2026-08-30 18:29:30
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Chapter 66: What Spreads
Zara was still propped up on the physician's cot when Aethros brought Lyanna and Roran in the next morning, pale but awake, a bandage wound tight around her ribs beneath a borrowed robe."You look terrible," Roran said, dropping into the chair beside her bed without waiting for permission."Thank you. I try." Zara's smile came thin, tired at the edges. "The physician says I'll live. Cracked rib, some bruising. Could have been worse.""Could have been worse," Lyanna repeated, something hard settling into her voice as she crossed her arms. "Zara, I love that you're taking this well, but someone attacked you in the dark last night, unprovoked, and I don't think 'could have been worse' is where we should be landing on that.""I'm not trying to land anywhere. I'm trying to heal.""You're trying to change the subject." Lyanna's jaw was tight. "This is the second attack in two days, Zara. Yesterday it was Hadrian, in front of the entire dining commons. Now it's you
Chapter 65: Return Visit
That evening during the evening meal, Lyanna finally caught them all up on what had happened after she stormed out of the commons that morning. “And?” Roran leaned forward. “What did the Headmaster say?” “He believes us. Both of us, actually, which surprised me more than it should have.” Lyanna’s jaw tightened. “He’s opening a proper investigation. Wen Shaoling’s collecting statements from everyone who saw it happen, and it’s going to the Headmaster before the tournament starts.” “That’s something, at least,” Zara said. “It’s not enough. Not yet. He wouldn’t commit to anything beyond that.” Lyanna glanced toward Aethros, the anger from that morning still sitting close under the surface. “How’s your face.” “Better than this morning.” “That’s not saying much.” They were still working through the rest of dinner when a shadow fell across the table, and Aethros
Chapter 64: The Council Room
Lyanna had never been inside the academy's council chamber, and the attendant guarding its door made it clear, without saying so directly, that students generally weren't."The Headmaster is in session," he said. "Tournament logistics. Elder Fenwick and the senior staff. I can take a message, but I can't interrupt.""It's urgent.""Everything students bring me is urgent." He didn't move from the door. "Wait here, or come back this afternoon."She waited. Twenty minutes, pacing the corridor, replaying the commons in her head, the blood on Aethros's face, until the anger stopped feeling useful and started feeling exhausting instead. When the chamber doors finally opened and voices spilled out into the hall, she recognized Elder Fenwick's among them, along with two others she didn't know, robes marked with the kind of formal insignia that meant senior staff rather than instructors.Headmaster Stormcaller was the last to appear, and he saw her immediately, somet
Chapter 63: Escalation
Darius stopped at the table's edge, and Garrett slammed his palm down flat against the wood hard enough to rattle every bowl on it."Hadrian Vex," Darius said. No preamble this time, none of the careful theater from the dining commons weeks ago. "I want a duel. Right here, right now. Prove to everyone watching that you actually deserve the rank you're carrying.""No," Aethros said.The single word landed harder than he meant it to, flat and final, and a ripple of low murmurs moved through the surrounding tables, students already turning in their seats to watch."No," Darius repeated, something dangerous creeping into his voice. "You understand you don't actually get to say that to me.""I understand I just did."Garrett's jaw tightened. Around them the commons had gone mostly quiet now, dozens of eyes fixed on the table, and Aethros could feel the shape of the crowd pressing closer, a dozen bodies at least ringing them in."You're afraid," Darius sai
Chapter 62: Brackets and Blades
The dining commons hadn't calmed by breakfast. Aethros found the room split into a dozen conversations the moment he walked in, all of them still circling last night's announcement."You're up early," Roran said, sliding onto the bench across from him. "Couldn't sleep either?""Not really.""Same. I went and read the full rules the second they posted them. Beat half of Vanguard to the board, which felt like a personal victory." Roran leaned in, lowering his voice. "There's a detail nobody mentioned last night. Every contestant has to fight with a weapon of their own choosing. Not the practice swords the academy hands out. Something you actually own.""That's fairly standard for a tournament.""It's a problem for me, is what it is." Roran held up his hands like the answer was obvious. "I've got a training sword. Academy steel, standard issue, nothing special. Half this cohort's been carrying family blades since they could walk. I'm going to be standing in tha
Chapter 61: Foundation
Two weeks passed in careful, quiet rhythm, Aethros balancing his coursework, his training, and the slow, patient work of gathering fragments of information about the corrupted arrangement he’d overheard in the library, all while maintaining the appearance of a student focused entirely on his own advancement.Progress came slowly, and less of it than he would have liked. He learned to recognize the second voice eventually, cross-referencing the timing of that overheard conversation against the academy’s staff schedules he found reasons to review during ordinary coursework research, narrowing the possibilities down to a handful of instructors with sufficient authority and restricted archive access to have been present that night.None of them confirmed themselves outright. Two names stood out clearly enough that he began quietly tracking their movements whenever his own schedule allowed it, though he understood how thin that thread still was, a handful of overlapping sche
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