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CHAPTER NINE
publish date:
2026-04-04 16:35:36
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Ensnared CHAPTER NINE
The Blackthorn Sovereign Academy Political Convocation was never called a ball. That would have implied indulgence.A celebration?.............too soft.It is referred to, with careful neutrality, precisely and deliberately-as the Autumn Infrastructure Forum. But no one mistakes it for anything less than a battlefield dressed in silk. Connections and made and broken here. As if marble floors and chandeliers, the size of constellations exist purely for policy discussion.It takes place on the second evening of the first semester. Every year. First years only.An initiation disguised as diplomacy. The Grand Atrium Hall—our orientation hall—is unrecognizable tonight. Crystal light cascades from vaulted ceilings. Glass windows frame the skyline and the dark shimmer of the lake below. From this height, the city looks contained. The stained windows look alive. That illusion is intentional.The heirs arrived in calculated waves before me, each entrance staggered by design. Every stride meas
Ensnared CHAPTER EIGHT
The combat hall experience still clings to the scent of steel and exertion as we exit into the corridor. The feeling of helplessness taking up root inside me is a first in my life. I would give anything never to feel again. No one speaks as we march in silence. The shift from physical aggression to polished composure happens almost instantly — as if we have all slipped back into our true uniforms. Heirs. Not fighters. But it does nothing to quell the rising spirit within me against Alaric. Once I have a target, I do not rest.The light spilts long and gold through the tall windows of Alpha Hall, and Alaric slows his steps just enough that we naturally gather. I glance at the diamond studded watch on my wrist. Precisely midday.Lilith is the first to break the silence.“They’re accelerating us,” she says calmly, adjusting the cuff of her blazer. “Combat and Strategy in the same morning.”"They’re compressing adaptation cycles,” Sora replies. “Forcing pattern fatigue.”Faye leans again
Ensnared CHAPTER SEVEN
The corridors leading to the combat halls are alive with soft murmurs and the occasional click of polished shoes. A different kind of anticipation hums beneath the polished stone.I look around. At this academy, there are no standard uniforms between the years. Just crests on the clothing with different colors to mark different years.Black and white for first years, white and silver for second years and gold for the years. An iridescent crest, the original one, is given to graduates inside a while bound leather book. My parents let me see the book once a long time ago. It sat behind a locked display glass case in a secret vault. I was in awe. It looked regal. The snake with wings coiled and a shield and sword interested my child Luke mind back then.I watch different years pass by, with different expressions. Some cheerful, others hollow, some pained, some distant, like they are barely here. Some move in a group like us while others are alone and constantly alert. Every step, every s
Ensnared CHAPTER SIX
The morning arrives quietly, not with birdsong or warmth, but with light. It filters through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall in diluted shades of silver and pearl, the fog outside is still clinging to the manicured lawns like a secret unwilling to lift. The world beyond Alpha Hall looks distant, like something out of a painting. Controlled. Untouched. Muted. Yet it is enough to signal that the first official day has begun. I stretch on the plush velvety chaise stretching out my body. My bones pop and crack from sleeping in such a cramped manner. The fabric beneath me is velvety and comfortable. I sit upright slowly rolling my shoulders as I yawn loudly. A faint stiffness tugs at my upper back shooting pains along my numb arms and fingers. I should have taken to the bed. But last night required vigilance. New territory demands awareness. My gaze drifts back towards the horizon beyond the glass. The fog softens everything, edges blurred and shadows indistinct. It makes the academy ap
Ensnared CHAPTER FIVE
The metallic door to my suite closes with a soft hydraulic sigh, sealing the corridor behind me. Alpha Hall had been austere, almost clinical, but my room… my room is designed to impress.To signal power. To remind me of the life I’d inherited—and the expectations that came with it.The space is very expansive, immaculate, and impossibly precise. The marble floor gleams under soft overhead lighting, so polished it reflects the room like a mirror.Floor-to-ceiling glass walls like the ones in the common room framed the fog-laden gardens. The curtains are drawn, bathing the room in a muted, grey scale light.Every item seems deliberately positioned. The desk facing the window at an exact angle. A top it sits a massive computer display set all over the expansive desk. The 3x4 monitor grid with 12 monitors total representing an advanced, high-density, professional-grade workstation designed for power users who require massive, real-time data visualization, such as institutional bankers, h
Ensnared CHAPTER FOUR
No one stands first. That is the strangest part.The announcement has ended. The final echo of Headmistress Blackthorn’s voice has dissolved into the vaulted heights of the cavernous Grand Hall.Conversations have resumed in fractured bursts around us, chairs scraping marble, hushed arguments, nervous laughter attempting to pass as composure.Other tables are already rising. Some heirs clinging to one another in hurried clusters, whispering through pale lips. Others moved with brittle dignity, spines straight, faces bloodless and drawn but controlled.Our table does not move. We remained seated as if stitched into place.Waiting. For what? For who? The air between us feels taut, not frozen and stunned like the others had been. Instead it is suspended and measured.Then Alaric Veyne rises. He does not push his chair back abruptly. He deliberately does not draw attention to himself. He simply stands, smooth and unhurried, as though the next motion in the room has always belonged to him.
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