The tension in the room was a physical weight. Caelum's hand was buried in the warmth of Xavia's robe, his thumb tracing the edge of a glowing silver tattoo on her ribcage. Her obsidian Aether was like a dark tide, pulling at his golden light, trying to find a crack in his defenses.
"You have no idea what you've walked into, Goldie," Xavia whispered, her lips brushing his ear. Her breath was cool, but her skin was starting to burn where he touched her.
Just as Caelum began to channel a heavy, pressurized pulse of his Aether into her core, a sharp, screeching sound pierced the silence.
A **Spectral Crow**—the Headmaster's personal familiar—materialized from the shadows of the ceiling. Its eyes were two glowing embers, and its translucent feathers shed flakes of gray energy.
"Xavia of the Shadow Isles," the crow rasped in the Headmaster's gravelly voice. "Your presence is required in the Inner Sanctum. Immediately. Do not make me send the guards."
Xavia froze. Her obsidian Aether recoiled, snapping back into her body like a whipped lash. She let out a low, frustrated snarl, her forehead resting against Caelum's chest for a brief second.
"Saved by the old man," she hissed, pulling away. She gathered her black silk robe, tied it tightly around her narrow waist, and looked back at him. Her neon-white hair shimmered in the dark. "Don't get too comfortable, Alchemist. I haven't finished tasting you yet."
She vanished into the shadows of the hallway before the door even finished swinging shut.
Caelum didn't follow. He walked over to his bed and lay back, staring at the ceiling. His body was still humming from the remnants of the garden orgy and the brief, electric contact with Xavia.
He closed his eyes and began a **Internal Scan**. In his mind's eye, his Aether Core—usually a steady sphere of gold—now had streaks of teal from Lyra, magenta from Seraphina, and even a faint, icy silver from his brief contact with Isolde.
*The harem isn't just a collection of women,* he thought, his scientist's mind analyzing the data as he drifted toward sleep. *It's a multi-stage reactor. Each new element adds a different frequency. If I can combine them all... I won't just be a mage. I'll be the source.*
He fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, fueled by the excitement of the "experiments" to come.