Thess called them to her study at midnight.
Not the training ground. Not the great hall. Her private chambers, hidden in the Academy's eastern tower, behind a door that Yuna had walked past a hundred times without noticing.
"Something's wrong," Aria said as they climbed the spiral stairs. The risers were shallow, she noticed, wide enough for her wheels. Thess had prepared for this. "Midnight summons. Private location. She's about to tell us something she doesn't want overheard."
"Maybe it's good news," David offered weakly.
Nobody believed him.
The door opened before they reached it. Thess stood silhouetted against candlelight, her usual gold glow dimmed to barely visible embers.
She looked old tonight. Actually old, not the ageless mask she usually wore.
"Come in. All of you."
The study was smaller than Yuna expected.
Books lined every wall, floor to ceiling, in languages she couldn't read. A desk covered in papers and star charts. A window that looked out on the three moons, their light painting silver patterns across the floor.
And photographs.
Not hundreds. She couldn't have fit them all. But enough. Faces pinned to a board behind Thess's chair, and more in leather folios stacked on the shelves. Young faces. Old faces. Human and not-quite-human. All of them wearing the same expression.
Hope.
"Sit," Thess said. There weren't enough chairs. Marcus and Chen Wei stood. "What I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room. If it does, we're all dead."
"That sounds paranoid," Lyric murmured. But their colors had dimmed with unease.
"No. Accurate." Thess moved to the photograph board. Her fingers brushed one of the images. A young man with silver eyes, maybe twenty years old. "His name was Kael. He was summoned eleven years ago. ECHO Attunement, like Silence. Insufficient baseline, like all of you."
"What happened to him?" Yuna asked.
"He reached Fifth Mark in ninety-three days. Exceptional progress. The Council was impressed." Thess's voice flattened. "They found his body three days later. Heart removed. No signs of struggle."
The room went cold.
"The official report said Unraveling creatures. A tragic loss. Nothing more." Thess pointed to another photograph. A woman with burn scars across half her face. "Mira. BEDROCK. Fourth Mark in sixty days. Killed in her sleep. Throat cut."
Another photograph. Another.
"Tomás. RIFT. Fell from a tower. Lin Chen. CHORD. Poisoned. Yuki Tanaka. RADIANCE. Burned alive in her own quarters."
Thess turned to face them.
"Five hundred and ten insufficient summons have been brought to Valdris in the last forty years. Every single one who showed exceptional progress died before reaching Sixth Mark."
Silence was the first to understand.
Her notebook appeared, writing frantic:
NOT ACCIDENTS. NOT UNRAVELING.
MURDER.
"Yes." Thess's voice was barely a whisper. "Someone is hunting insufficient summons. Someone inside the system. Someone with access to Academy records, progress reports, training schedules."
"Why?" Marcus's hands had curled into fists. Steady, but tight. "Why kill people who are trying to save the world?"
"Because not everyone wants the world saved."
Thess walked to the window. The three moons cast her shadow long across the floor.
"The Unraveling isn't natural. It never was. The Weave is being deliberately destabilized by forces who believe Valdris deserves to end. They call themselves the Hollow. They believe the Weave is a cosmic mistake. That Valdris was never meant to exist, and every Unraveling is reality trying to correct the error. They've been working for centuries, accelerating each cycle, making sure no one gets strong enough to stop the next one."
"And the insufficient summons?" Aria's voice was clinical, but Yuna could feel her fear through the CHORD.
"We're their biggest threat. The academies train sufficient mages, the ones with high Resonance. They become powerful but predictable. They follow rules. They respect limits." Thess turned back to face them. "Insufficient summons don't. We have nothing to lose. We break rules that sufficient mages don't even know exist. And sometimes, very rarely, we become something that terrifies them."
"Seventh Mark," Yuna breathed.
"Yes. In five hundred years, exactly three insufficient summons have reached Seventh Mark. All three stopped Unravelings that should have consumed continents." Thess's eyes found Yuna's. "All three were assassinated within a year of their victory. The Hollow doesn't just want to end Valdris. They want to make sure no one can ever stop them."
Chen Wei stepped forward.
The military woman's face was stone, but something burned behind her eyes that Yuna had never seen before. Not discipline. Rage.
"My brother," Chen Wei said. "He was summoned. Twelve years ago. They told us he died in training. An accident."
Thess's expression flickered. Pain, quickly controlled.
"Wei Chen. BEDROCK Attunement. Third Mark in forty-one days." She moved to the photograph board, found a face. Young. Proud. The same sharp features as Chen Wei. "He was one of the most promising I ever trained."
"They killed him."
"Yes."
"And you knew."
"I suspected. By the time I had proof, it was too late." Thess's voice cracked. "I've watched five hundred and ten young people die. Five hundred and ten students I recruited, trained, cared about. And I couldn't save any of them."
Chen Wei's hands trembled. Not with weakness. With the effort of not destroying something.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"Because knowledge is dangerous. The Hollow has informants everywhere. If they knew you knew, you'd be dead already." Thess gestured at the door, the walls, the ceiling. "This room is warded. Nothing said here can be heard outside. But the moment you leave, you carry a secret that could kill you."
"Then why tell us now?" David's voice was small. Seventeen years old and learning the world wanted him dead.
"Because you've reached Third Mark. All of you. In twenty-one days. That's faster than any group I've trained in forty years." Thess's dim glow brightened slightly. "And because the Hollow has already noticed."
"The construct attack," Aria said immediately. "Day thirteen. The training constructs were corrupted."
"Yes. That wasn't random. Someone sabotaged them specifically to kill your group. The magical signature was consistent with Hollow techniques." Thess pulled a scroll from her desk. "I've been investigating since it happened. The corruption was introduced through the Academy's supply chain. Someone inside our walls."
"A spy," Marcus said.
"At minimum. Possibly multiple." Thess unfurled the scroll. A list of names, some crossed out. "I've eliminated the most obvious suspects, but the Hollow is patient. Their agents can wait years before acting."
Yuna stared at the photographs. Five hundred and ten faces. Five hundred and ten people who had tried to be enough, only to be cut down before they could succeed.
"What do we do?" she asked.
"You survive. You grow stronger. You reach Sixth Mark, and then Seventh if you can." Thess rolled the scroll closed. "And you trust no one outside this room. Not the other Academy staff. Not visiting mages. Not anyone who shows too much interest in your progress."
"That's not a plan," Lyric said. "That's paranoia."
"Paranoia has kept me alive for four hundred years. I recommend it."
David sat in the corner, book clutched to his chest.
He hadn't spoken since Thess mentioned his age. Seventeen. The youngest summoned in decades. An outlier even among outliers.
Yuna crossed to him while the others discussed security protocols with Thess.
"Hey."
He looked up. His eyes caught the candlelight wrong. Too bright, too liquid.
"I didn't want to come here," he said quietly. "The portal took me from my bedroom. I was reading. Just reading. And then I was falling through nothing and landing in a place where everything wants to kill me."
"I know."
"No, you don't." His voice cracked. "You had a reason to leave. Your mother was gone. There was nothing holding you to Earth. I had a family. Parents who loved me. A sister who taught me to surf. A dog named Captain who slept on my bed every night."
Tears slid down his cheeks.
"I'm never going to see them again. And now you're telling me that even if I survive the training and the monsters and everything else, there's a secret organization that will murder me anyway?"
Yuna didn't have an answer. Couldn't have one.
So she sat beside him and let him cry.
"I'm scared," David whispered. "Every day. Every minute. I pretend I'm not because everyone else is so strong, but I'm terrified all the time."
"So am I."
"You don't show it."
"Neither do you." Yuna touched his shoulder. "Being scared doesn't make you weak, David. It makes you honest. And honestly? I'd rather have someone who's scared and still fighting than someone who isn't scared at all."
"Why?"
"Because the scared ones know what they're risking. They fight anyway because they've decided it matters. That's braver than fearlessness."
David wiped his eyes. "Do you really believe that?"
"My mother did. She was scared her whole life. Of being a single parent. Of not being enough for me. Of the cancer that was eating her alive." Yuna's throat tightened. "She was terrified. And she was the bravest person I ever knew."
"I miss my mom," David said. "Is that stupid? I've only been gone three weeks."
"It's not stupid. I miss mine too. And she's dead."
They sat together in the corner of Thess's study while the candles flickered and the moons shifted overhead.
Two scared people in a world that wanted them dead.
But not alone.
Never alone.
The meeting ended near dawn.
Thess distributed small tokens to each of them. Crystal pendants on silver chains.
"Emergency wards," she explained. "If you're attacked, crush it. The crystal will create a barrier strong enough to buy time. Not much. Thirty seconds, maybe a minute. But enough to call for help."
"And if help doesn't come?" Chen Wei asked.
"Then you fight. And you don't stop fighting until you win or you die." Thess's eyes were ancient. Tired. Grieving for five hundred and ten students she couldn't save. "The Hollow has taken everything from me. Every promising student. Every hope for the future. I won't let them take you."
"How can you be sure they won't?" Aria asked.
Thess smiled. It was the saddest thing Yuna had ever seen.
"Because this time, I'm not training seven insufficient summons. I'm training a family. And families don't die easy."
They walked back to the dormitory in silence.
The Academy corridors were empty at this hour. Dawn light crept through windows, painting everything gold and violet.
Yuna felt the crystal pendant against her chest. Cold. Heavy with meaning.
Five hundred and ten.
All those faces on Thess's board. All those hopes extinguished. All those letters that never got written home, families who never learned the truth.
"My brother deserved better," Chen Wei said suddenly. Her voice echoed in the empty corridor. "He came here to be a hero. He died in his sleep because someone decided he was too dangerous to live."
"We'll make them pay," Marcus said.
"No." Chen Wei stopped walking. Turned to face the group. "Payment implies balance. There is no balance for five hundred and ten murders. There's only justice. And justice means we survive. We reach Seventh Mark. We stop the Unraveling that they've been trying to cause for centuries."
Her burn scars caught the dawn light. Badges of survival.
"My brother died trying to save this world. I won't let his death be meaningless."
Silence raised her notebook:
NONE OF THEM WILL BE MEANINGLESS.
WE CARRY THEM NOW.
510 REASONS TO SURVIVE.
Yuna looked at her team. Her family.
Marcus with his protector's hands. Aria with her tactical mind. Silence with her temporal sight. Lyric with their truth-made-real colors. Chen Wei with her brother's legacy. David with his terrified courage.
Six broken people. Six reasons to keep fighting.
And five hundred and ten ghosts watching from Thess's wall, waiting to see if this time would be different.
"Ninety-eight days," Yuna said. "We make every single one count."
They walked into the dawn together.
Insufficient.
Hunted.
Alive.
[END CHAPTER 22]