They reached the academy in six days.
Reyland pushed the pace without being asked — he'd noticed Sarah join them at dawn outside the north gate and had the good sense to ask nothing, simply falling into step on Alex's left while Sarah walked on his right in the particular silence of someone who had decided to tolerate a situation rather than approve of it.
The road was uneventful until the fourth day.
Then it wasn't.
The attack came at the narrow pass above Greyveil.
Not bandits.
Four figures in plain clothes with no house markings and the Qi signature of Mid Initiate cultivators — disciplined, coordinated, moving in from both sides of the pass simultaneously with the timing of people who had done this before.
Sarah moved before Alex had fully registered the threat.
Her blade was out and the nearest attacker was already retreating with a cut across his forearm before Reyland drew his sword.
Alex pulled the katana.
The Emotion Node flickered — he pushed it outward without finesse, just a broad pulse of disorientation into the nearest attacker's emotional field.
The man's next step landed wrong.
Reyland took the opening and drove him into the pass wall.
The remaining two reassessed the situation in the space of a breath — looked at Sarah, who was already advancing, looked at Reyland, who was already moving — and ran.
Not the retreat of people who'd been defeated.
The retreat of people who'd collected what they came for.
Sarah watched them go, blade still out.
"They weren't trying to kill us," she said.
"No," Alex said.
Reyland looked between them.
"What were they trying to do?"
Alex watched the empty pass where the two figures had disappeared.
They had gotten close enough. Close enough to confirm faces, cultivation levels, traveling companions.
"Identify us," Alex said.
The academy appeared on the morning of the sixth day.
It sat on elevated ground above a wide river valley — not a single building but a compound, grey stone walls enclosing multiple structures of varying height, towers at the corners, the whole thing older than anything Alex had seen since arriving in this world. The kind of architecture that had absorbed centuries quietly and showed it in the worn edges of every stone.
A long road led up from the valley floor, already busy with candidates and their retinues. Carriages bearing house crests. Groups of young cultivators walking together with the nervous energy of people about to be assessed.
Reyland looked at it for a long moment.
"Bigger than I expected," he said.
They joined the road.
The main registration hall was inside the first gate.
Long tables staffed by academy officials in grey robes, a line of candidates snaking back toward the entrance. House crests everywhere — Valerian among them, Alex noted, three candidates he vaguely recognized from the training grounds. None of them noticed him.
Reyland joined the main line.
He turned back briefly.
"Whatever door you're going through," he said to Alex, "good luck."
Then he turned forward and was absorbed into the crowd.
Sarah was already moving toward the left side of the hall where a single door sat unmarked in the stone wall. No line. No official standing outside it.
Alex followed.
She knocked twice. Paused. Knocked once more.
A long moment passed.
The door opened.
An older woman stood inside — small, sharp-eyed, grey hair cut short. Academy robes but no rank insignia. She looked at Sarah first, then at Alex.
"Two," she said. Not surprised. Just noting.
"He's connected to the research," Sarah said.
The woman looked at Alex with the specific attention of someone reading something that wasn't visible.
"Name."
"Alex."
"House?"
He held her gaze.
"Valerian."
Something moved across her expression — recognition, quick and controlled.
"Come in," she said.
The room beyond was small and plain.
A desk. Three chairs. A single window looking out over the valley below. A shelf along one wall with bound documents stacked in careful order.
The woman sat behind the desk.
Alex and Sarah sat across from her.
"My name is Instructor Vael," she said. "I oversee the secondary assessment process. It is not widely known and I prefer it remains that way." She folded her hands on the desk. "Candidates who enter through this process are assessed over three days. Combat evaluation, practical judgment, and one additional test specific to this intake." She paused. "The third test this cycle concerns something we've been tracking for several years."
She opened the desk drawer and placed a single sheet of paper face down on the surface.
"Before I turn this over," she said, "I need to know something." She looked at Alex directly. "The node behind your Ajna point. Is it active?"
Alex went very still.
Sarah glanced at him sideways.
"How do you know about that," he said.
Instructor Vael turned the paper over.
On it was a drawing. Precise, carefully rendered, clearly made by someone who had studied the subject for a long time.
A broken crown.
Surrounded by flowing lines.
Alex looked at it for a long moment.
Then he looked up at Instructor Vael.
"The scholar," he said. "Who collected the research records."
"Yes."
"You knew them."
"I was their student." She didn't look away. "And the materials the cult took from that caravan were the last complete record of what was put into that node." She paused. "And who put it there."
The valley outside the window was bright and still in the morning light.
Alex felt the broken node pulse once behind his skull — faint, deep, the way it always did when something nearby resonated with whatever was locked inside it.
"Tell me," he said.
Instructor Vael looked at him for a long moment.
Then she began.