Lucen didn't sleep.
Not for lack of trying.
He just lay there. Staring up. Listening to the city scrape by outside like it was too tired to collapse properly.
The cracked window rattled twice in the frame. Somewhere across the street, a spellcoil shorted out with a hiss-pop.
His system flickered again.
Still on.
Still waiting.
He exhaled once. Quiet. Then sat up slowly, letting the blanket fall off his shoulders.
The room was cold.
Colder than it should've been.
He liked it that way.
He reached out, grabbed the chalk again, and tapped it once against the side of the desk.
'Spell five,' he thought. 'No stuns. No holds. No tap effects. Just damage. Clean and stupid.'
He closed his eyes.
Let the pulse of his mana settle into the shape of the idea.
He didn't want finesse this time.
He wanted impact.
He wanted the kind of spell you didn't argue with.
He opened the system manually and pulled up a blank slate.
