Chapter 10: The Hunter and the Hunted

Chapter 10: The Hunter and the Hunted

The taste of Kaelen’s power lingered in Seraphina's blood like a potent, illicit drug. The memory of the Crucible—the absolute, effortless dominion she had wielded—was a constant, thrumming undercurrent to her days. It had become her new, secret desire, eclipsing even her ambition. She no longer sought to merely survive or dominate Aethelgard; she craved to feel that limitless power again. This craving made her possessive. Her gaze would find Kaelen across crowded halls, a silent, proprietary claim. When other students gave him a wide berth, their fear was no longer just of her, but of the unpredictable force their partnership represented. She saw him not as her pet rock, as Cassian had sneered, but as her private god-making machine. A secret weapon only she knew how to prime.

This change did not go unnoticed. Her sycophantic inner circle watched her with confusion and fear. Her rivals saw an exploitable madness. And far away, in the obsidian heart of the Vaduva estate, her father sensed a deviation in the current.

The day Lord Corvus Vaduva arrived at Aethelgard, the very atmosphere of the academy grew thin and cold. There was no grand announcement, no ceremonial welcome. His arrival was simply a fact, a pressure drop that made every student with a sensitive Aura flinch. The usual cacophony of the courtyards fell to a reverent hush. Professors straightened their robes. Elite students bowed their heads as he passed, his presence a suffocating cloak of ancient, disciplined power.

He was a tall man, built like the blade of a guillotine—lean, hard, and utterly without ornament. His silver hair was shorter than Seraphina’s, streaked with distinguished grey at the temples. He wore a severe, high-collared black coat, the Vaduva crest embroidered over his heart in silver thread. He moved not with the swagger of a warrior, but with the terrifying economy of an executioner. His Aura didn’t flare; it simply was, an immense, gravitational force that bent the world around it.

Seraphina was in the library, ostensibly researching Auric history with Kaelen, when the summons came. A junior professor, pale and sweating, approached their table. "Lady Seraphina," he stammered, refusing to even look at Kaelen. "Your father... Lord Vaduva... requires your presence in the Headmaster's office."

The Headmaster's office. A place reserved for expulsions and matters of state. A place her father could commandeer with his mere presence. The blood drained from Seraphina's face. She looked at Kaelen, and for the first time, a flicker of genuine fear entered her eyes before she masked it with her usual cold fury.

"Wait here," she commanded, her voice tight.

Walking the halls toward the Headmaster's office felt like marching to her own judgment. The Vaduva mandate, the words from the Codex Umbra, swirled in her head. Threats to be eliminated. A corruption of the pure bloodlines. She had been playing with a fire her family had spent generations trying to extinguish.

She entered the office without knocking. Headmaster Valerius was not present. Her father stood alone, staring out the large gothic window at the grounds below. He did not turn.

"Your Aura is unstable," Lord Vaduva said, his voice as deep and cold as a tomb. "It fluctuates. I felt the resonance of your little outburst in the Crucible from my study miles away. It felt… contaminated."

Seraphina’s hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I was defending my honour against House Sterling. I showed them the strength of our name."

"You showed them a lack of control," he corrected, finally turning to face her. His eyes, the same shade of violet as her own, were like chips of ice. They held no fatherly warmth, only the dispassionate gaze of a metallurgist inspecting a flawed blade. "I have heard reports. Of your recent… associations. Of your newfound tolerance for the powerless."

The obstacle was her lifelong conditioning. This man was not just her father; he was her commander, her god. To defy him was unthinkable. Yet, the memory of Kaelen’s hand on her wrist, of that divine surge, gave her a sliver of strength she’d never had before.

"The professors assigned him to me for the Synergy Trials," she deflected, her voice betraying none of her inner turmoil. "His academic mind has proven… useful for tactical analysis. It is a means to an end."

Lord Vaduva took a slow step towards her. The pressure in the room increased tenfold. "Do you think me a fool, Seraphina? Do you think I have not studied the long, sordid history of our kind? There are creatures in this world that masquerade as weak. Parasites that attach themselves to the strong, to the pure, promising power while they secretly drain the life from a bloodline, corrupting it from within."

He wasn't saying the word Catalyst. He didn't have to. He was speaking in the language of the Codex, the hunter's tongue. He was warning her. Testing her.

"This academy is infested with weakness," he continued, his gaze intense. "But for a Vaduva to willingly court it… that is not merely a weakness. It is a disease. And you know what we do with disease in our house, Seraphina. We cut it out. Before it can spread."

His meaning was terrifyingly clear. This was more than a father’s disapproval. This was a direct order. Sever the connection. Erase the Null. Purify the bloodline. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic bird in a cage of ice. She felt trapped between the crushing weight of her legacy and the pull of her addiction.

"I understand, Father," she managed to say, the words tasting like ash in her mouth.

"See that you do," he said, turning back to the window, his dismissal absolute.

Shaken to her core, Seraphina turned and walked out of the office, her legs unsteady. The world seemed to swim before her eyes. The weight of his command was suffocating. How could she obey? The thought of giving up that power, that feeling… it was like being asked to cut out her own heart.

As she stepped into the corridor, she nearly collided with Kaelen. He was standing there, his face etched with a quiet concern. He must have followed her, worried. "Is everything alright?" he asked, his voice low.

Before she could answer, the door to the Headmaster's office opened again. Lord Corvus Vaduva stepped out into the hallway, his cold gaze sweeping over the scene. His eyes met Kaelen's.

And everything stopped.

The air itself seemed to freeze. The oppressive weight of Lord Vaduva's Aura, which had been a passive, ambient force, suddenly sharpened to a razor's point. It focused entirely on Kaelen. It wasn't a flare of anger or a show of power. It was the sudden, dead-still focus of a predator that has just caught the scent of its designated prey. The casual disdain he might hold for any Null was gone, replaced by something far older and more lethal. It was a look of pure, chilling recognition.

Kaelen felt it instantly. It was a feeling beyond Aura, a primal sensation of being marked for death. He didn't know the man standing before him, but he felt the man’s intent like a physical touch, a cold finger tracing the line of his spine. His calm exterior held, but inside, every nerve ending screamed danger.

Seraphina saw the look in her father’s eyes and her blood turned to ice. It was the same look she had seen in the illustrations of the Codex Umbra, depicting her ancestors hunting down their sworn enemies. It was not the look of a disapproving father. It was not even the look of an aristocrat at a commoner.

It was the look of the hunter, having finally found what he was hunting for.

Lord Vaduva’s gaze flickered to her for a fraction of a second, and in that glance, she understood the unspoken message. So, this is it. The parasite.

Then, without another word, he turned and strode down the hall, his long black coat billowing behind him like the wings of a crow. He left behind a silence thick with unspoken threats and the horrifying certainty that the game had just changed. It was no longer a secret to be uncovered. It was a hunt that had just begun.