AstraVana had thinned over months of departures, the grand halls echoing emptier with each rider vanishing into dusk. Letters arrived only then, sealed tight, straight to Iravati—no announcements, just wardlight glowing late under doors.

  Dev and Nakshit left first for the east with survivors, hunting answers and artifacts. The West stormed out after corridor-shaking disputes. Southerners arrived in their place—scarred, disciplined, filling the gaps but not the laughter. Voices hushed now, pauses between drills heavy. Lira felt it daily, a pressure like waiting lungs.

  Training grounds bit sharp with purpose, gravel crunching, sweat-salt thick in dusk air, torches jittering shadows over scarred dirt.

  "Again," Niro drawled from his column perch, leg swinging lazy, eyes flint-hard. "Pull *real* emotion. I won't crack easy."

  Lira stood paces off, palms open, sweat stinging eyes, breath ragged. Her gift distilled chaos to calm—mending nerves, soothing storms. Weaponized, it hyped frenzy or shattered to paralysis. Gentle by soul, she hated the twist.

  Niro's amusement hummed inviting under her senses. She coiled threads around it, amplifying cheer to irritation, tasting his pulse quicken.

  "Tickling like a timid kitten," he grinned, white teeth torch-flashing. "Wreck me proper—make me *beg*."

  Aresh's laugh rasped low across the yard, shattering focus. Threads frayed; cheeks burned.

  "Distracted," Niro sighed theatrical, hand dramatic to chest. "Soft. Contained as a caged bird."

  "I'm *not*," Lira snapped, throat raw, pulse hammering ears.

  "Prove it, petal."

  She shoved harder, hyping his cheer to manic blaze. Niro hitched breath, fingers clawing stone, eyes bulging wild—impulses howling loose, body arching taut. Then she ripped reverse: distilling to void-exhaustion. He sagged limp, gaze fog-dead, sweat gleaming slack.

  Shaking it off hoarse, "Paralysis looks good on you."

  Rebound slammed her—vertigo whirl, knees jelly. Aresh stormed over, heat-wave rolling, ashy leather scent invading. "Overextending again. Sloppy."

  "I *had* him locked," she snarled, chin defiant, fire licking veins.

  "You slipped like wet sand." His eyes bored dark, challenging.

  "You weren't the damn target!" Voice cracked whip-sharp.

  "You weren't *holding* it!" Fists balled, embers ghosting knuckles, frustration boiling raw.

  Niro clapped slow, wicked delight. "Yes—*anger*. Distill that filth clean."

  Lira invaded Aresh's space, noses inches, his heat licking skin, breath mingling hot. "You *love* watching me bleed effort."

  Fire silk-coiled his fingers. "Jealous I cut straight?" Voice velvet taunt, eyes smoldering pull.

  "Of your cocky flares? Spare me." Sarcasm bit sweet.

  "I don't flinch." Words gut-punched her doubts awake.

  "Confidence? That's just pretty recklessness." She smirked razor, leaning closer, air sparking tinder-dry.As months grew by so did his confidence in magic , apparently so did his shitty attitude.

  "Works better than your pussyfooting." Jaw clenched iron, breath ghosting her lips. "Scared to break him fully?"

  "Your fire *craves* rage—sloppy, hungry." Venom low, baiting deep.

  "Makes it pure. Yours whimpers polite." He grinned feral, inches vanishing.

  "Polite wins wars. Your tantrums lose them." Spark flared electric—argument venom laced want, pulling savage taut.

  Just by then Group of healers were led by Guru Devika by next step stone, Niro had been gawking too much in their direction.

  Niro dropped fluid, boots thudding, grin sly. "Peacocks preening. Real practice?" Eyes locked Lira's, voice husky drop. "Ignite truth, from devika .i want to know is the feeling mutual ,Like me mooning Guru Devika—healer hands soft as sin, thorns in her tongue. Called me fool day one; I've chased that sting since, buzzing her halls, pissing her divine off daily."

  Lira recoiled grimace. "Ugh—*gross*. We *know*, Niro. Your puppy orbit's pathetic."

  Aresh barked laugh. "Healer, not your bed-warmer. Save the drool."

  Niro chuckled unphased. "Jealous pups. She'll stitch your burns—after mine."

  Eyes rolled unison, disgust shared, spark fizzling mutual revulsion. But his emotion burned true under her sense—foolish, fierce flame.

  Aadyan's growl haunted Aresh everyday but more so relentlessly today *Stay away from her.* when he had left for the East with other troops , he had made sure that message got clear to his head that he hadn't trusted Aresh even a bit ."Patterns trap you," he'd flat-said.Whenever Lira and Aresh fought , those same words grate his nerves boiling his already unhinged temperament.

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  After it has been too much of heavy atmosphere.People had decided that they needed a break that night.

  Niro lit bonfire that night, logs thumping sap-burst, smoke coiling thick. "Glory-death? Gorge trash first—tubers char-black, bread like stone."

  Lira smirked faint. Terraces filled: old crew slumped tight, southerners edged stiff, instructors ghostly watching. Flames roared greedy, fat spitting sizzle, sparks dancing starry void, woodsmoke biting lungs warm. Everyone trading stories.

  Eastern Student reminiscences about a very funny tale regarding an overly hyper garuda and a mystic old Seer,And a Southern lad gravel-voiced talked about some dunes eating caravans alive.

  Niro leaned grave, fire carving shadows deep. "Old curse tops it. A thousand years past, a kingdom drowned in sand. God-king Adinath—blaze-proud—wronged a shadow. Of course it was for the good but How mother's love no bounds, created a grave for the great when she should have asked for absolution from her wretched sons .Curse woke dunes wrathful: palaces gulped, warriors crunched, god himself buried choking. All dust... save one mage-warrior. Slippery bastard escaped jaws."

  Lira leaned in, tuber ash crumbling fingers. "Escaped *how*?"

  Niro's gaze slid subtle, voice thread-low. "Whispers say *he* took advantage of the curse. Fed on hollows, birthing rot. Grudges rotting fresh now, maybe." Hint lingered barbed—*this shit's his echo*.

  Aresh's fork paused. "Tying to fables? Our mess?"

  "Tales are Truth ,all the proof is in the mess." Niro shrugged casual, eyes glinting knowing. Air turned blade-sharp, watchful.

  A student then joked about Niro's nest like hair breaking heaving air , people gathered started laughing already forgetting about dunes and god king When…

  The sky tore open.

  The sound came first — a violent ripping roar that rolled across the terraces and tore straight through the bonfire laughter. Every head snapped upward.

  Something vast cut across the moon.

  Its wings were wrong in the air — One dragged lower than the other, shuddering. Smoke streamed behind it in a thick, oily trail that stung the throat even from a distance.

  Then it fell.

  The impact slammed into the lower cliffs with a crunch that shook dust from the stone balustrades. The earth bucked hard beneath their boots. Sparks from the bonfire scattered into the dark as students stumbled and swore, spells snapping to life in reflex.

  “Wyvern—!”

  Lira was already moving.

  The descent blurred beneath her feet. Gravel slid. Smoke thickened. The smell grew stronger the closer they came — burned hide layered with something sour and metallic underneath.

  The wyvern lay twisted against the cliff face.

  One wing had folded beneath it at a broken angle, the membrane torn into wet strips that clung to stone. Steam lifted from its body in uneven gusts. Its scales along the ribcage had split in jagged lines that did not match the fall.

  They had burst outward.

  The creature’s chest rose in shallow, uneven pulls.

  It was alive.

  Its eye rolled toward the approaching figures, the pupil dilated wide with shock. A tremor passed through its neck as it tried to lift its head. It managed only a few inches before collapsing back down with a heavy, rattling breath.

  Aresh stepped closer instinctively, heat gathering low in his palms.

  “Careful,” someone warned.

  The wyvern’s scales near the sternum were fractured in spirals, blackened around the edges. Dark ichor seeped from the cracks, hissing faintly against the cold stone.

  Lira extended her senses.

  The moment her gift brushed the creature’s aura, her stomach tightened.

  Its mana flow was torn in sections. Whole channels felt stripped thin, as though something had drawn from them in violent pulls. Near the center of its chest, however, the energy was dense and knotted — concentrated around something that felt wrong.

  “It was feeding,” she said, voice tight.

  Aresh glanced at her. “On what?”

  “On it.”

  The wyvern convulsed suddenly, ribs flexing outward with a sickening crack. A low, broken sound forced its way up from its throat — part roar, part gurgle. Its claws scraped helpless grooves into the rock.

  A faint pulse shuddered beneath the split scales along its sternum.

  Then another.

  Lira felt the residue there — not a creature’s presence, not a physical invader. A pressure. Something that had pressed close, taken what it wanted, and withdrawn.

  Withdrawn — not finished.

  The wyvern’s breathing grew ragged.

  It tried to focus again, eye shifting upward toward the sky as if tracking something still moving beyond sight.

  Aresh felt his fire recoil inside him.

  Recognizing the signature of this mayhem.

  The pulse beneath the sternum flickered weakly and began to fade.

  The creature sagged heavily against the stone, breath thinning to a shallow, uneven rhythm.

  Alive.

  Barely.

  Niro moved forward then, humor stripped clean from his expression. He crouched near the fractured scales, gloved fingers hovering without touching.

  “This didn’t happen from the fall,” he said quietly.

  He studied the spiral burn patterns, the outward rupture, the drained channels.

  “It started before it hit the ground.”

  Around them, the night had gone unnaturally still.Only the wyvern’s labored breathing and the faint hiss of cooling ichor.

  Lira swallowed.

  “If it’s alive,” she said, “it saw something.”

  Niro stood slowly.

  “Then we keep it that way.”

  Above them, the sky looked perfectly ordinary.

  That was what unsettled her most.