The mission brief arrived at dawn.
Not through official channels.
Not with ceremony.
Just a folded scroll under Lyle's door, sealed with the Academy's wax—blood red and pressed with the insignia of the Mirror Spire.
Juno received hers the same way.
No warning.
No instructors.
Just a directive.
> "Field Operation: Region 6-B | Escort & Extraction – S-class Fracture Node | Two-man team: Greenbottle, Ravyn."
> "Leave within the hour. No substitutions."
That was the entire message.
---
They met at the North Gate, both dressed in lightfield gear—Academy-standard armor with passive mana shielding and null glyph threads.
Juno spoke first.
"No handlers. No escort. Not even a watcher drone."
"They're watching," Lyle said.
"Of course they are. But they're pretending not to."
She exhaled.
"We're bait, aren't we?"
"Or a trigger," Lyle offered. "Either way, we're useful."
She glanced sideways.
"I'm not good at trusting people."
"I'm not good at being one," he replied.
But she smirked—just a little.
"Then I guess we're finally evenly matched."
---
Their destination wasn't far—just beyond the mountain rim, where old ruins once marked the outer line of the pre-collapse magical infrastructure.
But travel outside the Academy wasn't about distance.
It was about silence.
No ambient glyph lines.
No surveillance nets.
No Codex prompts.
Just raw magic and unstable ground.
Which meant—for the first time—they could speak freely.
Really freely.
---
They walked for hours.
Past broken watchtowers and silent trees.
Lyle occasionally traced faint sigils in the dirt, disrupting scrying threads he could feel but not see.
Juno stayed close but not tense—her posture loose, like she wasn't guarding anymore, just… present.
Finally, she broke the silence.
"You dream of them, don't you?"
He didn't answer immediately.
But he didn't pretend to misunderstand.
"My parents?" he said.
She nodded.
"All the time," he said. "Not always as they were. Sometimes just... fragments. The smell of parchment. The way my father tied his cuffs."
She looked away, jaw tight.
"I don't remember my brother's face."
That hung in the air like fog.
Lyle didn't press.
Didn't need to.
---
They reached the fracture node just before dusk.
A crater of light and silence surrounded by warped trees—bent as if bowing toward the tear in reality.
From the center rose an old construct tower—pre-collapse design. Glass bones. Obsidian plating.
Inside, the S-class anchor pulsed slowly.
Their mission: extract it. Stabilize it.
Lyle approached carefully.
"I'll set the seal. Cover me."
But Juno didn't move immediately.
He glanced back.
She was just… watching him.
Not suspiciously.
Not strategically.
Just watching.
"You always move like you expect to die," she said softly.
Lyle froze.
"Maybe I do."
She stepped forward.
Took his wrist gently.
"Then maybe it's time you start expecting someone to be there when you don't."
---
The seal took hold minutes later.
The fracture quieted.
The Codex flickered for the first time all day:
> [Stability Node Strengthened – Bond Level 2 Achieved]
Juno Ravyn: Synchronized Partner (Linked Recognition State Active)
*[Dual-Cast Option: Available]
Your magic may now combine in unique patterns with bonded allies.
Lyle looked at her.
And for once, didn't hide the smile.
Not the sly one.
Not the fake one.
Just real.
Warm.
"Guess we're stuck with each other," he said.
She bumped his shoulder lightly.
"Not stuck. Just choosing not to run."