Chapter Three: What Yolti Carries (Part Three)
Date: May 22, Year 204 PCR (Maelis 22)
Location: Trial Arena – Harmonic Lyceum
Time: Early Afternoon
Kallien didn't speak.
He stepped back—not far, just enough to breathe, to test the air between them, like maybe it would change.
Yolti lowered her hand. Her lattice dimmed.
Silence bloomed between them—not the kind that ended fights, but the kind that let them truly begin.
"You think you've figured me out?" Kallien finally said, voice steady but thinner.
Yolti's gaze didn't waver. "I'm not here to figure you out."
Her raised one hand again, palm open.
"I'm here to show you what I carry."
The glyph etched along her forearm—once faint—tightened into definition. The lattice didn't flare. It compressed, lines sharpening like a net folding in on itself, forming a focus point at the center of her hand.
"VEILMARK ART — AETHERFORM FOCUS: Binding Lumen."
No sound. No shock. Just a thread of light—a line, narrow and blinding—shot forward from Yolti's palm and locked onto Kallien's chest glyph.
Kallien's eyes widened. He shifted back, pulsemark pulsing, glyph trying to counter—but the line stayed. No matter where he moved, the light tracked him.
Yolti stepped forward.
With each step, the line shortened.
"It's not an attack," Kallien muttered. "It's… tracking me?"
"No," Yolti replied. "It's reflecting you."
Kallien gritted his teeth and surged forward again, fists swinging low, trying to sever the thread with motion alone.
Yolti didn't dodge.
She turned.
Just slightly—enough that the motion redirected the thread, letting it curve around Kallien's strike and tighten.
Kallien's glyph buzzed—then sparked.
He recoiled.
"Get out of my head—"
"I haven't entered it," Yolti replied.
Another twist. Another pull of the thread. It curved upward this time, wrapping faintly around Kallien's shoulder, not binding—but measuring.
The lattice at Yolti's chest pulsed again.
"You're not hurt," he said. "But you're bleeding your resonance with every strike."
Kallien blinked.
"How—"
"You're burning too hot for a mid-glyph wielder. You've been forcing output beyond your mark tier. You're unstable."
The crowd didn't cheer. They listened.
Because the arena had shifted. Not physically—but in tone.
Kallien wasn't losing a fight.
He was being read like a script.
And Yolti wasn't even raising her voice.
Kallien snapped again, pushing all his strength into one final Veilmark surge.
"VEILMARK ART — RAZEFORGE STRIKE: Twin Flare Collapse!"
Twin shockwaves erupted from his fists, colliding in the air between them with a thunderous crack.
Yolti took one step forward and extended her hands, lattice flaring wide—not in defense, but in absorption.
The force hit.
Light consumed the ring.
Dust and resonance curled skyward.
When the haze cleared—
Yolti stood in the exact same place.
Not a step back.
Not a mark on his robe.
Her lattice absorbed every inch of the strike—and returned nothing.
Kallien's eyes flickered. His breath caught. His glyph—dimmed.
"You're not fighting me," Yolti said.
"You're fighting the parts of yourself you refuse to acknowledge."
She took another step. The lattice around him pulsed once more, then broke apart into tiny points of light—each one drifting slowly toward Kallien.
"I don't beat people. I return them to themselves."
"You just have to decide if you want to be whole or not."
Kallien didn't move.
The lattice lights hovered near his skin, not binding. Waiting.
"You talk like you're a priest," Kallien muttered.
"I'm a healer," Yolti replied. "Same thing—except I know when not to speak."
Kallien's glyph buzzed again.
The next round would decide everything.