By evening, the infirmary had settled into an uneasy quiet. Dusk had settled over Shadowclaw, and the field glowed softly with lantern-light.
Aeron and Cael slept.
Nova remained unconscious, not brought back to her private suite yet.
Marra kept vigil.
Hyran agreed to train Elle, Fin, and Jax while he was there. Aeron had requested it, and the three of them were still riding the high of being impressed by a man who could wrangle rogue magic like it was mild weather. They'd all agreed without argument. Even Fin.
Hyran stepped to the center of the field and regarded them with the expression of a man preparing to teach three over-caffeinated wolf pups how to juggle burning torches. Then, with the weary calm of someone deeply familiar with chaos, he clapped his hands once and announced:
"I am doing this as a favor to Aeron. And because someone must stop the three of you from accidentally setting Varos ablaze."
Fin blinked. "The three of us?"
Hyran gave him the flattest look ever bestowed by a mage.
"Yes, Alpha. Aeron said it was your own magic Nova used to restrain you this morning, was it not?"
"And you," Hyran continued, turning to Jax, "allowed yourself to be trapped in a magical bubble by a woman half-conscious and panicking."
Hyran ignored their looks of protest and he turned to Elle.
"You," Hyran said, "accidentally summoned a dragon."
Elle opened her mouth.
"No explanation," Hyran added crisply, lifting a finger. "There is no version of this story in which you are innocent."
Fin snorted and muttered, "Gods help us."
"No," Hyran said. "Gods help me."
He motioned them forward with the weary grace of a man who had survived far too many magical catastrophes in far too few years.
"Very well," he said. "We begin with the simplest foundational exercise: gathering energy into the palms."
He paused, looking at all three of them as though already regretting his life choices.
"Do not release it. Do not shape it. Do not think creatively. Simply gather."
Fin folded his arms. "I can do that."
"No," Hyran replied instantly. "You cannot. If confidence alone were magic, Alpha, you would be a god."
Jax snorted.
Hyran lifted both hands, demonstrating. A soft red glow formed in his palms—steady, gentle, perfectly obedient.
"Now you."
Elle inhaled, focusing, green light blooming between her fingers like a captured star.
Hyran nodded. "Good. Controlled."
Jax concentrated; sapphire energy coalesced in a crackling sphere.
Hyran made a thoughtful noise. "Acceptable, though it sounds like a forge having a tantrum."
Fin exhaled slowly, raised his hands, and a burst of gold detonated loud enough to rattle the far lanterns.
Hyran did not blink. "Alpha. That was inhaling, not gathering."
Fin growled under his breath. "What do you want me to do? Stop breathing?"
"At this point? Perhaps," Hyran said dryly.
Jax wheezed a laugh. Elle covered her mouth, shoulders shaking.
Hyran lifted a hand for silence. "Again. Slowly."
They repeated the exercise.
Elle's glow brightened but stayed contained.
Jax's sphere steadied, the crackling softening to a controlled hum.
Fin's hands flickered with gold—bright but finally not explosive. He exhaled a long, relieved sigh.
A trembling ember of gold formed—loud, unstable, but not explosive.
Hyran sighed. "We will accept mediocrity for the moment."
Fin muttered something deeply unalpha-like under his breath.
"Now," Hyran continued, "we practice aligned projection. Not combined—aligned. You will stand apart and direct your magic toward the same mark."
He pointed to a stone pillar twenty paces away.
"No force. No aggression. This is not an attack. This is control. Think of it as… whispering with magic."
Jax raised a brow but didn't say anything.
Hyran gave him a look that could curdle milk. "Your magic screams, Gamma. That is the problem."
Elle tried not to laugh.
"On my signal," Hyran said. "You will each send the smallest, quietest stream of magic toward that pillar. Like exhaling. Begin."
Elle lifted her hand. A thin green thread extended—graceful, steady.
Jax followed—sapphire light flickering but controlled.
Fin exhaled. Gold light sputtered out, hissed, then shot forward like a drunken firefly.
"Alpha," Hyran said through clenched teeth, "you are attempting to stab the air. Stop stabbing the air."
"I'm not—"
"You are."
They tried again.
Elle's green line this time made a grinding noise that absolutely should not belong to light.
Jax's sapphire wavered but obeyed.
Fin's gold made it, but was painfully slow.
Hyran pinched the bridge of his nose. "Very well. We continue."
"Yes," Hyran said darkly. "Now you must aim together. Same target, same pace, same output. If one of you loses control, the other two counterbalance. This is what Aeron wanted you to learn."
Fin exhaled, suddenly sobering.
Elle focused.
Jax cracked his knuckles. "Alright."
"On my count," Hyran said. "Three… two… one."
Three beams of color shot forward—green, blue, and gold.
For two perfect seconds, they aligned.
Then Elle's magic flared.
Jax's snapped sideways.
Fin's strengthened instinctively to stabilize them both.
The pillar vibrated…
glowed…
then exploded in a harmless shower of sparks.
Lanterns flickered.
The ground trembled.
Fin stumbled.
Jax cursed.
Elle threw both hands up. "That was not my fault!"
Hyran looked skyward, whispering a prayer for patience long since spent.
"At last," he murmured, "we have established a baseline."
Fin glared. "That was a baseline?"
"Yes," Hyran said calmly. "The baseline is: all of you are hazards."
Jax and Fin looked at each other. They both lost it and laughed, unable to help themselves.
Elle covered her face.
Hyran lifted both hands again. "Excellent. That means you are warmed up. Now—let us attempt something more advanced."
All three blinked, not realizing that was a "warm up."