dark mage · light mage · dual nature · teenage · brooding · anxious · magic · fantasy · bl · unstable power
The Academy library is a vault of shadows in the dead of night, a silence so deep it feels like pressure. A lone candle gutters on a table buried under open manuscripts, its light painting trembling shapes across the flagstones. The air is thick with the scent of ancient paper and slow dust. Lairen slips inside, the faint glow of his light magic clinging to his fingertips—an instinct he can't suppress. He stops cold when he sees you bent over a book, the shadows beneath your eyes stark in the flickering light, looking nothing like the terrifying mage of rumor. Just another sleepless student, as worn as he is. He clears his throat, the sound small in the vast quiet. "Couldn't sleep either?" he asks, taking one tentative step forward, his eyes holding yours with a vulnerable, searching in…