Mag-log inNeris's POV"You're bringing all three of them."My mother says it as a statement, not a question, watching Cassian, Evren, and Lucien load supplies onto the small convoy assembled at the academy's rebuilt gates."They've earned the right to come. After everything we've survived together, I'm not leaving any of them behind for a journey this dangerous.""I'm not questioning their loyalty, Neris. I'm questioning whether traveling with three men whose families each carry complicated history with your bloodline is wise, given everything we're walking toward.""They're not their families. Each of them proved that already." I check the last of my own supplies, steadying myself against the weight of what we're about to attempt. "Besides, I trust them considerably more than I trust anyone currently sitting on that Council."She doesn't argue further, though something in her expression suggests the concern hasn't fully disappeared, simply been set aside in favor of more immediate priorities.
Neris's POV"Tell me you didn't kill him."I say it the moment I find her, standing on the same balcony where she first called me daughter, the witness statement clutched tight enough in my hand that the paper has started to crease.She turns slowly, and something in her expression, careful and guarded, tells me immediately that whatever answer she's about to give isn't the simple denial I desperately want to hear."I didn't kill your father," she says quietly. "But I understand why the Council's evidence makes that conclusion seem reasonable.""That's not an answer. That's a deflection.""It's the truth, incomplete as it currently is." She studies my face carefully, grief and guilt tangling together behind her composed exterior. "I was there that night, Neris. I did confront your father, before the containment team ever arrived. The witness testimony isn't wrong about that part."My chest tightens painfully. "Then what actually happened.""I need you to understand something first, be
Neris's POV"I'll hear your evidence. That's all I'm agreeing to."Vashcross studies me for a long moment, something calculating behind her composed expression as I remain standing near the chamber's entrance, Cassian and Evren tense at my shoulders, Lucien watching with careful, methodical attention."That's considerably less than what I proposed.""It's considerably more than you're entitled to, given everything this Council has already done to my family." I meet her eyes steadily. "I won't pledge loyalty in exchange for information you should be willing to share regardless. My father deserves the truth about his own death, and that truth shouldn't come with a political price attached."Something that might be reluctant respect flickers across Vashcross's expression. "Your mother taught you well, it seems, even in absence.""My mother taught me nothing about negotiating with the people who killed my father. I learned that from watching exactly how little trust this Council has earne
Neris's POV"You cannot go."My mother says it the moment the formal summons arrives, her voice carrying an authority I've rarely heard from her since she returned, sharp with something close to genuine fear."It's a Council summons. Not a request.""It's a trap." She paces the length of the room, warriors still stationed throughout the academy grounds at her command, and yet none of that presence seems to ease the tension radiating off her now. "The same Council that declared war on this academy, that ordered your arrest, that spent sixteen years hunting the bloodline you carry. You cannot simply walk into their chamber because a piece of parchment demands it.""I'm not walking in blindly. I understand the risk.""Do you? Because I watched my own candidacy review turn into a death sentence within two years of its conclusion, Neris. I understand exactly how these summons can unfold once you're sitting in a room they control entirely.""Then I guess it's a good thing I'm not walking in
Neris's POV"You need to see this before you decide anything further about either of them."Lucien's voice is tight when he finds me in the archive room, several ancient texts spread across the table in front of him, his expression carrying the particular grimness I've learned to associate with discoveries that reshape everything I thought I understood."See what?""A record I found while researching the purge itself, trying to understand exactly why the Kaelith and Virel lines were targeted so specifically three centuries ago." He slides a brittle, yellowed page toward me, careful not to damage it further. "It's a founding charter. The original agreement between the twelve houses that eventually divided territorial authority among themselves.""What does it have to do with Cassian and Evren?""Read the signatories."I scan the page, ancient script difficult to parse at first until my eyes catch on three family names, listed among the twelve founding houses who apparently orchestrated
Neris's POV"You suspected me. From the beginning."I say it the moment Evren steps into the room, before he's even had the chance to ask what's wrong, and something in his expression tells me immediately that I'm right."Neris""Don't. Just answer the question. You suspected what I was, before the forest, before any of this. Didn't you."He's quiet for a long moment, and that silence answers me more completely than anything he could have said."My family has spent three generations searching for the First Blood," he says finally, his voice low, careful. "It started with my great-grandfather, a theory he developed about a dormant power that could eventually be reunited from two separate bloodlines. My father inherited the search. I inherited it from him.""So when you first noticed me. When you started provoking me in the arena. That wasn't curiosity.""It started as suspicion, yes." He doesn't look away from me, though I can see how much it costs him to hold my gaze. "You took down t







