The announcement came with no warning.
A single chime echoed across the Academy just before dawn, followed by a projection from the spire's central crystal:
> "Next Phase: Duos Initiation."
"Pairings will be randomly selected."
"Survival, synchronization, and clarity of command will be judged."
Students gathered in quiet confusion, shuffling in half-awake clusters near the division staging grounds.
Lyle moved alone, as always.
The Codex pulsed against his ribs—quiet, but warm. Active.
It hadn't spoken since the last unlock.
But he knew something was building.
And then… the names began to appear.
One by one, they shimmered into view in the sky above the courtyard. Magical text for all to see.
Lyle didn't react when his name flashed.
But his jaw twitched at the second name paired beside it.
> Greenbottle, Lyle / Juno Ravyn
A pause spread across the cadets like a slow ripple.
Even Juno, standing near the Pyre Division, glanced up, then down—eyes landing directly on him.
She didn't smile.
But she also didn't look surprised.
---
They met again minutes later on the stone platform, instructors already arranging gear.
"You saw this coming?" she asked.
"I expected worse."
"I am worse," she said.
He gave a faint shrug. "We'll find out."
An instructor passed them both a sealed envelope.
"Inside are your instructions. Once you open it, your trial begins. You will be watched, evaluated, and pushed. Disqualify each other, and both fail. Refuse the trial, and you'll be reassigned."
Lyle accepted the envelope silently.
Juno's hand lingered a little longer before she took hers.
> They're watching our interaction too, Lyle thought.
Even now. Every blink, every delay, every silence.
---
The trial began in a shift zone—a pocket dimension outside the Academy, warped by old magic and reconstructed by the Mirror Spire's extensions.
It resembled a ruined outpost.
Twisted trees, broken watchtowers, a dried riverbed that cut across the terrain like a scar.
The objective was unclear.
The envelope only said:
> "Reach the tower. Retrieve the seal. Return alive."
Of course, they didn't say what tower, or where the seal was, or what would try to stop them.
That was the point.
---
They moved in silence at first.
Lyle took the lead—not commanding, just walking. Juno followed without complaint.
After five minutes, she finally spoke.
"You don't walk like a mage."
"Should I?"
"You walk like someone expecting a blade."
He didn't answer.
She kept pace.
---
Ten minutes later, the first obstacle revealed itself.
A broken bridge over the dried riverbed—spanning to a field thick with fog that shimmered like glass.
Illusion fog.
Lyle narrowed his eyes.
"This isn't just vision interference," he muttered. "It's a cognitive loop. It resets thought patterns. If we walk through, we'll forget where we're going."
"You sure?"
"No," he said. "But I've seen this in dreams."
He didn't mean to say that.
But Juno caught it.
"Dreams?"
"Forget it."
"No," she said, gripping his sleeve. "You said dreams. That Codex of yours—"
A rustling echoed from behind them.
Movement.
Fast.
Wrong.
They both turned just as a figure lunged from the shadows—a mimic. Not a beast, but a copy.
Of Lyle.
It cast the same spell he used two days earlier in combat class—an unpolished deflection glyph with a flickering delay.
But it cast it perfectly.
"Move!" Lyle shouted.
Juno rolled left. He pivoted right.
The mimic missed.
And in that moment, Lyle activated a glyph he hadn't used before—an unwritten glyph, shaped by instinct and fed by the Ethos itself.
The mimic froze.
Then shattered into mist.
---
Juno stared at him.
"You said you barely passed support casting…"
"I've been studying," he replied.
Her voice dropped. "You lied."
"I told you I'm hiding something."
"You didn't say it was this much."
He stepped toward the edge of the fog.
"I'll go first. If I forget the way, pull me back."
"You trust me?"
He looked back at her, dead calm.
"No. But I know how you think. And you'd rather drag me through fire than let me show you up."
That earned him a short laugh.
"Fair."
---
He stepped into the fog.
The world twisted.
Names unraveled.
The mission blurred.
He forgot—
—until a hand grabbed his collar and yanked him back.
Juno's voice, cutting through the haze:
"Come back to me, liar."