The forest felt different after the fight.
Quieter.
Not peaceful — tense.Like the trees themselves were holding their breath.
Selene helped Rafe sit up fully, her fingers trembling slightly as she checked his pulse, his eyes, the faint glow beneath his skin.
She had seen strange things in her life.Ancient things.Forbidden things.
But never a child whose aura carried the signature of two forces forbidden to coexist… and the whisper of something older than the world.
"Selene—" Rafe began.
She cut him off gently.
"Tell me everything."
Rafe swallowed.
Mara and Lyn knelt beside him, one clinging to his sleeve, the other hovering like she wanted to punch anyone who came too close.
Rafe took a shaky breath.
"I heard a voice. A woman's."
Selene tensed.
"She wasn't part of the Ruins. She wasn't part of the Primordial. She… hijacked the signal from the Pursuer."
Selene's grip on her staff tightened.
"Describe her."
Rafe did.
The white hair.The pale blue eyes.The way her words felt like scalpels.The coat threaded with mana.Her fascination — cold, clinical — at his very existence.
Selene's face paled more with every detail.
"And she… scanned me," Rafe said. "She wants to study me."
Mara snarled."I'll break her mouth."
Lyn simply hid behind Rafe, shaking.
Selene pressed a hand to her temple, trying to steady her breath.
"That woman," she whispered, "belongs to the Fate Commission."
Rafe blinked."The what?"
"A clandestine division of the upper guilds," Selene explained. "They regulate prophetic anomalies, timeline distortions… and anything with Primordial involvement."
Mara frowned. "Prophetic what?"
"Things that aren't supposed to happen," Selene said."People who aren't supposed to exist."
Rafe's stomach twisted.
"And they… kill them?"
"If necessary," Selene whispered. "But worse than killing… they study them."
Rafe remembered the Director's voice.Her calmness.Her curiosity.
He swallowed.
"She's going to send more Hunters."
Selene nodded grimly.
"Yes."
Mara pointed at the broken Pursuer."Then we destroy them like this one."
"No," Selene said sharply. "That was luck. Rafe's power is unstable, and now that the Director has analyzed it, her next unit will be tailored to his weaknesses."
Rafe stiffened.
"Meaning I won't win next time."
Selene hesitated.
"…Meaning the next one may not be defeatable."
Silence fell.
Cold. Heavy.
Lyn's voice broke it, soft and trembling:
"S-Selene… what do we do…?"
Selene looked at Rafe.At Lyn.At Mara.
Then at the slowly cooling remains of the Fate Hunter.
And she made a decision.
One she had hoped to avoid.
"We leave the forest," she said.
Mara's eyes widened. "Leave? To where?"
Selene inhaled slowly.
"To the only place that might hide Rafe long enough for him to grow."
Rafe felt the air around him thicken.
"The Academy," he said quietly.
Selene nodded.
"Yes."
Mara looked between them, confused.
"So now that weird metal lady wants to kill him, we're going to school?!"
Selene exhaled.
"It isn't a normal school, Mara. The Academy is protected by ancient wards, political treaties, and mana seals even the Commission can't violate openly. If Rafe enrolls as a student, he becomes part of a protected system."
Rafe frowned.
"But wouldn't going there draw attention?"
Selene shook her head.
"No. They'll be looking for a fugitive child in the wild, not a registered student under formal guardianship."
Mara crossed her arms.
"And if they do find him?"
Selene smiled dryly.
"Then they will have to break laws older than their organization… and risk war with the guilds who control the Academy."
Even Rafe felt a chill.
"So you want to hide me in plain sight."
"Yes."
Rafe swallowed.
"And what about Mara and Lyn?"
Selene looked at them.
The determination in her eyes softened.
"They go with you," she said."I'm not leaving them behind."
Mara nodded firmly.Lyn clung to Rafe's arm.
Rafe breathed out slowly.
A forest full of memories…A place where they had grown together…A place that had nearly killed them…A place they could no longer call safe.
"…We leave, then," he said.
Selene nodded.
"We leave tonight."
Mara straightened her posture.
"Good. I'm tired of trees anyway."
Lyn whispered, "I'll miss them…"
Rafe placed a hand on her head.
"Me too."
Selene raised her staff — the cracks along its surface pulsing weakly.
"We need to get moving. The Director knows your aura now. She won't risk losing you again."
Rafe rose to his feet — shaky but steady.
His Light and Shadow stabilized beneath his skin.His heartbeat synchronizing with a rhythm he didn't yet understand.
But he took a step.
Then another.
And the forest seemed to exhale around them.
Mara walked ahead, muttering under her breath.Lyn held Rafe's hand tightly, her eyes darting at every shadow.Selene followed, scanning every ripple in the air for hostile signatures.
Rafe looked back once.
At the ravine.At the place where he fought the Pursuer.Where the Director's echo reached him.Where the Primordial whispered.Where he changed.
He whispered:
"This isn't the end."
And the forest, as if it understood, shuddered with wind.
He turned back to the others.
"Let's go."
They walked —toward the distant lights of civilization,toward danger and refuge,toward a future the Director wanted to dismantle,and toward the Academy that would shape everything that followed.
For the first time…the road felt like it belonged to him.
Even if it led to war.