The corridor was silent.
Only the clack of shifting floor plates. Only the low hum of the vents.
Kaelo walked at the front. His back was a rigid line of military precision. His hands hovered over his hips. They rested on the weighted grips of Phage and Hemo.
To a cadet they are just guns. High tech sidearms.
To Kaelo they are alive.
He felt the rhythmic thrum of the blood filled magazines. They are tuned to his own pulse. A specialist project of Zenith. A part of his own circulatory system waiting to be unleashed.
If the boy behind him is the threat the data suggested Kaelo would not hesitate.
Phage would deliver its microscopic poison. Hemo would shred the air.
He did not just carry weapons. He carried the will to survive.
Selene walked behind. Her eyes never left Vane. She watched the way he moved.
He didn't walk like a prisoner. He walked like a man following a path he'd already seen.
"You're quiet Vane" Selene said. Her voice echoed off the metal. "Most would be shaking. Three Generals. Asking for you. Especially after a match like yours."
Vane didn't look at her. His eyes were fixed forward. Neutral. "I'm a student at Valis" he said.
The air around him grew thick. Heavy. With every step toward the heart of the school the weight increased.
Nora walked beside him. She looked at the pistols on Kaelo's hips. She felt a cold knot of dread. She had heard of Zenith's projects. Seeing them was different.
The weapons looked hungry.
"We're here" Kaelo said.
He stopped before the reinforced blast doors. He did not wait for an invitation. He swiped his Zenith clearance.
The doors hissed open.
The Command Center was a cathedral of glass and light. Holographic monitors flickered with data. At the far end four figures stood.
Their presence made the air feel thin.
Vane stepped into the light. His eyes swept over the figures the weight of their authority pressed against him like a physical wall.
"General Kaine" Vane thought. "I guess I can assume the others are Generals as well."
"The anomaly has arrived" Varick said. His voice was synthesized and cold.
Varick stood his visor flickering as he stepped into Vane's space. He was a pillar of military authority. "Your file's empty Vane" the General said. His voice carried the weight of a hammer. "No training. No Spark registration. Yet you walked out of Omen. A Grade One wipe. A city leveled. How? Luck doesn't leave a ghost in its wake."
Vane looked small. A speck of dust against the power in the room. "I was lucky" he said. "I was in the gardens with my friends. I just survived."
"Luck's a lie" Vesper interrupted. Her voice was a blade. She stepped closer. Her mirrored skin shimmered. She crowded Vane's other side.
"The sensors at the testing hall didn't just break Vane Obsidian. They flatlined. Tell us about your Spark. Is it a dampening field? or are you simply a black hole wearing a student's skin?"
Vane looked at his own matte black reflection in her cheek. "I have no spark General. My blood is silent."
Varick narrowed his eyes the scrolling code on his visor accelerating.
"Why the interest in the Great Library? A boy with no power doesn't spend his first hours in the restricted archives looking at tactical maps of the Bylaw territories unless he's looking for a way out or a way to lead them back here. How'd a glitch like you end up at a fringe ruin like Omen Academy?"
Vane's memory was a hazy fog of static. He didn't flinch. "I was born there" he said. "Omen was my home. I've been there my whole life."
"The Principal's records say otherwise" Varick countered.
"I wouldn't know" Vane said softly. "I only ever heard of the Principal. I never had an actual interaction with him. I was just a student in the shadows."
Vesper leaned in. Her high frequency hum made the air scream. "Valis is a third rate tomb Vane. Join Zenith. We have the cognitive mapping tech to reach into that fog in your mind and pull out the truth. I can offer you a seat at the right hand of the High Kings. Why stay here with ghosts when you could rule with us?"
Vane looked her in the eye with a gaze of ancient boredom.
"The truth is usually just a louder version of a lie General. I'll stay where it's quiet."
Vesper's smile turned sharp. She glanced at Kaine. "He'll attend both schools" she whispered. "I'll handle the higher ups. They won't deny it. He's a variable we can't calculate Kaine. I want to solve the equation."
Vane looked at the monitors then back at the Generals. "If you really cared about the safety of the students" Vane said. "You'd be asking a different question.
"The air grew still.
"Why'd the Bylaws stop attacking Omen the moment I left?"
The room went ice cold. Vesper stilled. Her hand moved toward her knife. Her eyes were wide. Burning with a new light.
Vane tilted his head. His eyes were empty. "They didn't kill me because they were done. They stopped because I stood up. They didn't finish the job. They fled from it. It's like they knew the air around me was poison. They didn't just leave. They ran from me."
Kaelo felt a shiver. A primal instinct. "The kid sounded like a natural disaster wearing a human's skin." Kaelo Thought
Vesper leaned in even closer. A strange hunger burned in her eyes. The equation had just become much more valuable.
Kaelo stepped forward. The barrel of Phage glinted. "General" Kaelo said. "Let me take him to the grounds. If he won't talk let's see how he handles a Krieger. If his powers absolute a Lieutenant shouldn't be an issue."
Vesper looked at the Lieutenant.
"A controlled test" she said. "No lethal force. I need him alive."
"I'll only use what's necessary" Kaelo said.
His eyes locked onto Vane's.
Vane looked at the pistols. Then at the man. His gaze was dark and hollow.
"You shouldn't do that Kaelo" Vane said.
His voice carried the weight of a thousand years.
"Your blood's better spent in your veins than on the floor."