The sky didn't split with thunder.
It sighed.
Like something old had given up pretending everything was still alive.
They called it an eclipse.
But it wasn't the moon swallowing the sun.
It was Elariax Velintrae returning to the Academy gates wearing silence like a crown.
No one saw her arrive.
No carriage.
No guards.
Just a shadow stitched into velvet, trailing something darker than night.
She walked into the courtyard like a curse that forgot how to sleep.
And all three of them felt it.
Kairon Vel Serak. The boy who once danced in death's shadow now trapped in her gravity.
His hands trembled around a wineglass.
Not from fear.
But rage.
"You think you can leave hell and not thank the demon who built it?"
He shattered the glass against his jaw.
And smiled.
Eren Lys Valtair. The boy who held her hand in childhood and her corpse in silence.
He saw her face across the crowd, and the world fell out of focus.
He had spent years building a shrine of guilt in her name.
Now she was here.
And she didn't even blink at him.
"If she remembers me, she's punishing me."
"If she doesn't, I deserve that too."
Sol Mavren. Top of the class. Bottom of the food chain. Watching everything burn and pretending not to flinch.
He didn't flinch when she walked past.
But he did whisper something no one heard.
"She's not the same variable."
"She's a rewritten equation."
"And I'd like to see what happens when she breaks the world's logic."
None of them moved.
Because she didn't.
Because the whole Academy felt it that something ancient was walking among them again.
Elariax turned, just once.
Her eyes weren't glowing.
They were hollow.
Like a god had looked through her, and left a message behind.
"This is no longer your story."
"I am not your heroine."
"I am not your villainess."
"I am the consequence."
And then the statue at the center of the courtyard the one of the sacred heroine, robes fluttering, sword raised crumbled.
Not shattered.
Wept.
Stone tears.
Real blood.
Everyone screamed.
Elariax smiled.