Chapter 90: Investment 90: What Jin Knew
They found Jin exactly where Elliot expected—sprawled lazily across a bench in the academy’s central courtyard, ostensibly reviewing coursework that Elliot strongly suspected he’d already mastered decades ago.
"Kael Vantressor," Elliot said, dropping onto the bench beside him without preamble.
Jin didn’t look up from his book, though something in his posture shifted, subtly alert. "What about him?"
"Don’t do that," Seria said, arms crossed. "We know you know something. Fast-tracked transfer, suspiciously precise class placement, combat skills that don’t match a typical second-year. Either you tell us what’s actually going on, or we go straight to the headmaster and ask him ourselves."
Jin sighed, finally closing his book and setting it aside. "Fine. Though I’d appreciate it if you both kept this quiet until the headmaster’s ready to make it official."
"No promises," Elliot said.
"Fair enough." Jin glanced around the courtyard, confirming they weren’t within easy earshot of other students, before continuing in a lower voice. "Kael’s family carries a fragment. Similar to yours, though considerably less developed—dormant, mostly, passed down through generations without anyone in his bloodline ever managing to bond with it properly."
Elliot’s stomach tightened. "So he’s like me."
"In some ways," Jin said. "Different fragment source, though. Yours traces back to Skion directly. His traces back to Helix."
The name landed heavily between them.
"Helix," Seria repeated slowly. "The primordial who destroyed the other worlds."
"Allegedly," Jin corrected. "Remember what the old man told you, Elliot—love drove even the purest souls to outrageous things. Helix’s fragments aren’t inherently corrupted or evil, any more than Skion’s fragments are inherently pure. They’re simply pieces of a being who suffered something catastrophic, scattered across bloodlines the same way yours was."
"Why bring him here?" Elliot pressed. "Why now, specifically?"
"Because the Architect’s interest in your family wasn’t isolated," Jin said grimly. "The headmaster’s been tracking several bloodlines with fragment potential for years. Kael’s is one of the strongest he’s identified besides yours. If the Architect’s escalating his efforts, the headmaster wants Kael here, under supervision, before anyone else gets to him first."
"You’re saying he’s in danger too," Seria said.
"I’m saying," Jin corrected, "that whatever rivalry or tension you two might be sensing between yourselves right now is probably going to matter a lot less, very soon, than the fact that you’re both potential targets of the exact same enemy."
"That’s easy for you to say," Seria said, some heat entering her voice despite herself. "You didn’t watch a stranger walk into your first class of the term and immediately start probing for information about your family’s abilities."
"No," Jin agreed evenly, "I didn’t. But I have watched an entire organization mobilize decades of resources hunting fragments across this continent, and I promise you, Seria, the last thing any of us can afford right now is two potential allies wasting energy circling each other with suspicion instead of actually working together."
Seria’s jaw tightened, but she didn’t argue further, some of the fight draining out of her posture as the logic settled uncomfortably into place.
Elliot absorbed that, the pieces settling into an uncomfortable new shape. "Does he know? About the Architect, about what’s actually happening?"
"Some of it," Jin said. "Not everything. The headmaster’s still deciding how much to reveal, and to whom, given how badly that same caution already cost your family once."
"Then maybe he should stop deciding for everyone else," Elliot said, frustration bleeding into his voice, "and start actually telling people the truth before it costs someone else exactly what it nearly cost mine."
Jin studied him for a long moment, something complicated and sympathetic in his expression.
"For what it’s worth," he said finally, "I agree with you. I’ve told him as much, more than once. But the headmaster’s survived considerably longer than either of us by weighing consequences most people never even consider. I trust his caution, even when it frustrates me."
"That’s not particularly reassuring," Seria said.
"No," Jin admitted. "It rarely is."
They sat in uneasy silence for a moment, the courtyard’s ordinary bustle continuing around them, oblivious to the weight of the conversation unfolding in its midst.
"What do we do about Kael?" Elliot asked finally.
Jin considered the question carefully. "My honest advice? Talk to him properly. Not as rivals sizing each other up, but as two people who might genuinely need each other’s help before this is over. Whatever tension exists between you right now is exactly the kind of division the Architect would love to exploit."
Elliot glanced toward Seria, who, despite her earlier hostility, nodded slowly in reluctant agreement.
"Alright," Elliot said. "I’ll talk to him. Properly, this time."
"Good," Jin said, already reopening his book with renewed, deliberate casualness. "Do it soon, though. I have a feeling the Architect isn’t going to give either of you much more time to figure out whose side you’re really on."
As Elliot and Seria walked away from the courtyard, the earlier tension between them had shifted into something quieter, more thoughtful.
"I still don’t fully trust him," Seria admitted eventually, "but I suppose I understand him a little better now. Carrying a fragment from a being blamed for destroying entire worlds can’t be an easy thing to live with, regardless of how good his intentions actually are."
"No," Elliot agreed, thinking of his own fragment’s quiet, patient warmth, and wondering, not for the first time, what it might feel like to carry something people instinctively feared instead. "I imagine it’s considerably harder than what I’ve been dealing with."
"Which is exactly why you should talk to him," Seria said. "Soon. Before either of you decides the other’s an enemy simply because neither of you took the time to ask the right questions first."
Elliot nodded slowly, already turning the conversation over in his mind, searching for the right way to approach a boy who’d spent his entire first impression carefully revealing exactly as little as possible about himself.
Tomorrow, he decided. He’d find Kael tomorrow, and this time, he’d be the one asking the questions.