The Dawn-Song envoy arrived at noon.
The sky-whale's shadow chilled the sun. Imara Vey stood at the Academy gates. Her armor was white jade. Her spear held seven silent bells.
The Head Archivist greeted her. He was an old man with kind eyes and a core that hummed like deep earth. "Envoy Vey. Aramore offers its condolences."
"The bells offer no condolences," Imara said. Her voice was flat. "They seek truth. The killer of Saintess Vale carries her mandate's echo. My bells will hear it. You will assemble your disciples."
It was not a request.
The Archivist's kind eyes didn't change. "All disciples are in training or meditation. An assembly disrupts—"
"Death disrupts," Imara cut in. "Assemble them. By sector. Starting with the Core Division."
There was a pause. A quiet test of wills.
"Very well," the Archivist said softly. "We would not wish to obstruct a sister sect in its grief."
The order went out. Bells tolled across the Academy grounds. A summoning.
In the Core Division yard, disciples gathered. There were thirty of them. They wore robes of grey and deep blue. Their auras were calm lakes, steady flames, whispering winds.
Shade stood among them. Her scythe was strapped to her back. Her face was calm. Inside, her core was a closed fist. Her dampened token was buried deep in her system inventory, wrapped in layers of void energy.
She watched Imara Vey walk into the yard.
The envoy did not look at faces. She looked at the air around them. At the flow of mana. She planted her spear into the stone.
"Silence," she said.
The yard went still.
Imara closed her eyes. She touched the top bell on her spear.
Chime.
A single, pure note. It washed over the yard. It was not sound for ears. It was vibration for the soul. It sought harmony. It sought the specific, shattered harmony of a stolen Celestial Mandate.
The note passed through Shade.
She felt it. A cold, searching finger. It brushed against her core. It probed the layers of shadow and wind.
It hesitated.
Deep inside, the remnant of Aurora's power stirred. A faint, grieving pulse.
Shade clamped down. She wrapped it in the relentless, hungry dark of her own System. The Vengeance Path swallowed the saint's echo whole.
The searching note moved on.
One by one, it passed over every Core disciple. Some shivered. Some glowed faintly in resonance with the pure tone. None triggered the bell's wrath.
Imara opened her eyes. The first bell was silent.
She touched the second bell.
Chime.
This note was different. Sharper. It sought not harmony, but rupture. The rupture of a System assimilation.
It hit Shade like a gust of wind.
Her own System, Tier-3 and hidden, flared in automatic defense. For a heartbeat, a black-violet light threatened to leak from her pores. She choked it back, forcing it down into the abyss of her dantian.
The bell's note scraped against her spiritual walls. It found no purchase. Her foundation, reforged in Duskriver and tempered by murder, held.
The note faded.
Imara's brow furrowed, just for a second. She looked across the disciples. Her gaze swept over Shade, paused, and moved on.
Two bells were silent. Five remained.
She did not ring the third.
"Core Division is clear," Imara announced, her voice echoing. "We proceed to the Inner Division."
She pulled her spear from the stone. The disciples began to murmur, tension easing.
Shade did not move. She watched Imara walk away. The envoy's steps were sure. But Shade had seen the hesitation. The doubt.
She felt something.
It wasn't enough. But it was a thread.
Across the yard, Alina and Kael stood at the entrance to the Inner Division sector. They had been watching. Alina's eyes met Shade's for a fleeting moment.
Shade looked away first. She turned and walked back to the towers. Her back felt exposed. Every step was measured. Calm.
Umbren's voice brushed her mind, faint through the courtyard's distance.
—She is not satisfied.—
I know, Shade thought back. She has five bells left. And she's just getting started