Chapter 22 #2
His jaw tightened. “It was going to hit you.”
Vareena stared at him. No one said anything. There was nothing soft about the moment. She looked absolutely furious. Raiden looked like he would do exactly the same thing again.
Then Dax shouted from across the street. “Either finish whatever this is later or get up.”
Neseryn was fighting two wraiths at once.
One shadow blade passed through the first creature’s shoulder.
Another ribbon of violet-black darkness wound around the second and yanked it hard enough to crack its projected spine against the stones.
Her magic moved with horrifying precision.
No wasted motion. No frantic over correction.
She had been raised inside this kind of violence. I could see it in every decision.
Dax sent a wall of earth up behind her without being asked. Neseryn stepped backward onto it the instant it rose. He drove the stone beneath her feet forward. She used the momentum.
Shadow gathered around her body and for one impossible instant, it became fully violet.
Then she launched from the stone and went directly through the first wraith. The creature burst apart behind her.
Dax stared openly now. “You knew I was raising that.”
Neseryn landed in a low crouch. “You telegraph through your left shoulder.”
His eyebrows lifted. “That obvious?”
“To me.”
The corner of his mouth lifted, quick and satisfied. He didn’t answer. The final wraith came from behind him. Neseryn’s Shadow snapped around his waist and ripped him sideways.
The claws missed his throat by inches. Dax hit the ground on his back. Neseryn stood over him. For a second neither of them moved. Her Shadow remained wrapped around his middle, violet-black against his green training leathers.
Dax looked down at it.
Then up at her.
His breathing had changed.
So had hers.
The projection began collapsing around them. Neseryn released him immediately. The village vanished until there was nothing but Crucible stone beneath their feet.
Raiden’s wound disappeared with it, though Vareena remained kneeling beside him for another second before she seemed to remember everyone was watching and stood.
Dax got to his feet more slowly. Neseryn did not offer him a hand. He didn’t appear offended.
Calis looked down at her slate. “Pass.”
Kaiz folded his arms. “Kamari broke focus.”
Vareena went rigid.
“She corrected herself,” Rhovan said.
“After Quillfin bled for it.”
Raiden spoke before Vareena could. “That was my decision. Not hers.”
Kaiz looked down at him. “And if the wound had been real?”
Raiden’s answer came without apology. “Still my decision.” Vareena turned toward him sharply.
Kaiz’s stare hardened. “That answer will get both of you killed.” Neither responded.
Calis looked toward Neseryn. “Vexoria, you were efficient, but you used excessive force on the third target.”
“It was dead.”
“It was projected incapacitated before dismemberment.”
Neseryn wiped one streak of false blood from the back of her hand. “Then the projection should have stopped moving.”
Kaiz made a quiet sound that might have been disapproval.
Dax looked like he was trying not to smile.
Rhovan noticed. “Balethorn.” Dax straightened. “Whatever thought is currently happening behind your face, abandon it.”
“I wasn’t—”
“Abandon it.”
Dax closed his mouth.
Neseryn passed him on the way out of the ring. “Work your left shoulder.” He turned. She didn’t. Dax stood there watching her walk back toward the Umbra candidates.
Emrin appeared beside him when he returned to the Earth line. “Please don’t start.”
He looked at her. “Again with this?”
“I know that face.”
“What face?”
“The one that ruins my week.”
His eyes found Neseryn across the Crucible again. “I think I’m in love.” Emrin took a long, patient breath. Dax looked at her. “Too soon?”
“Yes.”
“That’s fair.” But he was still watching Neseryn when Calis called the next group.
Assessment after assessment followed. The Crucible changed every time.
A forest breach where vines closed around candidates’ throats if they failed to identify which growth was part of the projection and which was hostile magic.
A bridge collapse over a ravine that looked deep enough to swallow the screams of anyone falling into it.
A caravan attack where the marked civilian changed halfway through the scenario, forcing the group to choose between completing extraction and turning back for someone they had already passed.
One Light candidate vomited after her group failed.
No one laughed. An Archivist simply recorded it.
With every projection, the Sanctum looked less like the academy I had imagined and more like what it really was.
A place designed to make failure hurt before the world made it permanent. My group came near the end.
Calis looked at the slate. “Alerain.” My stomach dropped. “Emrin Balethorn. Inserra.” I waited. No fourth name came. Around the Crucible, several people noticed.
Lidia noticed immediately. She stepped from the Fire line but didn’t enter the ring yet. “Who’s Shadow?”
Calis looked at her. “No one.” That sent a low murmur through the nearby candidates.
Emrin stopped beside me. “It’s a modified assessment?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?” Calis didn’t answer her. My mouth went dry. Every standard group had four. One of each affinity.
Light.
Fire.
Earth.
Shadow.
Mine had three.
Across the ring, Vareena’s lips pressed into a fine line. She understood. Kieran did too. His attention moved from Calis to the platform above her. Magister Halos sat forward. There it was. Not an oversight. A decision.
Lidia looked toward Kaiz. “You approved this?”
Kaiz’s jaw tightened. “Enter the ring, Inserra.”
That wasn’t an answer either. Lidia stared at him for another second before stepping across the wardline. Emrin followed. I stayed where I was.
Calis’s eyes met mine. “Alerain.”
“Where is our Shadow candidate?”
“You do not have one.”
“Every other group did.”
“This is not every other group.” The words landed badly.
A few people shifted behind me. My gaze went to Halos.
He was already watching. Not the way Calis watched candidates.
Not even the way Kieran watched me. Halos looked like a man waiting for an answer and ready to do whatever it took to pry it out of you.
I stepped into the ring. Behind me, the ward sealed. Vareena went rigid. Kieran’s shadows moved once around his boots. No one else seemed to notice. The wardstones flared.
The projection rose.
No village.
No road.
No forest.
A ruined hall formed around us, its ceiling torn open beneath a sky without stars. Broken columns littered the floor. Silver markings crawled across walls that had once been pale but were now stained dark with age, black streaks climbing the stone like old smoke.
I stared.
I had never been here, but my body reacted as though I had. My rune tightened. Not the Shadow rune. The one beneath my ribs.
Starlight.
Emrin looked around. “Do you know this place?”
“No.” She looked at me. “I don’t.”
Lidia’s Fire appeared over one hand. “Then stop looking at it like it knows you.”
Calis’s voice carried through the projection. “Contain the breach. Protect the marked point. Survive until extraction.” Marked point. I turned.
At the center of the ruined hall stood an empty pedestal. My heartbeat stumbled. It looked too much like the one beneath the Codex.
The darkness moved. Not from one breach. Everywhere. It seeped down the broken walls, curled around shattered columns, pooled beneath our feet. Lidia swore quietly as a figure stepped out of the dark.
Long limbs, too many joints, and a head turning farther than a neck should allow.
Then another.
Another.
More gathered behind them.
A dozen now.
Emrin inhaled slowly. “That seems excessive.” Lidia’s Fire expanded. The first creature struck. She launched flame directly through its center. The creature dissolved. Then reformed behind her.
“Down!” Lidia dropped. Silver-blue Light tore from my palm and struck the creature hard enough to send it into a broken column. The entire Crucible went quiet outside the projection.
I felt it.
Every eye turning toward me.
Halos.
Calis.
Kieran.
Neseryn.
Vareena.
Lidia got back to her feet beside me. “Careful.” I knew what she meant. Not the creatures. Me. The smaller shapes came at once. Emrin slammed both hands toward the floor. Roots split the illusionary stone, winding around legs, throats, torsos. Darkness ate through them.
Emrin gasped and staggered. One hand clamped around her wrist. I caught her shoulder. “What happened?”
“It bit back.”
Lidia stepped in front of us. Fire erupted in a circle. Heat rolled across my face. The creatures recoiled. One turned toward me. It had no mouth.
Still, I felt it smile.
A whisper scraped through the back of my mind.
Star—
I hit it with Light.
The creature shattered. So did the projection.
Not entirely. For one second, the ruined hall flickered into another place.
White marble. Blue glass. A woman was crawling across the floor.
Her golden hair spilled over one shoulder with blood dragging behind her.
One hand reached desperately beyond my sight.
I stopped breathing.
The image flickered. Ruined hall. White marble. Ruined hall. Blue glass.
Then the largest creature turned toward the woman.