The wake-up chime sounded at 5:30.
Not loud. Just persistent enough that ignoring it felt deliberate.
Thorne groaned into his pillow. "They're serious."
Kael was already sitting upright.
Aiden had been awake for five minutes.
He'd learned early that if you waited for alarms to pull you out of sleep, you were already behind.
They dressed in near silence and filed out with the rest of East Wing. The air carried that same faint metallic edge from yesterday.
Training grounds were behind the main academic block — wide open space carved into the mountain face. Platforms at different elevations. Marked zones. Observation booths built into reinforced glass.
Squads gathered under digital markers projecting their numbers overhead.
17 blinked softly above their assigned circle.
Thorne rolled his shoulders. "Please tell me today doesn't involve monsters crawling out of portals."
Kael scanned the surrounding squads instead of answering.
Aiden did the same.
Lyra stood with Squad 3 across the field. She wasn't speaking. Just watching the layout.
Instructor Sel walked out from the central booth.
"Today is formation evaluation," she said. "You will face controlled pressure. Objective: maintain squad coherence while reaching the extraction point."
A map projected in the air above the field. A winding path through obstacles, raised platforms, and narrow lanes.
"Enemy constructs will engage at random intervals," Sel continued. "Severity scales with instability levels detected in your formation."
Thorne frowned. "So if we mess up, it gets harder."
"Yes."
No hint of humor.
Squads began moving one by one.
Squad 12 faltered within the first minute. One member surged too far ahead, triggering a heavier construct drop behind them. They barely reached extraction.
Sel didn't comment.
When "Squad 17" echoed over the field, Thorne cracked his neck.
"Alright. What's the call?"
Kael looked at Aiden.
Interesting.
Aiden stepped into the marked start zone.
"Thorne front," he said. "You anchor weight shifts. Kael center. I rotate."
Thorne blinked. "Rotate how?"
"I'll adjust gaps."
Kael didn't question it.
The starting barrier dissolved.
They moved.
The first stretch was open ground. No constructs yet.
Aiden let his pace stay slightly behind the other two, watching their rhythm.
Thorne's steps were heavy but controlled. Each footfall carried grounded vibration through the stone.
Kael's resonance was quieter. Measured. Smooth.
Interference hummed faintly under Aiden's skin.
The first construct dropped without warning.
It hit the ground in front of Thorne, body angled wrong, limbs made of compressed light fragments.
Thorne reacted instantly. Gravity field pressed downward, slowing the creature's movement.
Kael shifted left, hands lifting slightly as his own frequency shaped around the construct's flank.
Aiden felt it then.
A ripple.
Subtle.
Not from the construct.
From the edge of the field.
Thorne's gravity pressure stuttered for a fraction of a second.
Not enough for most to notice.
Enough for Aiden.
The construct twisted through the slackened field and lunged.
Aiden moved before thinking.
Interference pulsed outward — not wide, not flashy. Thin.
It caught the distortion mid-shift.
The creature's momentum hiccupped.
Kael's strike landed cleanly.
Construct dissolved.
Thorne stepped back. "What was that?"
"Field disruption," Kael said quickly.
Thorne frowned. "From it?"
Aiden didn't respond.
They continued moving.
Second construct fell from above this time. Kael spotted it early, redirecting with a short burst that altered its drop angle. Thorne adjusted center of gravity to prevent knockback.
Their formation held.
Then it happened again.
This time while Thorne adjusted weight distribution during a tight turn between two barriers.
His anchor pressure flickered.
Tiny.
Precise.
Aiden felt it like an echo pressing against his own core.
Parallel frequency.
He pulsed again, stabilizing the gap before instability could cascade.
Construct engaged.
Neutralized.
Kael glanced back at him mid-movement.
"You're compensating," he said quietly.
"For what?" Thorne demanded.
"For something poking your field," Kael replied.
They cleared the mid-point marker.
Observation booths above shifted subtly. Instructors leaning forward.
Aiden scanned peripheral lanes.
Squad 3 was running parallel two sections over.
Lyra moved cleanly through her formation. Her frequency reflected incoming impact patterns with adjusted angles, redirecting construct aggression toward dead space.
Controlled.
Efficient.
And—
There.
A faint push from her lane.
It brushed along the side of Thorne's gravity field like a testing finger.
Thorne didn't notice.
Kael slowed half a step.
"You feel that?" he murmured.
Aiden did.
Not hostile.
Not strong.
Measured.
He didn't pulse this time.
He let it touch.
Interference didn't flare aggressively. It bent slightly, absorbing the contact and returning static.
Across the divide, Lyra's head tilted a few degrees.
Recognition.
A third construct hit their path — heavier, wider frame.
Timing was tight. Thorne pressed down hard, pinning it.
The flicker came again.
Stronger.
This time deliberate.
Thorne's gravity buckled.
The construct broke through partial suppression and swung.
Impact clipped Kael's shoulder.
Formation broke.
Severity spike detected.
Two more constructs dropped instantly behind them.
Thorne swore.
Kael regained footing fast.
Aiden didn't hesitate.
Instead of compensating immediately, he shifted his output outward in a sharp, narrow burst aimed across lanes.
Not at the constructs.
At the source.
Interference met Reflection.
There was resistance.
Not brute resistance — structural adjustment.
She redirected his pulse.
Clean.
Aiden narrowed his eyes.
He cut his output instantly instead of escalating.
Pulled back into formation.
"Left side!" Kael shouted.
Aiden re-centered and pulsed short-range stabilization instead.
Thorne regained anchor.
Together they broke through the construct cluster and pushed toward extraction.
No more flickers.
They crossed the marker.
Barrier reappeared behind them.
Breathing heavy but controlled.
Thorne bent over slightly. "That escalated fast."
Kael's eyes moved sideways. "It escalated on timing."
Aiden looked toward Squad 3's lane.
They had finished seconds earlier.
Lyra stood at their extraction point, speaking calmly with her teammates.
She didn't look winded.
She didn't look triumphant.
She looked like someone who had just confirmed a theory.
Instructor Sel's voice carried across the field.
"Squad seventeen. Instability spikes recorded at two intervals."
Her eyes rested on them longer than necessary.
"Adjust internal synchronization before tomorrow."
Dismissed.
As other squads cycled through, Thorne rubbed his shoulder.
"So. Someone messing with us or am I imagining things?"
Kael didn't answer.
He looked at Aiden.
Aiden kept his expression neutral.
"Some formations attract pressure," he said.
Thorne frowned. "That's vague."
"It means we were noticed."
Kael spoke quietly. "By her."
Thorne followed his gaze across the field.
Lyra's eyes met Aiden's briefly.
No smile.
No hostility.
Just acknowledgement.
She stepped away with her squad.
Aiden exhaled slowly.
She wasn't testing randomly.
She'd measured his output during the array flicker.
She'd traced similarity during the breach.
And now she'd pushed directly.
Not to win.
To see how he responded under structured stress.
He adjusted his sleeves.
If she wanted to measure parallel frequency interaction—
Fine.
But she'd just confirmed something too.
He hadn't overextended.
He hadn't lost control.
He'd cut output before escalation.
That wasn't weakness.
That was restraint.
And restraint was harder to read.
Thorne nudged him. "If she keeps that up, I'm asking for a squad transfer."
Kael shook his head slightly.
"She won't."
Aiden's gaze stayed on the training field.
No.
She wouldn't push recklessly again.
Not without new data.
And now they were both aware of each other.
Parallel lines.
Still not crossing.
But narrowing.