The students followed in files, away from the main hall, into the lecture wing.
Another part of the Academy Vel rarely set foot in. His class got a small room that fit five, a training yard at dawn, and an instructor who preferred distance.
His life here was smaller than it should have been.
Hundreds of boots rang against the polished tile, the sound climbing to the high ceiling.
The stream moved slowly, and settled, little by little, into groups. Vel's stopped beside one of the windows, waiting for their names to be called.
Up close, the fine metalwork of the frame came clear. The windows stretched the length of the corridor, tall, arched, each filled with dark glass.
The lecture rooms on the other side had been cleared, for obvious reasons. A soldier stood at each door with a list.
The pattern set in quickly. A name called. A student going in stiff, coming out minutes later on a long exhale. Then the next.
Hileya had been stopped at the doors with the other servants. For the first time all day, she was not a step behind him.
"What should I say?" Tomas asked, low, once the line had crept them closer to the door.
"Whatever you saw," Vel said.
"That's the thing. I don't even know what I saw."
"Then say that."
Rohen leaned in from Tomas's other side. "You know there are three versions of you going around," he said, looking at Vel. "In one of them you have sparks running through your eyes."
Vel held Rohen's gaze for a moment, trying to recall whether it had been true.
"Wouldn't know if I did."
Rohen stared harder into his eyes.
"What?"
"Hm."
There was no doubt in the stare, only curiosity, as if Rohen half wanted to see it for himself. Vel grew uncomfortable, broke from it, and changed the subject.
"What exactly happened to the rest of you," Vel asked, "after the cult appeared?"
"We actually got out thanks to Enya." Tomas nodded her way.
"How?"
"Launched the lot of them over the wall with my spell," Enya said.
"And got us all drenched!" Rohen added.
"Well, can you cast your earth spell without it getting muddy?"
Rohen had no answer to that.
"That's what I thought. Hmph."
Mira leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"But... is it true? That the cult learned our chaos discovery through Instructor Lyvenna?"
"I'm... not sure," Vel said. "But there's no other explanation."
"You saw what they did." Tomas closed in. "The patterns on their spells matched ours."
Mira shook her head, a small, stubborn motion.
"Maybe she didn't know. Maybe someone used her..." Her voice grew quieter with each word. "She never seemed like a bad person."
Vel had no answer to that either. Whatever happened to Lyvenna now was out of his hands.
The first name of their group was called. Enya. Then Mira, then Konomi. Rohen went last, with a lazy salute that didn't match his eyes.
Then only Vel and Tomas were left by the window.
None of them had come back out yet when the next call came.
"Velarian. Tomas Mardin."
A soldier with the list. Tomas started for the open door.
"You two." The soldier checked the list again, as if the paper had told him something new. "Follow me."
The soldier led them past the open door, past the reserved rooms, and around a corner.
At the end stood a single door. He opened it and stepped aside.
Inside was a lecture hall. Rows of benches and desks descended in steps toward the teaching platform at the bottom, every seat empty.
A long desk had been set on the platform, and at its center stood a single ornate chair, high-backed, more throne than seat. Emeric sat in it like a judge at his bench.
Off to the side of the platform, Eldrin and Kein sat at a smaller table, paper and ink laid out in front of Kein.
Kein? Again? Vel thought. Why is he everywhere these days?
There was no one else. No clerk, no guards. The door closed behind them.
Tomas bowed so fast he nearly folded. Vel followed, measured and correct.
"Quicker than the one my brother got," Emeric said.
What does he mean by that?
Tomas glanced at Vel, lost.
"At ease, both of you. I'm not the Crown's successor. Save the ceremony for my brother." He said it with an easy smile.
Tomas let out a breath, close to a laugh. Vel inclined his head and said nothing.
From the corner, Eldrin smiled at him, the way old acquaintances do, and gave a wave so lazy it landed somewhere near a salute.
Then his hands folded together on the desk.
"Velarian. And Tomas." Emeric said the names without looking at anything written down.
"Yes, Your Highness," Tomas managed.
"You may be wondering why the two of you are here, and not in the rooms down the corridor."
He let the words settle.
"You both were inside the invasion from its first moment to its last. A summons to the Tribunal, as witnesses, is inevitable."
"Today, I only want the shape of it."
He nodded toward Kein. The pen started moving.
So they gave it, from the beginning, trading the telling between them. Vel kept his portion careful, true wherever truth was safe. Kein wrote most of it down. Eldrin only observed.
When it was done, Emeric rose from the chair and paced the edge of the long table, slow, one end to the other.
"So you're saying no one else saw what happened, aside from those inside the barrier, until the very end."
"You can ask the Archmagister for verification," Vel said.
"As a matter of fact, she did vouch for you." Emeric turned, graceful, and held the pause on Vel a moment longer than it needed. Then he flicked a finger lightly. "Let me paint you a picture."
"The Commander of the Royal Guard took part in suppressing the cult. A request he could not refuse. And that request came solely from the Academy and the Church. The Guild only joined after."
"Casualties were made. And now everyone is expected to take the word of the one person who arranged all of it. With no proof of right or wrong."
He stopped pacing.
"Do you know how that looks, from the outside?"
Neither of them answered. Vel wasn't sure they were meant to.
"It almost cost her life," Vel said. "What other proof do we need?"
"Like I said, we have only your words for it. And truth bends easily, when nothing solid holds it."
As much as Vel hated the way Emeric framed it, he could not deny it.
"The plan was to lure them into one place," he said anyway. "And take all of them at once."
"Mm. That would be the other point." Emeric tipped his head toward the side table. "Why don't you ask Eldrin what happened, while everyone was busy 'taking them all at once'?"
The prince remained silent. Kein answered instead.
"After we left the arena, we were ambushed. Two attackers. By my estimation, each possessed strength comparable to a platinum-rank adventurer. Possibly greater."
"We escaped through luck, not skill."
A brief pause.
"But one detail stayed with me. They answered to someone."
"Someone above them," Emeric finished. "Someone who spent an entire invasion as a distraction, to take Eldrin,"
If an invasion of that scale had been nothing but a distraction, then the cult's roots ran deeper, and further back, than Vel had ever imagined.
"Imagine word spreading that after every sacrifice made that day, the Kingdom holds nothing. Not one thread leading to the true enemy. That is not a good picture, for anyone involved."
"Elyssia…" Vel said.
"Her, among others. And whoever orchestrated this learns we've begun pulling at the right thread."
"Which is why this information has not left this room. Not the court. Not even the Royal Guard."
Emeric gave a small nod.
"And I'd rather it stayed that way."
Vel frowned.
"Then why tell us?"
"My brother rarely wrong about people, despite his…condition"
Emeric rested his hands on the table, his smile fading.
"If this organization has reached beneath even the royal family..."
"...or already has..."
"...then trust is about to become expensive."
Nobody answered.
"The outside must believe the cult died here."
His gaze lingered on each of them in turn.
"The cultists themselves must believe it."
"You're asking us to lie," Tomas said.
"I'm asking you to keep the enemy blind."
"We almost lost the Academy to a demon lord," Vel said. "Inside our own walls."
"All the more reason." Emeric's voice remained even.
"And if you help me maintain that illusion...you'll have my aid whenever you need it."
Celia died…
They had stood against the Demon Lord's invasion knowing they might never leave the battlefield.
And now those sacrifices were becoming another piece on someone's game board.
Heat rose in Vel's chest. He forced it down.
"How can I tell you're not one of them?"
Kein's pen stopped mid-stroke. Eldrin looked up. Beside him, Tomas went rigid.
Emeric didn't flinch. If anything, his grin widened.
He leaned back against the table as though the question had finally made the conversation interesting.
"I can see why so many have taken an interest in you."
His eyes flicked briefly toward Kein before returning to Vel.
"And that..."
"...is precisely why you're suited for this."
He pushed himself upright and spread his hands.
"If I were what you suggest..."
"...what would I gain from kidnapping my own brother?"
"From handing you a secret that would be safer buried?"
He dipped his head with exaggerated politeness.
"I'm merely a prince. A second prince who was content enjoying a comfortable life..."
"...until one day he learned the kingdom beneath his feet was quietly being hollowed out."
He stepped off the platform.
This time, when he spoke, he needed no volume.
"But you. You are among the few who could make changes. Real ones."
"And I am here to help. Myself. The Crown, and by extension...the kingdom" The lightness was gone when he said it.
"If you want to catch something that hides in the dark, you stand in the dark with it. Simple as that." He straightened, and the easy smile found its way back.
Vel did not need Kein's approval. Still, he found himself glancing toward the corner, as if one look might make the decision clearer.
"One more question," Vel said. "Why is Prince Edrick not part of this?"
Emeric lowered himself back into the ornate chair, slow, like a man who knew the meeting had found its end.
"As the Crown's heir, my brother already carries enough burdens."
He folded one leg over the other.
"It isn't him I'm worried about." His smile thinned. "It's the crows circling overhead."
"Before you go, take this."
He produced a small medallion, no larger than a coin, and slid it across the desk.
"What is it?"
"Something that will help you immediately. A Blade Steward's insignia, reserved for highly trained servants who guard the Royal Court." A pause. "You should know what to do with it."
"Remember what we discussed, when you present yourself before the Tribunal."
Vel stared at the insignia.
He had put off the cult and its warnings for long enough. Avoiding them was supposed to keep everyone around him safe. He would keep his head down, do what he came here to do, and leave the fight to the people fit for it.
Look where that had brought him. Right back to the center of it. And it had cost him Celia to see it.
There had been no hiding, only the illusion of it.
While he chased the life of an ordinary student, something had been growing in the dark.
And sooner or later, it would reach everyone he cared about.
If no one else can protect my family, then I will.
Vel reached out and closed his fingers around the insignia.
With nothing left to say, Vel turned and headed for the door.
Now that it was over, he could finally visit Clara.
Only one thing still held him back.
He had no idea how to tell her that Celia, her sister, was gone.