"Aren't we all." He drops into the chair across from me, lowering his voice. "Did you hear the Rector’s back?”

"Rector? That’s what they call the headmaster here, right?" I keep my expression neutral, though my interest is piqued. “I thought he was away on some assignment.”

"Rector Voss." Ambrose pushes his glasses up with one finger. His eyes gleam with the excitement of sharing forbidden knowledge. "He came back last night. Early.”

"What does that mean? Do you think he heard about Malakai's informal army? Maybe the amount of killing they're doing is excessive, even by academy standards?"

"No one knows for certain. I’ve heard a few rumors, of course. Probably nothing of substance.”

“What have you heard?”

Ambrose leans closer, voice low. “Some say a rogue elemental was spotted near campus.”

I frown. “A rogue elemental? I’ve never heard of something like that.”

Ambrose nods, as if my lack of knowledge on the subject isn’t a surprise. “They’re completely mad. Driven wild by grief, and destructive as all hells.”

“And there’s a rumor that one is near the academy?” I whisper, chest going cold.

“Just a rumor. Something like that slipping out of the elemental plane really shouldn’t be possible. It’s highly unlikely.”

I can't say why, but his mention of rogue elementals makes me think immediately of my dreams—of the dark shape I always sense just out of sight in the murky depths. "What else do you know about them? Rogue elementals, I mean," I ask, trying to sound merely curious rather than desperate for information.

Ambrose's eyes light up the way they always do when someone asks him about something he's studied. “There are actually several categories of elementals. First, untethered elementals—those who have never formed a tether with a human. These are what students like us will typically tether on Confluence Day.” A second finger joins the first. "Second, formerly tethered elementals whose primals died naturally. It’s a less traumatic experience for them, and these generally are the elementals willing to take on a new primal tether." A third finger rises. "And third, rogue elementals—those whose tethers were broken through trauma."

"What kind of trauma?"

"According to the texts I've read, the tether between primal and elemental is incredibly intimate—a joining of minds and energies. When that tether is severed unnaturally, it leaves... scars. That can mean a particularly traumatic death in combat. It can mean some sort of betrayal—a primal who breaks the oath they make to their elemental when they tether."

"Oaths?"

Ambrose sighs dramatically. "For someone who spends so much time in this library, you really don't know much, do you? What are you studying so much if not this kind of thing?"

"Nothing important."