They posted the decree at dawn.
A sheet of black parchment nailed to the Grand Academy's gate with silver pins that shimmered against the rising light. It bore no seal — only the spiral sigil of the High Council, etched into the surface like a scar.
The command was simple:
Lyric Velastra. Marked twice.To undergo the Rite of Binding Flame at week's end.Failure to stabilize is failure to serve.Witnesses required. Escape is admission of guilt.
By noon, it was everywhere.
Folded into books, scrawled in margin notes, whispered behind veils.
Some believed it a mercy. Others, a culling.
The Ring of Echoes became a no-man's land.
Ervas, who once called Lyric a brother, had moved to Vigilance. Said nothing. Took his bedroll and his echoes with him.
Others whispered. Watched.
Only one stayed close — a girl with inkless arms and a habit of speaking backward in her sleep. She braided her hair with vine thread and left food outside Lyric's door.
But she wouldn't look him in the eye.
The challenge came two days later.
Midnight. Under the rain-slick archway of the Glyph Arena, where duels were banned without a seal. Where blood had once been spilled between heirs.
Vhentyr Cael'theron stood waiting.
No cloak. No escort. His soul sigil already alight — pale gold burning at his throat like a promise made by something cruel.
Lyric stopped at the threshold. The rain slicked down his tunic, the second mark cold and quiet beneath it.
"You're not supposed to be here," Lyric said softly.
Vhentyr's voice cut clean through the storm.
"And you're not supposed to exist."
The twinblade on his back — Cael'thesos — gleamed even without light. One edge for truth. One for deception.
"You disgrace the Spiral. You threaten the balance."
Lyric's fists curled. "And what do you threaten, Vhentyr?"
The heir of House Cael took one step forward. His boots didn't even splash.
"Your last chance to be remembered for something noble."
There was no formal declaration. No oath-seal. No referee.
But when the twinblade left its sheath, the ground itself dimmed.
A forbidden duel had begun.