CHAPTER 135: CLEARED THE PATHS

The dust hung thick in the tunnel, veiling everything in a choking haze. Each breath rasped in Jae’s throat, laced with grit. The echoes of stone collapsing still rang faintly through the narrow walls, as if the earth itself remembered the violence of its fall.

For several heartbeats, no one moved. The only sounds were scattered coughs, boots scraping against loose rock, and the sharp pounding of blood in their ears.

Then movement surged all at once. Students rushed forward, converging on the spot where Jae, Elise, and Tirel stood. Torches bobbed like frantic fireflies, their glow cutting shallow paths through the settling cloud. Questions overlapped with exclamations.

"Are they hurt?"

"Jae, Elise,"

"Where’s Tirel? Is she.."

Elise pushed herself up from where she’d landed, her braid streaked white with dust. Her face was tight, eyes already searching for Tirel. Jae had barely risen to his feet when he saw her, still slumped near the wall, one hand pressed against her side.

Tirel’s torch trembled in her grip. She winced as she tried to straighten, teeth bared against the pain.

"Elise!"

The name snapped from Jae’s throat before he even realized it, though she was already moving. Elise darted to Tirel’s side, her expression sharpening with focus. Another healer-in-training, a wiry boy with steady hands, knelt opposite her.

Together, they drew in mana, weaving it into threads of soft, pale light. The glow pooled at their palms, pressing into the bruised flesh beneath Tirel’s tunic.

"Hold still," Elise murmured, her tone soothing yet firm. Tirel hissed but obeyed, eyes squeezed shut as the warmth of healing spread into her ribs.

The glow pulsed in rhythm, stabilizing the shallow fractures beneath the skin. Slowly, her breathing steadied, the color returning faintly to her dust-streaked cheeks.

Around them, the other students checked themselves and one another. Scratches bled faintly across arms, brows, and knees, but none seemed gravely wounded.

Nervous laughter punctuated the silence as relief seeped into the shaken group. Yet the glances they cast at the ceiling betrayed the truth, none felt safe under the trembling weight of the earth above.

Jae stayed slightly apart, his stance defensive, gaze never fixed on one thing for long. While Elise worked, he swept the tunnel with his eyes, searching for any flicker, any movement in the shadows.

His chest tightened with the memory of that blur, the thing too fast for even his sharp vision to catch. If it lingered nearby, the collapse might have been no accident.

"Everyone listen."

Alira’s voice broke through the din, steady and commanding despite the echo of dust in her lungs. She raised her torch high, its light framing her silhouette against the fractured stone.

Her calm settled over the students like a balm. "We cannot linger. The tunnel is unstable. Injured are to remain in the center. Keep formation. We move only once a path is clear."

Her presence quelled the murmurs, drawing nods even from the most shaken.

A boy stepped forward at her call, Orin, a skilled earth mage. His face was pale but his eyes glowed with resolve. "I’ll clear the way."

He lifted his hands. Mana thrummed low in the tunnel, resonating with the earth itself. Stone fragments lifted under invisible pressure, debris shifting as if responding to his will.

With each motion of his fingers, rocks peeled away from the blockage, drifting aside with precise control. The grinding of stone filled the air, slow but steady.

Students watched with held breath, wary of any new collapse. But Orin’s control was exact, each movement measured. Sweat glistened across his brow as he widened the passage inch by inch.

Jae stood near the edge of the group, still scanning. The hairs at the back of his neck prickled with unease. He caught movement, not the blur this time, but a gaze. Byun’s.

The noble’s eyes locked onto his from across the group. Neither spoke. No gesture, no whisper, just an exchange heavy with unvoiced meaning.

Jae’s suspicion had not been subtle earlier, and Byun’s measured stare confirmed he had noticed. It was not challenge, nor camaraderie, but a mutual awareness: both were watching, both unwilling to lower their guard.

The silence between them spoke louder than words.

Minutes stretched. Orin’s breathing grew heavier, his hands trembling from strain, but at last a gap wide enough to slip through appeared in the rubble.

Alira inspected it herself, her torchlight sweeping across jagged stone. Then she turned, nodding once.

"Move, carefully. Do not rush."

Relief spilled through the group like water through cracks. Shoulders loosened, anxious murmurs softening into whispers of gratitude.

One by one, the students filed through the cleared passage, clutching their torches close as they edged along the narrowed corridor. Dust crumbled underfoot, but the path held.

With every step forward, the air grew fresher. The heavy scent of dust gave way to the crisp tang of outside.

A faint breeze kissed their faces, carrying the damp musk of forest soil. Sunlight shimmered ahead, weak at first but brightening steadily, spilling like a promise into the darkness.

When they emerged at last, it was as if the world had exhaled with them. Trees swayed gently overhead, their leaves whispering in the afternoon light.

Students stumbled onto the grass, some collapsing to sit with relief, others tilting their heads back to drink in the open sky.

Jae inhaled deeply, savoring the freshness. The forest was no safer than the tunnels, perhaps, but at least the air was free of stone and fear.

As the others regrouped, Jae lingered near the tunnel’s mouth. Something caught his eye, a faint shimmer against the stone just inside the entrance. He stepped closer, torch angled low.

There it was: a rune carved into the wall, so faint it might have been mistaken for a natural vein in the rock. But the light gave it away.

A soft glow pulsed within the carved lines, as though the stone itself breathed with hidden life. The magic signature was subtle but unlike anything he had seen before, foreign yet precise.

Jae’s brow furrowed. His instincts prickled with unease, yet curiosity rooted him to the spot.

Behind him, the group began to reorganize under Alira’s direction, their voices light with relief. None had noticed the mark.

Not Elise, not Tirel, not Sun, not even Byun. The rune’s glow remained his secret alone, a clue tucked into the stone, waiting.

He forced himself to step back, torch lowered. Later, perhaps, he would return to it. For now, he filed it away, locking the image deep in his mind.