Chapter 100: Investment 100: Behind Warded Walls
The academy’s transformation happened almost overnight. By the following morning, Adonite’s outer gates stood reinforced with visible layers of shimmering, silver-blue wardwork, and every student and staff member found themselves subject to careful identity verification before being permitted to move between the academy’s various buildings.
"Feels less like a school and more like a fortress," Deria observed, watching a pair of guards check credentials at the dining hall’s entrance with unusual thoroughness.
"That’s rather the point," Edith said. "Though I confess I didn’t expect quite this level of disruption from a single trial gone sideways."
"It wasn’t just the trial," Elliot said quietly. "It was everything the trial revealed."
Even the classrooms carried the shift—Professor Xuyie began each session now with a brief headcount, matching faces against her roster with unusual, deliberate care, and Roven had taken to patrolling the corridors between lectures with a watchfulness that felt entirely unlike his usual relaxed demeanor. The entire academy, it seemed, had quietly absorbed the gravity of what had happened in the preserve, even among students who hadn’t been told the specifics.
The warded communication channel the headmaster had promised arrived that same afternoon—a small, enchanted mirror delivered to Elliot’s dormitory room, humming faintly with protective mana, allowing direct, secure contact with the Reingard estate.
He activated it that evening, Seria seated beside him, and felt genuine relief flood through his chest at the sight of his mother’s face appearing within the mirror’s silvered surface.
"Elliot!" Lyra’s expression brightened immediately, though concern quickly followed. "We heard about the lockdown. Are you safe? What happened?"
"I’m safe," he said. "We’re both safe. But there was an incident during the tournament’s final trial. Someone working for the Architect made direct contact."
He relayed the encounter carefully, watching his mother’s expression shift from relief to fresh, mounting worry as he described the messenger’s threats against their family.
"The garrison arrived two days ago," Lyra said, once he’d finished. "Your father’s been overseeing their integration with our own guards. We’re about as protected as this estate can reasonably manage, Elliot. Please don’t worry yourself sick over us."
"That’s considerably easier said than done," Elliot admitted.
"I know." Her expression softened. "But we raised you to be capable, not to carry every burden alone. Trust that we’re doing everything possible to keep ourselves safe, the same way you’re doing everything possible to keep yourself and Seria safe there."
Mira’s face suddenly crowded into the mirror’s frame, having clearly been eavesdropping from just out of view. "Is Kael there too? The one from your letters?"
"He’s at the academy, yes," Elliot said, surprised. "How do you know about Kael?"
"You mentioned him. Twice. In your last letter." Mira’s expression turned sly in a way that reminded Elliot uncomfortably of Futaba. "Sounds like you made a new friend."
"It’s complicated," Elliot said.
"Everything with you is complicated," Mira said, though her tone carried clear, genuine affection beneath the teasing. "Just be careful, okay? All of you."
"We will," Seria said, leaning into the mirror’s view. "I promise."
The conversation continued a while longer, mundane updates about estate life easing some of the accumulated tension of the day’s events, before finally, reluctantly, Elliot ended the connection, the mirror’s silver surface fading back to ordinary glass.
"Better?" Seria asked, studying his expression carefully.
"Better," he admitted, some genuine relief settling into his chest. "Still worried. But better, knowing they’re actually protected now instead of just hoping they are."
They sat together in comfortable quiet for a while, the day’s mounting tension slowly easing into something more manageable, before a sharp knock at the door interrupted the moment entirely.
Jin stood in the doorway when Elliot answered, expression tight, urgent.
"I found something," he said without preamble. "The staff records. There’s a discrepancy in the groundskeeping department—someone hired three months ago, references that don’t check out under closer scrutiny, employment paperwork that was apparently approved without the usual verification protocols."
Elliot’s stomach tightened. "Our infiltrator."
"Possibly," Jin said. "I haven’t confirmed anything yet. I need eyes on this person directly before I can be certain, and I’d rather not tip them off by moving too aggressively before we understand exactly what we’re dealing with."
"What do you need from us?" Seria asked.
Jin’s expression turned careful, calculating. "Discretion, mostly. And patience, which I recognize isn’t exactly either of your strong suits given recent events. But if this person truly is working for the Architect, spooking them prematurely could cost us our only real lead into how deeply this organization’s actually infiltrated Adonite’s walls."
Elliot exchanged a glance with Seria, both of them settling into the same grim, focused resolve that had carried them through every crisis since the dungeon expedition first began.
"Then we wait," Elliot said. "Carefully. And we watch."
"Together," Seria added, threading her fingers through his.
Jin studied them both for a moment, something almost approving in his tired expression.
"Together," he agreed. "Get some rest, both of you. Tomorrow, we start watching very, very closely."
He lingered a moment longer in the doorway before finally turning to leave, pausing once more with his hand on the frame.
"For what it’s worth," he added, "I know today’s been a lot. The lockdown, the message, the threat against your families. You’ve both handled it with considerably more composure than most adults twice your age would manage. That matters, even if it doesn’t always feel like it in the moment."
"Thanks, Jin," Elliot said quietly.
"Don’t mention it," Jin said, already disappearing down the corridor. "Seriously. Please don’t. I have a reputation for lazy indifference to maintain."
Despite everything, Elliot found himself smiling faintly as the door clicked shut, the fragment’s warmth settling steadier beneath his skin, and Seria’s hand still warm and certain in his own.
Whatever tomorrow brought, at least tonight, for a few precious hours, he could simply rest, with someone he trusted completely at his side, the weight of the day finally settling into something he no longer had to carry entirely alone.