Arthur pressed his back against the wall inside the door.
His chest was tight.
Not from nerves. From something bigger than usual sitting behind it.
He flexed his fingers once.
"Roz. My aetheric blood feels off. Bigger than usual. Didn't I just recover?"
"Aethertrophy." Roz was on the windowsill, bow tie straight, unbothered. "Same as muscle tissue. You stress it past its limit, it tears, it heals back stronger. Your Mageia core was running on fumes for days. Now it's compensating."
Arthur opened and closed his fist.
"So I'm a bit stronger now."
Roz looked at him.
His red eyes glowed faint.
"A bit is an understatement." A pause. "Within your generation you'll be the only one capable of controlling this kind of magic." He turned back to the window. "You're a different kind of monster, brat."
Vexis was quiet.
Arthur was quiet.
He sat with that for a second. Then closed his eyes and dropped his field low.
The shadows under the door frame darkened. The anchor slipped through the gap and settled on the other side.
The estate opened up in his perception. Voices without faces. Weight without bodies. Every shadow his network had touched since morning feeding back in a low constant hum.
He found Vak near the garden side.
He pushed the anchor toward him.
Ten meters out the perception cut.
Clean and immediate. Like hitting a wall in the dark.
He tried again. Different angle. Shadow under the decorative bench near the path.
Same result. Same distance. Same wall.
"Can't reach him," Arthur said.
"Barrier magic." Roz didn't look up. "Blocks perception. Anything surveillance‑based hits it and stops."
Arthur looked at the door.
'Try again.' Vexis said.
Arthur pushed a third anchor. Closer angle. It crossed seven meters and died.
He exhaled through his nose.
If I can't reach him with shadows I'll just have to go in person.
He pushed the door open.
Afternoon light hit his face.
The estate was full in a way it had never been since he arrived. Carriages along the outer wall. People in formal clothes on every path. Voices from three directions at once.
He straightened the Lestilaut crest on his shoulder and walked out.
The stares came immediately.
Ugh. I hate this already.
His shadow network hummed across the whole estate. Every anchor point feeding back. Footsteps. Weight. Breathing patterns on stone.
He counted the Vernon mercenaries without looking directly at any of them. Five near the carriages. Cloaks on, glasses in hand, doing a reasonable impression of guests.
Then he pushed deeper through the network.
Behind the estate wall. Past the garden.
Twenty more.
'THESE BASTARDS.' Vexis dropped beside him, voice tight. 'Bringing their own products into our estate. At a banquet. The absolute nerve—'
Arthur had already moved past the nerve.
Twenty five mercenaries at a social gathering wasn't precaution. That was a contingency. Vak hadn't come here to drink and eat. He'd come ready for something to go wrong.
He looked across the garden.
Vak stood near the fountain. White suit. Red hair. Glass in one hand. Talking to a dark‑haired man with the easy posture of someone who had never once in his life been the one things went wrong for.
Their eyes met across the garden.
Something happened in that space. Brief and specific.
Gold sun. Red sun.
Vak's face moved through something Arthur couldn't name. Several things at once before the smile settled over all of them.
He walked over.
"Vexis." He raised his glass slightly. "Long time."
"It has been," Arthur said.
"You look well." Vak tilted his head. Looking at him the way you look at something you expected to be different. "Considering."
"Considering what."
"Everything." He gestured loosely with his free hand. The kind of gesture that meant nothing and covered everything at the same time. "Class F. Cut credits. Walking to school." He smiled. "Heard you've been having a rough time."
"News travels fast."
"It always does." He took a sip. "How are you managing down there. Class F. Must be a change."
"It's been educational."
Vak laughed. Short and genuine sounding. "Educational. That's one word for it." He swirled the glass. "I'll be honest Vexis. When I heard you stepped back from the operation just like that. No warning. No conversation." His voice stayed light. "That wasn't like you."
"People change."
"Do they." The partial look. Not the full one. The kind that said he was paying more attention than the posture suggested. "Or do they just get scared."
Arthur said nothing.
"Because here's the thing." Vak stepped slightly closer. Still casual. Still smiling. "Not long after you step back someone tips the Allright council. The whole operation gets exposed. I get detained." He paused. "Humiliated. In front of people whose opinion matters." Another pause. "And your name. Doesn't come up once."
"That so."
"Not once." His eyes moved across Arthur's face. Reading it. Looking for the thing underneath. "Almost like someone made sure of it."
Arthur held the gaze.
"I don't know what you're implying."
"I'm not implying anything." The smile again. Wider. "Just saying it's interesting. The timing. You stepping back. The tip. The arrest." A tilt of the head. "Interesting how things line up sometimes."
His hand came up and landed on Arthur's shoulder.
Something moved through Arthur's chest.
He turned his head slightly. Vexis was right there at the edge of his vision. That face. Spite sitting underneath fury sitting underneath something older than both that had been in this body long before Arthur arrived.
The feeling in Arthur's chest wasn't entirely his.
He sat in it.
One second.
Two.
'This snake.' Vexis said. Low. No caps. Just flat hatred. 'Standing here smiling like he didn't send two people to kill us.'
Vak's hand dropped.
"I held up my end of the bargain, Vexis. Your name stayed clean." His voice shifted. Still light. Still the same delivery but with something underneath it now that had been waiting to come out since he walked over. "But I want you to understand something."
He leaned slightly forward.
"Whatever happened. Whatever was said to whoever. That kind of thing has consequences." A beat. "For everyone involved."
Arthur looked at him.
"Is that a threat, Vak."
"It's advice." The smile came back full. "From a friend. Pick your side wisely. And watch your back."
He turned away.
Arthur's mouth opened.
Roz tapped his shoulder. Once. Small. Deliberate.
Arthur closed his mouth.
Breathed in.
Out.
"Thanks for the advice."
Vak stopped walking.
Looked back at Arthur.
Something moved through his face. Quick and specific. There and gone.
Then he kept walking.
Arthur stood at the fountain.
Hands steady. Face fine.
I almost gave it away.
'He confirmed it himself.' Vexis said. Quiet. No caps. Just the real thing underneath them. 'His own mouth. We didn't even have to push.'
Arthur watched Vak disappear into the crowd.
Yes he did.
Five more carriages came through the gate.
White wood. Light blue edging.
A crest on each door. Blue rose. Thorns wrapped around the stem in a tight spiral.
Arthur stopped walking.
He knew that crest.
Not from Vexis's memory. From his own. Two thousand chapters. A comment he'd written at two in the morning about the author introducing this family too late with too little setup for the weight they were supposed to carry.
Blauenstein.
The family that turns. The one that starts the war against Doren.
He stared at the carriages.
Why are they here. They're not supposed to be connected to Lestilaut. This isn't in the novel. None of this was ever in the novel.
If the plot is accelerating. If the culmination moved early then this banquet—
This banquet could be where it actually starts.
Arthur grabbed the back of his hair. Pulled once.
No. Think. Don't spiral. One thing at a time.
The carriages were still moving through the gate and his head was doing the thing where too many threads came in at once and none of them finished and he was already walking without deciding to, moving toward the main entrance, head down, not watching where his feet were going—
He hit someone.
The person went down.
Arthur blinked.
A young man sat on the ground beside him. White hair. Freckles across both cheeks. A cloak with the hood down.
On the left chest of the cloak.
A Vernon crest.
Theodore looked up at him.
"Vex." He laughed once. Quiet. Surprised. "Haha."
Arthur looked at the crest.
Then at Theodore's face.
His eyebrows went up.