2026-09-28 16:59:40
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011. Corbin vs Ren
The notice went up on the seat board overnight. Monthly Evaluation, three days out, open challenge format. Any student could challenge up to two seats above their own; a win meant an immediate swap.Ren was still reading it when Corbin's voice carried across the hall behind him."Seat Thirty's looking at the board. Cute." Corbin stopped beside him, close enough to make it clear this wasn't casual. "Thinking about challenging someone, Kestrel? Because I'd love to see that.""Wasn't planning on it.""Good. Saves everyone the embarrassment." Corbin's smile stopped short of his eyes. Ren had started noticing that, since the day Ferro's name first came up. "Actually. Change of plans." He nodded at the seat board. "You still owe me an answer from the infirmary. I'm willing to extend the courtesy, settle it here instead, in front of everyone, instead of just my word against yours in some hallway." He let that land. "I'm challenging *you*."Ren hadn't braced for that, even though he should ha
010. What's left to lose
Priya caught him between classes, falling into step beside him without asking permission the way she'd started doing since the infirmary. "You've been disappearing at night," she said. Not a question."Studying," Ren said."Right." She didn't drop it. "You know Corbin's still watching for something to use against you. If you're doing something that could get you caught, I'd rather know than find out from him." She glanced sideways at him, taking in whatever the last few days had done to his face. "You look like you're carrying something heavier than exam prep."Ren weighed it. The same calculation he kept running with everyone who got close enough to matter. Priya had already paid a cost for standing near him once. He didn't want to hand her another one."There's a review," he said finally, giving her the shape of it without the whole truth. "Administrative. I'm trying to get ready for it. That's genuinely all the studying is.""That's not nothing to be nervous about." Her voice softe
009. Control
The decommissioned sparring level hummed to life reluctantly, ancient overhead lights flickering through a startup sequence that suggested nobody had powered this room in years. Dust hung visible in the pale light. Isolde crouched at a control panel Ren couldn't read, fingers moving fast, like she'd done this more than once before."How many times have you actually used this place?" he asked."Enough to know the override code by memory." She didn't look up. "Don't ask follow-up questions. Some answers you're better off not owing me for."The room finished booting. A wide, circular arena, scorch marks on the walls from sessions decades old, a faint outline of a holographic combat grid struggling to render at the edges. It wasn't pretty. It was private, which mattered more."Alright," Isolde said, straightening. "Show me what it actually looks like when you lose control. I need a baseline before I can help you build one."Ren hesitated. "You want me to just let it happen? On purpose?""
008. Mutual interests
Ren found her exactly where he suspected he would. The same storage room, an hour past curfew, going through a stack of confiscated gear like this was the most ordinary thing in the world to be doing after curfew."You're keeping a debt ledger," he said from the doorway. "Aren't you."Isolde didn't look up from the crate she was sorting. "I prefer to think of it as due diligence." A pause. "You look like someone who's about to pay a debt he'd rather not.""Dean Halvern pulled me in today." He stepped inside, letting the door click shut behind him. "There's a policy. Automatic review for flagged Gate anomalies. Mine's flagged. Someone's looking at my file within the week."That got her attention. She set the crate down and turned to face him fully for the first time since he'd walked in. "That's faster than I expected.""You expected this?""I expected something, eventually. Just not this soon." She crossed her arms. "Sit down. Tell me everything. All of it, the way you promised."So h
007. The office
The administrative wing smelled different from the rest of the Academy. Less like sweat and ozone, more like paper and old authority. Ren had been in this building exactly once before, for enrollment. He hadn't expected to see it again until graduation, if then.The instructor left him at a door with a nameplate that read *DEAN OF DISCIPLINE — R. HALVERN*, and didn't wait to see him go in.The office was smaller than Ren expected. The woman behind the desk looked less like a threat and more like someone perpetually tired of her job. Dean Halvern didn't look up right away. She was reading something on her tablet, brow creased. Ren had the distinct sense he wasn't the reason for the crease. A stack of other files sat at the edge of her desk, at least a dozen deep, each one probably somebody else's version of the same bad morning he was having."Sit," she said, without looking up. He sat.A long moment passed. Ren used it to run through every version of this conversation he could survive
006. Rumors
By the time Ren made it to breakfast the next morning, the story had already grown teeth.He caught the shape of it before he caught the words. Conversation dipped and shifted when he walked past. A table of first-years went quiet, then not-quite-quiet the second he was three steps clear of it. Two years of being invisible had taught him to read a room fast. This wasn't invisibility. This was worse."You hear the version where he attacked a monster bare-handed and came out covered in its blood?" Tomas's voice, not troubling to lower itself, from a table Ren hadn't meant to walk near. "Or the one where Griff's covering something up because Seat Thirty's dad donates to the Academy?""My dad doesn't donate anything," Ren said, before he could stop himself. "My dad drives a transport truck."A few people laughed. Not unkindly, which was almost worse. Tomas at least had the decency to look embarrassed. The laughter didn't kill the rumor. It just proved there was enough of an audience now t
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