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"Not failure. Not fluctuation. Just..." The keeper closes his eyes. "...one line dimmed." Aelindra had noticed. Of course she had. "She said she'd check the marker."

"How far?" Rhyven asks.

"Six feet." Silence. Six feet. "She didn't leave my sight." The keeper continues. "I turned toward the reading."

"For how long?"

"I don't know." His voice cracks. "Two seconds. Maybe three. I heard something hit the ground." He looked back. Aelindra was gone. No scream. No flash. No attack. Gone. Six feet away. Three seconds. While Varethia watched.

"What hit the ground?" Professor Neris asks.

The wardkeeper looks toward the evidence table. A staff rests there. Aelindra's wardstaff. Dark carved wood. Silver runes along its length. Nothing visibly broken. Except— Something coats the grip. Faint. Almost colorless. Like frost. No. Not frost. Residue.

Professor Neris approaches. Stops before touching it.

My father joins her. "What is that?"

"No idea." Neris answers. That phrase again. I hate it.

Rhyven steps toward the staff. Professor Neris immediately raises a hand. "Don't." He stops. She bends closer. Doesn't touch. The residue catches lantern light. Not silver. Not gold. Not any magical color I've seen before. Almost...empty. Like light refusing to stay on it. My skin prickles. Then Professor Neris looks at me. Not intentionally. Maybe. But she does. And suddenly... everyone else does too. Because there is dried blood near the lower edge of the staff. A tiny smear. Probably Aelindra's. My stomach sinks. Blood Echo. Of course.

"No." Rhyven's voice cuts through the courtyard.

Every head turns. He isn't looking at me. He's looking at Professor Neris. "No one touches it tonight."

Professor Neris studies him. "I wasn't suggesting—"

"Good."

My father looks toward him. "Chief Corvell."

Rhyven's jaw tightens. "We don't know what the residue is."

"Agreed."

"We don't know whether contact is safe."

"Agreed."

His gaze finally finds mine. Only for a second. Then away. "Then no manifestation interacts with it until we do." No one argues. Not even my father. Because he's right.

I look at the staff. Aelindra. The village. The investigation. She helped us. She knew the wards. She knew their history. Now she's gone. And for the first time something has been left behind. Something physical. Something real. Something we can test. The first actual trace of whatever is taking people. We should feel closer to an answer. Instead...I feel sick.

Nyra arrives five minutes later with Cassian. She sees my face. Then the staff. Then the Chiefs. Her eyes close."Who?"

"Aelindra." I answer. Nyra goes still.

"Oh." One small word. Enough.

Professor Neris gives us the report. Saturday.

Monday. Wednesday. Friday. Sunday. Five. Every two days now. Not approximately. Exactly enough that nobody can dismiss it. Nyra doesn't write anything. Not yet. For once she doesn't need to.

The Council orders full lockdown until morning. Students return to residences. Patrols double again. Dragons remain airborne. No one says the obvious truth. All of that was already happening. It didn't matter.

Rhyven walks me back. Again. Neither of us mentions the training field. Not the wall. Not his hand at my waist. Not my mouth inches from his. Nothing. The moment feels impossible now. Like it belonged to another night. Another version of us. Halfway to my residence I stop. Rhyven takes two more steps before turning.

"What."