The Concord's shadows had arrived. Quiet boots. White robes. Unmarked masks.
They didn't come to teach. They came to erase.
Ayari Thornveil knew this from the moment she stepped into the Headmaster's chamber and found the windows sealed in lightless sigils.
She stood straight. Too calm. As if obeying a script she didn't believe in anymore.
"You're here for him," she said, tone like frostbite.
"You called me here to watch."
One Concord representative stepped forward—tall, faceless.
"You are here, Miss Thornveil, because you are loyal."
"And because he trusts you."
Ayari met the empty eye-slots of his mask.
"Then you don't understand either of us."
Meanwhile…
Kaien knelt beneath Solvyr's older ruins. Not in reverence—but in calculation.
The Protocol Vault's heart no longer pulsed—it watched.
Every time he moved, something clicked in his bones. As if unseen gears were beginning to realign.
Do not imitate. Learn.
The last whisper still echoed.
He wasn't meant to copy anyone's power.
He was meant to understand why theirs failed.
He stood.
Footsteps echoed behind him.
Fast. Uneven.
He turned.
Ayari.
She didn't say a word.
She just threw him a protocol guard band—modified, banned in combat tiers.
"Put it on," she said. "Now."
He stared. "Why?"
"Because Solvyr is no longer a school."
Above them, on the eastern ridge of the ruins…
A new figure approached through the stone arches.
Limber. Bruised. A half-healed scar running down the chin.
Renlo Vass.
The first opponent Kaien ever fought in Protocol rankings. The one who beat him bloody and laughed while doing it.
Now, Renlo's expression was unreadable.
"Relax," he said, raising his hands. "I didn't come to settle scores. I came because I saw what the Concord's sending after you."
Kaien stared. "And you care?"
Renlo shrugged. "Let's just say I don't like being lied to. They told us you were nothing. That you had no tether. But now I find out you're under Solvyr—in the sealed vaults—with the Thornveil girl backing you?"
He smirked. "Either I'm an idiot, or you're more than they let on."
Ayari raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Kaien slowly took the band from her hand. Locked it onto his forearm. Its circuits lit—custom patterning. A protocol no tier class had ever seen.
"You want to help?" Kaien asked Renlo.
"Why?"
Renlo's voice was light.
"Let's just say I hate losing… but I really hate betting on the wrong side."
They moved fast.
Ayari led them through the fracture paths beneath Solvyr's first construction era. Forgotten stairwells. Protocol-sealed gates she opened with bypass glyphs no student should know.
"You memorized all this?" Kaien asked as they ducked under a broken arch.
"No," she said. "I built it. In my head. During every Academy briefing."
"The Concord always leaves cracks."
Behind them, Renlo kept pace. Too quiet. Too observant.
Kaien felt the whisper of something behind his thoughts. Not the Protocol. Not the Vault.
Instinct.
Something isn't right.
But Ayari's presence grounded him.
For now.
Hours later, in a hollowed library just outside Solvyr's sealed zone…
They camped. Ayari warded the exits. Renlo lit a small glyphfire ring.
Kaien sat beside a broken statue, his thoughts spiraling.
"You don't trust him," Ayari said, watching him.
"No," Kaien said, quietly.
"But I trust that I'll know when not to."
Ayari's gaze softened. "Then you're learning."
Silence.
Then she asked:
"Why didn't you strike me? Back then. When you had the opening."
Kaien didn't look at her.
"Because my strength shouldn't come from your weakness."
"It should come from my refusal to become what I hate."
Ayari's fingers tightened slightly.
She said nothing more.
But as Kaien turned away to rest—Ayari leaned against the far wall, arms folded.
Eyes sharp.
Watching Renlo, not Kaien.
That night, Renlo moved quietly to the edge of the glyphfire. Fingers to his earpiece. Whisper-thin transmission.
"He's moving exactly where we want him.
The girl suspects nothing.
Give me one more day.
I'll hand him to the Concord myself."