The day after the spell syntax demonstration, Sanctum Academy was no longer a place of whispered gossip.
It had turned into a theoretical war zone.
In the hidden upper levels of Sanctum, behind mirrors woven with false reflections, the Ivory Hall shimmered with overlapping enchantments.
Seven robed professors stood around a levitating hexagonal table, which projected the replay of Ari's spell demonstration. Each time the code ran, the entire illusion chamber distorted—proof that Ari's syntax interfered with the school's fundamental spell framework.
"That spell was not syntactic deviation," barked Professor Ishrian. "It was system corruption. The boy's spellline isn't following known grammar. He is rewriting base Signum in real-time!"
Dean Marro of the House of Cindergale slammed his fist on the table. "And you let him walk free?"
"We flagged him Unbound-Probationary—"
"Then why does his casting latency outperform even Ascendants?"
The room fell quiet. An image pulsed above the table: Ari Solen's profile. Unbound. No lineage. No Thread. No script-source. And yet…
Output: 98.3% Realignment CorrectionCasting Priority Index: SYSTEM-BYPASSGlyph Integrity: NULL-RANGE COMPATIBLE
"He's not breaking rules," murmured one professor. "He's not using them."
❖ Echo Vault Watchpoint
Far below the academy—below the Archive Hall, below the Grave Code Repository—a shimmering mirror chamber existed outside of normal spatial law. The Echo Vault headquarters.
Eluin stood beside a pale woman in grey robes whose eyes pulsed with memory-ink: the Vaultkeeper.
"Ari Solen's spell has triggered three subroutines from the Dreamwalk layer," the Vaultkeeper said. "That syntax isn't just wild. It's retrograde."
Eluin's fingers twitched. "You mean it predates Signum."
"More than that," the Vaultkeeper replied, "It rewrites the rules backward. The System tries to correct him, but ends up correcting itself."
She turned to Eluin, voice lower now.
"He is a living exploit. Dreamscript will not protect him forever. You must guide him through this. If he unravels the wrong glyphset—"
"The world could uncompile," Eluin whispered. "I know."
That evening, Ari was summoned by a robed courier to the Moonshade Pavilion, a black-marble extension of Sanctum reserved for noble family delegates.
There, he met Lady Reneth Duskreign—a tall, masked envoy of House Duskreign, clad in ceremonial black lace, with her shadow moving independently of her body.
"Ari Solen," she greeted, voice like silk wrapping a blade. "We have taken… interest in your deviation."
He tensed. "If this is about the spell—"
"It is entirely about the spell," she said. "You possess what we of the Nocthread call a Shadowroot Exception—a break in the Code Web. We wish to… nurture your potential."
"Why?"
"Because what you are is forbidden. And what is forbidden," she whispered, "is usually powerful."
She handed him a scroll sealed in umbral wax.
"Consider it an offer of… protection. And a warning."
When she left, her shadow lingered behind for just a moment—watching him.
Ari returned late to the dorm tower. Lysira was outside his door, pretending not to pace.
"Took you long enough," she said, arms crossed.
"Had a meeting with House Duskreign," he said.
Her brows pinched. "You're not… actually considering?"
"No. Maybe. I don't know."
She huffed. "You're reckless. You throw syntax like it's a sword."
Inside, Cerys and Eluin were waiting.
Cerys tossed a slate toward him. "Congratulations. You've been marked as a 'volatile anchor' in four different Spellwatch forums."
"You're officially a magical incident," Eluin added with a grin.
Cerys sighed, folding her arms. "You can't keep casting like that. The System isn't just adapting to you—it's reacting. Like it's trying to warn itself."
"Then maybe I'm meant to change it," Ari said quietly.
"Or destroy it," Cerys shot back. "There's a fine line."
That night, as Ari stared at the scroll left by Duskreign, something shifted in his HUD.
A new glyph string appeared—one he had never seen before:
[System Notice: Syntax Thread Detected — "Proto-Prime Glyphlingual : Line 0"]"Echo Pattern active. Do not sleep."
He blinked. "...Do not sleep?"
And the spellboard under his desk began to hum.