Aliana slowly regained sciousness in the medical room of the magical academy, she felt a dull ache c through her body. The pale blue-haired Elite Guard could hear the soft hum of magical energy around her. It was a sign that the Medic girls were hard at work trying to heal her wounds.

  Her vision cleared and she saw Gaiza, her devoted Messenger, by her side.

  Aliana groaned softly. She attempted to sit up. She winced in pain with each little movement she made. Gaiza’s put her hands together and spoke quickly. "Princess Aliana, you're awake. Please, don't strain yourself!"

  Aliana managed a weak smile and then replied, "Gaiza, how many times have I told you? You don't have to call me 'Princess.' We're friends, remember?"

  Gaiza's cheeks flushed slightly and she averted her gaze pretending to be occupied with something else in the room. "Right, of course, Aliana. Friends." She cleared her throat before tinuing, "I just thought it might make you feel more fortable."

  Aliana chuckled softly, her humor tempered by the pain in her body. "Well, thank you for your my friend. How did I end up here, anyway? The st thing I remember is Kintovar..."

  Gaiza hesitated for a moment before responding, "You were injured during your battle with Roselle, Risebelle and Runebelle. Kintovar's arrival was what stopped the fight. She said something to you before leaving, about the academy's as and the stists."

  Aliana’s face turhoughtful while recalling those haunting words from Kintovar. "Yes, I remember now…”

  The memory of her enter with Dr. Kintovar haunted her. The relentless questions and accusations pyed in her mind like a vivid nightmare. She couldn't believe how easily Dr. Kintovar had broken through her resolve.

  Aliana's anger swelled, but it also had a profound sense of self-realization. She had followed orders without question, never sidering the moral implications of her as. Tears welled up in her eyes while dealing with her own guilt and shame.

  Gaiza, notig the distress on Aliana's face, gently spoke, "P-Princess Aliana, are you alright?"

  Aliana took a deep breath and rying to push the memories aside for now. "I'll be fine, Gaiza. Please, go on. Tell me what's been happening with the other Elite mages”

  As Aliana's mind wrestled with the implications of her as, Gaiza gently pced a hand on her shoulder. “I am sorry. What I am about to say may shock you… Abner... he didn't make it. Abner was killed by the now revealed trio of sisters Roselle, Runebelle and Risebelle".

  Aliana's heart sank at the mention of Abner's name. She had known him well. "Abner... he was a good mage and a good rival to my bde" she whispered.

  Gaiza tinued, her tone grave, "And there's something else you should know. An... it seems he's attag the es outside. It's as if he's turned against us."

  Aliana's eyes widened in disbelief at the revetion about An. "No, no,no,no,no, that 't be right," she muttered, shaking her head. "An is the most loyal mage to the Academy. This doesen’t make a shred of sense. You agree with me, right Gaiza?"

  The news about Abner's death and An's apparerayal hung heavily in the air. Alia a growing sense of unease and uainty about the state of the magical academy.

  Gaiza nodded sadly, her eyes refleg the same . "I know it’s very hard to believe, but I saw it with my own eyes. An was attag the es who had e to back up Arlysa and Sylra. It was chaos outside."

  Aliana's mind raced as she tried to make sense of the situation. "Something must have happened. An wouldn't turn on this academy all of a sudden without having a good reason.” She paused, her thoughts going back to the memory of her enter with Dr. Kintovar.

  “I o see her again..."

  Aliana tried to rise from her bed, but she was met with a sharp pang of pain from her injuries. She winced and sank back down, realizing that her body was not yet ready for such exertion.

  Gaiza hurried to her side. "Princess Aliana, please! You o rest. Your injuries are still healing. You’re in no dition to move around just yet!"

  Aliana ched her fists. “But I 't just stay here, Gaiza. There's too much going ht now. I o find out what's happening with An and the others."

  Aliana overrode the pain that coursed through her body with the sheer force of will. She was not oo sit idly by while the academy faced such turmoil. With griting of her teeth, she pushed herself up from the bed.

  When she began to rise, the medical girls rushed into the room, armed by her as. One of them, a young mage pleaded, “Please, you must yourself! Your injuries are still healing."

  Another medical girl chimed in, "Yes, you need more time to heal properly. We 't allow you to strain yourself---."

  Suddenly, Aliana shot them a frigid gre.

  "Move," she anded with authority and an icy threat. She raised one hand and a shimmering aura of frost enveloped it, f into a menag icicle. The medical girls exged nervous gnces, realizing that challenging the ancer in her current state would be unwise.

  With an icy smile that made them all frozen, Aliana tinued, "I suggest you make a path for me to walk forward unless you wish to bee ice sculptures. I have matters to attend to."

  Aliana's iahe medical girls no choice but to step aside and make way for the She began to walk, but her legs wobbled and she stumbled slightly. The pain from her injuries was still very much present. Her body protested the exertion.

  Gaiza rushed to her side, her support as Aliana regained her bance. "Princess Aliana, please be careful," Gaiza implored, etched on her face. "You're not fully healed yet."

  Aliana nodded, aowledging the pain that radiated through her body. "I know, Gaiza, but I 't afford to wait any lohere's too much at stake. It's time to see what's going on."

  With Gaiza's help, Aliana took each step carefully.

  Aliana and Gaiza made their way down the hallway. She looked off in thought momentarily. She couldn't shake the memories of her enter with Dr. Kintovar and the questions that had clouded her mind her ever since.

  In the quiet of her thoughts, she began to have a versation with herself, a dialogue that mirrored the uainty that had taken root in her soul.

  "Was it worth it, Aliana?" she asked herself in the recesses of her mind. A single drop of a tear going down to spsh in the void of darkness. “All these years of unwavering loyalty to the academy... was it worth the price we paid? The orders we followed without question..."

  She recalled the faces of the stists and magicless ones she had seen. Their lives were snuffed out mercilessly. The guilt and shame g her very soul."I swore an oath to the academy for saving my life, fiving me a home on this isnd but now? I'm not so sure anymore."

  But as the memories of the academy's as, the capture and execution of stists came to her forefront. The cruel orders she had followed came flooding back. Doubts began to gnaw at her resolve.

  "Did I truly honor my oath?" she questioned herself. "Is blind loyalty to the woman in charge and the academy worth all the suffering I've witnessed? All the lives lost, all the pain inflicted? I tio serve a cause that goes against everything I once believed in?"

  Aliana came to a halt in the middle of the hallway, her flicted thoughts weighing heavily on her. Gaiza, ever attentive, noticed the ge in her demeanor and asked with genuine , "Princess Aliana, is something wrong? Do you o rest?"

  Aliana turo Gaiza and asked, "Gaiza, do you think I'm a good person?"

  Gaiza blinked in surprise at the ued question. Her blue eyes searched Aliana's face for clues. "Where is this ing from, Princess Aliana?"

  Aliaated for a moment. She struggling to find the right words. "I've been thinking about the things I've dohe orders I've followed without question," she admitted. "I've seen so much suffering. I got to wonder if I've been on the wrong path all this time."

  Gaiza's deepened while listening to Aliana's fession. She had always admired the ancer's strength and dedication to the academy. "Princess Aliana, you've always done what you believed was right," she replied gently. "You've protected the academy and its values. You’ve been a strong leader for the Elite Guard. I've seen the kindness in your heart, even when you hide it behind your icy exterior."

  Aliana nodded, her flicted feelings still evident. "But what if I was wrong all along?" she asked speaking barely above a whisper. "What if the academy's as, the capture of i stists and the orders to eliminate magicless individuals... what if they were all wrong?"

  Gaiza didn't immediately respond. She wasn't sure how to address the profound questions swirling in the ancer's mind.

  Aliana, sensing Gaiza's hesitation, shook her head slightly and tinued, "You don't have to ahat, Gaiza. I just needed someoo listen. But there's something more urgent I o address."

  She gnced around cautiously, ensuring that no one was within earshot and lowered her speech to a hushed tone. "I overheard the Headmaster's pns. She intends to use the mana from the Maractors to leave the isnd, but doing so would endahe Mystic Forest and all its inhabitants. Thalindra, the forest guardian, is no longer with us. I fear the pn may involve taking only a select few with her. This will leave the rest to suffer."

  Gaiza listetentively. When Aliana finished speaking, Gaiza hesitated for a moment before responding while fidgeting around.

  "Waitaminute, she told all of us that when she leaves the isnd, she intends to take all the mages with her," Gaiza expined. "It's what we've all been w towards, a way to return to the city from which most of us came, but now that you mention it, I never really sidered how that would be possible without an immense source of power."

  Aliana's brow furrowed ihought.

  "You’re finally catg on and waking up to the truth. To transfer what was gathered from the Maractors and transport all the mages, it would require an enormous magical power source. She alone couldn't aplish such a feat."

  The pieces of the puzzle began to fall into p Aliana's mind. "There must be someoh an incredible amount of power, someohat woman has been keeping hidden. It's the only expnation," she cluded with her eyes narrowing. “And if that's the case, we o find out who that person is and what the Headmaster intends to do with them."

  Aliana and Gaiza rushed into the Academy’s main office. Their eyes sed the room, but it was spicuously empty. The spacious office, which had once been the ter of authority in the academy, now felt eerily abandoned.

  Aliana looked around. "She's not here," she stated with disappoi. She had hoped to front the Headmaster directly and demand answers about her pns and the mysterious individual with immense magical power.

  Gaiza, her blue eyes wide with , gnced around the office as well. "What should we do, Princess Aliana?" she asked.

  Aliana and Gaiza felt a sudden surge of energy washed over them which froze them i was as if an invisible hand ed around their body ahem tight enough for them to be paralyzed.

  Both Aliana and Gaiza could feel its oppressiveness pressing down ohey exged armed ghen they realized that they were in the presence of the most dreadful woman.

  Aliana's eyes narrowed.

  "This... this is the Headmasters….”