The forest was wrapped in the quiet light of dawn when Chase arrived. The sun had begun its slow climb beyond the mountains, but very little of its golden glow managed to reach the forest floor. Enormous old-growth pines towered overhead rising like pillars into a vast canopy of dark green needles that swallowed most of the morning light before it could descend.Mackenzie arrived several minutes later. Felix followed close behind him carrying three wooden boxes stacked against his chest. The boxes appeared deceptively ordinary until he lowered them to the ground.The impact landed with a deep, heavy thud that seemed far too powerful for their size. The sound rolled through the quiet forest, disturbing the fragile stillness of dawn, and Chase felt a faint vibration travel through the earth beneath his boots as loose pine needles trembled across the ground.Mackenzie looked at the boxes. Then at Chase."In those boxes are weighted cuffs." Mackenzie said. "Each set carries a different am

They all knew by the next morning.Chase could tell, not from anything said directly, but from the particular quality of silence that follows a conversation about someone who is now present. The way eyes found other things to look at when he walked through the common area. The way conversations didn't stop but adjusted, like water rerouting around a new obstacle.He was fine with it. He had a box to finish.The ambition of that first meeting had dissolved from their faces entirely, replaced by something more honest, a collective uncertainty about how to relate to a variable the equation of this school had never contained before. Chase didn't hold it against them.He understood the arithmetic. Zero divinity wasn't just a low score but something they simply couldn’t associate in a common topic. They didn't know what to say to someone whose situation had no established vocabulary, so they said nothing, and Chase ran his laps, and the days moved.He had developed his rhythm by now, every