The silence after Kael's question was heavy.
Alina looked away. "She's gone. That's all that matters."
She walked away from the fountain, her steps quick. Kael watched her go. He didn't follow. Doubt was a seed. He had planted it. Now he would let it grow.
He looked up at the Core Division towers. A shadow moved behind a high window. A flicker, then gone.
Kael turned and walked the other way.
---
In her room, Shade held the token.
It was cool in her palm. A simple metal disc. But the Mirror of the First Breath had shown its truth.
She placed it on the floor. Umbren padded closer, sniffing the air around it.
< Tracking beacon active. Signal detectable within 5 km. >
< Estimated time until localized scan: 12-48 hours. >
A beacon. Planted by someone inside the Academy. Someone with a spiral scar.
The Dawn-Song Sect was coming. They would scan every disciple. They would find her.
She had two choices. Run. Or stay and hide.
Running was safer. But it meant leaving the Academy. It meant abandoning her position, her access, her path to revenge.
Staying was a gamble. A deadly one.
Shade picked up the token. She could destroy it. But a dead beacon might send a different signal. An alarm.
She needed to mute it. To hide its song.
Her System offered a solution.
< Use Mandate Leech (Passive) on foreign artifact? >
< Warning: Unstable interaction. May cause feedback. >
"Do it."
She closed her hand around the token. She pushed her will into it. Not her mana. Her authority. The stolen echo of the Celestial Mandate within her core stirred.
The token grew hot. It vibrated. A high, thin whine filled the room. Umbren's ears flattened.
Shade pushed harder. She imagined a cage of pure silence around the token's core. She imagined smothering its song with the same darkness that had eaten its mistress.
There was a soft crack.
The whine stopped. The heat faded.
She opened her hand. The token looked the same. But the hum was gone. The rune inside was still active, but now it sang into a void. A silent scream.
< Beacon dampened. Signal reduced by 92%. >
< Detection range: 200 meters. >
Two hundred meters. They would have to be almost on top of her to feel it. It was not perfect. But it was enough.
For now