Moonveil Academy: Trapped With The Five Kings

Elara:

When I pushed open the door after knocking, I immediately noticed the two Moon warriors standing inside. Both of them straightened before bowing toward me, their respectful greeting making me hesitate for a second because I still wasn’t used to people treating me like some royal figure.

Lorien, however, barely spared them a glance as he dismissed them with a simple gesture. They left immediately, closing the door behind them, and he motioned toward the chair opposite his desk.

”Sit.”

His voice was calm and professional, exactly as I had hoped.

I walked over and settled down, keeping my movements equally composed. I tried not to look at him for too long, but my eyes still betrayed me. He looked exhausted. Not slightly tired, but exhausted. There were faint shadows beneath his eyes, and his hair looked messy as though he had spent the entire day running his fingers through it while trying to solve one disaster after another.

I hated that some part of me noticed. I hated even more that another part of me wondered whether he had regreted what he did to me that night.

Shoving those thoughts aside, I fixed my attention on a point somewhere near the corner of his desk while he placed his phone down and finally turned fully toward me.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then he asked quietly, ”How are you feeling?”

I shrugged and muttered, ”Fine.” It was the smallest answer I could give without lying completely, and judging from the way his eyes lingered on me, he knew exactly what I was doing. Fortunately, he didn’t push.

Silence settled between us once more, heavier this time, filled with everything neither of us seemed willing to discuss.

I wondered whether he would finally begin the session, but then he looked down at the folder he had put aside earlier before lifting his gaze back to me. His expression changed, becoming noticeably more serious as he said, ”I just received the final report on the investigation into Friday night’s attack.”

My fingers immediately tightened against the arms of my chair. My full attention shifted to him and whatever awkwardness had been hanging between us a moment ago disappeared beneath the sudden weight of his words.

I watched as he leaned back in his chair, his exhausted expression turning serious. ”The Moon warriors scanned the area where the attack took place,” he told me, his fingers loosely resting against the surface of his desk. ”They checked the road, the surrounding woods, and every accessible area around the site for residual magical energy signatures.”

I held my breath, already knowing from the way he was speaking that they hadn’t found anything useful. Lorien confirmed it a second later.

”There was nothing.”

My eyebrows pulled together as he continued, explaining, ”No trace of the five men. No recognizable magical signature connected to the attack. Nothing that could identify who they were, where they came from, or where they went afterward.”

A cold feeling crept down my spine. I remembered the little magic I had seen that night. It hadn’t been particularly powerful. At least, not compared to the terrifying power possessed by people like Lorien, Reign, or even the professors at Moonveil. The men had clearly been stronger than me, but that wasn’t saying much considering I had barely regained access to thirty-five percent of my own magic.

”But they used magic,” I said, unable to hide the confusion in my voice. ”One of them was about to use it on Myra, and they were definitely stronger and faster than normal humans. There should have been something left behind.”

Lorien’s jaw tightened slightly. ”There should have been.”

The fact that he agreed didn’t make me feel any better.

”Erasing magical signatures isn’t easy. Completely removing every trace from an area like that would require someone with considerable magical ability. And yet, based on your statement and Miss Carter’s, the men who attacked you weren’t particularly powerful magic users.” He paused for a moment, his eyes lowering to the folder beside him as if the report itself had personally offended him. ”That is one of the reasons the investigation reached a dead end.”

I slowly sat back in my chair, trying to process everything. ”What about Myra’s sketches?” I asked.

Myra had always been good at drawing. Good enough that the Moon warriors had spent nearly two hours questioning her after she woke up and asking her to sketch the faces of every man she remembered. She had remembered all five surprisingly well, and though I hadn’t seen the completed sketches myself, I knew the investigation team had been using them to identify the attackers.

Lorien shook his head. ”Nothing.”

I stared at him. ”Nothing?” My voice came out sharper this time. ”You have five faces. Surely, at least one of them exists somewhere.”

”Not in Starfall’s records,” he replied. ”The sketches were checked against every available database. Citizens. registered human residents, known criminals, visiting records, past academy personnel, former warriors, mercenaries... there was no match.” He gave me a moment to absorb that before quietly adding, ”It was almost as if those five men never existed to begin with.”

His last sentence sent something cold straight through my chest.

For a moment, I wasn’t sitting in Lorien’s office anymore. I was back at the edge of that cliff, my body weak from whatever drug they had injected into me, my feet slipping closer and closer toward empty air while five strangers stood around me.

We’ll be gone before anyone even learns what happened to you.

The words returned so clearly that I could almost hear the man’s voice again.

Our boss will make sure of it.

I had been too terrified at the time to understand what he had meant. I had assumed it was simply confidence. Arrogance. The kind criminals used when they believed they were powerful enough to get away with murder. But now, sitting here and listening to Lorien explain that no magical signature remained, no identity could be found, and five men apparently didn’t exist anywhere in Starfall’s records, I finally understood why they had sounded so sure of themselves.

Those men hadn’t been afraid because they knew they wouldn’t remain in Starfall long enough to be found. They had already planned their disappearance before they ever came after me. Maybe their boss had made arrangements for everything. Maybe someone had erased their magical traces. Maybe someone had helped them enter Starfall without ever leaving behind a record. And if that was true, then someone had went to great lengths to eliminate me.

Someone had wanted me dead enough to make sure the people responsible couldn’t be traced afterward.