Truth

For a moment the air between them was colder than Wildglow itself. Katsu's refusal…

His need to hide—pulled the group's trust even tighter, like rope around a wound.

Sydney turned away, shoulders stiff, while Rei finally spoke, his tone level but final.

"Whatever you are, Katsu, you need to decide if you're leading us, or just leading us on."

Nobody spoke after that. The silence was heavy, but this time, it was full of everything unsaid.

They had been moving for hours, barely exchanging words. The tension from Sydney's confrontation still clung to the air, suffocating any attempts at normal conversation.

Katsu kept his eyes forward.

Heart hammering too loud in his chest, trying to ignore the weight of the group's gaze.

Then it came.

The snap of a twig, too loud. Too close.

Rei spun, hands raised.

"Get down!" he barked, but it was already too late.

A rope snapped tight behind Katsu's legs.

Before he could react, the ground gave way beneath him. He tumbled forward, barely catching himself on a jagged rock.

The thorns beneath him were unnaturally sharp, and the ground was slanted too steeply—he couldn't scramble back up.

The trap.

A simple snare, but the type meant to break bones.

Before Katsu could even shout a warning, a second trap sprung. Stones fell from above, a net of sharpened wood arcing downward.

Rei rolled to the side just in time, but Sydney wasn't so lucky.

She was caught by the ropes, swung upward, and hung from a tree, gasping and struggling.

"Sid!" Katsu yelled, heart skipping a beat.

He moved to help her, but then the air thickened, a sudden shift in pressure, and he froze.

A shadow moved through the trees, followed by another, and then the unmistakable sound of leather boots on snow. Another team.

They emerged from behind the trees, three figures cloaked in gray, eyes glittering with malice.

A trap. It was all a trap.

One of them, a boy with a cracked smirk, tossed something at Katsu's feet. A flare. The flare.

"Move, Nori, and it's gone," the boy sneered.

Katsu's blood ran cold.

He clenched his fists, magic swarming under his skin, but he could feel the drain from the previous night's spell, the aching burn in his chest.

He didn't have enough. Not nearly enough.

"Let her down," Katsu said, voice low, dangerous.

Sydney struggled against the ropes, but she didn't speak. The words were just out of reach, as if the world held its breath. They were outnumbered.

Outgunned. But Katsu wasn't a fool. They weren't just after the flare. They wanted to break him.

The boy holding the flare narrowed his eyes.

"We want what you're hiding, Nori. All of it."

Katsu's chest tightened. The Leviathan's voice curled up from the depths of his mind.

Don't let them take it. Show them who you are.

A sudden fury surged inside him.

He ignored the pain, ignored the exhaustion. Katsu raised his hand. The air snapped.

Water exploded from beneath his feet, rising in a swirling mass of force and ice, too fast for anyone to react.

It formed into a massive wave, surging toward the attackers, forcing them to stumble back. They weren't prepared for this. None of them were.

The first boy barely dodged as the water surged, but the second took the full brunt of it, his body swept off the ground and thrown into the trees.

Katsu didn't stop.

He focused, water crashing down in sheets, freezing and unfreezing, a weapon of chaos.

He felt the drain, but he pushed harder.

The third attacker barely managed to draw a dagger, slashing at the water that came for him, but he too was sent tumbling by the force.

Katsu's breath came ragged, chest aching with the effort. He wasn't just exhausted from the magic. He was burning himself out.

Rei was already moving, rolling forward to cut the ropes around Sydney's wrists.

She dropped, hitting the snow with a grunt.

But Katsu couldn't breathe.

His arms felt like lead, his magic too wild, too frantic, as the ice spread faster than he could control it.

"Enough," Rei's voice rang out. He was standing beside Katsu now, his face pale. "You're going to kill yourself if you keep this up."

Katsu's vision blurred, the edges of the world fraying. The weight of what he had just done.

The cost… sank in.

He saw the attackers, now scrambling to their feet, but their eyes weren't just on him.

They were on the destruction he'd caused.

Sydney was already standing, though her hands trembled as she wiped the snow from her face.

"You... you didn't have to—"

"I didn't have a choice!"

Katsu snapped, chest heaving. His breath was ragged, each exhale sharp with the cold.

His hands trembled.

Magic still crackling beneath his skin.

His veins glowed still, his aura was cold.

As if he was still waiting for a reason to release more destruction.The group watched him.

Unsure.

Sydney didn't approach him.

Rei's eyes locked on his, unreadable.

The attackers scattered, the three of them retreating into the woods, leaving only silence.

Katsu staggered to his knees.

Struggling to steady his breath.

He could feel it.

How much of himself he'd just given away. The ice, the fire, everything in him had turned into a weapon. A monster.

"What did we just do?"

Sydney whispered, her voice quiet with fear.

She wasn't looking at him, but she didn't need to.

Katsu stared at the shredded snow, blood and ice tangled at his feet, the ragged echo of Sydney's question still burning through the silence. He almost didn't answer. He didn't want to. His chest was tight; his veins stung, mana flickering beneath the skin—red, angry, aching.

He forced his jaw open, words spilling rough. "...I saved your life."

Sydney rounded on him, shoulders shaking, eyes glassy with rage and something else—hurt. "By almost taking your own?" She bit each word off, voice breaking.

"Damnit, Sydney, what do you want from me!" His voice cracked the hush. Power pulsed under his skin, veins glowing brighter, eyes kindling red—a real, burning red. The ice around his boots spiderwebbed; the air grew cold and thin.

Rei moved fast, lightning weaving into his palm, weapon forming as he stepped between them.

A living barrier.

Sydney flinched, but her gaze never left Katsu.

Katsu's voice was ragged now.

Thick with cold and memory.

"My father was a war general. Exiled, and then had me. I grew up in this. I grew up in the cold. When I ate, I hunted. When I wanted warmth, I gathered wood. I gathered wood every damn day so me and my father, who couldn't even stand, could go to sleep without freezing to death."

His hands shook.

"I haven't seen my mother in years, so don't you dare ask where she is—I don't fucking know."

Somewhere in the distance, the lake's ice shifted, water rising under the frozen crust.

Answering his anger, or threatening to.

The trees held their breath.

His voice grew rougher, words tumbling fast now, as if he was afraid they'd slip away if he stopped.

"And when I tried to tell you that—when I tried to let you in—you told me 'bye' and walked away. Now everyone thinks I'm this emotionless monster. A weapon made for destruction. I'm dropped into this Academy—a House I've never even spoken to, because even Velthra thinks I'm the next prodigy."

He spat the word.

"They're already writing me into the history books. Some people don't even think I'm real."

He was shaking.

Vision blurring with exhaustion and fury.

And shame.

"I just survived a group of students trying to kill me a few days ago. But no, you—"

His eyes flashed,

"you only care that I froze a river. Froze it to save your life. And Rei's. Did you see the bite on his boot? Did you even notice? You think I wanted to nearly kill myself twice—for you?"

He shook his head, breath steaming in the cold.

"No. I do it because I never got to save my father's life. So now—every time I have the chance—any chance—I'm going to try to save anyone's life. Including my own. Because I'm Katsu… Katsu Nori."

His voice broke at the end.

Shoulders curling forward.

The ice at his feet trembled.

But he didn't let it loose.

He stood there, exposed, raw.

Not a monster, not a prodigy. Just a boy, bleeding in the snow, daring anyone to look away first.

Sydney's fists trembled at her sides.

But her voice dropped, shaky and small.

"Katsu, I know you're hurting. I know you think you have to do everything yourself. But… you scare me when you do that. You're not a monster. You're just one person."

She blinked fast, trying to keep her voice steady.

"I didn't want to walk away from you. I just— I didn't know how to help. You nearly froze my hands off after Rei came to class."

Her shoulders slumped.

"I miss the version of you that I met in Master Altan's class. The one who wanted friends, not just allies."

Rei stepped closer.

Dropping the threat from his stance, his weapon fizzling into light. He spoke quietly.

"Nobody wants you to break yourself for us. We need you—" he glanced at Sydney, "—but not at the cost of losing you. Not like this."

Katsu's anger drained out, replaced by something raw and aching. His hands dropped, magic dying away in flickers.

"I don't know how to do it any other way,"

He whispered.

"If I stop pushing, I— I feel like I'll lose everything again."

Sydney stepped forward, close enough to touch if she dared. "Then let us help carry it. Please."

Rei nodded, voice almost gentle.

"We're still here. Let us be here, Katsu."

No more accusations. Just exhaustion, and a slow, careful truce settling into the cold.

The silence that followed was softer; not empty, but full of hope. Something mending.

Even if only for a night.