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"You were frightened."

"That isn't an answer."

Her expression remains steady. "No. It is the reason."

Rhyven shifts slightly beside me but does not intervene.

Professor Neris looks toward Aldric. "What Miss Vaelith found in your blood has not been documented in any known manifestation record."

Aldric swallows. "What does that mean?"

"It means I will not pretend certainty where none exists." The same answer she demands from us. Honest. Terrifying. She moves toward the cabinet behind her. Removes a key from inside one glove. The first lock opens. Then the second. The third is magical. She whispers something too quietly to hear. A pale light moves across the cabinet doors. They unlock. Professor Neris removes a thick bundle tied with black cord. Then another. Then three more. She carries them to the desk. Letters. Dozens. Some sealed. Others opened and marked. Different paper. Different inks. Different crests.

She unties the first bundle. The top letter bears the silver-claw seal of the wolf territories. Professor Neris slides it toward us. Rhyven reads over my shoulder. To the Council Office of Defensive Affairs, the southern boundary wards ceased responding for eleven breaths during routine inspection. No visible breach was discovered. Three stones remained magically active yet would not recognize the assigned wardkeepers. All functions returned without intervention. The date sits beneath the final signature. Five weeks ago.

Professor Neris places another letter beside it. A gold seal. Fae. Two Rootkeepers reported complete separation from the living network beneath Velloran Grove. Trees remained healthy. Soil remained fertile. No blight detected. Contact restored after less than one minute. Both keepers experienced severe magical recoil when the connection returned. Four weeks ago.

Another. Blue wax from the siren coast. A lecturer at the Conservatory lost awareness of her surroundings for approximately nine breaths. Witnesses report she remained standing and speaking, though her words became unrelated to the lesson. Upon recovery, she remembered the event but could not explain why the room had felt entirely unoccupied. Professor Neris spreads more letters across the desk. A Medusa architect who watched fracture lines disappear from a damaged bridge before returning violently enough to split the structure. A vampire healer who touched a living patient and felt no pulse of history in their blood. A dragon rider whose bond vanished during flight, returning so suddenly that both rider and dragon lost consciousness. A first-year whose fire manifestation stopped in the middle of an exercise. When it returned, it did not return gradually. It erupted. Three students were burned.

My eyes move faster. Report after report. Different kingdoms. Different races. Different forms of magic. The same interruption. The same impossible absence.

"All of these happened in the last few weeks?" I ask.

Professor Neris looks at me. "The earliest confirmed report is six weeks old."

"How many?"

"Officially?" She replies. I nod. "Thirty-eight." Silence.

Aldric stares at the letters. "Thirty-eight incidents?" "Thirty-eight reports." Professor Neris' voice is precise. "That distinction matters."

"There could be more," Cassian says.

"Yes. People may have dismissed them."

"Or hidden them," Rhyven adds.

Professor Neris' gaze settles on him. "Yes."

The room grows colder despite the absence of wind. I pick up the vampire healer's report. The writing is hurried. Less formal than the others. The blood did not feel dead. It felt unfinished. There was no illness, no magical depletion and no loss of consciousness in the patient. The absence lasted only during contact and could not be reproduced the following morning.

"Why hasn't anyone announced this?" I ask. Professor Neris does not answer immediately. She gathers two letters that have slipped toward the desk's edge and aligns them carefully. "Because we do not know what we are looking at." No evasion. No comforting lie. "We know the incidents cross racial inheritance. We know they affect ancient and modern magic. We know physical structures, living networks, consciousness, blood and dragon bonds can all be interrupted."

"Do we know what causes it?" Aldric asks.

"Officially, no." Officially.

"Do the incidents connect geographically?" Rhyven asks.

"Not in any useful pattern." She answers.

"Victims?"

"No shared lineage, age or political affiliation."

"Timing?" Rhyven's questions are prepared. He thought about this.

"Most occur near dusk or before dawn. Not all." "Wards?"