Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21

Briarcrest answered escalation with ceremony. Nyx learned that the moment she stepped into the central hall and saw the banners. They’d changed overnight. The ranking displays no longer scrolled individually. Instead, massive twin columns towered above the atrium, pairing students by strategic unit. Names fused into shared slots. Scores merged. Failures doubled. At the very top: Moore / Calder No annotation. No anomaly tag. Just a single glowing line. The hall buzzed like a struck hive. Nyx stopped beneath the display, staring up at it. The visual was unmistakable. Briarcrest wasn’t just acknowledging their partnership. It was branding it. Ownership disguised as honor. A voice at her shoulder. “They’ve elevated the experiment.” She didn’t turn. “They’ve put a leash on it.” Alaric stepped beside her, gaze fixed on the banner. His expression was carved from stone, but tension coiled in the line of his neck. “Top pairing has never been public before,” he sa