The Great Hall was a sea of shimmering silk and floating candles. Caelum entered, flanked by a glowing Seraphina who walked with a slight, satisfied limp. Every eye in the room turned toward him, but Caelum's focus was on the high table.
There sat the girl with the silver hair. Up close, she was even more striking. Her skin was so pale it was almost translucent, and her eyes were a cold, sharp diamond-blue. She was **Isolde**, the daughter of the Northern Archduke.
When Caelum heard a student whisper her name, he paused. *Isolde...* It sounded like a more elegant, cold version of his mother's name, *Elara*. In the old language of this world, "El" meant "Life/Fire," while "Is" meant "Stillness/Ice."
*A logical opposite,* Caelum thought, a smirk touching his lips. *My mother is the fire of the hearth. This girl is the ice of the mountain.*
Isolde stood up, her movements as fluid as falling snow. Her Aether was a **Bright Silver**, so cold that the air around her plate had actually frosted over.
"You," she said, her voice like cracking glass. "The commoner who made the Professor lose her dignity. I am Isolde. I do not believe in 'Natural Resonance.' I believe in discipline and purity."
She stepped off the platform, walking toward him. With every step, a trail of frost formed on the stone floor. The students held their breath. This was a **Dominance Challenge**.
"Purity is just another word for a lack of reactions, Isolde," Caelum said, his voice carrying through the silent hall.
He didn't wait for her to attack. He stepped into her "Cold Zone." Most students would have started shivering, their Aether freezing in their veins. But Caelum's gold Aether didn't just fight the cold—it **absorbed** it.
He stopped inches from her. He was so close he could see the tiny silver lashes of her eyes. Isolde flinched. She was used to people backing away from her chill, but Caelum felt like a furnace.
"Your ice is beautiful," Caelum whispered, his voice low so only she could hear. "But it's brittle. If I touch you, I won't just melt you. I'll shatter you."
He reached out and, before she could move, he tucked a stray strand of silver hair behind her ear. His warm, gold-tinted fingers grazed her cold skin.
The reaction was violent. A sharp *crack* echoed through the hall as a spark of gold and silver light exploded between them. Isolde's knees shook, and for the first time in her life, a bright, feverish red flush crept up her snowy neck. Her silver Aether didn't freeze him; it started to spin wildly, trying to find a way to bond with his heat.
"Don't... touch me," she gasped, but she didn't pull away. Her diamond-blue eyes were wide with a mix of shock and a sudden, terrifying lust. She had spent her life keeping everyone away with her cold, but Caelum had just walked through her walls like they were made of paper.
"The banquet is just starting, Isolde," Caelum said, giving her a wink that made her heart race. "I look forward to our first... 'private study' session."
He walked past her to his seat, leaving the Ice Queen standing in the middle of the hall, her silver energy trembling and her body feeling a heat she had never known existed.