ShadowBound: The Need For Power

Liam’s gaze shifted briefly, not enough to look directly at Sheila, but enough to be aware of where she sat.

There it was.

The academy had not forced the structure, but it had created the opening. Sheila and Edith would need to move quickly now, before uncertainty allowed others to begin forming alternatives. Chris would likely understand the same thing. If he had been waiting for the practical exam announcement, this was the moment that gave him a field to work with.

Lucia’s voice drew his attention back.

"Eldervale is not empty," she said. "The realm contains hostile entities, unstable regions, Myst irregularities, and environmental hazards. You will be provided with a field guide containing the information the academy has been able to confirm."

She lifted two fingers.

At the front of the stage, space shimmered. A long table appeared through a clean spatial summoning, its polished surface filled with neatly arranged books. There were roughly a hundred copies, stacked in precise rows, each bound in dark material with the academy crest stamped on the front. The title was visible from the first row: Eldervale Field Threat & Survival Guide.

"These books contain current academy-confirmed information regarding known threats, regional hazards, identified behavioral patterns, and survival notes," Lucia said. "Each of you will take one before leaving. You are expected to study it. But understand this clearly: the guide does not mean you know everything within Eldervale."

Her gaze sharpened slightly.

"The academy has discovered much. It has not discovered everything. If you memorize the guide front to back and enter the realm believing there are no unknowns, you will be a danger to yourself and everyone around you."

The warning landed heavily.

Lucia allowed it to remain before continuing. "There is one hostile presence I will name here directly because it is not simply another entry in the guide."

The projection shifted again.

The map darkened around the outer regions of Eldervale, and a vague shape appeared far beyond Veyrhold’s central area. It was not a clear depiction, more like a silhouette formed from partial reports: towering, distorted, wrapped in antler-like protrusions and ragged black growths, surrounded by faint rings of red warning marks.

"The Warden," Lucia said.

The name changed the air, though none of the students knew enough to fully understand why.

"The Warden is an apex entity within Eldervale. You are not to engage it. You are not to test it. You are not to lure it. You are not to provoke it in the hope of proving strength, earning glory, impressing your peers, or satisfying whatever reckless impulse occasionally infects students in your year." Her tone remained calm, which made the warning sharper. "If the Warden is sighted, your priority is avoidance, retreat, and immediate communication to your command structure."

A student swallowed audibly somewhere near the middle rows.

Sir Regulus spoke then, his voice low but carrying across the hall. "If you attempt to fight the Warden, the academy will not mistake stupidity for courage."

No one laughed.

Lucia nodded once. "That is the only threat I will emphasize tonight. The rest is in the guide. Study it. Discuss it. Use it. But do not worship it as complete truth."

The projection shifted back to Veyrhold and its surrounding terrain.

"This assessment is to be treated more like a mission than an exam," Lucia said. "That distinction matters. Yes, you will be graded. Yes, instructors and authorized observers will monitor what they can. Yes, emergency extraction marks exist for severe circumstances. But while you are inside Eldervale, you are expected to behave as though the survival and function of your unit matters beyond your individual score."

Her voice softened slightly, but the seriousness remained. "Strength without organization is fragile. A student who survives while the group collapses has not proven enough. A student who wins fights but leaves others unable to function has not proven enough. A leader who gives commands no one understands has not proven enough. A follower who obeys without thinking has not proven enough. You are being tested on whether others can survive because you were there, not merely whether you can survive in spite of them."

Liam sat very still.

Beside him, Dylan had gone quiet in a way that meant he was actually listening. Maxwell’s face had shifted into thoughtfulness, the mechanisms and jokes temporarily pushed aside by the scale of what was being placed before them.

Across the hall, students looked toward one another with a new kind of awareness.

A full-year cooperation assessment inside a different realm for fourteen days. A fortified base to secure. Leadership to choose. Supplies to manage. Threats they did not fully know. A Warden they were forbidden to fight. Tasks they might have to reject. A command structure they would have to build themselves.

This was no longer a rumor.

It was a shape closing around them.

Lucia looked down briefly at her clipboard, then back at the students. "Further logistical details will be given after Theory week. Your instructors will also begin incorporating relevant preparation into remaining lessons where appropriate. For now, focus on your Theory exams, study the guide, discuss command structure responsibly, and do not allow speculation to become disorder."

Her eyes moved across the hall, pausing just long enough on certain sections that Liam wondered if she already knew where the first problems would form.

"Prepare well," Lucia said. "The coming weeks will matter."

Sir Regulus stepped forward beside her, his expression steady. "Good luck."

Lucia gave a small nod. "You are dismissed."

For a moment, no one moved.

Then the hall exhaled all at once.

Students began rising from their seats, voices rushing back in layered murmurs. Some sounded excited, others unsettled. Several immediately began talking about leadership, while others pushed toward the front table to claim copies of the field guide. The neat rows of books were quickly approached from multiple sides, though the presence of Sir Regulus still on stage kept the movement from turning disorderly.

Lucia collected her clipboard and stepped away from the pulpit. Sir Regulus followed her, both of them leaving the stage through the side passage with the calm of people who had done their part and had no intention of managing the students’ first wave of panic for them.

Dylan stood slowly. "Fourteen days."

Maxwell rubbed the side of his face. "That is a lot longer than I wanted to hear."

Dylan looked toward the table. "We need one of those books."

"We all need one," Maxwell said.

"I mean we need one quickly before people start acting like the book itself is the assessment."

Liam rose without comment and moved with them toward the front.

The line was not orderly at first, but it became one under pressure from the older habits of academy discipline. Students took copies, opened them immediately, skimmed through pages, and reacted in small bursts. Liam caught fragments as he waited: region maps, Veyrhold layout, hostile behavior notes, Myst fluctuation zones, ration recommendations, emergency mark rules, the Warden entry sealed with red warning ink. Some students looked thrilled by the challenge. Others looked as though they had aged during the announcement.

When Liam reached the table, he took one copy.

The book was heavier than it looked.

He held it for a moment, staring down at the cover and the academy crest stamped into the dark binding. The material smelled faintly of fresh ink and treated leather. He did not open it immediately. There would be time for that later, preferably somewhere warm, quiet, and free of students pretending to understand things five seconds after learning them.

Darkness shifted around his fingers.

With a controlled movement of dark magic, Liam stored the book into his void storage, the field guide vanishing cleanly into shadow.

As he did, his attention locked across the hall.

Chris was leaving.

Logan walked close beside him, still talking, though Chris did not seem as engaged as usual. Lucian followed near them, his posture composed but not relaxed. The three moved with the outward appearance of ordinary students exiting after an announcement, but Liam watched the spacing between them, the direction of Chris’s gaze, and the way Lucian avoided looking too far toward Liam’s side of the hall.

Nyxie remained with Chris’s shadow.

Liam’s eyes narrowed faintly.

Something about the announcement had shifted several pieces at once. If Chris had someone feeding him information about Sheila, that person would now become more useful than before. Leadership would need to be decided quickly. Commander and vice commander could be chosen before the assessment, and if Chris intended to interfere with Sheila’s position, the next few days would matter more than the previous month.

But as Liam watched Chris leave with Lucian and Logan, another thought settled into place, cold and simple.

’Chris is not being helped by someone in our year.’

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