Dareth walked ahead of me without turning around.

  I followed a few steps behind. Close enough not to lose him. Not close enough to feel like we were walking together.

  Around us, the palace was still alive.

  Students in the corridors.

  Servants passing by.

  Guards at the corners.

  But whenever we crossed through a place, the voices dropped a little.

  Not much.

  Just enough for me to notice.

  Dareth said nothing.

  Neither did I.

  We left the study wing, crossed a narrower gallery, then a corridor lined with tall windows.

  At the end of it, the north pavilion began.

  Quieter.

  More closed off.

  Less used.

  Behind the open door was the inner garden.

  White stone.

  A round basin.

  Still water.

  When I stepped in, Mother was already there.

  My older sister too.

  I slowed down at once.

  The garden was simple.

  A round basin in the middle.

  Pale stones.

  Two thin trees.

  White flowers planted along the wall.

  Nothing too beautiful.

  Nothing too heavy.

  Just a place where the noise of the palace came in less.

  Mother stood near the basin, straight and calm, her hands joined in front of her.

  My older sister stood a little farther back near a low stone table. As always, everything about her was neat. Her dress fell perfectly. Not one fold too many. Not one useless movement. Even standing still, she gave the impression that nothing ever slipped out of place around her.

  Dareth stopped at the entrance.

  "Your Majesty."

  Mother gave a slight nod.

  "Thank you, Dareth."

  He did not leave. He stayed a little to the side, but close enough if Mother still needed him.

  Mother's gaze settled on me.

  Not on my face first.

  On my chest.

  Then my right hand.

  Then my eyes.

  "Come closer," she said.

  I obeyed.

  My older sister said nothing. But when I came close enough, her eyes moved once to my hand, then to the way I was standing.

  "He's not standing well," she said.

  Her voice was calm. Not cold. Just clear.

  Mother did not take her eyes off me.

  "I can see that."

  I wanted to say I was fine.

  The lie felt too tiring.

  Mother pointed to the edge of the basin.

  "Sit."

  I sat down.

  This time, I did not argue.

  She stayed standing in front of me for a few seconds.

  Then she asked,

  "Does your chest still feel tight?"

  I looked up at her.

  "Yes."

  "And your hand?"

  I lowered my eyes to my fingers.

  "Heavy."

  "Dizziness?"

  "A little."

  My older sister stepped closer.

  "Did your vision blur?"

  I turned my head toward her.

  "Earlier, yes."

  She gave a slight nod, as if putting each detail where it belonged.

  Then Mother moved a little closer to me.

  "Master Oren sent word to me."

  The back of my neck tightened at once.

  "What did he say?"

  "That you reacted badly during a breathing exercise. That the air around you changed for a second. And that he chose to stop it before the room noticed more."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I stayed silent.

  So Oren had seen it.

  Or at least felt enough.

  Mother continued,

  "Dareth also told me that you left the study wing at midday with Eira and Elora. And that you came back paler, with shorter breath."

  I turned my head slightly toward Dareth.

  He had not moved.

  Of course.

  Mother waited a second.

  Then another.

  "Vaelen."

  I lifted my eyes again.

  "Yes?"

  "I'm going to ask you a simple question. I want a simple answer."

  My throat tightened a little.

  "All right."

  She did not lower her voice.

  "Did something come out of your hand today?"

  The garden seemed even quieter.

  I felt my chest tighten a little more.

  My older sister did not move.

  Dareth did not move either.

  Mother just waited.

  I looked at the basin.

  Then my fingers.

  Then Mother again.

  "Yes," I said at last.

  No one reacted right away.

  Mother only asked,

  "What?"

  I took a breath.

  Not a big enough one.

  "I don't know exactly."

  She stayed calm.

  "What you can say is enough."

  I swallowed.

  "It wasn't white."

  Just saying that felt like a fault.

  Mother did not blink.

  "Continue."

  "It was black."

  The silence grew heavier all at once.

  Not in the garden.

  In me.

  My older sister lowered her eyes very slightly.

  As if she had expected that word without wanting to hear it.

  Mother asked,

  "Where?"

  "Behind the secondary library. In a small practice space."

  "Who was there?"

  I answered at once.

  "Eira. Elora."

  "No one else?"

  "No."

  "What did it hit?"

  The scene came back at once.

  My arm stretched out.

  The heavier air.

  The black flame.

  The target.

  "A target."

  "And?"

  I kept my eyes on my hands.

  "The center turned black."

  Mother said nothing.

  So I went on.

  "The air changed too. It got harder to breathe."

  My older sister spoke this time.

  "Did the wood burn?"

  "No."

  The word came fast.

  "Not like white fire."

  I raised my eyes to Mother.

  "That's why it's bad, isn't it?"

  She looked at me for a few seconds before answering.

  "Yes."

  At least that was simple.

  I lowered my eyes again.

  Mother went on.

  "In this house, white fire is not just a power. It is what people recognize. What they expect. What they accept."

  Her voice stayed calm.

  More dangerous because it stayed calm.

  "If a Solis child releases black fire, no one will begin by asking whether he was afraid, whether he suffered, or whether he needs help."

  I slowly raised my head.

  She continued,

  "They will see a threat. A shame. Or an excuse."

  "An excuse for what?" I asked.

  Mother did not look away.

  "To cut away what scares them before it grows."

  I stayed still.

  My older sister was the first to move. She took a small cup of water from the low table, came back, and held it out to me.

  "Drink."

  I took it.

  The water was cool.

  I had not understood how dry my throat was until then.

  Mother went on while I drank.

  "Did you want it to come out?"

  I shook my head.

  "No."

  "Did you feel the moment when it changed?"

  I thought.

  "I felt something rise. Go through my arm. But I didn't know what it was. Just that it was answering."

  My older sister spoke softly.

  "And after that, it left you like this."

  I handed the empty cup back to her.

  "Yes."

  She placed it back on the low table.

  At last, Mother crouched in front of me.

  Not like a queen.

  Like my mother.

  Her hand stopped near my wrist.

  "May I?"

  I nodded.

  She placed her fingers against the inside of my wrist.

  A very light white warmth moved into my skin.

  Not harsh.

  Not like Kian in the yard.

  Finer.

  More precise.

  I felt the difference at once.

  Her warmth was clear.

  What had come out of me earlier had been heavy. Suffocating. Almost dirty.

  Mother pulled her hand back a few seconds later.

  Her face barely changed.

  But enough for me to see it.

  "It's too early," my older sister murmured.

  Mother stood back up.

  "Yes."

  I looked from one to the other.

  "Too early for what?"

  Mother answered without turning away.

  "Too early for something like that to already be coming out of you."

  I tightened my right hand a little.

  "So you knew."

  It was not really a question.

  Mother did not lie to me.

  "I knew that one day, something might answer badly."

  "But not what," my older sister added.

  I turned toward her.

  She held my gaze.

  "If Mother had known exactly what it would be, you would not have learned it today in front of a target."

  I said nothing.

  Because she was right.

  Because it changed nothing.

  Mother stepped away from the basin.

  "Listen to me carefully, Vaelen."

  I obeyed without even thinking about it.

  "From now on, you do not practice your core alone."

  I thought at once of Eira. Of Elora. Of the target.

  "I wasn't alone."

  "I know."

  Mother's tone cut off the rest.

  "And that must not happen again either."

  I lowered my eyes.

  "Elora only wanted to help."

  "I didn't say otherwise."

  She paused.

  "But helping without understanding can kill as fast as fear."

  That line stayed in the air between us.

  My older sister slowly crossed her arms.

  "Eira saw too much today."

  I turned toward her.

  I disliked that word at once.

  Too much.

  "She didn't do anything wrong."

  "I didn't say she did," my older sister answered.

  Then, a little more softly,

  "I'm saying she is young. And this palace keeps secrets badly when children begin to get scared."

  I wanted to answer.

  Mother did it before I could.

  "Eira will not be punished for seeing what she saw."

  That ended the thought right there.

  I stayed quiet.

  Mother looked at me for another second.

  "Has Elora spoken of this to anyone?"

  "No."

  "Are you sure?"

  I saw Elora's face again in the passage. Her calm. The way she had cut through everything. The way she had looked at the target without backing away.

  "Yes."

  My older sister gave a slight nod, as if that matched what she had already thought.

  Then Mother turned a little toward Dareth.

  "Tomorrow, before dawn."

  He answered at once.

  "Yes, Majesty."

  My eyes moved from one to the other.

  "What, tomorrow?"

  Mother looked back at me.

  "Tomorrow, Dareth will come for you."

  My chest tightened a little more.

  "For what?"

  "So that you never again try something like this behind a library with two girls improvising."

  My older sister lowered her eyes very slightly, as if hiding the beginning of a smile.

  I didn't.

  "I see."

  "No," Mother said. "Not yet."

  Then she added,

  "You are going to learn how to feel what moves inside you before the palace learns it in your place."

  The garden went quiet again.

  A cleaner silence than before.

  Sharper too.

  I looked at the water in the basin.

  Then my hands.

  Then Mother.

  "And if it happens again before tomorrow?"

  Mother did not even take a second.

  "You come to me."

  The answer was simple.

  Direct.

  No turn.

  I lifted my eyes to hers.

  "Even if it's bad?"

  "Especially if it's bad."

  Something tightened in my chest.

  Not the power.

  Something else.

  I still hated being afraid.

  I still hated not understanding.

  But her answer left a little less emptiness than the rest.

  At last, my older sister came fully closer.

  She stopped in front of me.

  Not far.

  Close enough for me to see in her eyes that she had been watching me more carefully than I had realized from the beginning.

  "You don't look well," she said.

  "Thank you."

  "That wasn't an attack."

  She raised her hand.

  Not toward my chest.

  Toward my right hand.

  "Open it."

  I looked at her for a second.

  Then I obeyed.

  My fingers opened more slowly than usual.

  She looked at them without touching them.

  "Still too heavy?"

  "Yes."

  She gave a slight nod.

  "And you're still standing anyway. That's already better than I feared."

  I frowned.

  "What did you fear?"

  This time, she looked me straight in the face.

  "That you would collapse before you reached here."

  For some reason, that line helped more than it should have.

  Because it did not sound like pity.

  Just truth.

  Mother straightened fully.

  "Vaelen."

  "Yes?"

  "When you go back to your lessons today, you will breathe normally. You will test nothing. You will answer no one. And you will not go off alone with your core just to see what it does."

  I breathed out through my nose.

  "It was only once."

  "Once is enough."

  I said nothing.

  Because she was right about that too.

  Then Mother gave the smallest tilt of her head toward the exit.

  "You may go."

  I stayed seated for one second longer.

  Then I stood.

  This time, my legs held better.

  Not perfectly.

  But better.

  I looked once at Mother.

  Then my older sister.

  Then Dareth at the entrance.

  "Eira?" I asked.

  Mother answered at once.

  "She will return to her lessons. And this evening, you will go get her as you promised."

  I lifted my head a little.

  "You knew about that too?"

  My older sister answered for her.

  "You would be surprised by how many things people see when they truly look."

  I didn't like the line completely.

  Not because it was false.

  Because it sounded too true.

  At last, I turned my head toward Dareth.

  He still had not moved.

  Tomorrow, before dawn.

  With him.

  I still did not know whether that was good news.

  Or not.

  When I left the inner garden, the air of the palace felt a little colder than before.

  Not enough for anyone else to notice.

  Just enough for me.

  And this time, I understood one simple thing.

  The problem was no longer only what had come out of my hand.

  The problem now was that my mother knew.

  And that tomorrow, someone was going to start teaching me what to do with it.