The plaza did not breathe. It waited.
Lira stood at the epicenter of the silence, positioned like a blade between Kael and the massed ranks of the Inquisition. The crimson light around her eyes was faint, a low-burning ember of authority that felt more like a physical weight than mere light. At her side, Professor Veyne stood with his hands folded neatly behind his back, his sharp gaze flitting between the two siblings as if he were meticulously comparing rare botanical specimens.
Jonas shifted half a step closer to Kael. It wasn't an act of planned defiance, but a raw, animal instinct—the loyalty of a shield-bearer who sensed a storm breaking.
"You are destabilizing the network," Lira said. Her voice didn't rise in anger; it pressed against the air, heavy and absolute.
Kael felt her presence brush against his thoughts, a ghostly touch searching for a point of alignment—a hook of shared lineage to latch onto. He did not push back with force, nor did he retreat into the black box of his mind. He simply remained where he was, a hollow space in the world's geometry.
"I interrupted a descent," he replied. "That's not the same as destabilization."
Lira's gaze sharpened, her iris momentarily bleeding into a deeper shade of red. "It is."
A faint tremor passed through the cobblestones, not an earthquake, but a warning—a vibration from the city's foundations responding to the friction between its most powerful asset and its most dangerous anomaly. Kael noticed something the others missed: Lira's synchronization was no longer a steady, upward climb. It was fluctuating erratically:
[Crimson Empress – 35% → 34% → 35%]
The failed Authority Seed hadn't strengthened her cleanly; it had introduced noise into her signal, forcing a painful, ongoing adaptation. Veyne observed the flicker too, his eyes narrowing.
"Sovereign," Veyne said smoothly, "we should remove the anomaly before further interference occurs."
Anomaly. Not Kael. Not her brother. A category of error to be filed away or deleted.
Lira didn't answer immediately. Her eyes remained locked on Kael's. "Come with us," she said softly.
Jonas inhaled sharply. "Us?"
Kael didn't blink. "To be studied?"
"To be corrected."
The word landed between them like a heavy blade laid flat on stone. Corrected. Kael realized then that Lira didn't view him as an enemy to be defeated, but as a structural error in her world—a deviation from a perfect architectural plan.
"I'm not broken," he said.
"You are undefined," she countered.
The Inquisitors shifted, their porcelain masks catching the light. Veyne remained calm; he had placed the burden of the decision on her. It was a strategic masterstroke. If she commanded him, he would be taken without a drop of blood spilled. If she hesitated, the network would log her weakness as a lack of synchronization.
Kael activated Blueprint. The plaza unfolded in a wireframe overlay of stress and tension. He saw the filaments extending upward from Lira, thin threads of light connecting her to something far above the visible sky. She wasn't fully anchored yet; she was a bridge under construction.
He looked at Jonas. [Ironclad Vanguard – 18%]. His fear had finally crystallized into resolve.
"Define me, then," Kael said.
The plaza grew unnervingly quiet. The ambient noise of Aethelgard—the steam whistles and distant carriages—seemed to be muffled by a layer of thick glass. The Architect was listening.
"I'm the space," Kael said, the fragment in his mind pulsing in agreement.
"Between what?" Lira asked.
"Between what you were and what you're becoming."
Her synchronization flickered violently: [35% → 33% → 36%].
Veyne stepped closer. "Do not engage philosophically," he murmured, a rare note of urgency in his tone.
Lira ignored him. "You believe I am disappearing."
"Yes."
"And you think you can prevent that."
"Yes."
The pressure in the air shifted, focusing entirely on Kael. Lira lifted her hand slightly, the very air bending around her fingertips like water.
"Sovereign's Decree," she whispered.
Jonas tensed, but Kael remained still.
"Kneel."
The word was a verdict. The Inquisitors dropped instantly to their knees. Veyne bowed his head. Jonas's shield slammed into the stone as his legs buckled under the weight of the command.
Kael felt the Decree strike him like a physical wave. It searched his soul for inheritance, for a throne to recognize, for a script to follow. It found nothing. The pressure slid past him, unable to find purchase in the vacuum of his existence. He remained standing.
The plaza trembled. Lira's eyes widened. Her Decree hadn't been resisted—it had been ignored, as if she had tried to grab smoke with bare hands.
Kael saw the truth through the Blueprint. Her authority was a two-way street; it required subjects with inherited architecture to function. Because he had none, he was a blind spot in her dominion.
Veyne's composure finally cracked. "Sovereign," he warned.
Lira lowered her hand. The Inquisitors rose. Jonas gasped for air. "You can't command him," he whispered.
"No," she agreed, her voice filled with a haunting curiosity.
The Architect above shifted. Invisible geometry was recalibrating. Kael felt a distant, cold pressure against the fragment—not an attack, but the analytical gaze of a system encountering undefined input.
"You are dangerous," Lira said.
"So are you."
Another tremor shook the plaza. In the distance, the Clocktower groaned. The network was responding to the failed Decree. Veyne looked upward. "Escalation window narrowing," he murmured.
The system would not tolerate this inconsistency. If Lira could not command him, something else would be sent to enforce the rules.
Kael saw the Blueprint flare. A geometric lattice was forming beneath the cobblestones—a circle of jurisdiction.
"Step back!" he shouted to Jonas.
Too late. Lines of pale light erupted from the ground in a perfect ring around Kael. It wasn't a physical wall; it was a conceptual barrier.
"Zone Isolation," Veyne explained softly. "If Sovereign authority fails, the system will intervene."
The lattice tightened, attempting to classify and insert Kael into a category. He exhaled, focusing his mind. The box in his brain trembled with conflicting echoes, but he stepped forward anyway.
The lattice resisted for a heartbeat, then flickered. It couldn't anchor him because there was nothing to bind. He was simply... outside.
Veyne's jaw dropped. "Impossible."
"You are outside," Lira said softly.
"Yes."
"Outside what?" Jonas asked.
"The structure," Kael answered.
The pressure from the sky intensified. Something immense was leaning closer to inspect the glitch. Lira stepped forward. "Then choose. Inside or outside."
It was an ultimatum. Inside meant inheritance and safety within the design. Outside meant isolation, correction, and eventually, elimination.
Kael looked at his sister—not the Empress, but the girl flickering beneath the red gaze, the one still capable of choosing.
"I don't belong inside your design," he said.
Lira's synchronization spiked: [36% → 39%]. The crimson threads above her tightened as the network accepted his declaration as total divergence.
Veyne closed his eyes. "Escalation confirmed."
The ground began to split, not with the violence of a probe, but with the deliberate precision of a final solution. Something was rising. It was not incomplete. It was something designed specifically to address and delete undefined variables.
Kael felt the fragment burn cold. The Architect had finished recalculating. And this time, it was sending the Auditor.