It happened in the open.
No warning.No buildup.No chance to hide.
Rafe stood in the Academy's central walkway, moving between classes under Selene's watchful presence, when the world… skipped.
One step forward.
Then nothing.
He came back to sound.
Shouting.A sharp crack of mana.Someone screaming his name.
Rafe's vision returned in fragments.
Stone beneath his knees.Cold air.Students frozen mid-motion.
And Selene—
Standing in front of him, staff embedded into the ground, light flaring violently around her.
A containment sigil burned beneath their feet.
Emergency-level.
"BACK AWAY!" Selene shouted.
Instructors rushed in from all directions, spells half-formed in their hands.
Elyra arrived a second later, eyes wide.
"What did you do?" she demanded.
Selene didn't answer.
Rafe tried to speak.
His mouth moved.
No sound came out.
The Unassigned state was active.
Fully.
But not aggressive.
Empty.
Students stared in horror as Rafe's presence thinned, not vanishing—but becoming wrong. Like a hole cut into the moment.
Elyra swore.
"He blacked out?"
"Yes," Selene snapped. "And it would've spread."
Selene raised her staff and spoke a word that made the air scream.
A forbidden word.
The sigils beneath them shifted color—gold to black.
Elyra froze.
"…Selene. That protocol is sealed."
"I know," Selene replied coldly. "I'm breaking it."
The pressure around Rafe snapped inward.
Hard.
Too hard.
Rafe gasped as sensation slammed back into him all at once.
Pain exploded behind his eyes.His lungs burned.His heart stuttered.
But he was there.
Fully.
Present.
The Unassigned state recoiled violently, forced back into alignment.
Rafe collapsed forward—and Selene caught him.
Silence followed.
A suffocating, absolute silence.
Then Elyra whispered:
"You used Absolute Anchoring."
Selene nodded once.
"I did."
Instructors exchanged stunned looks.
"That binds his presence to a fixed temporal frame," Elyra said quietly. "It's illegal because—"
"Because it costs," Selene finished.
Rafe's hearing returned just in time to catch that word.
"…Costs what?"
Selene looked down at him.
Her expression didn't soften.
"Years," she said.
Rafe blinked.
"…Years?"
Elyra swallowed.
"Absolute Anchoring stabilizes identity by sacrificing future elasticity," she explained. "It locks you closer to the present at the expense of… potential."
Rafe stared up at the sky.
"So I won't black out anymore."
"No," Selene said. "You'll be stable."
"And the cost?"
Selene hesitated.
Then answered honestly.
"You'll plateau earlier."
The words landed like a verdict.
Potential.
Growth.
Future paths.
Trimmed.
Students whispered in shock.
Instructors argued quietly.
Elyra clenched her fists.
"You didn't have the authority."
Selene met her gaze.
"I had the responsibility."
Sirens echoed faintly across the Academy.
Official ones.
Rafe closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened them, something felt… heavier.
Solid.
The afterimages were gone.
The fog was gone.
But so was something else.
A faint openness he hadn't known he'd had.
"…Thank you," he said quietly.
Selene's jaw tightened.
"I'm sorry," she replied.
Far away, beyond the Academy's wards, a Commission terminal lit up.
PROTOCOL BREACH DETECTEDABSOLUTE ANCHORING: CONFIRMED
The Director's message arrived seconds later.
"So you chose to pay in advance."
Rafe didn't see it.
But something inside him did.
Something that understood the meaning of loss.