The infirmary at Sanctum wasn't a place for rest—it was a fortress of stasis.
Ari lay on a marble-bed embedded with stabilization glyphs, his body aching in strange, code-like pulses. Magical threads stitched his injuries while the system slowly recalibrated.
System Status: Fragmented / RebuildingMemory Sync: DelayedEcho Tree Access: PartialStability: 41%
He drifted between dreams and data—flashes of unknown spells, ancient voices whispering languages his tongue didn't know but his bones remembered.
When the door opened, he expected Cerys.
Instead, he got them.
Lysira Vastelune stood like a statue carved from holy light, her robes immaculate despite yesterday's war.Next to her, in less composed dignity, stood Coren, now with a bandage across his forehead and the unmistakable look of someone forcibly humbled.
Ari blinked. "You lost. What more do you want? My silence? A limb?"
Lysira stepped forward and did something that broke every assumption he had of noble heirs—
She knelt.
"I offer you formal apology under the Radiant Oath," she said, voice tight but genuine. "We misjudged you. House Vastelune wronged you."
Ari sat up slowly. "Why?"
Coren, quieter than he had ever been, added: "Because… I thought you were a glitch. Something that slipped through the system. But what you did in that duel… That wasn't just mimicry. You understood our magic. You rewrote it."
Ari didn't move.
"And that scares you," he said flatly.
Lysira's mouth tightened. "Yes. But it also humbles me."
"You could've killed me. You didn't."
"Neither did you," she replied.
There was a long pause before Lysira stood again and reached into her robe.
"This is for you," she said, placing a scroll of golden thread in his hand. "A writ of House Passage. You now have permission to walk through Vastelune's outer territory. That includes archives, libraries, and dueling rings."
"So I'm forgiven?" Ari asked.
"No," Lysira replied. "You're acknowledged."
Coren coughed. "Also, uh… I'm not great at this, but I'm sorry for the hex trap I put on your desk."
"That was you?"
"Technically it was an educational hex. It had a failsafe—mostly."
Ari laughed once, painfully.
Before leaving, Lysira turned and added, more softly:
"If ever you wish to learn radiant sigilcraft properly… come find me. I believe our Houses once knew each other. In another Age."
"My House doesn't exist," Ari said.
"Neither does my mercy," Lysira replied. "Yet here we are."
They left without another word.
Ari stared at the scroll in his hand, the golden thread pulsing faintly with authorization runes.
System Input Detected:Foreign House Token AcceptedAccess Granted: Vastelune Cryptolibrary (Tier I)WARNING: Some sections sealed by Sanctum Admins
His fingers clenched tighter.
He wasn't just surviving anymore.
He was beginning to matter.
Cerys finally visited.
"So. Your enemies are now your… polite rivals?"
"They bowed," Ari said. "It was weird."
"Don't get used to it. House Vastelune doesn't bow unless they see a rising threat."
"You think I'm a threat?"
She looked at him. Really looked.
"No," she said. "I think you're a catalyst."