Lowlife

After a few seconds to myself, I dragged my still-painful body up from the icy floor of the chamber. My limbs ached, every muscle fibre stiff, every joint creaking like brittle steel forced to move before dawn. 

I could barely feel my toes, and yet… I was smiling.

I staggered towards the panel beside the chamber door, fingers trembling as I tapped through it. The crystalline interface flickered, then displayed the chamber's ambient reading:

[-30°C]

I stared at the number for a second too long. I still thought that I capped out at [-20°C]. 

That had been my self-declared limit; even after my self-induced super hypothermia, it was not supposed to change that much. 

But this? This was ten degrees deeper, ten degrees further into the abyss, and I was still breathing.

"Guess the pain was worth it," I murmured under my breath, leaning against the doorway with the half-smile of someone who'd just survived their own funeral. 

"All this in one session?"

My fingers twitched with residual frostbite as I keyed the exit, but it didn't hurt. It was just as natural and unharmful as a yawn.

A low hydraulic hissss filled the air and the doors groaned open, exhaling a fog of cold into the warmer corridor. 

A faint breeze blew in from the hallway brushing across my sweat-dampened face like warm silk.

I exhaled and winced; my breath was still fogging.

"Damn, I wish I still had had my own training chamber," I muttered to myself, pulling my damp sleeves tighter across my body. My training gear clung uncomfortably. 

"This renting and shared scheduling bullsh*t is really annoying and starting to piss me off."

I rubbed the back of my neck, the soreness of overworking my cursed energy still wrapped around my spine like a parasite. "Curse this ranking system," I muttered. 

"If I still had my own room at Dormis Caelora, I wouldn't have to come here after classes and wait until it was my turn. But noooo, my rank is too low and suddenly I'm not worthy of a private training chamber I could use at any time."

Kirell Dorm wasn't just the lowest tier in the Academy; it was a damn embarrassment. Its facilities were worse, with some even nonexistent, forcing me to come and rent a chamber. Sure, Dormis Caelora had prestige, but the convenience it provided was unmatched.

Good thing it was free until we received our credits. I need to find a way to sort that out soon rather than later.

"Still… besides the point," I said aloud, more to distract myself than anything else. 

I rounded the corner at the end of the corridor, still grumbling about my schedules when-

"WHAM!"

It felt like I ran face-first into a wall, or a truck.

No, worse, I was the taller one. Heavier and denser yet somehow-

"Thud!"

I found myself on the ground.

The hallway spun and my elbow scraped against the smooth tiles as I hit the floor with a graceless grunt.

"What the.. HEY! What bastard doesn't watch where they're—"

I stopped mid-rant and froze.

So did she, the perpetrator.

The person I'd crashed into, a lean and lithe figure, was also frozen with her hand already extended to help me up.

And in that moment, time paused.

"...Axel?"

It was her.

Hair the colour of wildfire, braided to one side with a few rebellious strands loose around her temples. She wore her training gear; tight black with gold trim, sleeves rolled back just enough to show the quiver strapped to her arm. 

A sleek composite bow hung diagonally across her back. Her stance was alert, even mildly tense. Her hand still outstretched toward me, fingers frozen mid-motion.

Axel was one of those people who could be beautiful when she wanted to be.

But today… clearly wasn't one of those days. 

Her face was flushed, lips slightly chapped, freckles dusted across her cheeks, and sweat plastered strands of hair to her forehead.

But none of that mattered.

Because in her wide, amber eyes I saw it, recognition. Which was far from the friendly kind.

"You…" she said. 

Just one word.

But not casual or a greeting.

It even came out like a curse, like a dream resurfacing after too many nights.

I stood quickly, brushing off my training gear like I'd rolled through a dust storm. 

There wasn't a speck of dirt, of course. I was just being dramatic.

I met her eyes and said softly, "Sorry."

Axel blinked.

The sheer surprise on her face nearly made me laugh. But I couldn't blame her, I don't know anyone who knew Ronan had ever heard him utter those two words, especially in that sequence.

Again, this was growth. For him, not me.

Axel's mouth moved just slightly. 

"I... I'm sorry," she started with her voice barely above a whisper.

But I raised my hand. "No." 

"I'm the one who should be apologising… to you."

She stopped and blinked again.

Before she could say anything else, I lowered my gaze to my wrist. 

The NexBand clamped there clicked as I reached for the largest twin metallic spheres the strap. 

I rotated them in sequence; click-click-snap-snap-click; the kind of movement you would only perform when you don't want anyone else to recognise what you're doing.

A faint pulse flickered on the pearls. Then I stepped forward.

Axel instinctively tensed as I reached out, but I moved slowly and gently took both of her hands in mine. 

Her gloves were damp with training sweat and still warm from exertion. The contact between us sparked something, nothing mystical or any arcane bond, just... human.

I raised my NexBand a few inches above her left wrist.

[Ding!]

A notification pinged from both of our bands.

Axel gasped. "Wait, what are you trying to-?"

"Here," I interrupted again. "Meet me there one week from now."

She gave me a bewildered look. "Meet you where-?"

"It's marked," I let her hands go slowly. 

"Check your location log."

Axel's eyebrows scrunched in even deeper confusion. "Why?"

I exhaled. 

This part was harder than I thought. My voice lowered, a thread of something fragile threading through the edges.

"So I can make it up to you," I said. 

"For what I did during the entrance test."

That silenced her, completely. Which was appreciated since she was a yapper, but I guess she didn't know Ronan that well.

Still, her mouth was closed and her body froze. 

None of that was my doing, or rather, my curse's doing. But it was just in time for another pair of eyes to finally land on us, like really land on us.

The silence between Axel and me stretched just long enough for him to catch the sight;

Her hands, still half-held in mine and our faces close.

Dorian stopped mid-step, his smile even dropped like a stone.

I let the moment linger, just long enough, just long enough for his mind to wander.

A shout rang out from the far end of the hall.

"GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU LOWLIFE!!"

'Ah. Of course.'

I turned my head slowly, already sighing, even though I expected this.

It was fun, wasn't it?

Dorian quickly strided towards us. He had a bottle of water in one hand with his sword sheathed at the hip.

Next to him, of course, was Isolde. She was also in her training gear with her arms folded and eyes sharp.

But I didn't even acknowledge her; my eyes were already on Dorian.

I snorted loudly, then I laughed.

"PFFT—HAHAHA—HA—oh man… 'lowlife'?" 

I doubled over, hand on my stomach, breathless. 

"Seriously? That's what the best you could come up with?"

The laugh nearly brought tears to my eyes, I wasn't even faking it, it was really that funny to me. I even wiped one away with the back of my palm. "Come on, Dorian. I expected something a little more… creative."

He ignored me, of course, walking straight past and holding out the water to Axel who was pointedly not making eye contact.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

But he'd barely gotten the words out before I stepped in.

"Wait," I gestured loosely. "Considering who your father is, I guess you might not qualify as a lowlife."

He froze mid-step. Axel turned to look at me, confused. Isolde's gaze sharpened like a blade, but who cared about her, at least for now.

'There.' 

'I got your attention.'

Dorian said nothing, so I continued, "…But your mother, on the other hand…"

The shift was instant as Dorian's fists clenched.

And then, his arms began to glow.

Veins from wrist to elbow shimmered with violet light. His eyes darkened with a deep purple glow radiating from within.

"What did you just say?" he whispered.

Axel's brows furrowed and her hand immediately went to Dorian's shoulder.

"Dorian. It's not worth it," she said softly. 

"Let it go."

I smirked and then turned to her.

"I meant it," I said simply.

 "Hope you received it… as intended."

She flinched, just a little. Confusion lingering in her eyes.

And Isolde?

Still quiet.

I had almost forgotten she was there. 

I didn't even glance her way as I turned and walked down the corridor.

While Dorian could actually send back to the place where I was when I died, he wouldn't.

Not when he realised that I knew his secret.