Ren woke to the rhythmic swaying of a carriage. This was different from the bone-jarring rattle of the scholarship wagons… the seats were velvet, and the air smelled of expensive sandalwood and cooling mana-stones.
He felt like he had been put through a meat grinder. When he tried to shift his weight, a sharp, white-hot pain flared in his chest, making him gasp. He tried to remember what happened but his head was still fuzzy.
"Stay still," a voice commanded.
Ren forced his eyes open. He was lying across one of the long bench seats. Sitting opposite him were Cian, Julian, and Kael. They looked... different.
Their armor was gone, replaced by silk Academy robes, but they all bore the marks of the forest—Cian had a bandage wrapped around his head, and Julian's arm was in a sling.
"Where... where are we?" Ren's voice was hoarse. 'Where did a carriage come from?'
"Approaching the Academy gates," Julian said. He was leaning forward, watching Ren with an intensity that made the hair on Ren's neck stand up.
"You've been unconscious for twelve hours. Kael had to use a Level Four healing tincture just to stop your lungs from collapsing."
Ren looked down at his hands. They were bandaged, but he could feel the pulse of the Five Stitches beneath the gauze. Five. The fifth one had finished while he was out. He felt filled up, like he had swallowed a star and it was slowly cooling in his gut.
"We need to get the story straight," Cian said.
He was staring out the carriage window at the looming spires of the Academy. "The Processors will have reported that a Null interfered. The Sages are going to want his head on a platter for 'tainting' a Royal Hunt."
"They tried to kill us, Cian," Kael grunted, his arms crossed over his massive chest. "It was a purge. We should walk in there and demand their titles."
"And they'll execute us for treason before we finish the sentence," Julian countered smoothly.
"The Council is the law. If they decided we were too dangerous to live, then the fact that we lived makes us even bigger targets. We cannot mention the Processors. And neither would they mention it because it's treason on their part. Think of what the king would do if he heard. The sages may put people in power but they don't stand a chance against the individual power."
Ren blinked, trying to clear the fog in his head. "Then... what do we say happened to the Chimera?"
Julian looked at Ren, a thin, predatory smile stretching his lips. "We say the Chimera went into a Mana-Cascade. A natural explosion. We say you, being a 'Super-Null,' were the only thing that could ground the blast. You didn't kill it, Ren. You just... absorbed the accident. Like what a ground should do."
'A Super-Null,' Ren thought. 'It's fine then. Let them think I'm just a bigger bucket. It's safer that way.'
"And my eyes?" Ren asked quietly.
"Temporary resonance poisoning," Julian said. "Kael's healing tincture should have cleared most of it up. If they ask, you say you remember nothing. You touched the lead, there was a flash of light, and you woke up here."
The carriage slowed to a crawl. Outside, Ren could hear the sound of the Academy's Great Bell tolling—the signal for the return of the Hunt. Usually, it was a celebratory sound. Today, it felt like a funeral call.
The carriage door opened.
Cian stood up first.
He didn't wait for the attendants. He reached down and, to Ren's shock, hoisted Ren out of the carriage himself.
The courtyard was packed. Hundreds of students—the elite of the Empire—stood in silence as the three most powerful Princes in the school emerged. But the murmurs started the moment they saw Ren.
The "Zero" was being carried by the Sun Prince.
'Look at his hands.' someone whispered.
'Is that the Null who went with them?'
'Why is he still alive?'
Cian ignored them all. He walked up the school entrance stairs and marched straight toward the High Hall of Sages, his grip on Ren so tight it bruised. Kael and Julian walked at his shoulders like twin guardians.
They entered the Hall, a cavernous room of white marble and gold leaf. At the far end, seated on high thrones, were the seven from the twelve Sages. These were the men who truly ruled the Empire—ancient mages whose power was so refined they didn't even seem human.
In the center of the room stood Alaric and the South Tower group. They looked smug, until they saw the Princes walk in. Alaric's face went from white to green in a matter of seconds.
"Cian Valerius," the Lead Sage, a man with a beard like spun glass, intoned. "You return from the forest without the King-Beast's core. By the laws of the Hunt, you have failed."
"The core was destroyed," Cian said, his voice echoing through the hall. "The beast suffered a Mana-Cascade. We are lucky to be standing here."
"A Cascade?" the Sage narrowed his eyes.
"And what of the reports of a 'monster' among your party? Alaric of the South Tower claims your ground performed a feat that defies the laws of magic."
Cian looked down at Ren, then back at the Sages. He didn't let go.
"My Ground is an anomaly." Cian said coldly. "He is a Null of unprecedented capacity. He didn't perform a feat he functioned as a sinkhole for a disaster. What a null should be. If the Council is upset that he did his job too well, perhaps you should have provided us with a beast that wasn't defective."
A ripple of shock went through the room. No one talked to the Sages like that.
"We wish to examine the boy," the Lead Sage said, standing up.
"If he is as you say, he is too dangerous to remain in the general population. He will be moved to the Deep Wards for evaluation."
Ren felt his heart stop. The Deep Wards were where they sent 'broken' mages. No one ever came out.
"No," Cian said.
The word was like a slap.
"The boy is my bonded ground," Cian continued, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
"He is my property. By the Charter of the Founders, a Prince's Ground cannot be seized unless they commit a crime. Did he commit a crime by saving my life?"
The Sages looked at each other. The tension was so thick it felt like physical weight.
"He is a Null," the Sage argued. "He has no rights."
"He has my rights," Cian stated.
"If you take him, you take me because of the bond. And I don't think the Empire is ready for the Valerius Sun to go dark today."
Julian stepped forward, his voice a smooth contrast to Cian's fire.
"Furthermore, as a 'super-null' he is a vital research asset. We would be happy to provide the council with regular reports on his status... provided he stays under our supervision."
'Julian… ever the snake.' Ren thought.
It was a bribe. Julian was offering the Sages data in exchange for Ren's life.
The Sages whispered among themselves.
Ren looked at Alaric, who was shaking with rage. If Ren stayed with the Princes, Alaric's chance to kill them was gone. Also their plan to kill him too had flopped.
After what felt like an eternity
"Very well," the Lead Sage finally said. "The boy remains with the Valerius party. But he will wear a secondary damper. If his capacity is as high as you claim, he must be neutralized whenever he is not on the field."
Ren felt his stomach sink.
A Secondary Damper was a heavy iron cuff that suppressed the nervous system. Though it was big, it would make every movement a struggle. He knew it because he had seen some of the senior grounds were it when they were close to breaking. They wore it so if they exploded or something… they wouldn't affect the people around.
"Fine then." Cian said, finally setting Ren down on his feet. Ren swayed, his knees buckling, but Kael caught him from behind.
"Take him to the infirmary," Cian ordered Kael. Then he turned to Julian.
"Find out who authorized the Chimera. I want a name by midnight."
As Kael led Ren away out f the hall, Ren looked back one last time.
He saw the Sages watching him like vultures. He saw Julian smiling to himself.
And he saw Cian, standing alone in the center of the hall, looking more like a prisoner than a Prince.
Ren touched the fifth stitch in his palm.
'They're afraid,' he realized. 'The Sages, the South Tower... they're all terrified of a boy with no magic. And the prince's are terrified for their lives.'
He let his head fall against Kael's shoulder.
'Good,' Ren thought as the darkness claimed him again.
'They should be.'