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CHAPTER 18: THE CHURCH OF MERCY
Silas had warned them the gears were already turning.Ronan had no idea just how fast they were moving.The Forbidden Division was deathly still when he walked in.The floating lights had faded to nothing more than dim, dying embers. Lyra’s lantern sat dark on her desk. The rest of them were huddled in the center of the room Silas sat cross-legged on the floor, Kael was leaning against a desk with both his knives drawn, Mira had her hands tightly clasped, and Darius was pacing a restless line near the window.They all turned to look at him the moment he entered."Sit," Lyra commanded.He took a seat.She reached for a book on her desk the same untitled volume she’d been studying since day one and flipped it open to a page near the center."This is a history of the Church of Mercy," she explained. "It was published forty years ago, fully sanctioned by the Academy's own censors."She turned the book around so Ronan could see the contents.The page featured an illustration of a woman in
CHAPTER 17: THE MORNING AFTER THE STORM
Ronan had expected the Academy to just move on.It didn't.He knew things had changed the second he stepped out of the Forbidden Division.Students were lingering in the corridor.It wasn't a massive crowd, just a small group, maybe six or seven, huddled near the stairwell. They were doing that thing where they pretend they aren't looking at you. But the moment he appeared, the chatter died. One girl, dressed in the blue of the Arcane Division, actually recoiled a step.Ronan just kept walking.The whispers followed him like a shadow."That's him.""The zero.""He actually took down Darian Voss.""He's still just an F-rank, though.""Did you see the rankings?"Ronan didn't look back. He kept his eyes fixed ahead and started counting his steps. It was an old habit, something to do with his hands to keep his mind from drifting.So this is it, he thought. This is what it feels like to be noticed.It didn't feel like a win. It felt like standing in a spotlight while people gathered to thr
CHAPTER 16: THE MAN IN WHITE
The crowd roared, but Ronan barely noticed.He just stood there, eyes locked on the ranking board. His name had finally budged up one spot, from 999 to 998. It wasn’t much, honestly just a single digit, but for the first time, his name wasn’t dropping. It climbed.Darian was gone. Two friends hauled him off the field. He never looked back, never said a word.Ronan caught that. Darian wasn’t the loud, vengeful kind; he’d gotten quiet. The kind who waits. Ronan would handle him later.For now, someone fought their way through the crush of bodies.Lyra.She stopped right in front of him, scanning his face. The blood, the cut above his eye, the ripped collar.“You’re bleeding,” she said.“I know.”“You’re also insane.”“I know.”She held his gaze, then cracked a grin.“Good. Now let’s go, before the instructors decide they want to put you on a pedestal... or a pike.”When they finally made it back, the Forbidden Division felt strangely calm.Kael perched on his desk, polishing knives. Mir
CHAPTER 15: THE CHALLENGE
Every morning, the Academy posted the rankings, and every morning, Ronan Ash found his name at the very bottom.He’d had enough. Today, he was ready to change that.The ranking board was impossible to miss in the courtyard. This huge slab of obsidian, enchanted so the names glowed and shuffled—people rising, people falling, points earned in duels and missions and tests. Students all around obsessed over that board. You couldn’t pretend you didn’t care.Ronan’s name sat at the end of the list in faint, almost embarrassed letters. Ronan Ash — F-Rank — 0 Points.One thousand students in the Imperial War Academy.And he was dead last.He read the next name on the board: Darian Voss — Combat Division — Third Tier — 120 Points.Perfect.He turned. The courtyard was waking up, filling fast with first-years gathering for drills, upperclassmen coming back from missions, instructors marching between buildings. Maybe two hundred people milling about. Maybe more.Not everyone, but enough.[QUEST
CHAPTER 14: THE WALK BACK
They climbed the stairs in silence, one step after another, no one saying a word. Not until they reached the top.Ronan brought up the rear. His legs still shook, and pain shot down his sword arm with every move. His chest throbbed where the First had gripped his throat, where something inside him had flared up and wouldn’t burn out. He kept count of the steps. It was just something to keep his mind busy while his body slogged on.Twenty. Forty. Sixty.The higher they went, the warmer the air; that metallic tang in the air faded away. Lyra’s lantern steadied too. Its light looked braver now, reaching out toward the walls instead of shrinking back.At one hundred, they stepped into the east corridor.Darius didn't even try to hide how shaken he was. “What the hell was that?”Nobody answered.“That thing, the First, whatever you call it, it was sitting on a throne under our school. Under our dorm.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “How long’s that been there?”Silas answered, voice l
CHAPTER 13: THE CAGE
The First stood up, and suddenly the chamber felt like it was shrinking.This thing rose from the stone throne like a mountain deciding to move, not like any person Ronan had ever seen. Shadow and starlight armor wrapped around its body, shimmering and bleeding together, always shifting, never settling. Its face was Ronan’s. Only older. Scarred. Dead. Its eyes opened, pitch black, locked onto him.“You opened the door,” the First said.Its voice doubled: one young, one ancient, and somehow both belonged to Ronan.“Do you know what that means?”Ronan’s hand rested on his sword. It was rusty, useless, but he didn’t pull it. Not yet.“No,” he said.“It means the seal is breaking.” The First stepped forward. The stone cracked under its foot, a jagged fracture racing toward Ronan and stopping right at his boots. “It means I’m waking up. You don’t have much time left.”“Time for what?”“To decide.”Behind him, Lyra’s lantern flickered. Nobody moved. Kael had both knives drawn. Mira’s hands
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