The dorms were quiet when they returned.
Their old rooms hadn't changed beds made, shelves dusted, boots right where they left them.
But none of it felt the same.
Kieran sat on his cot, turning the crimson feather over in his hand.
It no longer pulsed.
It didn't need to.
He wrapped it back in cloth and tucked it behind the loose panel under his bed.
A secret. For now.
The next morning, they walked into the dining hall together.
Conversations slowed. Eyes followed them. Forks stopped midair.
They weren't loud. They didn't posture. They just moved differently now slower, sharper, more aware.
A group of younger Initiates watched them from across the room, whispering.
"I heard one of them died in there and came back."
"Which one's the shadowborn?"
"Don't look him in the eyes. That's how it gets in."
Calla rolled her eyes and kept walking.
Nova smirked. "Nice to be famous."
Selene replied coldly, "Fame's just another type of pressure."
Later, they sat in a theory lecture a routine class on elemental balancing and post-Ascent stability. Half the room stared at them. The instructor, a sharp-nosed woman named Vira, paused once mid-sentence.
"You seven," she said suddenly. "Trial survivors."
The room turned.
"You'll find that your bodies aren't the only things that change. Watch your dreams. Watch your instincts. And watch the way the Academy watches you.
She smiled like it was a joke.
Then moved on.
They trained in pairs that afternoon.
Kieran with Selene. Calla with Nova. Rei watching alone, arms folded. Talon sketching formations with chalk, his movements cleaner now.
Even Sera sparred. Silently. Precisely.
They didn't speak much during drills.
They didn't need to.
That night, in the upper courtyard, a group of Initiates freshly Awakened, untouched by any Trial blocked their path.
Four of them.
Cocky. Well-fed. Loud.
One stepped forward. "Heard you had a rough nap in the ruins."
Kieran said nothing.
The boy kept going. "Must've been cozy, though. They're saying you got special treatment."
Rei cracked his knuckles. "You really want to find out what kind of treatment?"
The others shifted, tension building — but Selene stepped forward.
Her hand glowed faintly with light.
The glow wasn't hostile. Just clear.
The other group backed off.
They weren't afraid.
But they weren't ready.
Back in their wing, Kieran sat by the open window.
Outside, the wind whispered through the silver trees lining the walls of Umbravale.
Inside, something had shifted.
They were still students.
But they weren't the same kind as before.
Not anymore.