The third day at the academy rolled into the afternoon without anything dramatic happening.
Afternoon class finished. Free time arrived. Glen went to the training field for his solo sword session that apparently had become his daily afternoon ritual. Eric disappeared to the general library with a thick book he'd been carrying since morning — I didn't ask what it was, he didn't offer.
I went back to my room.
Lisa was in the next room — I could hear the sound of a closet being opened and closed quietly, the afternoon routine that didn't need questioning. Under the connecting door, the light from Lisa's desk lamp came in thin along my floor.
I sat at the desk, opened Vera's module to day three's page, and read the practice instructions for tomorrow morning.
But my head wasn't fully on that page.
Ilyse Varen.
Soren Aldgate.
The council member who proposed restricting access.
Three names that didn't yet have enough context to connect to each other with any confidence. But all three had shown up within the first three days — not a coincidence that could be brushed off.
A light knock at the connecting door.
"Come in."
Lisa opened the door halfway, standing at the threshold. "Young Master isn't practicing this afternoon?"
"Vera's module says rest on day three."
"Ah." Lisa glanced briefly toward the window — the sun was starting to go down, the sky outside already shifting to pale orange. "In that case, maybe now's a good time to share what I found earlier."
I closed the module. "About Aldgate?"
"Partly." Lisa came in fully, closed the connecting door behind her, and sat in the chair that had become her chair in conversations like this. "I asked a few of the servants in the east dormitory building — in a way that looked like ordinary conversation. Nobody connected my questions to any specific name."
"And what did you find?"
"Soren Aldgate has moved rooms twice since his first year." Lisa placed her hands in her lap. "Not because of conflicts with roommates — the official reason recorded in administration was always about 'study comfort.' But from what the dormitory servants said, the first move happened not long after he was caught coming back to the dormitory late three times in a row. The second move happened three months ago — no clear reason even among his dormitory friends."
"Three months ago," I repeated. "Before the incident."
"About six weeks before." Lisa nodded slowly. "His new room is on the lowest floor of the west dormitory building — not far from the side exit that's easier to access than the main door."
Moved to a room with easier outside access. Six weeks before the incident.
"Anything else?" I asked.
"One thing that might not be connected, but I thought it should be mentioned." Lisa looked slightly to the side — the way she did when she was turning something over in her head. "The servant on duty on the lower floor of the west dormitory said that a few nights before the incident, she saw someone enter Aldgate's room through the window — not the door. She didn't report it because she wasn't sure if what she saw was real, and didn't want the hassle of being wrong."
Someone came in through the window.
Not Aldgate himself — Aldgate was already inside, from what the servant described.
A visitor who didn't want to use the door.
"Is that servant still here?" I asked.
"Still here. But she's fairly selective about who she trusts." Lisa looked at me. "If anyone wants to try talking to her directly, she'd need to be approached the right way."
"Can you do that?"
"I'll need a few more days. Too soon would look suspicious."
I nodded. "Do it your way. Don't force it."
Lisa nodded back, then stood up. Before returning to her room, she paused briefly.
"One thing about Ilyse Varen," she said, almost like a footnote. "I asked the servant on duty in the guest reception room of the main building — who handled the observer's arrival two days ago. She said two people came with Varen when she first registered at the secretariat. Not servants or guards — more like colleagues, but they showed no official identification."
"Description?"
"The servant didn't remember much. Just one thing — one of the two was wearing a robe with stitching at the collar that matched the Royal Investigation Division uniform, but the color wasn't the standard grey. Darker."
I was quiet for a moment.
Royal Investigation Division — but not the same division.
The investigation division had several branches. The standard one used grey, like Cayne's robe when he came to the Raybak estate. The darker one — from Richard's hazy memories of royal institutional history lessons — that was the special division. Usually connected with internal oversight, not ordinary criminal investigation.
Internal oversight.
Ilyse Varen arrived with someone from the royal internal oversight division.
But she was placed at the academy as an official program evaluation observer.
Two identities that weren't fully consistent with each other.
"Thank you," I said. "That's useful."
Lisa gave one nod and went back to her room.
---
That night, the council meeting Diana mentioned happened.
I had no way of knowing how it went — no way to know until Diana told me. So I did what could be done: read Vera's module until I was half drowsy, lay down, and finally fell asleep with a head that was more organized than the nights before.
Not because the situation was simpler. But because something changes when the number of questions starts going down — not because they've been answered, but because they can be categorized more clearly.
---
Fourth morning.
Practice earlier than usual — the sun hadn't come up yet when I was already sitting on the floor, pulling the lightning current to the surface slowly. Fourteen seconds today. More stable, warmer, with small branching at the fingertips that hadn't been there yesterday.
Nine percent becoming fifteen percent in three days.
Faster than Vera's projection. But I didn't change her instructions — ten percent stays ten percent. Faster doesn't mean better if the channel isn't ready yet.
Breakfast was ordinary.
Glen showed up with the expression of someone who slept enough but still wanted more — the expression that had become his signature in the mornings before his first coffee. Eric was already there, as usual, with a different book from yesterday.
"Did you hear about the council meeting last night?" Glen asked Eric, his voice still half asleep.
I turned slightly.
"Hear what?" said Eric.
"Apparently there was a long argument. Two council members resigned this morning." Glen grabbed some bread. "Word from the east dormitory. Who knows if it's true."
I kept any reaction off my face.
Two council members resigned.
The meeting Diana said she'd make sure didn't go where they wanted it to.
"Where did you hear that?" asked Eric.
"The servant who brought my breakfast gossiped." Glen shrugged. "Maybe true maybe not. But if it is — something serious enough happened last night."
I ate my breakfast and didn't say anything.
---
The first class that morning was advanced magic theory with Instructor Vera.
Class ran normally — Vera covered second-layer condensation with the same measured delivery as everything she taught. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that could be read as a sign.
But at the end of class, when the other students had already left and I was packing up my notes, Vera spoke without looking up from her desk.
"Close the door."
I closed it.
"Sit down."
I sat in the chair in front of the instructor's desk — not a position that was normal for after class, but Vera had apparently placed a chair there before class started.
Vera put down her pen. For the first time since I'd known her through this class, she wasn't holding or reading anything.
"You asked about my analysis notes yesterday," she said directly. "I've been thinking it over since."
I waited.
"There are two things I need to confirm before I decide anything." Vera looked at me with a direct, uncomplicated gaze. "First — who told you those notes existed?"
"Someone with access to information about what happened after the incident, and who has reason to care about what went missing from the official report."
"That's a description, not a name."
"Yes."
Vera was quiet for a moment. "You don't want to name them."
"Not that I don't want to. But naming someone who gave me information without their permission feels like something that could put that person at risk."
Vera looked at me for a few seconds with an expression that didn't change. Then — something very thin around her eyes eased slightly.
"Second question," she said. "What are you planning to do with the notes if I give them to you?"
"Not fully sure yet," I answered honestly. "But the goal isn't to make the situation more dangerous. The goal is to understand what actually happened that night — because the official version doesn't answer all the questions that need to be answered."
"Everyone investigating something says they want to understand, not make things dangerous."
"Sure. But not everyone who says that has their name on a piece of paper found in the bag of a convicted suspect."
Vera was quiet again. This time longer.
I didn't fill that silence. Let it work on its own.
"I can't give those notes to anyone physically," she said finally. "Too risky if they change hands. But there's another way." She opened her desk drawer, took out something — not paper, but a small card made of harder material, with very small writing on one side. "This is an access code for a document stored in the encrypted archive in the south wing library. Not the general library — the room underneath it that requires a code to enter."
South wing archive library.
The exact same place Aldric asked me to come to tomorrow.
I took the card without changing my expression.
"The document is on the third shelf from the left, fourth row from the top," Vera continued. "No label. Plain cover." She stood, the signal that the conversation was done from her side. "You won't find me there, and if anyone asks, I never gave you this."
"Understood."
"And Raybak." Vera picked her notes back up, returning to her normal position behind the stack of papers. "Be careful who you trust in this building. Including people who look the most harmless."
I stood. "Thank you."
Vera didn't answer — already reading again.
---
In the corridor outside Vera's classroom, I stopped for a moment and looked at the small card in my hand.
South wing archive library.
Aldric asked me to come there tomorrow.
Vera just gave me access to a document there today.
Two separate trails leading to the same place.
Could be a coincidence. Could be the opposite.
I slipped the card into the inner fold of my jacket — somewhere not easily visible if anyone checked me from the outside — and walked to the next class.
---
I spent the free period before lunch on one thing.
Not resting.
I took a slightly roundabout route — through the south wing corridor, down to the lower level, through a hallway that was quieter and older than the rest of the academy. Not to go into the archive library right now. That was tomorrow. But to know the route — which points were busy, which were quiet, which doors got used and which didn't.
Preparation.
The south wing corridor was different from the ones above. Older stone walls, fewer lights, footsteps that echoed differently.
Near the stairs leading down, there was an iron door with a lock that looked old but well-maintained. A small plaque above it, partly worn — Reference Archive. Restricted Access.
I stood in front of it briefly without touching anything.
Tomorrow afternoon. Two o'clock.
Behind me, footsteps.
I turned at a normal pace — not too fast, which would look like someone who didn't want to be caught. Just someone who'd finished reading the plaque and was about to leave.
Soren Aldgate.
Walking from the far end of the corridor. Not heading toward this door — just passing by. His eyes found mine for one second before he looked ahead and kept walking without slowing down.
No expression changed. No sign he was surprised to find me here.
Too casual for someone who just happened to run into someone else in a corridor that rarely gets used.
I waited until the sound of his footsteps disappeared before moving in the opposite direction.
Aldgate knows this corridor. And now he knows I know it too.
---
Lunch with Glen and Eric was normal — or at least looked normal. Glen got news that tomorrow afternoon's physical training schedule had been moved to morning, which he met with a long and vivid complaint. Eric listened with the patience formed from months of sitting next to Glen.
I ate and occasionally responded.
But in the corner of my mind, one question kept spinning.
Aldgate in the south wing corridor, the same day as tomorrow when I have a meeting in the archive library below that corridor.
Who told him?
Aldric couldn't have. Vera couldn't have, because she gave me the access card in a way that clearly meant this needed to be kept tight.
Ilyse — who claimed she'd make sure I got there safely?
But Ilyse said someone asked her to make sure I got there safely. Not to make sure I got there.
There's a difference between the two.
---
The afternoon passed with an unremarkable extra class and free time I spent mostly in my room, reading.
Not Vera's module — I'd already finished today's pages. What I was reading was a thin book on the history of magic formulation from Richard's dusty shelf, looking for references about formula variations between regions.
There was one small chapter on crystal condensation formula — the same method mentioned in the investigation report as characteristic of Valdres weaponry.
I read it slowly.
The base formula wasn't overly complex. But modifying it, according to the book, required very specific understanding of how crystals respond to different elements. Not something that could be learned from books alone.
Someone who could modify a formula like that had studied it directly. From who? Where?
I closed the book when the light outside the window had already gone golden — the sun going down, dinner getting close.
On the desk, Vera's small card sat where it was safe.
Tomorrow.
---
Dinner.
In the middle of it, from the corner of my eye, I saw Ilyse Varen walk into the dining room. She didn't sit in the busy area — small table on the quieter side, alone.
Before sitting, her eyes found mine briefly — a fraction of a second. Then she sat down and faced her food.
Message that didn't need to be said out loud. I'm here. I see you.
Glen didn't catch that exchange. Eric might have — but as usual, he didn't react.
---
Fifth night.
I was almost lying down when two knocks at the connecting door came.
"Come in."
Lisa stood at the threshold. "One small thing before sleep, Young Master."
"Go ahead."
"The servant who saw someone enter Aldgate's room through the window — I managed to speak briefly with her earlier." Lisa spoke calmly. "She didn't want to say much. But there was one detail."
"What?"
"The person who came in through the window was carrying something." Lisa looked at me directly. "Not large. More like a document or letter, wrapped in thin cloth. And when they left again — their hands were empty."
Someone delivered a document to Aldgate. Through the window. Before the incident.
"Did she see the person's face?"
"Not clearly — the lights were already dim at that hour." Lisa paused briefly. "But she mentioned one thing she remembered. The person moved like someone who already knew exactly how the building was laid out. Not a single hesitation at any turn."
Very familiar with the dormitory layout. Knew exactly where Aldgate's room was and how to reach it from outside.
I was quiet for a few seconds.
A document delivered to Aldgate before the incident. Through a window. By someone who knew the building intimately.
And Aldgate — who always goes out right at curfew, who moved rooms six weeks before the incident, who was in the south wing corridor today — received that document.
What was in it?
"Thank you," I said. "You did good work."
Lisa gave one nod, then went back to her room.
---
I lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling.
Too many things moving at once — but all of them heading toward the same point in time.
Tomorrow at two.
Aldric. Vera's document. The archive library under the south wing.
With Ilyse Varen somewhere in the background claiming she was there to make sure I got there safely.
With Soren Aldgate who had already seen me in that same corridor today.
With the name "Grevan" that still had no face.
And with the small intersection point in my head — someone who had access to the royal investigation, the academy administration, and the council all at once — that was still blank.
But it won't be blank forever.
In tomorrow's archive library, there was a document Vera had stored. There was Aldric who wanted to talk directly. There was the possibility that some pieces that had been moving separately would start finding their places together.
Or everything would just get more complicated.
Both of those possibilities are equally real.
My eyes got heavy.
One more day, I thought.
Tomorrow.