Perfect — thanks for clarifying. I'll expand it fully into a long, flowing 3000-word chapter about the Eagle Knight's return, his vow to catch the intruder, the tension in the school, and El Como's sarcastic, frantic escape.
I'll keep
The sound arrived first.
Not a knock, not a horn, not even the clanging of boots or the cough of some tired guard. No. The sound that heralded the Eagle Knight's return was something heavier, something that seemed to scratch the air itself. Like metal being drawn along stone, or a mountain remembering it was not meant to move but doing so anyway.
Students at the Ability School froze. In the courtyards, their games of mock combat faltered. On the balconies, young Initiates pretended to continue their studies but left their books hanging open, unread, while their eyes darted to the horizon. A whisper ran like a crack in glass:
"He's back."
The Eagle Knight.
The one whose armor was never described the same way twice. Some swore it gleamed like a star, others that it absorbed light so hungrily you could lose your shadow near him. His promise had been clear, carved into memory like an iron nail into wood:
"I will return. And when I do, the one who breached your walls, who mocked your defenses, will be mine."
And promises from the Eagle Knight were not poetry. They were execution notices.
El Como had chosen the worst possible time to sit down.
He was crouched against a wall, picking idly at one of the glowing black runes that had begun to etch themselves into his skin every time he dared to possess someone else. They weren't behaving, these runes. They pulsed faintly as if they had opinions, which El Como found offensive. His body, his opinions—thank you very much.
But no. The symbols glowed, shimmered, and whispered to themselves in a language El Como was convinced was deliberately being spoken just low enough that he couldn't hear.
"Conspiratorial tattoos," he muttered. "That's exactly what I needed. I ask for abs, the universe gives me glowing graffiti. Top tier trade."
He was still engaged in this very serious argument with his own forearm when the air changed.
Not the kind of change normal people notice—the faint hush before rain, or the way birds go silent. No, this was heavier. The sort of change where the universe itself leans forward to watch something about to happen.
"Oh no," El Como sighed, standing up and dusting himself off. "Big dramatic entrance incoming. This reeks of Knight."
The Knight's arrival was not subtle.
Wings. Not feathered, not leathery. Something in between. Metallic feathers that clinked softly as if each one were forged from chains, and a wingspan so vast it seemed to be written into the sky rather than merely stretched across it. His visor reflected nothing but a blankness that made people shiver when they looked too long.
And his voice.
"Bring me the one who trespassed."
It wasn't shouted. It didn't need to be. Even whispered, the command would have carried across the entire campus. The Headmaster, normally a man who thrived on speeches, bowed low and said nothing. Because what could he say? The Knight had promised.
The Eagle Knight did not bargain.
El Como, meanwhile, had a brilliant plan.
Run.
"Oh, yes," he told himself while skidding across a hallway, startling a pair of Initiates. "That's it, Como. That's the entire plan. No sword fights, no noble stand. Just good old-fashioned leg day."
The students stared at him, half-recognizing the lanky figure with the too-casual grin and the faintly glowing black tattoos. Some pointed. Others whispered.
"Is that him?"
"It must be."
"He looks… smaller than I imagined."
"He looks like he owes me money."
"Correct on all counts," El Como muttered, darting past them.
The Knight moved through the school slowly, deliberately, like a stormcloud that knew no one could disperse it. Each step shook dust from the rafters. Each turn of his visor made people forget what they'd been about to say.
"Where," he asked calmly, "is the intruder?"
Nobody wanted to answer. Nobody wanted to be wrong. But whispers grew, and whispers had a way of becoming trails.
"They say he's in the east wing."
"The library."
"No, the lower halls."
"I saw him just now—he ran past—"
The Knight followed. Not hurriedly. He didn't need to hurry. His presence alone was a leash, pulling the truth toward him.
El Como darted down staircases, his thoughts narrating in increasingly sarcastic tones.
"Wonderful. Absolutely brilliant. Sneak into a school I don't belong in, find myself hunted by a Knight who eats promises for breakfast. What's next? A parade? Maybe they'll throw me a medal for 'Most Likely To Be Pulverized.'"
He slipped into a side chamber, chest heaving. The room smelled of dust and chalk and the faint tang of spell residue. He pressed himself against the wall. The runes on his skin glowed brighter, pulsing as though amused.
"Oh, don't start laughing at me," he hissed at them. "You're my tattoos, not my hecklers."
The runes glowed once more, brighter this time. Almost as if answering.
Above, the Knight paused. He tilted his helmeted head slightly, as though hearing something only he could hear. Slowly, with terrifying certainty, he turned toward the stairwell El Como had vanished down.
The students followed at a safe distance, murmuring in nervous awe. They had never seen the Eagle Knight hunt before. Many of them hoped they never would again.
El Como made the mistake of peeking around a corner.
The Knight was already there.
Not running. Not chasing. Just there, as though the school had rearranged itself to put them face-to-face.
"Well," El Como said weakly, "this is awkward. You must be looking for… someone else. Tall, handsome, rune-covered menace type? Haven't seen him."
The Knight raised a gauntleted hand. Chains slithered from his palm, metallic serpents writhing toward El Como.
"Found you."
"Oh no, you didn't," El Como snapped, and turned on his heel.
The chase was not fair.
The Knight did not move quickly, but the school bent to him. Hallways seemed to shorten for him, doors opened without touch, staircases straightened. El Como, on the other hand, had to leap over startled Initiates, duck under swinging banners, and nearly brained himself on a dangling lantern.
But chaos had always been El Como's ally. He knocked over stacks of books. He shouted "Fire!" in a crowded corridor (earning glares but also much-needed distraction). He darted through kitchens, stealing a loaf of bread mid-run and then immediately regretting carrying extra carbs.
And through it all, his inner voice kept up its commentary:
"Brilliant, Como. Outrun the embodiment of inevitability. Perfect plan. Next step: challenge gravity to a duel. Maybe arm wrestle death while you're at it."
At last, breathless and half-laughing in spite of himself, El Como burst out of a side door into the open night. The sky was wide, the air sharp, and the stars looked down with their usual smug indifference.
Behind him, the Knight stepped out into the same courtyard.
This was it.
El Como grinned, wild and cornered. "Well, shiny feathers, looks like you almost had me."
The Knight spread his wings. "Almost is not enough."
The chains lashed out again—
—And El Como ran. Straight out of the school grounds, straight into the night, the runes on his body blazing black fire as though mocking pursuit.
The Knight did not follow beyond the gate.
Instead, he stood still, wings folding back, visor gleaming with that blank nothingness. His voice rolled across the grounds:
"You cannot run forever."
And with that, the Eagle Knight vanished, leaving the school trembling in silence.
El Como, miles away already, collapsed against a tree, laughing breathlessly.
"Forever? No. But for tonight? Oh, yes. Chalk that up as a win."
The runes glowed brighter.
And somewhere, faintly, they seemed to laugh with him.