The old lodge had no name, no signboard, and no markings to distinguish it from the surrounding woods. Its crooked roof sagged under moss-laden beams, giving it an air of neglect, while the door looked like it hadn't been touched in decades, weathered and nearly forgotten by time.
Forgotten by men.
But remembered by purpose.
Despite its worn appearance, the door opened silently — if you knew exactly where to press — revealing a passage into its shadowy interior.
Niklaus Stagin's gloved fingers traced the seam between weathered wood and stone. A subtle click answered, and the door creaked open with the reluctant sigh of hinges long accustomed to secrecy.
[ Niklaus ]
"A little dusty..."
"cough"
"After you, old friend."
Deshan Mirthal slipped inside. His plum cloak whispered against dust-thick walls. His boots made no sound.
Old habits. They never die. They wait...
For the right kind of silence.
[ Deshan ]
"The same as ever, Master Stagin."
"Even the ghosts know better than to linger here."
[ Niklaus ]
"Heh."
The lodge was empty.
Empty, but not abandoned.
At its center, a square stone floor — the only part inside the lodge free of dust, free of cobwebs. Only the faint shimmer of æsther threads remained — a hidden glyph array, patient and dormant.
Deshan knelt, fingertips hovering above the rune-laced stone.
[ Deshan ]
"You always did prefer pits over doors."
Niklaus smirked.
[ Niklaus ]
"A door can be opened by accident, Deshan."
[ Deshan ]
"As cautious as ever."
[ Niklaus ]
"Well..."
"You know me."
The glyphs bloomed beneath Deshan's hand, tracing soft light into ancient channels. The floor receded with a low grind, unveiling a staircase spiraling downward into quietude.
This place had been an Ironroot outpost once.
Nik's attempt to build something outside Concordium's reach. But politics had sharper knives than any dungeon. Levi Maiven had seen to that — with a pen sharper than any blade.
The lodge's heart was always beneath.
The descent opened into a chamber no larger than a dining hall. Bare walls, unadorned, save for a single æsther lamp humming overhead and a map of Aena nailed to stone. A map that remembered things the Concordium had long since erased.
At the center stood an old stone table. Upon it rested an æsther tablet — similar to Concordium terminals, but far older... and far more intricate.
Deshan approached, activating the terminal with deft, practiced movements. The glyph patterns flared alive, casting their glow into the space above — projecting the architecture of Kaiden's Ki Card algorithm.
Tangled. Obscured. Like a labyrinth coiled into itself.
[ Deshan ]
"Your firewall spell's still holding, Master Stagin."
"Solid as ever."
"I'm still dazzled by how you weave æstheric formulae — even after all these years."
[ Niklaus ]
"I just listen to them, Deshan."
"It's all there is to it."
[ Deshan ]
"But..."
He adjusted a few nodes, narrowing the projection to a fine stream of æstheric data lines.
"Come see this."
He pointed at a fracture in the spell matrix — a series of minute frays, barely visible, like hairline cracks in glass.
"There."
"Tiny breaches."
"Subtle."
"Persistent."
Nik stepped forward, eyes narrowing as the Ki Card's encrypted algorithm folded into layers of defensive code.
[ Niklaus ]
"Not enough to rewrite."
"But enough to tap."
[ Deshan ]
"Eavesdropping."
"Silent."
"Patient."
"The Concordium never leaves anomalies unmonitored."
Nik folded his arms, jaw tightening.
[ Niklaus ]
"They always did lack subtlety, though."
"Watch a thing long enough, and you begin to think you own it."
[ Deshan ]
"They don't see people, Master Stagin."
"Only data streams that haven't been filed yet."
Deshan's tone was light, but his eyes were cutting — sharp as they had been in his Ironroot days. Loyalty never dulled. And experience always sharpens suspicion.
[ Niklaus ]
"Can you fix it from here?"
"I doubt they'll enjoy seeing me at the Academy twice in one day."
[ Deshan ]
"I can patch the breaches."
"Strengthen the lattice."
"But it's a bandage."
"They'll probe again."
Nik tapped his cane against the floor. The echo rang sharp against stone, as if to remind the walls whose silence they answered to.
[ Niklaus ]
"My grandson's curse."
"The Void of Aena..."
"Kaiden doesn't realize it yet."
"But it's spreading."
"It weaves through every resonance scan, every trial, every breath he takes."
"And my curse?"
"Regretably..."
"My curse lets me see just how far that weave stretches."
"And it's not just him twisting."
"Aena twists back."
"The world feels the strain, Deshan."
He looked down at the floating algorithm. The tremor in his fingers wasn't fear.
It was calculation.
"I sealed his data because I saw numbers."
"Numbers that don't belong in this world."
"Fluctuating."
"Shifting with his will."
"Numbers the Concordium would brand."
"Dissect..."
"...And cage."
Deshan's hands moved, layering new sigils into the algorithm. Methodical. Efficient. But slower than usual.
[ Deshan ]
"You're buying time."
Deshan's hands paused, fingers curling slightly — as if gripping words too sharp to say.
"But time's fickle, Master Stagin."
"The Mournleaf Protocol is being whispered again."
Nik's gaze darkened, the air around him subtly condensing.
[ Niklaus ]
"And Kaiden's name?"
"Is he filed?"
[ Deshan ]
"No..."
"Not yet."
"But the papers are being readied."
"They're waiting."
"Looking for the crack to justify the cut."
Nik's breath stilled, the word Mournleaf coiling like a noose.
And its consequences.
"Mournleaf is a serious matter, Master Stagin."
"It's pruning."
"They'll cut away the person until only a function remains."
The weight in the room was heavier than stone.
Nik placed a hand on the æsther tablet, the projection reflecting briefly in his eyes — a cascade of numbers that defied what Concordium logic allowed.
[ Niklaus ]
"They're not getting it."
"I'll burn their archives before they break that poor child."
Deshan completed the last glyph, the matrix sealing tight with a low, defiant hum.
[ Deshan ]
"That's the Master Niklaus Stagin I remember."
Nik's lips twitched — not a smile, but the memory of one.
[ Niklaus ]
"You didn't crawl back to fix my seal out of old debt, Deshan."
"So what is it?"
Deshan's expression shifted, from technician to something far more grave. He pulled a small, plain envelope from his cloak and laid it on the stone table.
[ Deshan ]
"An old ledger's been reopened."
"Names from the Ardent Stromhold's past."
"Yours is on it."
Nik's hand hovered over the envelope. His cane, now still, stood like a line drawn in defiance.
[ Niklaus ]
"Dead things don't talk, Deshan."
It wasn't a message. It was a shovel.
[ Deshan ]
"Unless someone digs them up."
"From your old acquaintance..."
"General Orlson."
The æsther lamp overhead flickered.
Nik picked up the envelope. It felt heavier than its paper should allow.
[ Niklaus ]
"What does he want now?"
[ Deshan ]
"I think it's better if you read it yourself, Master Stagin."
As if in response, the æstheric code of Kaiden's Ki Card pulsed — a flicker of external probing.
But this time, the seal held.
Kaiden's name remained hidden.
Deshan exhaled, not relief — but reprieve.
For now.
[ Niklaus ]
"Let them scratch."
"They'll find stone beneath."