Chapter 52 : Convergence Part – 3
The jeeps stopped at a helipad clearing about forty minutes from the camp. A helicopter was already there, rotors idle, two more personnel standing at its side.
They walked Leon across and put him on board.
The flight was four hours. Leon spent most of it looking out the window at nothing in particular — cloud cover below, occasional breaks showing dark ground, no landmarks he could place. His wrists had been untied once they were airborne. He rubbed them once and left it.
The academy looked different at night from above. More lit than he'd seen it, the administrative zone especially. They landed on a pad near the east wing and he was walked from there by one of the guards through a route that avoided the main corridors.
The dormitory they brought him to wasn't one he recognized.
More security cameras than the standard buildings — he counted four just on the approach. A guard standing at the door who checked Leon's identity before letting them through.
Inside it looked like any other dorm on the surface. Same layout, same institutional furniture. But every student he passed had a black band around their neck. Not a wrist band. A collar.
They watched him come in. One leaned toward the person beside him and said quietly, "another one?"
Leon was taken to a room on the second floor. The guard handed him a key, told him to stay put, and said he'd be taken to the arbitration panel tomorrow for his final status determination.
Then the guard left.
Leon stood in the room for a moment. Bed, table, chair, a door leading to an attached washroom. He sat on the edge of the bed.
If the panel was tomorrow, Noah might be there. Noah had invoked Witness status, which meant he was already back at the academy, already processed or waiting to be. If Leon was going to find out what happened to Krai it was going to start there.
He lay back on the bed still dressed and stared at the ceiling.
The knock came early.
Leon was already awake when it did. He opened the door and the guard handed him a folded set of clean clothes without saying anything. Leon looked down at what he was currently wearing — two days of forest, dried blood on the collar from where Grovin had hit him — and took them.
He got changed, washed his face, and was ready in ten minutes.
The guard took him through the academy toward the administrative zone. The judicial hall was in a building Leon had never been inside, set back from the main path with a wider clearance around it than most of the other structures.
There was a crowd outside.
Not large but notable — a cluster of students standing near the building's entrance, most of them D1 and D2 from the look of their bands. Students who could afford the non-participation fee and hadn't gone to the tournament. They were looking at a large screen mounted on the building's exterior that was showing a live feed from inside the hall.
Leon slowed slightly as they passed through.
Then he saw Alvin.
Standing near the back of the crowd with a grim expression, arms crossed, watching the screen. This surprised Leon because Alvin was D3 rank.
D3 participation was mandatory. There was no exemption fee at that rank.
Leon hadn't heard any announcement about Alvin forfeiting or being disqualified. The only tournament announcement beyond routine updates had been the one about Krai.
He filed it and kept moving. He could think about Alvin later. Right now he needed to find Noah.
Inside he was taken to a hallway and told to sit. A guard came by after a few minutes and informed him he was the first of three cases being heard today. Then nothing happened for thirty minutes.
Then a different guard came and told him to follow.
The arbitration hall was a bit smaller than some other halls he’d seen in the academy — similar to a courtroom. Two cameras on stands at opposite corners, both recording. At the front, elevated slightly, three panelists sat behind a long desk. Two men and a woman, all in administrative dress, none of them students.
Leon was walked to a podium facing them and left standing there.
The man on the right looked at a document in front of him and then at Leon.
"On the basis of your CPP status and the actions taken during Phase One of the Crucible Games tournament, your academic standing and future at this institution will now be determined." He set the document down. "If you are not satisfied with the decision reached today, you may appeal to the Student Council, provided you obtain referral from a student holding B3 rank or above."
Nobody asked Leon if he understood or had questions.
The panel discussed his case between themselves with the documents in front of them. His CPP count. The tournament withdrawal. The full use of both available and locked CPP reserves in a single action.
Leon stood at the podium and listened.
After several minutes the woman in the center looked up.
"On the matter of CPP status — Leon Ashford currently holds a balance of negative one hundred and fifty two, placing him within the negative one hundred and one to negative two hundred bracket. Standard Physical Collateral status applies."
The man on the left picked up from there.
"Furthermore — the complete exhaustion of locked CPP reserves within the tournament period triggers an additional academic penalty. That penalty is three years banishment from Valorian Academy, effective immediately upon conclusion of this hearing."
The man on the right read the concluding statement.
"Student Leon Ashford is hereby exiled from Valorian Academy for a period of three years. Upon completion of the banishment term the student is required to return and present themselves to the academy, at which point they will be assigned to serve under a designated A3 or higher rank honour student for the remainder of their academic years. Should the student fail to present themselves within three months of the banishment period concluding, the academy reserves the right to take appropriate measures to ensure their return."
The room was quiet.
One of the panelists made a note. Another closed his document.
No one asked Leon if he had anything to say.