The cafeteria pulsed with life.
Laughter bouncing off marble.
Forks scraping porcelain.
Voices rising and falling like waves in a storm.
Kael sat alone in the far corner, his back to the wall, a half-eaten roll untouched on his tray.
Then it came—soft. Hidden.
Like a breeze slipping through cracked glass.
A voice.
"Ugh. Meat stew again? Do they think nobles run on slop?"
Spoken casually. Offhanded. A complaint shared between friends.
Kael's eyes didn't move.
But his pulse did.
That voice.
Not the words.
The voice.
It wasn't the exact one that had spoken to him during the duel.
Not the one that whispered, "Next time… don't die just to prove a point."
But it carried the same weight.
The same presence.
Like a shadow worn by a different light.
He could feel it in his bones.
In the stillness that fell over his thoughts for a second too long.
It came from her table.
The center of the cafeteria—where the well-born gathered. Where perfume mingled with politics.
Selene Virellia sat with them, arms folded, expression regal as ever.
It might've been her.
Or one of her friends.
Kael wouldn't guess.
He'd know.
Day One. He followed the haughty brunette—too sharp, too loud. Not her.
Day Two. A whispery girl with a book always in hand. Her voice was too timid, too fluttery.
Day Three. The one who liked to sing under her breath. Light, melodic, not the one.
Each day, he narrowed the list.
Each time, it wasn't enough.
He needed the feeling again. That subtle, visceral pull.
Then, on the fifth day—Selene Virellia.
She walked alone through the flower path after class, shoes crunching faintly on the gravel.
Kael followed. Quiet. Controlled.
She paused by the lily pond. Looked up at the sky. Then muttered to herself:
"I should've brought a cloak. I told them it'd be windy."
And in that moment—
There it was.
The echo. Not in the tone. Not in the volume. But in the weight.
The same soft imprint left on his soul when death clawed at his spine.
His fingers tightened slightly at his side.
It was her.
Selene Virellia was the one who healed him.
She was the voice that called him back from the edge.
And she didn't know he knew.