CHAPTER 17: Third Bell
Rei woke before the lodging wing reached its louder hours.
Gray light cut through the slit window in a thin bar. The basin drip kept its steady rhythm. His body carried the night in small places—jaw tight, shoulders a fraction too high—as if that grin and that laugh could surface again if he let his focus slip.
A pale overlay hovered at the edge of his vision.
Logout: (Greyed Out)
End of Beta: 21 days, 2 hours, 17 minutes
It faded.
Jinx lay across the bed like she owned it. When Rei sat up, she cracked one eye, judged him, and yawned wide enough to show every sharp tooth. Vesper sat near the pillow, composed, gaze angled toward the desk as if she'd decided it was worth watching.
Rei started Ember Circulation and let the rhythm settle him. Breath in. Breath out. Pressure through his core that turned leftover adrenaline into something workable.
Cold water helped. He washed his hands, dried them, then crossed to the desk. The slate sat where he'd left it. The brass key stayed tucked beneath. He slid it out and turned it once in his fingers—cool metal, real weight—then set it back.
"Alright," he muttered.
Jinx hopped down and padded over, tail flicking. Vesper rose and brushed his forearm once, a quiet anchor.
Rei lifted his hand and gathered a thin thread of energy at his fingertip. He let it rise, watched where it wanted to drift, then guided it into a narrow line with light pressure.
The thread held. Clean edge. No sideways pull. No fraying the moment he shaped it.
He widened it into a small loop, then tightened it again. The shape stayed intact long enough to count as useful.
Jinx made a pleased little sound and sat, bright-eyed, like she was watching something impressive and pretending she'd expected it. Vesper's ears angled toward Rei's hand, then away again, unimpressed by anything that stayed inside a room.
"Don't get spoiled," Rei told Jinx. The grin came anyway.
He tried lightning next. A thin braid formed between two fingers, tight and quiet. It stayed where he put it for two counts before he let it dissolve.
His control sat closer to the surface than it had yesterday. The new looseness in the way his energy accepted shapes felt like friction easing off a hinge.
Rei pulled on his robe and drew the hood forward. Vesper climbed into it with smooth certainty and settled against his collarbone. Jinx trotted to the door like she'd been waiting for permission.
The corridor smelled faintly of chalk and old smoke. Low voices carried from farther down, students moving toward the same lanes with the same purpose.
Third bell was coming. Merrick had made sure of that.
Nyx stepped out from a side passage and matched his pace without asking. For most people her posture stayed cold. Beside Rei she stood close enough to feel deliberate.
"Up early," she said.
"I'm building a reputation," Rei replied. "I want the school to know I'm unbearable at all hours."
Her gaze flicked to Jinx. "That part is already public."
Jinx walked up to Nyx's boots and sniffed them with shameless confidence. Nyx extended two fingers, let Jinx inspect them, then withdrew her hand with a faint amused exhale.
Nyx's eyes returned to Rei. "You look like you fought your bed and lost."
"My bed played dirty."
Nyx's mouth twitched. "So."
She let the word hang a beat, as if she was deciding how much she cared to show.
"Anyone back home waiting for you?"
Rei's mind went to Jasmine first—steady hands, sharper mind, loyalty that held when things got ugly. Then Becca—loud affection and reckless courage, the kind that turned fear into a joke and a plan. People he trusted. People he intended to see again.
He kept his stride even and let the answer land with a grin.
"Yeah," he said. "Try not to look disappointed."
Nyx's eyes cut toward him. A smile threatened and got strangled by pride. "You're impossible."
"I'm consistent."
"That's not an answer," she said, tone light, the look pointed.
Rei's grin widened a fraction. "It's an answer you can live with."
Nyx laughed once, quick and sharp, and smothered it as another group drifted close. Her expression cooled toward the world again without moving away from Rei's shoulder.
They reached the practice grounds as the bell toll rolled across stone.
Third bell.
The warded ring sat in an open court marked by pale boundary lines and low posts. The air carried a faint metallic tang, like lightning held too close. Students gathered in arcs around the edge, leaving a clean lane to the entrance.
Merrick waited near the ring gate with his clique behind him like a staged backdrop. Clean robe. Clean smile. Eyes that measured, then chose where to cut.
"Well," Merrick said, loud enough for the front rows. "The school's new spectacle arrived."
Rei stopped just outside the boundary. Calm first. Witty second.
"You picked a ring," Rei said. "You picked a bell. You even brought witnesses. I'm impressed by the dedication."
Merrick's smile widened. "Some of us respect tradition."
"Some of us like attention," Rei replied.
A few students snorted. Merrick's eyes flicked toward the sound and returned colder.
"You walk in here and everything reacts to you," Merrick said. "The tests flare. The wardens stare. There's a standard in this place."
Rei kept his expression easy. "I'm still taking the same classes you are."
"With an advantage."
Nyx's voice cut in, smooth and cold. "He's standing in the ring like everyone else."
Merrick glanced at her, then dismissed her with a smile that lacked warmth. "Nyx."
Her expression stayed flat. Ice to him. Choice to Rei.
Rei lifted a hand, palm down, a small gesture to end the posturing. "Terms," he said. "You wanted it official."
A proctor stepped forward from the ring's edge, robe marked with a simple seal. Their face stayed neutral. They held a slate and a thin rod of chalk.
"Sanctioned duel," the proctor announced. "Yield, ring-out, or incapacitation. Lethal intent ends this immediately. Wards remain active. Associated beasts remain outside the ring unless authorized."
A faint overlay flickered at the edge of Rei's vision.
SANCTIONED DUEL — ACTIVE
Boundaries: Enforced
It faded.
Rei stepped into the ring. The ward pressure tightened around his skin like a thin membrane.
Nyx stayed outside the boundary with the crowd. Jinx sat at her boots, ears forward, bright eyes fixed on the ring. Vesper's gaze stayed on Rei from the shelter of his hood.
Merrick stepped in opposite him, posture effortless, hands already poised.
The proctor raised their hand. "Begin."
Merrick moved first.
A crisp sigil snapped into place, then compressed into a spear of force that shot toward Rei's chest with a hiss through air.
Rei shifted his weight and let Kitsune Veil settle. Shadow dulled his outline. The spear cut through empty space and shattered into pale fragments against the ward.
Merrick followed with a second cast before the first fragments finished fading—lower angle, tighter line, meant to catch Rei's legs if he tried to slide.
Rei Flickered.
His shadow lagged for a heartbeat; the spear struck where his outline had been. Rei landed near the left arc of the boundary, ward pressure prickling against his back like a warning hand.
Merrick used that. He stepped in and cast wide.
A wedge of force rolled across the stone, broad enough to shove Rei into the boundary line and let the ring do the rest. The cast carried Merrick's discipline—smooth, even, no wasted motion.
Rei kept his breath steady. Ember Circulation held his rhythm while he moved.
Veil Flicker carried him sideways, then forward. The wedge clipped his robe and shoved air into his ribs like a hard palm. He slid, planted, and turned the momentum into distance instead of panic.
Merrick's smile sharpened. He wanted Rei near the line. He wanted the simplest win.
Rei gave him a different problem.
Shadow ran low across the ground in a narrow ribbon aimed for Merrick's lead foot. The ribbon held long enough to bite at traction.
Merrick's boot caught the edge and skidded half a step—barely. He recovered instantly, and his hand snapped out with a counter-mark that made the ribbon thin and tear.
Star student. Clean correction. No surprise on his face.
Rei braided lightning between two fingers, tight and quiet, and snapped it toward Merrick's casting hand.
Merrick raised a shimmering shield disc into place—precise, practiced. The lightning dispersed into sparks.
Those sparks clung to the disc edge, flickering like they'd found purchase.
Merrick angled the disc and flicked his wrist. The sparks snapped outward in a tight fan, controlled and sharp, meant to tag Rei's sleeve and force him to react.
Rei Flickered again, moving his outline away from the fan. The sparks kissed shadow and died.
Merrick advanced, measured steps, pressure building. Hands high enough to cast. Center low enough to move. His rhythm stayed steady, and the crowd's attention tightened around it.
Rei refused to match Merrick's lane. He needed Merrick to commit.
He formed a Proxy Lure to his left—a hooded outline, shoulder line, just enough to be convincing for a breath. The decoy held longer than it should have.
Merrick's gaze cut toward it. His next spear followed the wrong target for a fraction, then corrected mid-flight, the line bending as Merrick adjusted.
The spear still came for Rei.
Rei slid, more footwork than spell, and let the spear pass close enough to feel air bite his cheek. He used the near-miss to step into range and snapped lightning again, aimed at Merrick's forearm near the shield line.
Merrick's disc flashed up late. Lightning kissed the edge and crawled along it toward his wrist before he dumped the cast.
His fingers shook once. He buried it under movement.
"Cute," Merrick said, breath steady.
Rei's grin stayed light. "You're welcome."
Merrick's next cast came as a lattice—multiple sigils snapping into a net of force that spread wide enough to punish Flicker. The net didn't chase Rei; it claimed space.
Rei felt the trap building and broke the rhythm on purpose. He dropped Kitsune Veil for a breath and let his real outline show, then snapped it back on as he moved. A small timing break. A fraction of uncertainty.
He sent a Resonance Pin pulse—short, controlled.
A prickling impression hit the back of his skull: ward pressure close on his left, open space behind Merrick, crowd mass beyond the boundary like a dull weight.
One meaningful hit. He took it and moved.
Rei dove toward the open space behind Merrick, forcing Merrick to choose: chase and risk overextending, or hold space and let Rei reset.
Merrick chased.
The lattice snapped inward, attempting to pinch Rei between force lines and boundary pressure. The air tightened, and Rei's robe tugged as if invisible hands had caught it.
Ember Circulation turned the squeeze into something he could move through.
He used Veil Flicker to slip the pinch line, then planted and snapped Braided Arc.
The lightning braid split into two thin arcs: one aimed at Merrick's shield line, the other aimed at the stone beside Merrick's lead foot. The second arc burst into a crackle meant to steal attention and shift balance.
Merrick's shield disc caught the first arc clean. He stepped through the crackle with practiced footwork, refusing to give Rei the stumble.
Star student. Again.
Merrick answered with speed.
A force spear came high—face line. A second came low—knee line. A third followed the moment Rei shifted—midline, meant to land where Rei would be.
Rei Flickered once, then twice, trying to break the pattern. The second Flicker put him a half-step closer to the ward than he wanted.
Ward pressure tightened. It urged his skin backward like a warning burn.
Merrick's eyes brightened. He threw the wedge again, rolling it across the floor with clean inevitability.
Rei ran along the curve of the boundary line, keeping the ward pressure to his shoulder instead of his back, and fed shadow into the floor in a tight strip—an anchor line meant to hold traction for a breath.
The strip held.
The wedge hit him like a shoulder-check. Rei's boots skidded a fraction, then caught. Ward pressure flared along his sleeve as he brushed close, and heat stung his skin.
Merrick used it.
He stepped in and snapped a force spear at Rei's ribs, tight and fast.
Rei twisted. The spear clipped him anyway. The impact drove air out of him and sent him sliding.
His breath threatened to break. Ember Circulation dragged it back into rhythm.
He landed on one knee, one hand on stone, then rose in the same motion. His forearm burned where the ward had kissed him. His ribs ached where force had landed.
Merrick stood poised, hands already forming the next sigil, eyes bright with controlled satisfaction.
Rei straightened fully.
He let the ache settle into the background and rolled his shoulders once, loose as if this was practice instead of a sanctioned ring. His hands dropped, then lifted again.
Clawed Gloves showed at his wrists, and the crowd's murmur shifted.
Merrick's lattice net began to form again, lines of force stacking into a closing shape that left Rei less room with every breath.
Rei took one step forward into it, grin sharp at the edges.