Ember Academy のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 91 - チャプター 97

"She's impossible." Isolde's voice carried clear exasperation across the practice yard the following morning, loud enough that Sera, approaching for her own scheduled training, caught the full exchange. "I only offered to help with her form, and she practically bit my head off.""Who," Sera asked, drawing closer."The new girl. Elena." Isolde's expression carried genuine frustration. "I was trying to be kind, Sera, and she acted as though I'd personally insulted her entire family."Sera glanced across the yard toward where Elena stood alone, practicing her frost affinity with sharp, controlled precision, expression carefully closed off from the rest of the gathered students."Perhaps she simply prefers working alone," Sera offered."Perhaps she simply enjoys being unpleasant," Isolde muttered, though she moved off without further comment.Sera found herself watching Elena's solitary practice with quiet curiosity, something in the girl's guarded posture nagging familiarly at her own me

He seems genuinely kind, the ancient presence observed quietly within Sera's consciousness later that evening, as she settled into bed, exhaustion from the day's ordinary demands finally catching up with her. The new boy, I mean. Theo.You're paying attention to my social life now, Sera thought back, something wry coloring the observation despite her surprise at the presence's unprompted commentary.I have little else to occupy myself with, bound here as I am, the voice replied, something almost like dry humor carrying through the ancient weariness. Forgive me if ordinary teenage drama proves considerably more entertaining than centuries of silent imprisonment did.Sera found herself smiling despite the strangeness of the exchange. Is that what this is for you. Entertainment.Among other things, the voice said, more serious now. I confess, Sera, these weeks of quiet coexistence have proven considerably more bearable than I expected, watching your life unfold from this strange, intimat

"Elena, wait! Please!" Sera pelted between the apple trees, skirts bunched in one fist, lantern light flickering past in streaks. "I'm not angry, I swear, just stop!"She found her beside the old cider press, a rusted iron thing at the far edge of the orchard, half buried in tall grass. Elena was hunched against its side with both hands clamped around the pendant, shaking so hard her teeth chattered."Don't," Elena said hoarsely. "Don't look at it. Don't look at me.""Okay." Sera slowed, then crouched a few steps away, keeping her hands visible. "I'm not looking. Not if you don't want me to.""You felt it. Everyone felt it.""I felt something." Sera swallowed. "It's all right. You're not in trouble.""I'm always in trouble." A broken laugh. "It does this. It's done it since I was twelve. Whenever there's a strong fire nearby, it, it wakes up. At Calder, in my first fire lesson, it flared and the frost went everywhere. I wasn't even casting. I swear on my gran's grave, I wasn't even ca

"Move, move, please, move!"They tore across the academy grounds in the moonlight, skirts and cloaks flying, scattered festival lanterns dark and ugly behind them. Dorian ran at her shoulder, Oren a step behind, Mira and Elena pelting after with their gowns hiked up to their knees.The guarded wing sat at the north end of the grounds, a squat stone building with narrow windows and a heavy oak door. A pair of summit guards were supposed to stand at it day and night.Only one was standing."Halt, who goes." The guard's words slid into mush. He swayed on his feet, blinked at them blearily, and sat down very slowly on the step with his helmet crooked."Same poison," Oren muttered, kneeling beside him. "A lighter dose. He'll wake in an hour with a headache. Go. Go on, I'll sit with him."The door was already ajar.Inside, a single oil lamp burned low in the corridor. The second guard lay slumped against the wall with his chin on his chest. A cup had spilled beside him, and the smell of som