The week quietly passed with Thomas focusing entirely on his recovery and preparing his mind for the upcoming trek. He spent his nights sitting cross-legged in his new private quarters, allowing his system interface to process the structural trauma left behind by his recent matches while his internal tissue slowly knit back together far away from the prying eyes of the High-bloods. He never told anyone anything about his talent, keeping his mouth shut and his face perfectly smooth as glass whenever he walked down the stone corridors of the sky sector his new home shared with the other members of the Horsemen.
Then came the weekend.
Thomas was sitting at his small wooden desk finishing his notes on Instructor Sterling’s beast anatomy lecture when a quiet, rhythmic knock sounded against his door frame. He opened it to find Mina standing in the corridor. Her sharp hazel eyes were slightly averted, her fingers tugging at the edge of her jacket as she cleared her throat. She softly requested for him to accompany her down to the marketplace in the outer ring to help her get some necessary supplies for the upcoming expedition, including a new set of durable outdoor travel clothes that could withstand the damp, muddy elements of the Marshlands.
Thomas agreed without a single word of complaint, gave her a firm nod, and followed her down the grand mechanical lifts.
The marketplace was incredibly packed when they arrived, the sprawling stone avenues overflowing with travelers, merchants, and wealthy delegates because it was a weekend morning. As they walked through the bustling rows of open stalls, they immediately ran into some familiar faces, including several lesser-blood students from the other freshman classes. The commoners quietly nodded toward Thomas with a deep, breathless respect, their eyes lingering on him as he walked past.
Mina was exceptionally talkative as they navigated the crowded market lanes, her voice carrying a bright, rapid energy as she pointed out various herb stalls and equipment vendors. Thomas didn’t interrupt her chatter, keeping his expression entirely smooth as he proved to be kind enough to hear her out, trailing a half step behind her to carry her small bundles of dried rations.
As they walked out into a clearer courtyard near the textile shops, Thomas caught himself looking at her for a longer moment than usual. That day, Mina was looking real pretty in a way that Thomas hadn’t truly noticed before during their grueling days in the freshman barracks. She had left her hair down, the loose strands catching the clean morning sun, and she wore a soft, unrefined linen tunic that completely lacked the rigid, cold structure of the academy uniform jackets. Her laughter was light, her bright hazel eyes completely free of the intense anxiety that had shadowed her during the tournament rounds.
Then, it happened.
The pleasant warmth of the weekend marketplace evaporated into an icy, suffocating silence in a single moment.
As they stepped into a narrow, stone-walled alleyway behind the leather shops to reach the exit gates, a group of five High-blood freshmen from their class suddenly blurred out from the shadows, completely blocking their path. These were the prominent students who deeply disliked Thomas, their faces twisted into venomous, arrogant scowls.
Before Thomas could even force himself into a combat guard, the lead noble violently lunged forward. Activating a swift, localized binding talent, a sudden distortion of kinetic pressure wrapped around Mina’s torso like an iron vice.
Mina let out a sharp, terrified gasp, her bundles of supplies clattering uselessly against the stone pavement as she was violently jerked backward into their circle. One of the High-bloods instantly pinned her arms behind her back, pressing a sleek, silver-etched dagger directly against the soft skin right below her jawline.
Thomas stopped dead in his tracks, his dark eyes locking onto the group as his farm-boy mask remained perfectly hard and smooth as glass. Beneath his silver-trimmed jacket, his muscles tightened with a chilling, focus, but he didn’t move a single inch forward. He knew a single reckless step would cause the High-blood to drive the blade straight through her throat.
The lead High-blood stepped forward, a cruel, satisfied smirk breaking across his handsome features as he looked down his nose at the lesser blood who had humiliated their order.
"You’ve been riding pretty high this week, vermin," the noble hissed, his voice dropping into a malicious whisper that failed to carry past the narrow walls of the alley. "You think that silver trim makes you untouchable? You think the Academy Council is going to watch over you out here in the public rings?"
He pointed a finger directly at Thomas’s face, his eyes flashing with an absolute, venomous hatred.
"If you ever want to see her alive again, you are going to do exactly as we say," the high-blood commanded, his grip tightening on his weapon as Mina struggled fruitlessly against the binding mana. "No alerts to the instructors. No calling for your little seniors. You follow our tracks down to the lower subterranean grids tonight, or we will return her to your dorm block in pieces."
The High-bloods began violently backward-stepping into the dense crowd of the outer market, dragging a pale, wide-eyed Mina into the shadows of the carriage lines before Thomas could even release a single breath, leaving him standing entirely alone in the blood-cold quiet of the empty alleyway.
Thomas did not know what to do, the wise thing to do was to alert someone but he knew that the High-bloods had probably left a tail on him. And if they saw him contacting someone they would definitely hurt Mina, and that was the last thing he wanted. But he was also aware of the amount of danger his life was in. His classmates wanted him dead or maybe they wanted to torture him first, whichever was the case in the end he would never make it out alive.
But he had to get Mina back, whatever the cost.
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