Chapter 105: His Changed Eyes

The morning bell of St. Celeste rang, marking the start of the first day back.

The sound was the same as always.

The smell of cheap incense in the corridors was the same and the gray stone walls hadn’t changed.

But Raziel had.

He walked down the main hallway toward the refectory. He didn’t slouch his shoulders anymore.

He didn’t keep his head down to play the role of the invisible, harmless novice.

His body moved with a quiet, lethal efficiency and his ribs were fully healed.

The heavy exhaustion that had dragged him down for weeks was gone.

The other novices noticed it without understanding why and moved out of his way before he even got close.

Raziel turned a corner and almost bumped into Gideon.

The big novice was leaning against the wall, chatting with two other guys.

Gideon was the one who had delivered the Inquisition’s summons days ago with a smug smile on his face.

Gideon looked up and made eye contact with Raziel.

Normally, this was the moment Gideon would push him or throw a cheap insult.

Instead, Gideon went pale, swallowed hard, stopped talking mid-sentence, and turned his back.

He walked away quickly in the opposite direction.

Raziel watched him leave.

He didn’t feel satisfaction, didn’t feel anger over the past bullying, he just registered Gideon’s fear as a useful tactical advantage and kept walking.

Near the infirmary doors, Brother Thomas was organizing a stack of medical scrolls.

The healer looked up as Raziel passed by.

Thomas stopped moving, his eyes scanned Raziel from head to toe.

He remembered the boy lying on a cot just a few weeks ago, coughing up black blood with a wound that rejected all holy magic.

“Raziel,” Thomas called out.

Raziel stopped and faced him. “Yes, Brother Thomas?”

“You look…” Thomas searched for the right word. “Recovered.”

“I got plenty of rest,” Raziel lied smoothly.

Thomas frowned and the worry on his face was obvious, but there was also curiosity.

He stepped closer.

“The kind of corruption you had doesn’t just disappear with rest, son. Your core was failing.”

Thomas kept his voice low. “How did you fix it?”

“The Exarch’s audit at St. Sophia was very enlightening,” Raziel said, keeping his face perfectly blank. “I received special treatment.”

Thomas stared at him for a long moment.

He knew Raziel was lying and that miracles didn’t happen without a heavy cost in this Church.

“Be careful, Raziel,” Thomas said finally. “Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.”

“I will,” Raziel replied. He turned and walked away.

He felt absolutely no guilt for lying to the man who had tried to save his life.

***

After lunch, Raziel locked himself in his isolated room in the old wing.

He needed to test his new limits.

He stood in the center of the room and closed his eyes, and didn’t need to force the mana anymore.

The gold and black energy was a natural part of his circulation now.

He raised his left arm.

’Umbral Shield.’

The energy poured out of his skin instantly, it formed a translucent barrier over his forearm.

The light was golden, but thick black veins pulsed through it, absorbing the ambient light in the room.

Raziel drew his iron dagger with his right hand.

He gripped the hilt tightly and swung the blade down hard against his own blocked arm.

CLANG!

The dagger bounced off.

The shield didn’t crack.

The umbral energy simply absorbed the kinetic impact and dispersed it into nothingness. Raziel didn’t feel a single ounce of pain.

He lowered the dagger.

The blue interface flickered in his vision.

[SKILL ACTIVATED: UMBRAL SHIELD]

[MANA COST: MINIMAL]

[EMPATHY LEVEL: 84% -> 83%]

Raziel read the numbers.

He dismissed the shield and the energy sank back into his skin without leaving a mark.

He sat on the edge of his bed and tried to evaluate his own mind, 83%, What did losing another percent of his humanity actually feel like?

He thought about the thirty-one prisoners they had rescued from St. Sophia.

He thought about Ser Roderic staying behind to die in the fire so the others could escape.

A week ago, that thought would have put a knot in his throat. It would have fueled his anger.

Now, he just viewed Roderic’s death as a successful strategic trade.

One veteran life exchanged for thirty-one civilian lives, it was efficient and was good math.

The realization that he didn’t care about the tragedy of it was terrifying.

But the terror itself was muffled.

It was like looking at a fire through a thick pane of glass, he knew he should feel the heat, but he only saw the flames.

Someone knocked on the door. “Raziel! Open up.”

It was Lara.

Raziel stood up, unlocked the door, and opened it.

Lara stood in the hallway.

She wasn’t wearing her novice robes, just a plain dark dress and looked tired.

She walked into the room without asking for permission.

Raziel closed the door. “What is it?”

Lara didn’t answer right away. She turned around and looked at his face. She stepped closer and tilted her head.

“Your eyes,” she said.

Raziel kept his expression neutral. “What about them?”

“They are different.”

She was right, his eyes were still blue, but the edges of his irises were now ringed with solid gold, and tiny, almost invisible black flecks floated near his pupils.

Lara didn’t wait for an explanation.

She reached out her hand and touched his bare forearm.

She gasped.

She pulled her hand back instantly, clutching it against her chest as if she had touched a hot stove.

Raziel didn’t move. “What happened to you?” she asked.

“I evolved,” Raziel said simply.

Lara shook her head. “No. You… turned off.”

Silence filled the small room.

“Before,” she started, searching for the right words. ” I felt heat in you. I felt a lot of pain, and fear, and anger, but it was heat and it meant you were human.”

She looked down at her own hand, then back up at his face.

“Now…” Lara swallowed hard. “Now you are like touching a newly forged sword like Sharp and perfect.”

She paused. “But cold.”

Raziel saw the genuine worry in her eyes. He knew he should comfort her, tell her everything was going to be fine.

He didn’t.

“A sword is what we need right now, Lara,” he said.

Lara pressed her lips together and didn’t argue, because she knew he was right.

Before she could say anything else, a sharp tap hit the window glass.

TAP. TAP.

Raziel turned around.

The room was on the second floor, facing the inner courtyard walls. No one should be at the window.

He walked over and opened the latch.

A small black raven stood on the stone sill. It wasn’t a real bird.

It was made of condensed shadows and carried a small rolled paper tied to its leg.

Raziel recognized the magic immediately, it was a Paladin’s secure messenger familiar.

He took the paper, the raven dissolved into black smoke and vanished into the air.

Raziel unrolled the note, the handwriting belonged to Odessa.

Lara stepped closer. “What is it? From Lucian?”

“No, from Odessa.”

Raziel read the words, his newly cold heart stopped for a fraction of a second.

Aerion demands you know this immediately.

Ayres was seen at the Palace today.

He acted normal. He smiled at the guards. He hugged his father in the throne room.

His eyes were black for a second. Just a second and no one else saw it but Aerion.

Raziel crumpled the paper in his fist.

The system’s previous warning echoed in his head. The timeline wasn’t just accelerated, it was already executing instead.

Seraphina hadn’t kept Ayres hidden in a dungeon to build an army.

She had sent him right back to the center of the board.

“What does it say?” Lara asked, noticing the shift in his posture.

Raziel looked at her.

The coup wasn’t going to come from an outside army nor wasn’t going to be a loud invasion that they could see coming from miles away.

Ayres was already inside the Palace standing next to the dying King.

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