Chapter 158: Golden Light

Chapter 158: Chapter 158: Golden Light

They reached the Imperial Dormitory a short while later. The moment Voss stepped inside Theon’s chamber, he stopped in the doorway and looked around, taking in the sheer size of the room.

"Wow." He turned his head slowly. "This is huge. Definitely befitting of an Imperial Prince."

Theon ignored the comment entirely and dropped into one of the seats. "Sit."

Voss took the chair across from him. Lyra settled beside Theon, and for a few moments the room held only silence, until the door opened again and the rest of them filed in one after another: Lazaria first, then Ifrith, then Seraphina and the dragon girl close behind her.

Ifrith’s expression turned cold the moment he spotted Voss. "Oh." He folded his arms. "Look what the cat dragged in."

Voss looked back at him, unbothered.

Lazaria’s eyes went wide. "Captain Voss? What are you doing here?"

Seraphina and the dragon girl exchanged a confused glance, clearly missing whatever history was passing between the others. Voss looked around the room, from face to face, then finally back to Theon, and a mischievous grin spread across his face.

"Hmm." He nodded slowly, as though confirming a suspicion. "Looks like His Highness has found himself a harem."

"Noo...har..." Theon sighed. "They’re not my harem." He glanced toward Ifrith. "Besides, Ifrith and Silver already engaged to each other."

Ifrith’s expression darkened instantly, and Voss burst out laughing loud enough that it echoed off the high ceiling.

Theon let him have his laugh, then let his own expression settle into something more serious. "Alright. Time to come clean." He crossed his legs and leveled a look at the captain. "Tell me exactly why you’re here. I know my father already knows how strong I am, and he wouldn’t send you all this way just to check whether I’m doing fine."

Voss’s smile faded, replaced by something steadier. "I’m glad you figured that out so quickly."

"Then get to the point."

Before Voss could answer, Theon raised a hand. "Actually, before you explain anything, tell me about my siblings first."

"Very well." Voss leaned back in his chair. "First Princess Astrid Nivaris. Still the Ice Rose you remember. Calm, graceful, elegant, and extremely prone to anger the moment someone pushes past that composure." A faint smile crossed his face. "She’s mellowed a little since you left, though she and the Second Prince are still locked in a fierce contest for the throne."

"Styr," Theon said.

"Yes. He’s grown more calculating everyday and he’s been drawing nobles into his faction across the entire Imperial Court."

"I’m not exactly shocked."

"And the Third Prince, Leif, is as sharp as ever. Strategic, disciplined, and merciless during training." Voss’s expression shifted, almost reluctant. "Strong enough now that he can defeat me."

Theon straightened. "Wait. He can actually beat you?"

"Why does that surprise you? You could beat me before you ever left the palace."

Theon paused, then leaned back and scratched his cheek. "Oh. That’s true."

Voss chuckled and kept going. "The Fourth Princess is still obsessed with her magic studies. The Fifth Prince, Rowan, is as cheerful as always and couldn’t care less about the throne. He does whatever he wants and lets the rest of you fight over the crown." He softened as he came to the last name. "Princess Freya remains as generous as ever. She’s been using her healing magic on the warriors wounded fighting a band of raiders terrorizing one of the Duke’s territories."

Theon’s expression shifted at once. "Battle?"

Voss nodded. "She went there to help."

Theon exhaled, something between exasperation and fondness. "Of course she did. Big sister Freya has always been like that."

He ran through the list in his head. Astrid. Styr. Leif. The Fourth Princess. Rowan. Freya. All of them accounted for. He turned his attention back to Voss.

"All right. Now tell me the real reason you’re here."

Voss didn’t answer straight away. His hand moved toward the inside of his uniform, then stopped and fell back to his side, empty. There was no letter to produce.

"The Emperor left you a message," he said. "He whispered it to me himself."

The room went quiet. Voss looked directly at Theon.

*He is coming, son. Be careful for he is more dangerous than you thought.*

A pause stretched long enough that Theon almost spoke, before Voss added the final part.

"And do not trust..." He stopped there, shaking his head. "That’s all his Majesty told me."

Theon sat back, his mind already turning over the fragments. Who was coming. Why they would be more dangerous now than I thought. Why would his father risk a warning like this at all, unwritten, carried across half a continent in a soldier’s memory rather than trusted to a letter. And who, exactly, he wasn’t supposed to trust.

Too many threads pulling at once. The unfamiliar instructor who had somehow allowed Noel into the academy in the first place. Lyra, and the premonition of her death that still refused to leave him, though she carried the power of the Primordial Flame Empress and nothing should have been able to touch her. And now this, a warning so serious his father wouldn’t put it on paper.

Three mysteries, or maybe just one, wearing three different faces.

Before he could follow the thought any further, a pillar of golden light tore into the sky from the mountains beyond the academy, and the entire room shook with it.

Everyone turned at once. A surge of mana rolled across the grounds like a wave breaking over the academy’s walls, strong enough that even Ifrith’s easy composure slipped.

"What is that?" His voice had lost all its usual mockery.

Theon was already moving toward the balcony. Below him, the academy had dissolved into chaos: students sprinting in every direction, instructors shouting orders that nobody seemed to be following, nobles trying to herd their children toward the gates.

"This academy is cursed!"

"We need to leave!"

"Another disaster!"

"Get the children out of here!"

The voices rose up from the courtyard in a ragged chorus. Theon’s eyes stayed fixed on the golden light still splitting the horizon, until he noticed someone standing on the balcony railing itself.

Celestial.

"You actually came," he said.

She folded her arms. "I couldn’t leave you alone."

He sighed, unsurprised, and turned back toward the mountains. "I need to see what’s happening." He’d barely shifted his weight to move when a hand caught his shoulder.

Ifrith.

"Let me go." He said.

But ifrith didn’t budge. Instead he pointed down at the courtyard, and Theon followed the gesture. The instructors weren’t fleeing at all; they were organizing. Leon stood among a cluster of the academy’s strongest students, Veyron Valecrest included, all of them preparing to move toward the mountains together.

"The academy has lost enough face already," Ifrith said quietly. "The headmaster was captured. The Spirit Contracting incident happened in front of half the nobility in the Empire. Now they’re starting to wonder whether this place can protect their children at all." He looked at Theon directly. "If you keep solving every problem for them, they’ll never recover from any of it."

Theon didn’t answer right away.

"You’re an Imperial Prince, Master. Your strength is overwhelming, but that doesn’t mean you have to be the one to solve everything. The academy needs to prove itself. The instructors need a chance to show their worth. The students need to show they can stand against real danger. And the nobles need to see this place can still protect what matters to them."

Theon’s gaze dropped. Maybe Ifrith was right. The academy’s reputation had been sliding for weeks, and he’d been a part of that without ever meaning to. Every time trouble surfaced, he’d stepped in and handled it himself, and in doing so he’d made an institution built on centuries of prestige look helpless in front of the very families it depended on.

A thought crossed his mind, unwelcome and quickly dismissed. Perhaps it was time to let the headmaster out after all. But he quickly waved the thoughts away.

Below, Leon and the others lifted off the ground and flew toward the mountains, one after another, until only the golden light remained. For a moment Leon glanced back toward the balcony, and their eyes met across the distance before he turned forward and kept flying.

Theon watched until they vanished, then turned back to Ifrith. "You’re right. The academy needs to earn its reputation back, and the instructors deserve the chance to do it."

Ifrith nodded. "I know this is hard for you, Master."

Theon said nothing. He hated the idea of standing by while others flew straight into danger he could erase in a heartbeat, but perhaps that wasn’t always the right answer. People need room to unlock their full potential. He needed to let them have it.

Still, his eyes didn’t leave the light.

"And if they can’t handle it?"

Ifrith allowed himself a small smile. "Then we stay on standby. If it becomes too much, we step in."

"All right." Theon said.

Then he turned his attention back to the mountains, the golden pillar still burning steady against the night sky, and his thoughts circled back, unbidden, to his father’s warning. *He is coming.* Whoever it was, whatever this golden light meant, some instinct at the base of his spine told him the two were already tangled together, and that the answer waiting for him in those mountains was not going to be a kind one.