ShadowBound: The Need For Power

The next report passed with varying degrees of damage. The student had chosen a training grounds assistant and was criticized for focusing too much on physical route and not enough on who approached him. Seraphina’s comments shifted between velvet-edged praise and surgical mockery, while Kaine cut away anything impractical with the efficiency of a man trimming useless flesh from a wound. No report escaped untouched. Some survived with dignity. Others bled quietly across the classroom.

Eventually, the screen rippled again, and Charlotte’s name appeared at the top.

"Miss Charlotte Raven," Seraphina announced, and there was immediate interest in her voice. "Now this should be entertaining."

Charlotte straightened with a smile that was entirely too pleased with itself. "I do try."

Liam glanced at the screen.

Charlotte had observed one of the academy’s junior disciplinary clerks, a woman who moved between the administrative offices, punishment logs, detention assignments, and instructor notices. It was a clever choice. Not powerful. Not famous. Not someone most students would think to watch. But someone who handled records connected to student behavior, punishment history, instructor requests, and patterns of trouble that could reveal far more about the academy’s internal priorities than a combat student’s routine ever would.

Seraphina’s brows lifted slightly as she read.

"Oh," she said, pleased. "That is a lovely choice."

Charlotte’s smile became shameless. "I was hoping you would say that."

"I am sure you were." Seraphina continued reading, her expression sharpening with genuine interest. "A disciplinary clerk. Access to punishment requests, detention schedules, repeated offenders, instructor complaints, and behavioral records. A person almost every student avoids out of fear of being assigned extra work, which creates blind spots around her. Very nice."

Charlotte leaned back slightly, basking in the praise with no intention of pretending humility. "I thought she had a certain charm."

Liam said, "You mean usefulness."

"That too."

Seraphina’s eyes moved down the report. "Your observation of social avoidance is good. The note about students instinctively lowering their voices near her, even when she is not listening, is better. It means the target influences behavior simply by being present. That can be exploited."

Charlotte’s smile widened.

Then Seraphina paused.

"But."

Charlotte’s smile dimmed. "There it is."

Seraphina turned, looking back at her with fond cruelty. "You became too interested in how people reacted to your target and not interested enough in the target herself. The report is clever, but indulgent. You enjoy reading rooms, Miss Raven, and it shows. Unfortunately, the assignment was not merely to prove that you are good at noticing discomfort."

Charlotte placed a hand over her chest. "I feel wounded."

Kaine spoke without moving from the wall. "You also underestimated records security. Twice."

Charlotte turned her head toward him with exaggerated betrayal. "Twice?"

"Yes."

"I was being tasteful."

"You were being incomplete."

Charlotte looked back at Seraphina. "He hates joy."

"He hates weakness," Seraphina said. "Joy is simply nearby too often."

Liam almost found that accurate.

Seraphina flicked a finger lightly toward the lower part of Charlotte’s report. "Still, your instincts were good, and your target selection was the best so far. Forty-two out of fifty."

Charlotte’s dramatic sorrow vanished instantly. "I will accept your praise with grace."

"You have none."

"I will accept it beautifully, then."

Seraphina chuckled and flicked her fingers again.

The screen changed.

The final report appeared.

Liam Hunter.

Seraphina’s smile shifted.

It did not become wider, exactly. It became more personal, more entertained, as though the appearance of his name had given the room a flavor she had been waiting for. Liam felt Charlotte glance at him from beside him, amused already. Across the room, one of the other students shifted slightly, likely noticing the change as well.

Kaine noticed too.

His eyes narrowed faintly.

Seraphina’s voice softened into that familiar teasing warmth that always made Liam want to be elsewhere. "And now, Mr. Hunter."

Liam’s expression remained flat.

The way she said his name made her favoritism far too obvious, which irritated him almost as much as it irritated Kaine. With Seraphina, even favoritism felt like a threat. She did not favor students in the comforting sense. She favored them the way a collector favored rare blades, by admiring their edge and wondering how much pressure it would take to make them sing.

Kaine’s jaw tightened by the smallest degree.

Seraphina seemed to enjoy that too.

She turned toward the rest of the class. "Read carefully, everyone. This is closer to how the assignment was meant to be approached."

Several students looked more attentive at once. Charlotte, to Liam’s annoyance, leaned slightly toward the screen with real curiosity.

The report began with the target identification: Marren Voss, academic aide. The first paragraphs described the reason for choosing her, framing her as a low-visibility figure with repeated access to faculty-adjacent spaces, document routes, supply passages, and administrative points most students ignored.

Liam had written it carefully. He kept the wording practical, focused on external observation rather than hidden methods. He had removed anything that could not reasonably be explained. The report did not mention red-wax cases in detail, did not describe private rooms, and did not include the deeper patterns Nyxie’s Shadow Memory had given him. It was clean, useful, and intentionally incomplete.

Seraphina read the first few paragraphs.

Then she paused.

Her eyes slid sideways toward Liam.

It lasted only a second.

Then she looked back at the screen and continued reading.

Liam understood immediately.

She could tell.

Not everything. Not the method in full. But she had already sensed that the report was trimmed, polished, and deliberately withholding something beneath the surface. The report was too clean to be accidental and too restrained to be honest in the way Seraphina cared about. Liam shifted his attention, not moving his head much, and found Kaine also side-glancing him from the wall.

Kaine had noticed as well.

Liam did not care.

The assignment had been to observe a target and write a report. He had observed a target. He had written a report. If Seraphina and Kaine wanted the ugly truth behind every line, that was their problem. He had already decided he would not place Nyxie’s full capability in the middle of a classroom for six second-years to read.

Seraphina resumed reading aloud only in pieces, her voice smooth. "An academic aide. Excellent choice. Not impressive at first glance, which is exactly why most of you would miss her. Students love watching strong opponents, beautiful distractions, obvious rivals, noble gossip, and anyone glowing brightly enough to flatter their sense of danger." She smiled faintly. "But people like Marren Voss move through the academy’s veins. Supplies, keys, documents, faculty errands, room access, schedules. Not the heart, perhaps, but close enough to feel its rhythm."

Liam stared at the screen.

Charlotte glanced at him, then at the report, and her expression shifted with grudging appreciation.

Seraphina walked slowly behind the half-circle again, reading as she moved. "You noted that her value lies not in authority, but in overlooked access. Good. You noted that students look through her because she is not positioned as a threat. Better. You identified repeat paths without overreaching into absurd certainty." Her eyes flicked toward Liam again. "Very discreet. Or at least, the report would like me to believe so."

A few students glanced at Liam.

He ignored them.

Kaine finally spoke. "It is vague."

Seraphina stopped near the far side of the room and turned her head toward him. "Do elaborate."

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