"Son…"
His body lay half-submerged at the lake's edge, cold water lapping against his ribs with every shallow breath.
Above him stood his mother—Mortala, tall and regal even in memory. Her pale hair drifted around her like mist, her eyes dark with something too heavy to name.
"Why…" he choked out, voice raw and small in the vast emptiness.
"Why what, son?" Her tone was soft, almost gentle—but distant, like a voice carried on the wind.
"Why aren't you here with me?" His words trembled, each syllable dragged from the depths of a heart breaking. "I needed you… I needed your training… but it always felt like… like I was just an option to you. Never your child."
Her eyes flickered, a shadow of old pain crossing her face. "…How did you think I felt growing up?" she asked quietly, her voice cracking like thin ice.
His fists clenched in the water. "You… you want me to grow up like you did?" His voice rose, desperate and furious. "Is that what you wanted?"
Mortala shook her head, strands of white hair spilling across her face. "…No. Better," she whispered, the word falling like a stone into the silent lake.
"But I didn't," he sobbed, tears spilling hot down his cheeks, vanishing into the freezing water. "It feels… worse. Like I'm drowning."
A beat of silence, as if even the wind held its breath.
"…I know," she said, voice barely audible, raw with regret. "I'm so sorry."
"I know…" he murmured, chest heaving, eyes slipping shut. He tilted his head back, staring up into the endless sky—blank and white, a void without stars, without sun.
Tears slid from his eyes, each drop vanishing into the water below.
But what did the lake reflect, he wondered? His own hollow eyes?
His mother's fading silhouette?
Or the truth he was too terrified to face: that he was alone in this colorless world, and the only thing staring back was himself.
The world blinked out, the blank sky folding into a sudden, suffocating darkness.
Katsu jolted—back in the present, kneeling at the lake's edge, the cold water biting into his skin. His breath rattled in his chest. He tasted iron as he swallowed the blood pooling at the back of his throat.
For a moment, the world was silent but for the ragged pull of his breathing.
Frost crackled under his palms, the mist curling low around his boots.
His eyes flicked to the lake's surface.
No longer reflecting his mother, nor the empty sky, but his own hollow, burning gaze.
Power throbbed through his veins, sharp and unfamiliar. Wild, volatile, coiling tighter with every heartbeat.
Like a storm waiting for a reason to break.
Slowly, deliberately, Katsu planted his feet beneath him. He rose from his kneel, breath steaming in the icy air. His spine straightened, shoulders squaring against the cold dawn.
A low, weary sigh escaped his lips, curling like smoke. His eyes hardened, no longer clouded by memory.
"I'm done pretending," he rasped, voice low but resonant, each word cutting through the hush like a blade. "I'm tired of chasing everyone else's expectations… of trying to be what they want, instead of who I am."
Sydney stared at him, lips parted, caught somewhere between fear and awe.
"Katsu, wait—" she started, but the words died in her throat. She reached for his arm, fingers brushing frost, then pulled back as the cold flared, stinging.
Rei stepped forward, eyes wide, his usual confidence stripped away.
"You don't have to do this. You're going to burn yourself out—"
He stopped, seeing the resolve in Katsu's eyes, and clenched his fists at his sides.
"Just… come back. Don't go where we can't follow."
Their voices hung in the icy air, raw and pleading.
Blinks of the bond they shared, and the distance growing with every heartbeat.
Katsu's gaze flicked to each of them, and for a heartbeat his expression softened.
Then hardened again, all doubt burned away. He lifted his hand to the sky.
The Leviathan flinched beside him, golden eyes widening in silent shock.
Katsu's gaze swept the lakeshore, sharp and unyielding. His breath misted in the frigid air as he straightened fully, every line of his body taut with quiet defiance.
"I am Katsu Nori," he declared, voice rising, carrying across the still water. "Son of Mortala von Velthra."
He let the words hang in the frozen silence, heavy as stone.
Rei gasped.
Sydney's eyes widened.
It was loud enough for every student on the lakeshore, every teacher watching from the treeline, to hear. Loud enough that even those who weren't there would soon know.
Then, with a final, deliberate breath, he lifted his hand. Palm open to the cold sky, power swirling around his fingers like a storm gathering.
Valen kaar, esh varenthai.
From silence, I summon the binding frost.
Dunv suun, riin varak.
Bind breath, seal the surface.
Talven shai, lun vehl.
Winter's dream, become my veil.
Morai vesh, teshk velin.
Deep calls deep, break the still water.
Vareth lun, esh'kai draven.
By old blood and oath of cold.
Teshk varan, teshk varan.
Break the current, break the current.
Valen kaar, esh varenthai.
From silence, I summon the binding frost.
The ancient words rolled from his lips, each syllable vibrating through the air like a crack of thunder.
Frost exploded outward from his feet in a widening ring, racing across the lake's black surface.
Crystalline webs burst forth, knitting the water into a shifting mosaic of white and silver.
The gathered students gasped as ice leapt up from the lake in jagged spires, each one cracking and splintering with the sharp music of a storm turned solid.
Mist swirled in ghostly tendrils, snaking across the frozen expanse, as if the lake itself was exhaling the last of its warmth.
The world seemed to shudder, the sky itself paling as if recoiling from the surge of power.
The final words of his incantation echoed like a bell across the silent Academy grounds:
Voruun esh sa'el Velthra.
Velthra's heir commands: let the lake sleep.
Silence fell, absolute and ringing.
The lake lay still and white, a flawless mirror of ice stretching from shore to shore, reflecting the pale dawn with an eerie, crystalline clarity.
Katsu stood at the lake's edge, arm still raised, breath tearing from his chest in ragged clouds.
His eyes glowed faintly, frost clinging to his hair and lashes. Mana coursed through him in wild, aching surges. Each pulse a reminder of the price he'd paid to wield this power.
The Leviathan hovered behind him, ethereal and watchful, her golden gaze burning with awe and fear. "You… you really did it," she whispered, voice barely more than mist.
Around them, the crowd was frozen—no one daring to move or even breathe. Some stared in wide-eyed wonder; others shrank back, terror written plain across their faces.
Master Uiscel stepped from the treeline, boots crunching across the brittle grass. His eyes swept the lake, then settled on Katsu—dark, unreadable.
"What you've done today, Katsu… is beyond the reach of any mere Wizard. And beyond the bounds of any ordinary lesson."
The cold wind stirred, carrying the echoes of Katsu's words across the Academy grounds.
"This day will be remembered," Uiscel continued, his tone heavy, "by every soul who saw it—and by those who hear it whispered."
Katsu lowered his hand slowly, every muscle trembling. He met Uiscel's gaze, breath still steaming, power still humming through him.
"For good or ill," Uiscel said, "the Academy will never see you the same way again."
"…"
Katsu didn't say anything.
He looked to the back of the class.
Juju von Soryuun.
He walked forward. The Leviathan broke the ice as he stepped away from it.
"What is that supposed to mean for me?"
He sighs, breath cold.