The floor dropped away beneath my feet. The sudden feeling of weightless sent my mind askew and I unconsciously reached out for anything to stabilise me. My other hand grasped Kael's.

If not for this completely overwhelming situation, actively seeking out his hand was something I never would have imagined myself doing. Ever.

There was no light.

It was dark.

It was completely different to turning the lights off in your room. Where you could still hear slight noises or see traces of furniture from the light that bounced around the room from electronics or the moon. Even in the darkness of the outside without a full moon, there was still the stars.

But there were no stars here.

I couldn't see. I couldn't hear.

I was—for all intents and purposes—blind.

I didn't even have ground to stand on to help orient myself. It was as if I were floating in space and all the stars had been blown out.

Kael didn't react as I desperately reached out to grab his hand with my other arm. There was no way I was letting go of him and getting lost here. If I was going to hell, we were going together. It felt as if the moment I let go of his hand, I would cease to exist.

This was what nightmares were made of.

I could feel the hair around my face float and brush against my skin.

"Where are we?" I whispered, not sure if my voice would come out. It felt as if the darkness would suck it away.

"Inanis."

I hadn't been expecting a reply. The very fact that he responded to my question, so calmly, made me almost suspicious. Wasn't he angry with me? His voice indicated otherwise. Despite the feeling in my fingertips, I would not have felt his presence beside me if not for his hand holding mine.

My ears prickled. What do you mean? What's Inanis?

Wait, but I'm still half human. What does that mean?

I felt sick. Does this mean most normal people would be dead right now?

I didn't want to think about it.

"Prepare yourself."

I looked up to where his face would have been. "What do you–"

Then it felt as if I was suddenly propelled forward, heading straight towards the dirt floor which materialised right before my eyes.

With reflexes I had sharpened over time, I brought my hands in front of me and leaned my shoulder forward—ready to roll my body to lessen the impact.

As I braced myself, my momentum was brought to a halt as a hand caught the edge of my armour from behind. My body remained suspended in the air as I quickly brought a foot forward to right myself. Looking back, I saw Kael drop his hand to his side.

For a moment, I had to stand there and allow my body to adjust itself to the world of physics. I could feel gravity now, and I felt especially heavy in this armour.

When I took the time to glance around us, I saw the soldiers in shock. Whether or not it was because we materialised in a cloud of darkness, or whether it was the fact that Kael brought me with him, I didn't know.

And I didn't care.

There was no use questioning something I would never know the answer to.

Without hesitation, Kael walked forward to Tirack and they exchanged a few words. Tirack seemed completely fine, which I chalked up to experience.

Looking around, I noticed that it was no longer 'raining' ash. Rather, it was now more of a drizzle. There was no mistaking the fine layer of grey it had created over all our surroundings. Rather than sparkling like snow, it appeared to coat everything in a matte-like filter. It was pretty. Some of the knights had smudges on their faces from where they must have tried to rub it off, only to smudge it further.

After a few more moments, Kael walked out of group and held his hand out, like someone might do while taking shelter from the rain but still wanting to feel a few drops. As a speckle of ash dropped into his hand, he retracted it close and rubbed it between his fingers.

He was looking at it with his eyes glowing like a predator.

"How amusing."

I didn't say anything. For some reason, everyone was waiting on Kael's opinion. Although I had no idea what the subject of the matter was.

Then he looked over directly at me and I froze. As he walked over, he stopped directly in front of me and reached out to touch my hair.

It was something I had never seen him do before.

Was he being...sentimental?

Then he pulled some ash from my hair.

Shut up.

I didn't want to think about it. Of course he wasn't being sentimental. That went against his very nature.

He pulled the ash from my hair and rubbed it between his fingers like he had done just before. He frowned momentarily before giving a deadly smile. "It seems someone is trying to play with me."

As he stood there, he continued to gaze at the ash until it went black and crumpled before my very eyes, only to then be swept away by the wind. Kael then placed a hand on my head and I tried my best to keep a neutral face despite my turbulent feelings within. Was he patting me?

After a second, all the grey on my armour, hair and hands went black. I couldn't even feel anything as I watched the ash dissolve on me and again be swept away by the wind.

I was clean.

With his hand still on my head, he looked up into the sky as the ash continued to fall gracefully down. Without moving his hand, he motioned to Tirack. "I'll see you soon."

With a whisper, he smirked while staring back into the sky. "How foolish. They're going to have to do more than this or I'll be bored."

Again, I watched as a mesmerising cloud of darkness swirled around our feet. It was completely surreal.

And I could feel it. Not physically—but it's energy. It was pure darkness.

Then, naturally, I panicked. Not again!

All I could do was watch helplessly as the darkness swirled around and rose, only to engulf us.

Again, I clutched at the hand on my head. For some reason, I felt a lot more unsafe than I had moments before. Rather than last time, I felt that Kael had the advantage. That if he wished to, he could rip his hand away from my head at any moment and there would be nothing I could do about it. It wasn't as if I was holding his hand as an equal, where I could hold it for dear life and there would be no way he could tear away from me. This time, with his hand on my head, I would only be able to desperately claw at the darkness as I drifted away into nothingness the moment he pulled away.

As I held one of my hands on my head, clutching his, I then used the other to try and grab his arm.

The feeling of his hand seeking mine, and holding it, made me jump.

"Your fears are unfound."

My hand was hot. Feeling him actively holding my hand had left me struck dumb. After a moment, I swallowed my embarrassment and clutched his hand. There was no way I was letting him go.

"What fears?" I mumbled, too caught up in trying to squint in the darkness in hopes of finding some light.

"I will not let you go."

My breath stilled. My heart was thumping so hard that I could feel it in my ears. "Who said I was scared?"

It was as if I could feel him smiling in the darkness. "A demon's intuition should not be trifled with."

"Maybe you guessed wrong."

Our verbal exchanges over the years had evolved into more than just the mere 'yes' or 'no'. Now, we could even have 'conversations'. Moments like this were rare though. We both had a tendency to avoid social engagement. Perhaps it was a family trait.

Then the image of Rounen came to mind.

Perhaps not.

"The last person to question my integrity was just shy of two decades ago."

I tilted my head to listen to him. "And what happened to them?"

"I ripped out their tongue." He didn't even hesitate. In fact, he seemed satisfied.

"Wow. Ok then." I replied, forgetting to filter my thoughts and speaking them aloud. I wasn't going to question as to why I still had my tongue.

There was a silence.

After a moment, he spoke again. "We'll be visiting an academy in two days."

I blinked. "An academy? To visit brother Lucius and Rounen?"

Before he answered, the familiar feeling of gravity changing around me made me brace myself. The darkness disappeared and the training grounds of our duchy greeted me. Initially, I had been prepared for the disorientation, but my body must have adjusted quite well from the last 'incident'. This time, I only needed to take one step to correct myself.

Kael still held my hand.

Once he saw that I wasn't going to face plant, he released his grip and we faced each other.

He was looking at me directly in the eyes, as if searching for something. His normally nonchalant attitude towards me had me unprepared for this sudden intensity. All of a sudden it felt as if I were a child again, being presented before him in his reception room and being torn apart by his eyes. The immense pressure behind them had left me breathless as a child.

Now, it was softer. Naturally, he wasn't looking at me now with the intent to kill. Thankfully, we were past that stage. His eyes now held a look I couldn't define, and judging from the lack of lines on his face, it appeared he didn't make it often.

In the distance, the sound of the wind brushing through the trees made me relax. After being in Inanis, a place devoid of sound, sight and light, the noises of life around me was therapeutic. It was also strange to not sense any rabids within the area. Whatever this ash phenomenon was, had the rabids running.

Then I felt my eyes widen when I realised there was absolutely no ash around us. None. Zilch. Nada.

Why?

Everything appeared completely untouched. As if we were in a snow globe, untouched and removed from reality. It was peaceful.

"Collegium Illustre."

His words brought me out of my reverie.

What? I hadn't been expecting that.

My brain tried to mull those words over. It rang a bell, but I wasn't too sure where I had heard it before. "Not the Royal Academy of Magical Arts?"

A pause. "Tirack says you do well with your training."

Again, I was left unsure of how to answer. Was he testing me? I couldn't sense any hidden meaning in his words. A change in the wind pattern made a few strands fly in front of my eyes.

Squinting, I was about to brush them away, when his hand beat me to it.

It was strange. As I froze, he continued to brush my hair behind my ear, his eyes steady and unaffected, as if the strands were getting in the way of him reading my facial expression.

When he pulled his hand back, I clumsily tried to reply. "Y-yes, I don't want to fall behind."

He tilted his head to the side, almost amused at my reaction. I mentally swore at my inability to speak properly. I always strived to remain composed in front of him.

Especially in front of him.

"Your brothers do not know yet."

I was doubtful. "Know what?"

"The academy for knights."

My heart stuttered. "...knights?"

He broke our gaze and I released a breath I didn't know I had been holding.

The wind continued to brush across the training grounds, making for an eerie setting with no knights around. We were completely alone.

"I have come to a decision. Collegium Illustre is the finest academy in the kingdom."

His thoughts were lost on me. "An academy for...knights?"

I was confused. What was his point?

His voice was calm. "Your wish is granted."

The words left me winded.

"What?" I whispered, unsure if I had heard him correctly.

In the stillness of the afternoon, with a sky raining ash that didn't fall on us and a wind that brushed against my cheeks, reminding me that I was indeed not dreaming. It was in this stillness, that I heard him speak words I never would have imagined I would hear in my wildest dreams.

"You're becoming a knight."