Yegr didn't sleep that night. He couldn't. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the flicker of the lantern in that tower room, the way Serra's voice had carried just enough weight to make the others listen.
By morning, his plan was already forming. He had three days to prepare — to train, to watch, and to figure out what this "test" was meant to be. But the most dangerous part wasn't the test itself.
It was that they already knew his name.
He stayed quiet in classes, kept his sparring controlled, and made sure Darin never saw the exhaustion in his eyes. No point worrying him when he couldn't help.
The second night, Yegr slipped into the Academy's Grand Library. Few students came here after dark — the aisles between the towering shelves were deep in shadow, the air heavy with dust and candle smoke. He was looking for anything on Second Awakening.
He found a dusty codex in the restricted wing, bound in cracked blue leather. The script was cramped, written in an older dialect, but one phrase leapt at him immediately:
> When the vessel opens, the sky will bleed twice.
Yegr traced the words with his thumb. He'd seen the sky bleed once before — during the fall of Vardun — and the memory made his chest tighten.
A sound broke his focus.
Footsteps. Slow. Purposeful.
He closed the book and slid it back into place, hand drifting toward his dagger.
A figure stepped out from behind the next row of shelves — tall, cloaked, and hooded. Yegr's muscles tensed, ready to strike, until the stranger raised both hands.
"I'm not here to fight," the man said. His voice was low, familiar in a way that made Yegr's skin prickle.
The hood fell back, revealing a face Yegr had never thought he'd see again.
Master Rolen. His old combat instructor — the one who, in the old timeline, had been killed in the very first assault.
But this Rolen's eyes were sharper, harder.
"I know what you are," Rolen said quietly. "Or rather — when you are."
Yegr stared. "You… remember?"
Rolen nodded once. "Not all of it. Flashes. But enough to know this isn't the first time we've walked these halls."
The silence between them was heavy.
Finally, Rolen spoke again. "You've stumbled into something bigger than you think. And if you're going to survive the test in three days, you'll need my help."