After their escape from the chapel, Lyra and Arata exited the main Academy complex and headed to to the central courtyard. No one spoke a word, just Arata laughing the whole way, it was like madness had ensued on him. Lyra tried to quiet him down, but it didn't work.
After a while he quieted down, but it was not because he wanted to stop. The veins on his right hand were burning.
Arata doubled over, gasping, his hand burning like it had been plunged into ice and fire at once. The veins on his palm dimmed slowly, reluctant to calm down.
Lyra crouched beside him, eyes fixed on his hand."When did this happen?"
"At the Veinworks, I touched one pf the more active veins. Miran covered for me." Arata said as he gained his footing.
"You should have told me, if something happens to you, I will be the one answerable.."
"It's not like the Academy cares for cadets." Arata replied to Lyra.
Lyra couldn't answer that question. She just stood there, chest heaving from the run to the central courtyard.
"You didn't use the Flame" she said finally.
Arata replied after he finished bandaging his hand, "I didn't mean to use it. I honestly had no idea what would happen if I did the opposite of what nebula did."
Alarms echoed faintly in the distance. She straightened, decision hardening in her expression.
"From this moment on" she said quietly, "what you are carrying is no longer just dangerous." She met his gaze. "It is Heresy."
Arata stared at his hand for moment. So deviating from Faith is Heresy. Arata smiled a little at the thought.
He sat down on a nearby bench and looked up at her.
"Well then" he said lightly, "will you rat me out, oh dear professor of mine?"
Lyra didn't answer his question right away.
The courtyard was empty now, washed in late afternoon light. The Academy towers loomed above them, silent and watchful. Somewhere in the distance,the chapel alarms faded into nothing.
She exhaled slowly. "No" She said slowly "I won't say anything. No one knows we were there anyways."
Arata tilted his head, still seated, still faintly amused. "That's it? No lecture?"
She stepped closer, lowering her voice. "If this reaches the Flame Tribunal before I understand what you did today,,,how you did it, they won't execute you. They'll contain you. They will put you to sleep."
That wiped the smile from his face.
"From this moment on" Lyra continued "you do not use that hand. Not in training. Not in reflex. Not in panic. If the pain returns, you endure it."
Arata studied her for a moment. "And when they ask?"
Her gaze never left his.
"When questioned, you say nothing. You offer no explanations. No theories of your own. No defiance. Silence is not obedience, but it looks close enough to pass."
He let out a quiet breath, somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. "And if I don't?"
Lyra's voice dropped. "Then I won't need to stand up for you. They will identify you in a minute."
That was all.
No comfort. No promise. No reassurance that things would be alright.
Arata leaned back against the bench, eyes drifting to the sky. "Well" he murmured "I suppose that makes us co-conspirators"
Lyra didn't deny it. She turned to leave. "Arata" she said without looking back. "What you did wasn't contradiction to what Nebula did."
She paused. "It was rebellion. And this Empire's Faith has no tolerance for that."
Then she was gone.
,,,
Magister Kohler stood alone at the centre stage in the Chamber of Embers.
The room was circular, its walls etched with layered sigils that pulsed faintly in time with the Vein beneath the Academy. There were no windows. Light came through the floor itself, it was filtered and regulated vein-light.
He waited for about ten minutes, when finally the Flame Tribunal entered the chamber. One by one, figures took shape along the outer ring, robed silhouettes emerging from the light as if called into being by ritual rather than arrival. Their faces remained obscured, features hidden behind masks of polished gold.
The Minister of Faith arrived last. It was at his request Kohler had even agreed to meet the religious heads.
Minister Halvek's robes were pristine white, untouched by soot or sigil. He carried no staff, no relic there was only a thin ledger bound in red hide. He took his place beside the circle and did not look at Kohler. "We should now start the session." The minister said as he opened the ledger.
"The Chapel of the Resonant lost harmonic coherence for seven-point-three seconds" one of the Tribunal intoned.
There was no accusation in the voice. It was just a fact.
"The Vein beneath the altar deviated from standard rhythm" another voice followed. "Not coherence but complete disconnect, the kind of thing never seen before."
The word lingered.
Kohler inclined his head. "The containment sphere was destabilised. An anomaly occurred after the demonstration."
"Demonstration do not produce Anomalies." The Minister spoke. "Those demonstrations are meant to give reassurance to the shaken faithfuls, but this time it happened other way round."
Kohler said nothing.
"The Flame was not responded to as expected" the Tribunal continued. "It was not resisted. It was directly opposed. The usual harmony in the rhythm was disrupted. That is not a natural anomaly."
Silence pressed inward.
Minister Halvek opened his ledger. "Faith compliance across the Academy has declined by three percent since the incident. Minor, but statistically relevant. The cadets are unsettled."
Kohler's jaw tightened. "No doctrine was violated."
"No" Halvek agreed. "Which is why this is concerning."
Kohler lifted his gaze. "What is the Tribunal's will?"
Halvek closed the ledger with a soft snap. "An inquiry. Not disciplinary,,, yet."
Kohler knew why Halvek wanted an inquiry into his academy's Wyrmbounds. This was on the command of the king.
"The Tribunal should not concern itself with such a small deviation. I can give you my word it won't happen again" Kohler appealed to the committee.
"Containment of the threat" said the Tribunal in unison. "All cadets present in the chapel will undergo harmonic assessment. Faith reaffirmation rites will be accelerated. The chapel shall be sealed for repairs."
Kohler hesitated for just a fraction too long. Just long enough for Halvek to notice.
"You hesitate, Magister."
"I oversee these cadets" Kohler replied carefully. "Pressure applied indiscriminately may cause..."
"Loss?" Halvek interrupted. "That is Acceptable to the empire."
The words spoken with practiced ease.
"The Flame has always reclaimed what cannot obey" Halvek continued. "Your role is not to protect them. It is to ensure the system remains intact."
The Tribunal spoke one final time. "Find the contradiction." The light dimmed and the figures dissolved back into the glow, leaving the chamber empty once more.
Kohler remained standing. For the first time in years, the sigil of the First Flame on his chest felt heavy.
...
The morning after the chapel incident, the sky above the Academy hung motionless.
The Vein's pulse was still there, faint beneath the ground, it was as if the veins were finally resting.
Today the first siren was blared before dawn, way before dawn, Arata woke up rubbing his eyes, he had finally fell asleep after yesterday's misadventure with Lyra. S he thought of Lyra a smile appeared on his face.
"What are you smiling about in the morning at 4:30 in the morning." Wanuy said as got up and stretched out his arms and legs.
"Just that I have such a great room-mate" Arata replied grinning at him.
"Yeah, whatever. Come on let's get ready."
After about an hour the second siren blared.
The field smelled of burned metal and damp stone. The cadets lined up before dawn, faces pale in the crimson light of the Resonance pylons. The instructor was an senior. He was racing through the the five coloumns of Cadets, looking at each one making sure no one was falling asleep.
"Cadets of the Second Division" barked the overseer "today we begin Applied Resonance Control. This will be the first The Flame rewards rhythm. Disrupt it, and it takes back what it gave."
They were led down to the amphitheatre, the only complex outside of the Academy building. It was a bowl of black stone lined with glowing runes. The walls breathed faintly, like lungs but instead of air they exhaled heat.
Arata somehow remembered the Ward's glass cube with Flora's hand pressed against it.He had to force the image out of his mind.
...
The task was very simple, the cadets had to match their body's frequency, with the resonance field in the stadium. This would help them in manifesting their powers later.
The instructor raised a hand. The Resonance Field came alive. Runes brightened, and a deep vibration rolled through the earth it was steady, slow, and rhythmic. Almost similar to a human heartbeat but the cadence between each cycle was much slower.
Each cadet stepped forward, matching their heartbeat to the pulse. Most succeeded at once. A few stumbled but the field corrected them, humming in disapproval and forcing them to correct.
Flint, Sierra and Wanuy succeeded at once.
When Arata's turn came, the Rhytm's cadence changed.
of course.
The hum deepened i wasn't steady anymore, but started to flicker, like a heartbeat interrupted mid-beat. The red light around him distorted, bending sideways.
And I can't use my cheat the veinhand.. Arata thought to himself.
"Begin" The senior instructed.
Arata tried, he slowed his breathing, focused on the rhythm he had heard in everyone else's turn. But beneath that beat was another one it was erratic, alive, too close to the surface. It was like standing between two people that refused to agree.
"Stabilise!" the instructor snapped. "Match the frequency!"
The resonance field was constantly humming in disapproval.
He force himself to concentrate, forgot about happened during other people's turns.
The distortion faded. The instructor exhaled. "Acceptable," he said, and turned away.
After Arata no one was left, so they were sent to the Cafeteria to have breakfast before the rest of the days classes.
He lingered behind while the others left. The field was empty now, the lights dim. The air smelled faintly of ozone it was the residue of too much energy, too many lives resonating too close to the Flame.
He sat by the edge of the amphitheatre, unwrapping his bandaged hand. The marks beneath were darker now there were faint red lines branching like veins, or roots, or cracks.
He traced them with his thumb, half in thought, half in guilt. He couldn't stop thinking about Flora's last words: "It's already in the blood."
He pressed his palm to the ground, to finally see what that irregularity was. The hum beneath answered, faint and hollow.
You miss her.
Arata froze. The voice was quiet, almost gentle. It sounded like the earth remembering how to speak.
You miss what she believed.
He exhaled, slow. "I didn't even understand what she believed. I couldn't even answer her when she confided in me."
That's what you miss. The missed dialogue. The missed opportunity.
The hum faded. He wasn't sure if he'd imagined it.