piece of formal sculpture given permission to breathe. Her wave had discipline, her smile felt calibrated. She was beautiful in a way that discouraged familiarity, and her presence made the space feel subtly more serious.

  The crowd loved them anyway.

  I stood off to the side with Rade, who was absorbed in some kind of mechanical puzzle.

  “Cale,” he said without looking up, “you seem awfully interested in the princesses. Is our boy finally growing up?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You’ve known me a week. How would you even know how much growing up I need to do?”

  Rade looked scandalized. “Cale, are you implying you’ve taken a lover?”

  “You sound like a beauty from those old two-dimensional Cinavids,” I said. “Nobody says ‘lover.’”

  “Then what do you call them?”

  “A girlfriend,” I said. “Like a normal person.”

  “So are you looking for one?”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  I snorted. Yeah. That was just what I needed.

  Then Kaereth Valmor was introduced, and the mood shifted—like a room deciding what it wanted to be. He was polished in a deliberate way. Blond hair. Blue eyes. A smile that came too easily.

  Actually, he smiled too much and looked exactly as he had the last time I saw him. Still, nearly every woman in the hall—including my own sister—looked at him like he’d personally brightened the day.

  It was sort of funny.

  Classes resumed afterward, and everyone pretended nothing unusual had happened. Faculty moved with practiced calm, but the students buzzed like someone had kicked a nest.

  That was when it got annoying.

  The Ghost of the Wastes was everywhere.

  Not physically—obviously—but in feeds, clipped lattice replays, slowed frames analyzing blade geometry and light distortion like sacred diagrams. Someone had enhanced stills until the mask looked sharper than it ever had in reality. Others debated whether the sword was ceremonial, real, or something else entirely.

  Arguments broke out over whether the Ghost ranked above the Storm Weaver or the Saint of the Sun.

  That one made me laugh.

  If only they knew.

  A couple days later, Kaereth Valmor stood in the center of the courtyard like it belonged to him by default. The stone benches and low steps formed a natural ring as students, minor nobles, and opportunists gathered without being invited. It wasn’t formal. It wasn’t announced, but it was like the guy was holding court.

  Princess Elain stood at his right, close enough to be deliberate. Princess Maeryn lingered just behind his left shoulder, posture relaxed, eyes sharp, tracking the edges of the crowd. Together, they formed a gravity well that drew attention without effort.

  People talked at Kaereth, not to him.

  He laughed easily, waved off flattery, answered questions as if he had all the time in the world. Someone mentioned the Ghost. Then someone else. Then the word spread, quiet at first, then louder, until it threaded through every conversation in the courtyard.

  Finally, someone asked it outright.

  “So is it true?” a student called. “Are you really friends with the Ghost of the Wastes?”

  The courtyard went quiet—the good kind, the kind where people actually listen.

  Kaereth’s smile didn’t fade.

  It deepened.

  “No,” he said. “He’s not just my best friend.”

  A ripple of confusion passed through the crowd.

  Kaereth lifted one hand, palm open, not asking for silence—asking for patience.

  “I owe him my life,” he continued.

  That landed harder than the original claim ever could have.

  “In my family,” Kaereth said calmly, “that’s not less than friendship. It’s more.”

  Elain glanced at him, just briefly. Maeryn’s expression sharpened.

  “A life-debt isn’t a favor,” Kaereth went on. “It isn’t loyalty bought with gratitude. It’s a bond forged under the assumption that one of you was supposed to die and didn’t.”

  The air felt heavier now.

  “He pulled me out of something I shouldn’t have survived. My sister and I, actually; he wasn’t even on a job. I asked. He didn’t give me a name—hell, he didn’t even give me his title. I only found out later because of the mask.”

  His gaze swept the courtyard.

  “That kind of debt doesn’t expire. And it doesn’t turn into something smaller just because people are uncomfortable with it.”

  People leaned in now.

  “So yes,” Kaereth said, “I want to find him.”

  A murmur ran through the crowd.

  He continued. “The one billion offer is real. Enough to change anyone’s life. I know he is on this island—or at least was.”

  Gasps followed immediately; they had heard the declaration, but most thought it wasn’t real. Publicity. Heaven knows that Kaereth liked his publicity.

  “And make no mistake,” Kaereth added, “the Ghost is not subject to controversy.”

  His eyes hardened just slightly.

  “I want him to be recognized as the type of man who will not let evil prevail—who has the guts to act when no one else would.”

  Behind me, Elara’s voice cut low and sharp. “That’s reckless.”

  Radin sounded half-awed. “That’s… Kaereth.”

  Mira didn’t soften it. “That’s going to get someone hurt.”

  I kept my face neutral.

  Inside, consequences lined up neatly.

  Attention would follow this. So would ambition. Greed. Fear. People who thought legends were puzzles instead of storms.

  Kaereth stood there, relaxed, the princesses close enough that half the courtyard could pretend this was romance instead of something far more dangerous.

  The crowd applauded anyway.

  They always did.

  I turned away before anyone noticed me watching too closely and headed for the edges where the noise thinned.

  Behind me, conversation surged back to life, louder now, reshaping his words into something easier to repeat.

  Ahead of me, the next problem was already forming.

  Because Kaereth hadn’t just admitted friendship. He’d declared allegiance.

  The funny thing was—that was not how I remembered our relationship.

  I could already tell this was going to be a pain in the butt