The chamber was silent, the air thick with tension as Maya Frey stood before the council. The flickering lumen crystals cast long shadows over the faces of Winston, Vanessa, Leo, Duron, Garlack, Njdeka, and the club captains—including the recently returned Raymond Gilt, Captain of the Commander Club, whose sharp gaze never left Maya.
Winston's chair creaked as he leaned forward, fingers steepled. "You risked everything to come here, Maya. Speak. And it better be worth it."
Maya remained silent, allowing the room to drown in subtle tension. She took in the sight of every one of them and said nothing.
Liena Vos, Captain of the Sniper Club, rotated a dagger between her fingers with deceptive calm. "You're quite dramatic for someone who got removed dishonorably from the academy."
"Dishonorably?" Maya barked a laugh that held no humor. "Is that what they told you?" Her gaze swept across the skeptical faces. "I was removed because I discovered something Winston's people missed in Drake's evaluation. And when I kept digging—"
A murmur rippled through the club captains. "Jagger? What does that weakling have to do with anything?"
"Why is his evaluation hidden?" Raymond Gilt's eyes narrowed slightly, his strategic mind already noting the anomaly.
Vanessa Blaze cut in, her crimson eyes narrowing. "Get to the point, Professor. We're not here for your grievances."
Maya's hands clenched. "My uncle Lucien Frey summoned me about three weeks ago. He said... he said the world was changing. That I had a chance to be on the right side of history."
The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Torin's massive frame shifted. "Get to it."
Maya's hands trembled slightly, but her voice was steady. "I think House Frey has sworn allegiance to the Hands of the Divine."
She let the room absorb her words before she continued.
"He showed me a symbol." Maya traced a shape in the condensation on the table—a staring eye within a palm. "Said even members of the Grand Alliance had already bent the knee to the Hands of the Divine."
The silence that followed was absolute. Then—
"Treasonous lies!" The Tank Club Captain, Rhys Volk, slammed his fist down. "You expect us to believe this?" Rhys nearly launched his chair at her. "The Grand Alliance's honor is unimpeachable! My family has served them personally for years and they have never betrayed humanity, not once! You expect us to believe this crap?"
Maya hadn't moved, though sweat now plastered her hair to her forehead. "You can say what you want, but House Frey is compromised and at least one royal house too, though Lucien wouldn't say which. They're inside the walls, inside the Grand Alliance." Her voice broke. "Inside this very room, for all I know. Even you, Vanessa, might be one of them—"
Vanessa's aura ignited before the words finished leaving Maya's mouth. Not the controlled flicker of a warning, but an all-consuming inferno that turned the air molten. The table between them exploded outward in a shower of splinters and red flame.
"That does it." Vanessa's voice was terrifyingly calm beneath the roaring flames. "Say it again and see what happens."
Winston didn't flinch from the heat, though his knuckles went white on the armrests. "Vanessa." Just her name, but it carried the weight of decades between them. Slowly, reluctantly, the flames receded.
Liena's dagger stilled. "You've got guts. For someone who begged to be here."
"I didn't come here to see any one of you!" She stared at the members of the council, Winston excluded. Then she looked at Winston, really looked at him for the first time. "I came to you because you're the only one paranoid and powerful enough to have contingencies for this. And because you hid Drake—I'm betting the reason why means you'll understand the threat I'm describing."
Rhys scoffed. "This is absurd! We should take this straight to the Grand Alliance—"
"Are you truly that naïve?" Maya yelled. "Accuse a royal house without ironclad proof and see how long before you 'tragically' fall down some stairs. Or would you prefer a public trial? Because I assure you, the witch hunt won't be coming from us."
Leo grunted. "She's not wrong, despite her rudeness. We move openly now, we're signing death warrants."
"I agree," Duron said. "We need to investigate and verify her claim." He turned slightly. "Or what do you suggest, Sir Winston?"
Winston looked at Duron briefly, then at Maya, and said nothing. His hazel eyes were glued to Maya as if he were staring into the deepest part of her existence. The room held its breath as they all watched Winston, waiting for his verdict.
Then—he spoke.
"How, then, did you escape your uncle, Maya?" Winston said in a deep, monotonous tone.
"Why would he reveal this to you?" Winston pressed, his voice low. "What proof did he offer?"
"He needed a scientist," Maya replied, her voice flat. "Someone to analyze the... changes in newly mass-produced Nulls. That was my proof."
A sharp gasp cut through the room. "That's impossible," someone whispered. Njdeka took a half-step back, her usual stoicism broken by a flicker of horror.
"Mass-produced?" Winston's voice became a razor's edge, all monotony gone. "Explain. Scale. Location."
Raymond Gilt, the Commander Club Captain, interjected with cold, strategic precision. "The resource requirements for such an operation would be massive. Foundries, power sources, a vast workforce... it couldn't be hidden."
"He didn't give me a timetable or locations," Maya said, her voice straining. "Only that their influence was already here and that the process was already underway."
"And their plans?" Winston demanded, laser-focused.
"That's all I know of their plans; he was very tight-lipped," she replied.
Maya met his gaze, her voice steady but weary. "He thought I was considering his offer. I played along—asked for time to gather my thoughts, but he kept me under surveillance within the estate." She swallowed hard. "I escaped using the old abandoned service tunnels beneath the Frey estate. The ones we used as children. He doesn't know I remember them."
Winston remained silent, his unyielding gaze searching her every fiber for any form of deceit. After a long moment, he simply gave a curt nod. "Anything else?"
Garlack, silent until now, stepped forward. "Security screening confiscated this from her upon arrival, sir. Their resonance scanners picked up a dampened signal from a shielded compartment in her bag. They forced it open." He produced a sickly green vial that seemed to pulse in time with the viewer's heartbeat. "The papers found with it suggest it's meant for Connor."
Maya's breath caught. "It's a counteragent."
Winston studied her face like a man searching for cracks in a dam. After a long moment, he passed the vial to Njdeka. "Run it through every test. If it doesn't kill a lab specimen, administer it to Connor. He's already lost. Let's see if her 'cure' does anything other than finish what they started." His voice was cold, devoid of hope.
Then to Maya: "You'll be given quarters in the old faculty wing. Don't show your face on campus. Don't contact anyone." His gaze hardened. "And if this turns out to be some elaborate ruse..." He paused, letting the threat hang in the air. "You would wish you were never born." He turned to Garlack. "Show her to her quarters. And her presence here is now a top-level secret. Garlack, you are responsible for containing that information. Fabricate a story for the student body—anything. I don't want a single rumor about her to spread."
"Yes, sir," Garlack said as he walked Maya out of the council room.
Winston stood, his presence dominating the fractured room. "That will be all today." His gaze swept over everyone, lingering on each face. "These proceedings do not leave this room. Is that understood? We will determine our next move in private."
Outside the building, students gathered to see what had caused the explosion, Drake, Alexis and Xian included. They stood outside debating and discussing the cause when Garlack escorted Maya outside the building and towards the quarters reserved for her.
Once again, Maya's eyes met Drake's and for that brief moment the sound of the world dissolved around him. Her gaze was the same, but it held a new, unsettling stillness—a calm that felt less like peace and more like a predator holding its breath. Something was wrong—he could feel it. Something was definitely wrong with her being here.