Deep within the Archive's furthest reaches, in a section Vethrion approached with visible, uncharacteristic reluctance, we found a record that would prove, among everything else we'd uncovered, the most personally unsettling of all.
"This section documents trainees whose processes completed successfully," Vethrion explained, "but who experienced what this Circle's records classify as 'catastrophic integration failure' following their release into a mortal realm."
"What does that mean in practice?" I asked, though some instinctive part of me already suspected, with a dread I couldn't fully articulate, exactly what the euphemism concealed.
Vethrion led us to a single, isolated record, set apart from the others with what looked like deliberate, careful containment wards woven around its physical placement on the shelf. "It means," Vethrion said quietly, "that the trainee completed their trial, gained power on the same scale you now possess, Master Gigonos, and then, upon release into a mortal realm, found themselves fundamentally unable to reconcile that power with any remaining sense of purpose, connection, or humanity."
The record, when I finally examined it directly, belonged to a trainee named Corvain, whose training history proved, disturbingly, almost identical to my own — same trillion-year duration, same progression of increasingly absurd stat growth, same skill acquisitions at nearly identical milestones.
"He's practically my mirror," I said quietly, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the Rift's strange, unstable atmosphere.
"In terms of training process, largely so," Vethrion confirmed. "The critical divergence occurred following his release. Where you, Master Gigonos, chose to build community, alliance, and genuine connection within your new world, Corvain's own release occurred into a realm already consumed by a devastating, decades-long war. Rather than finding purpose in protecting others, as you have, he found himself overwhelmed by a scale of suffering his power could have easily prevented, had he arrived earlier, or acted more decisively upon arrival."
"What happened to him?" Aria asked quietly.
"He attempted to end the war himself, unilaterally, believing his overwhelming power justified whatever methods proved necessary to achieve peace as quickly as possible," Vethrion said. "The methods he ultimately employed proved... catastrophic. He did end the war, Master Gigonos. He did so by rendering the specific region contesting it entirely uninhabitable, judging, in a state this Circle's own assessment classifies as complete psychological breakdown, that a swift, absolute end justified any cost required to achieve it."
The chamber fell into heavy, horrified silence.
"Where is he now?" I asked finally, dreading the answer.
"Contained," Vethrion said simply. "Within a section of this Archive specifically warded to prevent his continued influence from spreading, following his own realm's Court equivalent finally intervening to halt his escalating actions. He remains, to this day, a cautionary example this Circle references whenever debating the wisdom of releasing trained beings of your scale into mortal realms without more robust ongoing oversight."
I thought of my own trillion years of training, of the genuine joy I'd found in it despite its isolation, of the deliberate, careful choices I'd made since arriving in this world — building coalition rather than conquering, protecting rather than dictating, grieving Corrin's death rather than simply absorbing it as an acceptable cost of larger strategic goals. I thought, too, of how easily, under slightly different circumstances, slightly different timing, slightly different pressures, I might have found myself walking a path disturbingly similar to Corvain's own catastrophic unraveling.
"This is why 'Hide It' exists," I said slowly, understanding settling into place with fresh, uncomfortable weight. "Not just to prevent mortal societies from destabilizing around worship or fear. It's meant to buy trained beings time to actually integrate, to build genuine connection and perspective, before their power gets tested against something as overwhelming as what Corvain apparently faced immediately upon arrival."
"Precisely," Vethrion confirmed. "And it is, admittedly, an imperfect safeguard. You yourself revealed your true capability far sooner than 'Hide It' was designed to accommodate, Master Gigonos, and yet you have, thus far, avoided anything resembling Corvain's catastrophic unraveling. I suspect the difference lies less in the specific safeguards this Court has constructed, and considerably more in the genuine character and choices of the individual trainee involved."
I looked at the warded record containing whatever remained of Corvain's contained, catastrophic existence, and felt a fresh, personal resolve settle into place alongside everything else this harrowing archive had revealed. Whatever came next — the Realmgate, the Architect's true nature, the war still building across an entire continent back in the world I'd come to think of as genuinely my own — I would not allow myself to forget how easily, under different circumstances, I might have become exactly the kind of cautionary tale this Court now kept carefully contained and quietly, uncomfortably referenced.