The morning the results were posted, the main concourse of Zenith Academy felt less like a school hallway and more like the floor of a stock exchange during a crash.

The air was thick with the smell of nervous sweat and ozone. Students clustered in tight frantic knots around the massive crystal display boards.

Vane stood at the back of the mob. He didn't push. He leaned against a marble pillar arms crossed watching the show. He saw a commoner weeping openly into his hands. He saw a group of nobles high-fiving with a volume that suggested they were trying to convince themselves they weren't terrified.

When the crowd finally thinned Vane walked up. He didn't look at the top of the list. He knew Isaac and Anastasia were up there fighting for decimal points of perfection.

He scrolled to the bottom and worked his way up.

Student: Vane (SA-1)

Academic Rank: 42 / 1000

Cumulative GPA: 3.2

Vane let out a breath he felt like he had been holding for a week.

He tapped the breakdown.

Continental History: B+ (Instructor Note: "Cynical. Materialistic. Accurate.")

Mana Ballistics: A- (Instructor Note: "Your working is illiterate but your aim is true.")

Abyssal Ecology: A (Instructor Note: "Disturbingly vivid.")

Advanced Mana Theory: C- (Instructor Note: "You turned a shield matrix into a drainage grate. It is ugly. It is crude. It passed.")

"Safe," Vane whispered.

He hadn't just survived. He had dug in.

He turned away from the board. The crushing weight on his shoulders evaporated replaced by a strange buoyant lightness. For the first time since arriving at Zenith he wasn't fighting for his life. He was just... a student who passed his exams.

He felt like the King of Puddles again.

He headed for the cafeteria. He didn't skulk in the shadows this time. He walked down the center aisle his boots clicking on the marble with a heavy relaxed rhythm.

He spotted them easily.

Isole Sylvaris sat at a large circular table near the window. As always there was a twenty-foot exclusion zone around her. She was eating a green apple with a knife and fork reading a book thicker than a brick.

Across from her ignoring the social quarantine sat Valerica Sol. The Gravity Titan had a tray piled high with roasted meats and was eating with the grim determination of an engine refueling.

They were the monsters of the first year. The Outcasts.

Vane walked right up to the table. He didn't ask permission. He pulled out a chair the legs scraping loudly against the floor and spun it around straddling it backward.

"Ladies," Vane announced flashing a grin that was all sharp teeth and Oakhaven charm. "You are looking at a man who is officially smarter than forty-two percent of this institution."

Isole looked up from her book. Her mismatched eyes scanned him noting the lack of tension in his shoulders.

"A C-minus in Theory," she noted dryly. "I assume Vyla wept when she graded it."

"She called it 'sewer architecture,'" Vane said proudly reaching across the table to steal a grape from Isole's fruit bowl. "But she passed me. Which means your plumbing analogy saved my life. I owe you a drink. Or a library wing. Whichever is cheaper."

Isole watched him pop the grape into his mouth. A faint almost imperceptible smile touched her pale lips. She closed her book.

"A drink will suffice. And perhaps you can refrain from dragging me into forbidden sectors for at least a week."

"No promises," Vane winked.

He turned to Valerica. "And you heavy-feet? Did you crush the exams or just punch the paper until it surrendered?"

Valerica paused mid-bite. She looked at Vane her stone-colored eyes assessing the change in him. The desperate cornered animal was gone. In its place was something looser. Brighter.

"B-minus average," Valerica grunted. "I broke a quill. Had to write the History essay in charcoal."

"Style points for improvisation," Vane declared.

He leaned back resting his arms on the back of the chair. He looked at the cafeteria... at the nobles glaring at them at the students whispering behind their hands.

Usually the stares made his skin crawl. Today they felt like an audience.

"You know," Vane said lowering his voice conspiratorially. "I celebrated my victory by liberating a bottle of vintage Firewine from the faculty reserve. It is currently chilling in Villa 1."

Isole raised an eyebrow. "You stole from the Faculty Lounge?"

"I relocated a neglected asset," Vane corrected smoothly. "It was gathering dust. It was a mercy mission."

He looked between them. The Necromancer and the Titan.

"Come back to the Villa tonight. I have a chef who is bored out of his mind because I usually eat rations in the dark. Let's give him something to do."

It was a bold offer. Socializing with the "Rat" was political suicide for most. But these weren't most students.

Valerica shrugged tearing a piece of bread. "I eat a lot."

"I have a fully stocked pantry and a professional culinary team," Vane countered. "Challenge accepted."

Isole hesitated her gaze flickering to the other students who gave them a wide berth. Then she looked at Vane... at the open genuine invitation in his eyes.

"Acceptable," she murmured. "But if you serve the wine in dirty cups I am leaving."

"Crystal only," Vane promised.

Villa 1 was designed for high-society galas. It had chandeliers of floating mana-crystals and floors of polished white marble.

That evening it finally looked used.

Elara the head housekeeper moved silently through the terrace directing the staff with the precision of a drill sergeant. The table was set with heavy silverware and crystal goblets that caught the light of the fire pit Vane had insisted on lighting.

"Dinner is served Lord Vane," Elara announced her tone professional but with a hint of relief that the master of the house was finally acting like one.

The Chef, a stout man with forearms scarred by magical cooking fires, wheeled out a cart. On it rested a whole roasted boar glazed in honey and spices that filled the cool night air with a rich savory aroma.

Valerica sat on a reinforced divan eyeing the boar. "Your staff is better than the Academy's."

"They are professionals," Vane said taking a seat. He nodded to the Chef. "Thank you Henri. You can leave the carving knife."

The Chef bowed and retreated leaving the three outcasts alone with a feast fit for kings.

Vane poured the stolen Firewine into the crystal goblets. The liquid was a deep glowing ruby.

"To the mid-terms," Vane said raising his glass. "May they rot in hell."

"To hell," Valerica agreed clinking her glass against his hard enough to make the crystal ring.

"To plumbing," Isole added dryly touching her glass to theirs.

They drank. The wine was rich spicy and warm. It was a far cry from the cheap swill Vane was used to drinking in the Oakhaven gutters.

For the next few hours the tension of Zenith Academy didn't exist.

They traded war stories from the exams. Vane pantomimed his mental breakdown during Ballistics standing up and acting out the trajectory calculations with wild gestures making Valerica actually snort-laugh into her wine.

"I swear," Vane said waving his arms. "I was doing geometry with my eyes closed. I just imagined throwing a rock at Jax's head. The math solved itself."

"Jax has a very targetable head," Valerica noted carving a massive slice of boar.

"Aerodynamic," Isole agreed.

They laughed. It wasn't the polite tittering laughter of the court. It was loud genuine and echoed off the marble walls of the Villa.

Vane looked at them. The Titan who broke stone because she didn't know how to be gentle. The Necromancer who hid behind ice because everyone feared her warmth.

And him. The street kid trying to be a Wall.

They were a mess. A collection of broken toys the Academy didn't know how to play with. But sitting here surrounded by staff he hadn't hired and luxury he hadn't earned they felt real.

"You know," Valerica said staring into the fire her voice unusually soft. "My father told me I wouldn't make friends here. He said I was too heavy. That I would just crush anyone who got close."

She looked at Vane then at Isole.

"He was wrong."

Isole lowered her glass. She looked at Valerica then at Vane. The mismatched eyes were unguarded.

"My family said I would be feared," she whispered. "They were right. But... fear is quiet. This is loud."

She smiled. It was a real smile reaching her eyes. "I prefer loud."

Vane felt a warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with the wine.

He thought of Senna. He thought of the lonely vigils in the fog sector the desperate hunger for connection they had both hidden under layers of cynicism.

'You found a pack,' Senna's voice whispered in his memory sounding not like a drill sergeant but like a proud sister. 'Don't let them get eaten.'

"We are the heavy ones," Vane said quietly refilling Valerica's glass. "The Academy wants us to fit into their little boxes. They want us to be polite duellists and textbook mages."

He looked at his friends.

"Screw the boxes. We will build our own."

The night wore on. The fire burned down to embers.

Eventually Isole stood up smoothing her robes. She was steady but her eyes were bright.

"I must return to the dorms," she said. "If I am late the spectral wards on my door get... temperamental."

"I will walk you out," Vane said.

"I will walk with you," Valerica added standing up and stretching. "I need to burn off the boar."

They walked to the gate of the Villa district together. The air was crisp. The stars were out.

"Thanks for the food Vane," Valerica said clapping a heavy hand on Vane's shoulder. "And tell your Chef he deserves a raise."

"I will tell him," Vane promised.

Isole paused at the gate. She turned to Vane.

"The drink was acceptable," she said formally. Then she leaned in her voice dropping. "And the company was... superior."

She turned and glided away Valerica falling into step beside her like a bodyguard.

Vane watched them go until they disappeared into the shadows of the campus.

He walked back to the Villa alone. He passed Elara in the hallway who was directing the staff to clear the table.

"Leave the wine Elara," Vane said softly. "I will clean up the rest."

"As you wish Lord Vane."

He took the bottle and walked out to the balcony. The night was silent now.

He picked up the Star-Metal Spear from where he had leaned it. He looked out at the fog sector in the distance. It was dark and silent.

"You were right Senna," Vane whispered to the night wind. "The view is better when you aren't alone."

He poured a small amount of the vintage wine onto the cold flagstones. A libation for the general who held the line.

Then he looked up at the stars. They were bright unobscured by the smog and soot of Oakhaven. He looked back at the Villa... the marble floors the obedient staff the heavy scent of expensive food.

His hand went to his chest feeling the steady beat of his heart. A pang of old familiar grief hit him sharper than the wind.

"And you were right too Mother," he murmured his voice cracking slightly in the silence.

He remembered her in the wheelchair in Oakhaven coughing in the dark room that smelled of boiled cabbage and sickness. He remembered her anger when he brought her stolen soup telling him he was a frog in a well who thought the circle of sky above his head was the universe.

She had died angry. She had died terrified that he would never leave the mud. She had died before she could see him sitting in a palace served by chefs holding a weapon that could stop a golem.

"I am out of the well Mom," Vane whispered his eyes stinging. "I climbed out. And the ocean... it is really big. And it is full of monsters."

He gripped the spear tighter feeling the cold star-metal bite into his palm.

"But I am swimming. I am actually swimming."

He stood there for a long time letting the silence wash over him. He missed them. He missed Senna's rasping laugh and Helena's sharp disappointed wisdom.

They were the women who had made him. One had given him the hunger to climb and the other had given him the strength to stand.

He didn't train that night. He didn't run drills.

He went inside placed the spear on the rack and slept. For the first time in a month he slept without dreaming of falling.

He was ready for whatever came next. But for tonight the King of Puddles was just Vane. And that was enough.

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