The air in the hangar bay didn't just grow cold; it became thin, as if the oxygen itself was being reclaimed by a higher authority. The obsidian flagship, a jagged needle of black glass and void-matter, hovered silently above the Academy's landing deck. It didn't dock so much as it anchored reality to its presence.
"Move, Ken," Selene hissed, her fingers digging into his arm. "If she sees that grease stain, she'll know you've been in the dirt with the Syndicates. She'll peel your mind open just to see who gave you the grease."
Ken didn't move. He couldn't. His Null-Core was reacting to the flagship's descent, vibrating in a low, subsonic frequency that made his vision blur at the edges. The Aegis Heart in the toolkit responded in kind, a heavy, rhythmic thrumming that felt like a second heartbeat against his shins.
"I can't just run," Ken whispered, his voice steadying as he forced his internal void to flatten, masking the Heart's signature. "The Silver Guards have already cordoned off the exits. If I bolt now, I'm a target. If I stay, I'm a corpse."
"Then be a ghost," Selene snapped. She pulled a small, silver vial from her belt—refined mana-coolant. She dumped the liquid onto a cloth and aggressively scrubbed at the black smear on his collar. The chemical sting of the coolant filled his nostrils as the stain faded into a damp, pale grey mark. "It's the best I can do. Keep your head down. Don't look her in the eye. She feeds on recognition."
The massive hangar doors shrieked as they were forced open by a telekinetic wave. A phalanx of Silver Guards marched in, their armor polished to a mirror finish, their faces hidden behind expressionless visors. They moved with a synchronized, terrifying precision, forming a corridor of steel that stretched from the landing craft to the center of the flight deck.
Then, she appeared.
Empress Valariana Vaelstron did not walk; she drifted, her violet-streaked robes flowing around her like liquid shadows. Her presence was an apex predator's weight, a gravity that demanded every knee in the room hit the floor. One by one, the elite students of the Academy—the scions of the Great Houses, the future generals—collapsed into deep curtsies and bows.
Dorian, still in his singed golden armor, dropped to one knee at the front of the line. His head was bowed, his arrogance replaced by a visible, shivering reverence.
Ken lowered himself, shielding the toolkit with his body. He stared at the scuffed metal of the floor plates, focusing on a single loose rivet to keep his mind from wandering into the Empress's mental reach.
The click of Valariana's heels was the only sound in the cavernous space. She stopped in front of the instructors, who were trembling so violently their medals rattled against their uniforms.
"The Architect reports a localized reality-tear during the simulation," the Empress said. Her voice was like silk stretched over a blade—beautiful, yet capable of severing a soul. "A Tier-5 Golem, deleted from the logs. Not destroyed. Not salvaged. Erased."
She turned her head slowly, her gaze sweeping over the students. "Which of you found the Void?"
Silence followed. Dorian looked up, his face pale. "Mother... I handled the Golem. It was a malfunction in the core. A thermal dump that wiped the sensors. My team neutralized it."
Valariana didn't look at him. She didn't even acknowledge his voice. She continued walking, her robes brushing against the students' shoulders. She stopped directly in front of Ken.
The air around him vanished. Ken felt a cold, invisible hand wrap around his throat, not to choke him, but to lift his chin. His head was forced up until he was staring directly into his mother's eyes. They weren't human; they were swirling vortices of deep violet and absolute black, containing centuries of stolen knowledge and cold, calculated cruelty.
"Ken," she murmured. Her hand—cool and dry—reached out and traced the line of his jaw. "The failure. The prince of nothing."
Ken kept his expression vacant, the 'Lazy Prince' mask locked firmly in place. "Mother."
Her thumb moved to the damp patch on his collar where Selene had scrubbed away the grease. She lingered there, her eyes narrowing. For a moment, the world seemed to tilt. Ken felt a probe—a sharp, needle-like intrusion of mana—trying to slip past his mental barriers.
He didn't fight it with mana. He met it with the Void. He opened a small, infinite crack in his consciousness, letting her probe fall into a bottomless pit of nothingness.
Valariana's hand flinched. Her pupils dilated, her eyes flashing with a sudden, sharp hunger. She leaned in closer, her lips inches from his ear.
"You smell of rust and old secrets, Ken," she whispered. "And your heart... why is it beating so slowly? A rabbit should tremble when the hawk circles."
"I'm just tired, Mother," Ken said, his voice a dull drone. "The salvage box is heavy."
She looked down at the toolkit. The Aegis Heart inside gave a violent, muffled thud, as if trying to scream to its creator. The Empress's hand moved toward the latch.
"Valariana!"
The voice boomed from the overhead speakers. It was the Architect—the Academy's AI consciousness. "The audit protocols are stalled. The Silver Guards are reporting a secondary energy spike in the Under-Sector. A sabotage attempt on the planetary shield."
The Empress paused, her hand hovering an inch from the toolkit's lock. The hunger in her eyes flickered, replaced by the cold pragmatism of a ruler. She pulled back, her gaze lingering on Ken for one heartbeat too long.
"Search them all," Valariana commanded, her voice turning to ice. She addressed the Silver Guards without looking at them. "If any student is found with unauthorized data or scavenged cores, execute them where they stand. And Ken..."
She turned her back to him, her robes snapping in the artificial wind of the hangar. "If I find you are more than a failure, I will be very disappointed. I hate being surprised by my own blood."
She began to walk away, her phalanx closing in around her.
"Now!" Selene hissed from behind him.
The hangar was a storm of motion. Silver Guards began grabbing students, forcing them to open their kits at gunpoint. Screams of protest and the hum of scanning beams filled the air.
Selene grabbed Ken's collar and hauled him toward a service stairwell hidden behind a stack of fuel crates. "The back way leads to the ventilation conduits for the Bronze Wing. Maya is waiting at the Black Valve. If you aren't there in ten minutes, I'm telling them you died in the audit."
Ken gripped the toolkit and bolted into the dark stairwell. Behind him, he heard Dorian's voice roar in confusion and the sound of a Silver Guard's rifle discharging. He didn't look back.
He dove into the grease-slicked ventilation shaft, the metal burning cold against his palms. He slid down the steep incline, the toolkit clattering against the sides, until he hit a pressurized hatch at the bottom.
A hand slammed him against the wall before he could stand. A jagged, vibrating blade pressed against his throat.
"Took you long enough," Maya whispered. Her face was illuminated by the red emergency lights of the sub-level, her eyes glowing with a manic, dangerous energy. "The Empress just put a 'Kill-on-Sight' order on your biometric signature. Congratulations, Prince. You're officially the most wanted ghost in the world."
The heavy thud of Silver Guard boots began to echo from the stairwell above.
End of Chapter 14