Chapter 222: Trusting Him

Elara:

I opened my mouth, ready to pretend I had absolutely no idea what Lorien was talking about.

A perfectly innocent expression, a little confusion, and perhaps a complaint about how everyone at Moonveil Academy seemed determined to turn my life into a series of magical investigations. It was a strategy that had worked on several occasions, and I was almost certain I could pull it off again. Unfortunately, before I could utter a single word, Lorien spoke, effortlessly destroying my carefully prepared escape route.

"Don’t." His voice was quiet, but there was something in it that stopped me before I could even begin my performance. "I know you well enough to recognise when you are lying or withholding information, Elara. And even if I didn’t, I would still find your explanation difficult to believe."

He took his hands out of his pockets and glanced towards the assessment pedestal, where the globe continued to glow with its mysterious collection of colours. "You expect me to believe that a few vines were enough to leave such a strong Earth signature on you that it remained detectable days later? If that were possible, you would have accumulated countless elemental signatures during your classes. You have spent months training with people who use different elemental magic, sometimes coming into direct contact with their spells. Yet we haven’t detected anything like this before."

His gaze returned to mine, and the seriousness in his expression made my stomach tighten. "So I’ll ask you again. What else happened that might explain the Earth signature now, or the Shadow signature detected during your practical examination?"

I stared at him, suddenly wishing he was a little less perceptive. Fooling Lorien Moonveil had never been easy, but perhaps I had underestimated just how much he had learned about me. He could read the hesitation behind my words, recognise when I was concealing something, and somehow identify the exact subject I wanted to avoid without needing me to say a single thing.

I could have denied everything, of course, but doing so would only make him more suspicious. Worse, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was genuinely concerned about what was happening to my magic rather than merely curious about another mystery involving his favourite troublesome student. I lowered my eyes, struggling to decide whether I could afford to trust him with something so personal.

Lorien took a few steps towards me until he stood directly in front of my chair. "Elara, we are talking about your powers. Whatever is happening to your elemental magic could have consequences you don’t yet understand, and you cannot afford to keep every uncertainty to yourself."

His voice softened slightly, although the seriousness remained. "You need someone you can confide in, someone who has enough knowledge to help you investigate this properly and enough maturity to understand what you might be reluctant to share. Someone who can protect your privacy while helping you find answers, without allowing this information to become another weapon for the people who want to control you." He paused, drawing a slow breath before adding, "And if that person can’t be me, then you need to find someone else. But you should do it soon, Elara. Whatever is happening, we shouldn’t leave it unexplained for too long."

I simply stared at him. Then he turned, almost as though he intended to leave the hall and allow me to think about his advice on my own. And something inside me panicked at the thought of watching him walk away without answering the question I hadn’t yet dared to ask. Before I could reconsider, I reached out and caught his arm.

Lorien stopped immediately.

When he turned back towards me, surprise briefly flickered across his face. It was a rare expression on a man who usually seemed prepared for every possible reaction, and seeing it made my fingers loosen slightly around his sleeve. He recovered quickly, however, turning fully towards me and waiting without saying a word. For once, he didn’t seem interested in forcing an answer out of me. He was simply giving me the opportunity to decide whether I wanted to speak.

I remembered our conversation in the archive room at the Royal Palace, when he had confessed that he had finally chosen a side, and that side was me. He had told me that he wasn’t supporting the Crown merely because of his position as Headmaster Moonveil or a Regent. He was supporting me, Elara, even if doing so meant abandoning the comfortable neutrality he had maintained for years. At the time, I hadn’t known what to do with his confession. Lorien was a man of influence, power, and knowledge, but he was also someone who had hurt me before. Trusting him meant accepting the possibility that he might hurt me again.

Yet he was precisely the kind of person he had just described. Someone mature enough to understand complicated situations, knowledgeable enough to investigate my magic, powerful enough to keep unwanted attention away from me, and influential enough to ensure that the truth wouldn’t immediately become public property. More importantly, he had already told me that his priority was me, not the Crown or the political factions surrounding it. If I couldn’t trust him with something that might affect my very existence, then who could I trust?

I lifted my head and looked directly into his blue eyes. "Can I trust you?"

The question seemed to affect him more than I expected. His expression grew still, and for a brief moment, he said nothing. Then he answered, "If you still have to ask me that question, perhaps I haven’t done a good enough job of showing you that I’m on your side and that I’m worthy of your trust." His voice held no irritation, no wounded pride, only a quiet honesty that made it difficult to look away. "I can’t undo the times I have hurt you simply by asking you to believe me. I know that. But I can tell you that I want to help you, and I won’t deliberately use your secrets against you."

Something stirred deep inside me.

It wasn’t quite a thought, not exactly a voice, and yet I heard it with startling clarity. It seemed to rise from somewhere beneath my conscious mind, familiar in a way I couldn’t explain, as though it were my own subconscious speaking with a certainty I didn’t possess.

You can trust him.

I froze.

For a fleeting second, I wondered where the conviction had come from and why it sounded so absolute. Was it my own instinct? Some strange effect of the seal loosening? Or was my increasingly unpredictable magic finding new ways to interfere with my thoughts? I had no answers, and under ordinary circumstances, I would have questioned the feeling until I could make sense of it. But Lorien was still standing before me, waiting patiently, and for once, I didn’t want to hide behind another excuse.

I chose to trust him.

Drawing a deep breath, I tightened my fingers around his arm for a moment before releasing him. Then I met his gaze and finally gave him the truth he had been asking for.

"Reign Valemont kissed me."

There. I had said it.

I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of reaction I had expected from Lorien. Perhaps surprise, irritation, or even the slightest indication that the revelation bothered him. Considering the complicated history between us, I wouldn’t have blamed him for reacting in any of those ways. What I certainly hadn’t anticipated was the calm silence that followed.

He stood before me, his hands resting casually in his pockets, seemingly taking his time to process what I had just confessed. There was no visible anger, no tightening of his jaw, not even the faintest flicker of jealousy in his blue eyes. And when he finally looked directly at me again, his question was so unexpected that I almost forgot what we had been discussing.

"Why do you think the kiss was responsible for the Earth signature appearing in your assessment?"

I stared at him.

That was it? That was all he had to say about Reign kissing me? He was treating the entire revelation as though I had just informed him that I had encountered a particularly aggressive squirrel during my morning run.

I couldn’t decide whether I should be relieved by his composure or feel offended by it. More importantly, I hadn’t expected his unbothered reaction to affect me so much, but as I stood there looking at him, an entirely different kind of thought began creeping into my mind.

Why was Lorien Moonveil not bothered by the news of Reign Valemont kissing me?