CHAPTER 169 — HOUSE VEIL AND THE TROJAN REPORT
Sevrin remained silent for several moments after the projection faded.
His eyes stayed fixed on the empty file hovering above the grey territory while countless thoughts moved behind the chrome lenses resting over his face.
No records. No lineage archives. No signature traces.
That alone should have been impossible.
The Five Marquis Houses monitored the continent too closely for someone of relevance to exist without leaving marks behind, especially someone capable of representing House Veil at the Soulis Event.
Yet what unsettled him most was not the absence of information.
It was the feeling that the name itself should have meant something to him.
Seris.
The moment he heard it, fragments of familiarity surfaced instinctively before slipping away just as quickly, leaving behind only vague impressions he could no longer place properly.
A corridor. Silver sleeves. A voice speaking somewhere behind him.
Then nothing.
Sevrin's brows narrowed slightly.
"…I've met her before."
Dorian's expression did not change, but the silence that followed confirmed enough on its own.
"Yes," he said calmly. "Three years ago during the winter gathering between the Houses."
Sevrin's eyes stayed forward as he tried forcing the memory into shape, but it refused to stabilize. Every attempt collapsed into the same hollow gaps.
"That shouldn't be possible," he said quietly.
Dorian finally looked at him.
"That is exactly why House Veil is feared."
Dorian moved his hand across the projection layer again, and the grey territory beneath them expanded slowly until it occupied nearly half the floating map.
"Most Houses build influence through force," he said. "Territory. Armies. Bloodlines. Domains."
Streams of information continued flowing across the continental grid, yet the Veil region remained perfectly still beneath it all.
"House Veil built theirs through absence."
Sevrin's gaze sharpened slightly.
"They erase trails. Erase records. Erase attention. Entire generations can interact with them and still fail to notice how much information disappears afterward."
His eyes stayed locked on the grey territory.
"And the terrifying part," Dorian continued, voice lowering, "is they have never once explained how it works."
Sevrin stared at the grey region longer, then finally spoke.
"If House Veil ignored the last three Soulis gatherings, why participate now?"
Dorian did not answer immediately.
His hand shifted again.
The projection changed.
The continental map vanished.
A massive circular structure replaced it.
Ancient. Buried beneath layered seals and shifting formations.
Even as a projection, it carried weight.
"The Soulis Event was never about competition," Dorian said.
"It only appears that way to the younger generations."
Sevrin's eyes narrowed.
"The battles. Rankings. Resource distribution."
"Distractions," Dorian cut in.
His gaze stayed on the structure.
"The true purpose of Soulis is retrieval."
The structure rotated slowly.
Sevrin watched without speaking.
Dorian continued.
"Every century, the ruins beneath Soulis open for a short period. Seals weaken. Internal regions shift."
Light traces began appearing inside the structure, marking deep hidden chambers.
"And inside those ruins exist things even the Marquis Houses cannot create."
Ancient techniques. Dead bloodline fragments. Failed Domains. World Seeds. Forgotten inheritances.
The projection pulsed once.
"Every genius sent there is not a competitor," Dorian said.
"They are keys."
Silence tightened across the chamber.
"Whichever House extracts the most from the ruins controls the next century's balance."
Sevrin finally understood.
This was not a tournament.
It was excavation.
And House Veil moving after centuries of silence meant only one thing.
They were not coming to participate.
They were coming to take something.
The projection layer trembled suddenly.
A sharp pulse spread across the floating grid before a formation opened near the edge of the chamber.
Dorian's eyes shifted instantly.
A silver construct emerged and knelt midair. Its body was faceless, formed entirely of condensed light, with streams of encoded information flowing beneath its surface.
A high-priority relay.
Dorian raised two fingers.
"Report."
"Emergency transmission received from House Phoenix."
The continental projection reformed instantly.
Crimson markers ignited across the southern regions.
Then a sealed chamber appeared.
Destroyed terrain. Residual Domain pressure. Suppression traces.
And at the center of it all, Erasmus.
Even through fragmented data, his presence distorted the surrounding field.
Sevrin's eyes narrowed slightly.
The construct continued.
"House Phoenix initiated full internal containment protocols following classified border intelligence."
Dorian's gaze darkened.
"Continue."
"The information originated from Erasmus Trojan after return from outer frontier regions."
Silence tightened.
"Dead realms near the border are evolving through devourment behavior."
The projection shifted rapidly as corrupted zones flashed across the continent.
Several had already vanished from surveillance.
"Preliminary analysis suggests possible World Seed-level involvement."
Sevrin stopped completely at that.
"Following disclosure, Erasmus Trojan was confined by direct order of the Phoenix Marquis."
Silence dropped instantly.
Then Dorian laughed once.
Quiet. Controlled. Dangerous.
Sevrin looked at him immediately.
Dorian stared at the projection of the sealed chamber.
"Confined Erasmus."
His smile faded into something colder.
"You do not confine a Trojan unless they allow themselves to be confined