Chapter 39 #2
Halos glanced at the report. “Observers saw repeated verbal exchanges.”
“They couldn’t hear them.”
“No.”
“Then I’m not sure why the number of times her mouth moved matters.”
Damon’s pen paused over the page. Halos ignored the remark. “How did you defeat her?”
“With her dagger.”
“You abandoned your sword.”
“She knew what I was going to do with it.”
“And the dagger?”
“She didn’t expect me to take hers.”
Kieran remained outwardly detached, though the set of his shoulders altered slightly. I knew enough about him now to recognize approval when he was trying not to show it.
Halos continued. A version of me who appeared physically depleted, her Light so weak witnesses could see it fading beneath her skin. A woman dressed in mourning black whose hands had appeared covered in blood and who had walked through Lidia’s Fire as if the flames had no claim on her.
Here, Halos lingered. “What did the mourning construct show you?” I looked at him. “Witnesses reported your attention repeatedly moving beyond the projection toward candidates outside the ward. Kamari. Quillfin. Balethorn. Others.”
He knew where I had looked. Not why. “I was fighting.”
“You were distracted.”
“Yes.”
“By?”
“No.” One of his brows lifted. “I’m not giving you every image the Crucible dragged through my head.”
“This inquiry exists because that projection nearly destroyed an ancient ward structure.”
“And I’m answering questions about the structure.”
“You are answering what you choose.”
“Now you understand how this feels.” The white flame overhead hummed softly. Damon shifted on the bench but did not intervene.
Halos set the report aside. “The crowned manifestation.” The room seemed to narrow around the words.
“Silver circlet. Formal dress. Starlight manifestation exceeding any of your previous controlled demonstrations. Three Elyndorian observers independently described elements of the clothing as consistent with pre-Council royal construction.” Damon’s attention came fully off his notes.
Halos continued. “You appeared to speak with the construct for some time before engaging it.”
I remembered the Queen telling me I kept waiting for someone else to tell me who I was. The Codex had gone silent then. Without intending to, I reached for it now.
Codex?
“What did she tell you?” Halos asked.
“I’m not answering that.”
“Why?”
“Because it had nothing to do with the ward mechanics.”
“That remains to be determined.” Damon spoke before Halos could push further. “The appearance itself is independently relevant to Elyndor. Whatever passed privately between Alerain and a projection is not evidence of royal identity.”
Halos turned toward him. “Yet the Council sent you here to investigate exactly that imagery.”
“To investigate its source. Not to treat whatever a construct said as sworn testimony.” There was no warmth in Damon today. He was protecting the integrity of the evidence because the Council wanted something it could use. That was almost more reassuring than kindness.
Halos returned his attention to me. “Had you seen the circlet before?”
“No.”
“Have you studied old Elyndorian royal dress?”
“No.”
“Have you been shown portraits of the former royal family?”
“No.” All true at the time of the projection.
“Had anyone suggested you possessed royal blood?”
My pulse changed. “No.” Also true. Halos looked dissatisfied.
Then he picked up the final witness report.
“The Shadow manifestation.” The rune at my hip burned beneath the leather.
Everyone had seen that version of me. Black wrapped around her body.
A visible rune near her hip. Darkness moved over her skin effortlessly, as though wielding Shadow had always been as natural to her as breathing.
They had not heard her ask why I was pretending.
They had not felt my own Shadow answer. Halos read from the report. “Dense Shadow manifestation. Advanced control. Visible rune along the left hip. Unlike several earlier constructs, witnesses described the affinity as unusually coherent.”
I kept my hands loose at my sides. “Projection constructs had scars I don’t have and training I haven’t completed.”
“Yes.”
“Then I don’t know why this one is supposed to be literal.”
“I did not say it was.”
“You’re doing an excellent impression.” Damon lowered his eyes toward his notes. Kieran did not move.
Halos’s voice remained level. “Did the construct speak to you?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
I met his stare. “You couldn’t hear it.”
“That is why I am asking.”
“And I’m not telling you.”
The Shadow beneath my skin pressed closer to awareness.
Do not confuse concealment with denial.
I nearly closed my eyes.
Not now.
Especially now.
The urge to tell the Codex to go fuck itself was almost comforting.
Halos watched me too closely. “Why did you extinguish your Light after that construct appeared?”
“Because Emrin realized the projection was responding to active magic. Every time one of us wielded, more constructs appeared. We stopped feeding it.”
“That decision occurred while a Shadow version of you was standing in front of you.”
“Yes.”
“And you chose to fight it with steel.”
“I chose to stop giving an unstable Crucible more magic.”
Halos turned toward Kieran. “Instructor Nyxara. Does the presence of a Shadow construct suggest the subject possesses Shadow affinity?”
“No.” The answer came cleanly enough that Halos paused. Kieran crossed to the edge of the central table. “Projection architecture can draw from fear, memory, symbolism, ambient affinity, or the ward matrix itself. A construct wielding Shadow proves the construct could wield Shadow.”
“Have you seen projection magic create an affinity its subject did not possess?”
“Yes.”
“At this scale?”
“No. But none of what happened in the Crucible was operating at ordinary scale by then.”
The older ward-master frowned over his ledger. “The construct’s Shadow was unusually stable.”
“Mine was present outside the ward. There were other Shadow wielders among the witnesses. The projection was already pulling from active affinities around it by the time the foundation began failing.”
Halos tapped the report. “And the rune.”
“The Warrior had scars Alerain does not have. The crowned construct wore clothing she had never seen. You cannot select one projected physical feature and declare it literal because it suits the question you want answered.”
Damon leaned back slightly.
I wanted to kiss Kieran. Terrible timing.
Halos studied him. “You are unusually confident.”
“I know Shadow.” Nothing boastful in it. There didn’t need to be. Everyone in the room knew why Kieran had been called.
Halos changed direction before challenging him became less useful than accepting the expertise he had requested. “The crowned construct remained after the others disappeared. You stopped attacking it.”
“Yes.”
“You dropped your weapon.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I remembered One survives.
“I’m not answering that either.”
Halos considered me across the ring of runes.
“Your reluctance becomes most pronounced whenever this inquiry approaches identity.” Damon’s pen stopped again.
“The Hollowlands construct. The crowned one. The Shadow manifestation. You are willing to discuss physical combat and remarkably guarded about anything those constructs said.”
There was no safe answer to that. So I gave him none. Halos let the silence stand before returning to the ward failure. “Immediately after the final interaction, the projection collapsed and your Starlight output exceeded measurable range. Do you remember releasing it?”
“I remember trying to survive the Crucible breaking apart.”
“That was not what I asked.”
“It is what I remember.” He believed there was more. He was right. He had no proof of what. For now, that mattered more. The side door opened before he could continue.
Neseryn entered in black training leathers.
The fading bruise near her jaw was the only obvious evidence I had managed to hurt her in Court Three. I took a small, private satisfaction in it before remembering why she had been summoned. She stepped into the witness circle.
Kieran stood only a few feet behind her now.
Halos began with our first match. “Describe Alerain’s combat ability at that time.”
Neseryn did not embellish. “Severely under trained. She had strength without mechanics. Her guard dropped when she panicked, her footing was poor, and she relied on instinct because she didn’t have enough technique to rely on anything else.”
“Was she dangerous?”
“To herself more than anyone else.” That stung. “She also kept fighting after the outcome was clear,” Neseryn continued. “There were several points when a trained candidate would have yielded.”
Halos turned to me. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I wasn’t staying on the floor because she wanted me there.”
“Which supports her assessment.”
“I didn’t say it was intelligent.”
Neseryn’s mouth flattened for a moment. Halos asked whether I had improved. “Yes. Quickly.” That surprised me. Then she added, “Faster than her judgment.”
Halos questioned her about the Crucible next.
Neseryn had seen the final portion from outside the projection boundary.
She confirmed that my Light had exceeded my ability to direct it and that by the time the wards began failing, I was reacting to threats faster than I could make deliberate choices.
Then he asked about the alternate selves. “Which manifestation was most significant to you as a Shadow wielder?”
“The Shadow construct.”
My hip rune pulsed once. “Why?”
“It moved differently.”
“Explain.”
“The Warrior copied learned combat. The Shadow construct used affinity instinctively. It didn’t shape every movement before acting. Its magic moved with it.”
Halos glanced toward Kieran. “Does that distinction matter?”
“Yes. To the quality of the construct.”
“Does it suggest the affinity came from Alerain?”
“No.”