Rowan Mercer recognized the technique the instant it surfaced.
At Calvin Greene's signal, a bespectacled teenage boy stepped forward. Pale blue energy spilled from his body, shaping itself into a translucent hand that reached straight for Tobias Jinmont's head. The air tightened as the construct closed in, invasive and precise.
Rowan's eyes sharpened.
So this was it. Memory extraction.
Tobias had seen something like this once before. Years ago, when Nathaniel Hale had come down the mountain accompanied by a woman from a renowned medical lineage. She had mastered a paired discipline that governed both mind and body. What this boy was using now was only half of that art.
But half was more than enough to be fatal.
Rowan didn't hesitate.
He appeared at the doorway just as one of the guards crumpled to the floor. Rowan caught the man deliberately and raised his voice.
"Sir? Are you all right?"
Inside the room, the boy stiffened.
"I can't be interrupted," he snapped. "If my focus breaks, the extraction fails."
Calvin Greene frowned. "Finish it. I'll deal with him."
Tobias tried to shout a warning, but the blue hand clenched, crushing the sound in his throat before it could escape.
Lightning exploded through the corridor.
The boy screamed as electricity tore through him, flinging him backward and shattering the technique mid-cast. The blue construct dissolved into sparks. Rowan stepped into the room, his presence suddenly overwhelming.
"What's going on here?" Rowan demanded.
Tobias recognized him instantly. The tournament's champion. The outsider everyone had underestimated.
"They're attackers!" Tobias rasped. "Get out and find the Grand Master!"
Calvin Greene moved without hesitation.
Silver needles flashed from his sleeve, driven with clear killing intent. Rowan flicked a coin into the air.
"Bad choice," he said calmly.
The coin vanished in a deafening crack.
Calvin Greene never even had time to react. The impact punched cleanly through his skull, dropping him lifelessly to the floor.
The teenage boy stared in horror.
Then he ran.
He pushed his body past its limits, sprinting for the window in blind panic.
Rowan sighed.
A thin arc of electricity leapt from his hand. The boy collapsed mid-stride, muscles locking as he hit the ground hard.
"I didn't say you could leave," Rowan said.
Calvin Greene had crossed a line the moment he chose murder. Worse, he had uncovered fragments of a secret that could never be allowed to spread. His death spared the mountain an impossible decision.
The boy, however, was still useful.
Rowan knelt beside Tobias, steadying him with one hand while resting the other against the boy's temple.
"You all right?" Rowan asked quietly.
Tobias nodded, breathing easing. "Thanks to you. If you hadn't arrived…"
"I was nearby," Rowan replied casually. "Heard fighting. Came to check."
It was enough.
As Tobias spoke, Rowan sifted through the boy's memories. The truth surfaced quickly. The ability had been passed off as an inherited talent, something innate. But the timeline didn't match. It had only appeared after the old catastrophe, after forbidden disciplines had been shattered and scattered.
One family had stolen half of a greater art and buried its origin beneath layers of lies.
The blue hand governed memory and the soul.
The missing half restored flesh, repaired organs, and could pull someone back from the edge of death itself.
Rowan committed it to memory.
Footsteps thundered outside.
The door burst open as the Grand Master rushed in, followed by Ron Shan and Evan Clarke. They took in the scene at a glance: the dead attacker, the unconscious youth, Tobias standing unharmed beside Rowan.
Relief came first.
Then gravity.
"What happened here?" the Grand Master asked.
Tobias answered, leaving certain truths unspoken. "They came to kill me. Mr. Mercer intervened."
The Grand Master studied Rowan for a long moment, then bowed deeply.
"You have my gratitude," he said. "And the mountain's. This debt will not be forgotten."
Rowan inclined his head in return.
Outside, the storm still raged across the mountain. But one disaster had been stopped before it could begin.