A shrill, academy-wide alarm blared, signalling the end of the evasion exercise. An electronic feminine voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere, "All non-hunter participants, please return to the biodome for debriefing. The final participant has been apprehended."
Kaitri and Jenny, having been "apprehended" for over an hour, were already sitting on the biodome's floor, nursing their bruised egos. Students trickled in, most looking exhausted, while others looked furious.
Then, Vale's voice cut through the noise. "The only one who successfully hid all second years for the full duration. Varik Calder."
"Varik won?!" Jenny's head snapped toward Kaitri, her green eyes wide with genuine, unadulterated shock.
As if on cue, Varik burst through the biodome doors, not a scratch on him. He wasn't just walking; he was prancing.
He ran a victory lap around the assembled students, arms raised high, and a massive, insufferable grin plastered on his face. A few of the other first-years were impressed by the upset and actually cheered for him.
Kaitri watched the spectacle, and pieces of the puzzle clicked into place with sickening clarity. He remembered the anger in Varik's eyes just a few days ago. The quiet, simmering resentment when Kaitri had refused to ask Professor Obi for a favour. "I will not forget this," he had said.
Kaitri had brushed it off. Now, he realised that he shouldn't have.
He knew, better than anyone, that Varik had a disturbing gift for gathering information. If Aiden and the other second-years had known about this contest beforehand, there was no reality where Varik hadn't known.
He hadn't been late. He hadn't eaten bad clams. He had been hiding, probably before the drill even officially started, letting Aiden's tracking stunt flush out the competition while he sat pretty. They had been played.
"That bastard!" Jenny hissed, her voice dropping to a dangerous low. She was on her feet in an instant, the realization dawning on her face. "He used us as bait. He knew Aiden was tagging people!"
She started stalking toward Varik, who was currently taking an exaggerated bow. She cracked her knuckles, a sound that made Kaitri wince.
"I may have had it coming," Kaitri murmured to himself, "but he did her dirty, too." He knew Jenny and Varik were friends, in their own antagonistic way but this was a line crossed.
He promptly stood up and walked in the opposite direction, not wanting to be anywhere near the blast radius. He was right to. As he passed through the biodome's exit, he heard Jenny's voice, sharp as a shard of glass.
"Help you? Why would I do that? You're the information broker, Varik. You should have known I'd be pissed, right?"
A moment later, a distinctly male yelp echoed down the hall. "Help! My ears! She's twisting my ears! This is assault! I'll have you reported to the council! Ow—not the other one!"
Kaitri just walked faster.
***
The next few days blurred into a gruelling montage of survival drills.
Vale was relentless, determined to beat any city-bred softness out of them. They learned to build shelters from alien flora that tried to bite them, how to start a fire with resonance-charged rocks, and, most disgustingly, how to cook.
"What is that?" Kaitri asked, poking a slimy, purple grub with a stick. It wiggled angrily.
"Edible," Jenny said, not looking up from her holophone. "Probably. Vale said most purple things are fine as long as they don't have more than six legs."
"This one has eight," Kaitri pointed out.
"Close enough. Cook it."
They had an assignment to list twenty-five poisonous creatures and twenty-five edible ones from the Academy's restricted inventory, a sprawling, untamed section of the biodome.
It was less a zoo and more of a "here's all the stuff that can kill you" demonstration. Varik surprisingly had been a font of knowledge, rattling off classifications and toxicity levels as if reading from a script, though he still rubbed his ears whenever Jenny got too close.
And the debt Kaitri owed was not forgotten. Jenny, was a skilled but budding Artificer, specializing in rune-craft.
"Hold still," she ordered one afternoon, holding up a flat, black stone etched with a glowing blue symbol.
"What is that?" Kaitri asked, eyeing it with deep suspicion.
"A diagnostic rune. It is supposed to identify latent toxins or poisons in a subject from a distance."
"Supposed to?"
"It's a prototype. Now, be a good guinea pig and let me see if it works."
Before he could protest, she channelled a spark of energy into it. The rune flashed, and instead of a gentle scan, a miniature bolt of crackling blue lightning shot out and zapped Kaitri square in the chest.
He yelped, staggering back as his hair stood on end. A cloud of acrid, black smoke plumed from his uniform, and the distinct smell of ozone and burnt hair filled the air.
Kaitri stared down at his smoking shirt, then up at Jenny, who was frantically scribbling notes on her holophone.
"Well," she muttered, "feedback is... aggressive. Power levels need adjustment."
He coughed, patting a small flame out on his shoulder. He looked like he'd just face-planted in a chimney. "Debt related, I hope."
Jenny finally looked up from her notes and burst out laughing. It wasn't a small chuckle; it was a loud, unrestrained cackle that made a few nearby students look over. "Oh, absolutely," she choked out, wiping a tear from her eye. "Count that as the first interest payment, Kai. Interest is a killer."
She grinned and walked away, still jotting down her findings, leaving him to smell like a burnt-out appliance.
***
Another few days went by. The sting of the rune and the ringing in his ears had finally faded. Kaitri was walking back from Professor Obi's class, his muscles screaming in protest. The training was brutal, but the battle-memories from Archedes were slowly becoming less of a terrifying intrusion and more of a visceral textbook. He was learning.
As he walked down the corridor to his dorm, he noticed the stares. People were whispering, pointing. Not with the awe or curiosity he'd sometimes gotten after the dojo duel or in general when someone knew who he was, but with a different, sharper energy. Pity? Shock? Morbid curiosity.
"What now?" he muttered under his breath, his hand unconsciously rubbing the back of his neck.
He turned the corner to his room and found out.
Jenny and Varik were waiting for him, leaning against the wall opposite his door. They weren't bickering. They weren't talking. They were just… waiting. Jenny had her arms crossed, her foot tapping an impatient rhythm. Varik was leaning back, abnormally still, his usual sarcastic smirk completely absent.
Kaitri stopped and felt his stomach twisting. This felt like an ambush.
He stared at both of them and sighed, the exhaustion of his training settling on him like a lead blanket. "I already got enough weird looks walking here. Can you two not look like you're about to sentence me to death? It's unsettling."
They kept their gazes fixed on him. Silent. Serious.
He sighed again, louder this time. "Fine." He swiped his keycard, and the door hissed open. "Get in."
He didn't bother offering them drinks. He just dumped his bag on the floor. Jenny immediately claimed his desk chair, spinning it around to face him. Varik stood by the wall, partially blocking the bathroom door with his eyes scanning Kaitri. They both faced him with grim expressions.
Kaitri broke the silence first. "Alright, what is it? Did I miss another drill? Did Jenny's rune permanently damage my soul? Out with it. You both look like you just watched a puppy get eaten by a Dark-Souled."
Jenny sighed and leaned forward, her green eyes sharp. "Close. So… why were you challenged to a Death Duel?"
The air in the room went still. Kaitri felt his blood run cold. "How… how did you know?"
"People have been talking about it all over the academy, Kai!" Jenny said, her voice rising. "It was officially logged not even twenty minutes ago."
The Death Duel was a privilege a curse, depending on how you look at it. Any student can challenge any other student to a formal duel. Combat, abilities, whatever. The results are binding.
Varik picked up the thread, his voice flat. "The only rule is that you can't make another challenge until you graduate. You get one. It's meant to settle life-or-death disputes and serve as a massive show of strength." He paused, his gaze intensifying. "To use it on a first year… on a pre-Res… that's not a challenge, Kai. That's an execution."
"Well, he's also a first year," Kaitri said.
"That's not the point."
Kaitri sank onto the edge of his bed, his mind reeling. "I may have messed up."
"Messed up?" Varik's sarcasm was back, but it was brittle. "Now what exactly could you have possibly done to earn a Death Duel? And from Cassian Draevos, no less? The son of the Leader of House Draevos. You don't just accidentally spill coffee on a guy like that."
Jenny shot Varik a glare. "Let him explain himself, you dribbledawdler."
Varik shrugged, but his eyes never left Kaitri.
Kaitri's gaze wandered from the sharp-eared elf to the intense human. His expression was solemn. He took a breath. "He just walked up to me after Obi's class. I was in the hall, and he just… blocked my path. He didn't shout. He barely even spoke."
"And?" Jenny prompted.
"He just… looked at me. Then he said, 'I, Cassian of House Draevos, formally challenge you, Kaitri of House Anam, to a Death Duel.' And then… he just walked away." Kaitri shook his head, the memory feeling surreal. "Apparently, it is a rule that every student has the right to challenge another…"
He was interrupted by Varik, who looked physically offended. "Apparently?" the elf squeaked, his voice cracking. "Apparently?! Kaitri, did you not read the student handbook? The thirty-page Concord-damned fine print on dueling etiquette and mortal challenges?"
"My Aunt did all the paperwork," Kaitri said defensively. "I was… busy."
Varik looked at Jenny. "He was busy."
Jenny pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes squeezed shut. "Of course he was. Of course you were." She sighed. "Okay. Back up. This Cassian. Did you know him?"
"Tall," Kaitri said, picturing the moment. "He was about six feet. He was wearing the standard combat uniform, but he was carrying a katana in a black sheath. His eyes… they were cold. Just… empty." He paused, the lie feeling sour in his mouth. "Not really. I don't know him."
"But?" Jenny asked, her eyes narrowing.
Kaitri looked down at his hands. "But… I think I know of him. I think I know why he's doing this."
He explained, his voice went low when he felt the memories he kept locked away rising to the surface. The night his parents died. The attack on his home. The massive, luxury hotel in the city centre that had been one of the first structures demolished by the rift.
"I've thought about it," he said, his voice hardening. "The news feeds were live that day. Earlier, they had been covering the arrival of a major delegation from House Draevos. Cassian's family. They were staying in that hotel."
He met their gazes. "My parents were the division leaders for Annex in that sector. He probably blames them... blames me."
Varik was silent for a long moment, tapping at the wristband on his arm. A faint, holographic light, invisible to them, played over his face. After a full minute, he spoke.
"It's worse than you think," Varik said quietly. "I'm pulling the back-channel gossip now. Apparently, a lot of highly ranked members of House Draevos were visiting that day. The hotel collapse wiped out half of their leadership. The official report said it was a 'natural rift instability.'"
Varik paused, his expression somber as he listened to whatever feed was playing in his ear. "But the rumors… they say Annex knew the attack was coming. That they didn't just fail to stop it, they guided it. Used the Dark-souled as a weapon to take out a rival. Not long after, House Draevos was demoted in the house rankings after being discovered to have had… relations… with an undisclosed Dark-souled Kingdom."
A flood of ice-cold emotions filled Kaitri's heart. The one-two punch of the information left him breathless.
'Did House Annex… orchestrate the attack? Or did House Draevos make a deal with the enemy, and the attack was their payment?'
Everyone knew there were ways to open portals to other worlds, even if it was forbidden by the Concord.
Still—
Jenny broke the heavy silence. "That's… a lot. But why challenge you? You're just a student. You weren't there."
The weight of it all suddenly felt too heavy. The training, the secrets, the voice in his head, and now this? A duel to the death based on a history he didn't even understand.
Kaitri looked up, his voice barely a whisper. "Guys… what is the point of all this? Our houses fighting, this constant struggle… Isn't the Pull just a sign that humanity's time is up?"
Jenny's laugh was so loud and sudden it made him jump. She had to slap her knee and gasp for air before she could speak.
"Are you kidding me?" she finally managed, her eyes watering. "You sound like one of those crackpot religious sects that serve the Dark-souled, waiting for the 'Great Cleansing.' Kai, I don't know if you noticed, but humanity's population is booming. You are like cockroaches. The Pull just gave you new real estate and a reason to get stronger. You are not going extinct; you're just expanding."
Varik, for his part, put a thoughtful finger to his chin. "I don't know… will death finally take me away from Jenny's terrible personality?"
WHAP!
She hit him in the side, hard. "Ow! My ribs!"
Kaitri felt a small smile crack his face. The tension, for a second, was broken. Jenny acted like she was tired of them, but she was always the first one there, always the one to drag them back to reality, even if she had to punch it into them. He didn't know her that well, but this, he was certain of.
She caught him staring at her and her face instantly contorted into an ugly expression. "WHAT?"
Kaitri's smile vanished. Jenny adjusted her face back to neutral, folded her arms, and her expression softened, just a fraction. The humour was gone, replaced by a deep, genuine concern.
"Isn't it a dangerous rule, though?" she asked, her voice quiet. "This isn't the dojo, Kai. What if you die? You'll be using real weapons. He'll be using a katana. You… you know how to use your Tanto, right?"
"He's cooked," Varik muttered, all humour gone from his voice.
Kaitri and Jenny both looked at him.
"What?" Varik said, shrugging. "He is. I've seen this Cassian guy in Vale's basic combat classes. He never uses a weapon. He just spars bare-handed. And he… he dismantles people. Experienced fighters like him. He acts like using a weapon is beneath him."
Varik met Kaitri's gaze, his own filled with a rare seriousness. "If he's bringing a katana just for you… he's not planning to play, Kai. He's planning to win."
Kaitri stood up. The fog of confusion and despair was burning away, replaced by a cold, sharp resolve. The voice in his head was silent, but he could feel the echo of Archedes' battle-hunger, a familiar fire in his veins.
"It really doesn't matter how skilled he is," Kaitri said, his voice steady. "I'll make sure to win."
He walked to his closet and pulled out the case containing his designated Tanto the school had provided him. He ran his hand over the smooth, cold metal of both blades.
"He wants a fight. He's going to get one. And when I win, I'll ask him why he made this challenge. I'll get the answers I need."
'And I'll find out what he knows about the night my parents died.'