rlin felt the world tighten around him.
Kessler finished:
"We are initiating a full-scale protection and interrogation protocol. Effective imdiately."
The door of wards pulsed, waiting.
rlin took a breath.
Everything was changing again.
And this ti—
the academy wasn’t ignoring the threat.
It was preparing for war.
The ward-door sealed behind them with a sound like a thousand locks snapping shut at once—quiet, final, and absolute. The mont it closed, rlin felt the shift in ambient mana imdiately. This chamber wasn’t just reinforced. It was clad in layered defensive spells, the air thick with invisible boundaries designed to trap or kill anything that didn’t belong.
Even the temperature dropped several degrees as the runic ceiling activated, bathing the room in a cold, sterile white glow.
Elara instinctively stepped closer to rlin.
Nathan’s eyes darted around. "This... isn’t the usual briefing hall."
Kessler didn’t slow. "It’s not ant to be."
The group entered a circular chamber lined with crystalline panels. Each one projected a faint shimr of wards—surveillance, anti-illusion detection, anti-possession runes, even a few rlin recognized from the novel’s advanced sections: sigils used only when the academy believed a student was targeted by a high-tier cabal.
Which ant...
This was an ergency war room.
And he was the center of it.
Headmistress Morgana waited at the far side of the room, arms folded, expression utterly unreadable. She was still dressed in her immaculate black uniform, hair pulled into a severe knot, eyes sharper than blades.
Vivienne—her soft-spoken vice-headmaster—stood beside her, pale and anxious, holding a glowing tablet of ward scans.
Dean Rythorn, instructor of combat theory, stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gaze cold.
Three elite wardmasters stood along the periter, runic staves in hand.
Morgana’s gaze swept the group once before settling on rlin.
"Everhart."
He straightened unconsciously.
"Step forward."
Elara took half a step with him, but Morgana lifted one finger.
"Alone."
Elara stopped. Her throat worked. But she didn’t argue.
rlin stepped into the center glyph.
A ring of wards flared around him—gentle, not attacking, but scanning. He felt his mana pricked at, examined, re-aligned. It was invasive, but also strangely familiar; this was the academy’s highest-level authenticity test.
After several seconds, the glyph dimd.
Vivienne exhaled shakily. "He’s clean."
Morgana nodded once, sharp and controlled. "Good. That confirms they didn’t implant anything on him directly."
Nathan nearly stumbled forward. "Wait—implant anything? On rlin?!"
Rythorn answered smoothly. "It’s one of the Cabal’s favored tactics."
Liliana paled. "W-what, like curses? Or poisons?"
"Worse," Kessler said. "Tracking marks, mind-hitching parasites, imprint-beacons, corrupted illusions that cling to the aura..."
Ethan turned green. "...I hate everything about those words."
Morgana stepped closer to rlin, her gaze piercing. "The mont you left the simulation, your aura signature showed a fluctuation."
rlin tensed. "A fluctuation?"
"Very slight," Vivienne said quickly, almost reassuring. "You stabilized it instantly. But it was enough to know sothing touched you."
Touched.
Elara’s hands curled into fists.
"They got that close to him?" she whispered.
Morgana’s eyes flicked to her. "Yes."
A cold wave went through the room.
Dorian finally spoke from the shadows of the group.
"How, exactly?"
The headmistress turned toward the crystalline panels. With a snap of her fingers, the walls lit, displaying fragnted visuals captured from the simulation array—mostly static, corrupted mana blurs, but one image was clear:
A shape, humanoid but skeletal, cloaked in shifting shadows, standing behind rlin for exactly one fra.
A single heartbeat.
Nathan swore under his breath.
Adrian stiffened. "That’s—"
"Yes," Morgana said. "An Umbershade specter projection."
rlin’s pulse jumped.
Those things were only supposed to appear during assassination arcs in the novel.
Far later.
Morgana lifted her hand, and the image zood in.
The specter’s face was a twisted mask of illusion runes—like a skull wearing layered spells.
Kessler spoke quietly. "We believe it attempted to plant the ssage on your person during the fra distortion."
Vivienne added, "But because your aura is unusually reactive—your affinities destabilized the projection and forced it to drop the envelope instead."
Elara inhaled sharply. "Unusually reactive...? You an because of his multiple affinities."
rlin avoided her eyes.
Morgana’s gaze sharpened. "Correct. Most students would’ve been marked without ever noticing."
Silence stretched.
For once, rlin didn’t know what to say. Hearing it spoken aloud by the strongest mage in the world made the danger feel different—real in a way the plot had never felt.
Kessler stepped beside Morgana, arms folded. "We called you here to make one thing absolutely clear."
His stare pinned rlin with a force that felt physical.
"You are no longer dealing with a minor nuisance. The Cabal has designated you a high-value target."
Nathan exploded. "What?! Why him?! He didn’t—"
Rythorn cut in. "We don’t know."
"But we will find out," Morgana said, voice cold and lethal.
She turned back to rlin.
"And until we do, Everhart, you are under academy protection. You will not walk alone. You will not travel without wards. You will not leave campus unaccompanied."
rlin stiffened. "...Headmistress—"
"Elara will accompany you."
The room froze.
Elara blinked. "?"
Morgana nodded once. "You are one of the strongest in your year. Your affinity counters many Cabal techniques. And you refuse to leave his side anyway."
Elara’s ears went pink.
rlin felt heat creep up his neck.
Nathan coughed violently. Adrian grinned. Dorian rolled his eyes.
But before any teasing could erupt, Morgana continued, raising the tone back to severity:
"And the rest of you..."
Her gaze swept across Nathan, Sera, Dorian, Adrian, Liliana, Ethan.
"...I will not order you to stay with him. But I expect you will."
Nathan stepped forward instantly.
"I’m glued to him. Try to stop ."
Adrian nodded. "You’ll have to drag off."
Sera crossed her arms. "If Cabal dogs co, they’ll regret it."
Liliana squared her shoulders. "We protect each other. Always."
Ethan groaned theatrically. "I guess I’ll help too. But only because I don’t want to take notes alone."
Dorian just said, quietly:
"He stays alive."
rlin felt sothing tighten in his throat.
Morgana watched them with an expression so subtle rlin couldn’t decipher it—approval? Fondness? Calculation?
Then she turned back to him.
"This is not just protection," she said. "This is an investigation."
Her eyes burned with cold fire.
"And Everhart... you are the key to unraveling why the Cabal wants you."
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