Chapter 24 Threads of Fire and Starlight

CHAPTER 24 Zane Myles The sun, an unwelcome brass gong, hammered against my eyelids. I groaned, rolling onto my back. Every muscle in my bod

CHAPTER 24

Zane Myles

The sun, an unwelcome brass gong, hammered against my eyelids. I groaned, rolling onto my back. Every muscle in my body felt like it had been individually introduced to a very angry rockslide. My ribs throbbed, a dull ache beneath the lingering warmth of the divine mana Eva had sent through me.

[Good morning, Sunshine. Did you enjoy your brief flirtation with unconsciousness?] Eva’s voice was crisp, lacking any of her usual sass. Her professional tone only made the situation feel more serious.

“Barely,” I rasped, pushing myself up. The apartment was quiet. Lila must have finally gone to bed or was still hovering by Jordan’s door. I touched my side. The gash was mostly closed, a faint, angry red line where a gaping wound had been hours ago. Divine healing was efficient, if brutal.

[Death mana residue is still present. Your Chaos Core will be offline for systemic recalibration; time frame is unknown. Your Divine Core, however, is now fully integrated and accessible at will. Congratulations. You’re officially part-angel, part-demon, and entirely insufferable.]

I managed a weak chuckle. “Glad to know I still have a purpose—wait, that’s not true, right? Angel? Demon? You’re making that up?”

[Questions and answers. Who knows what is real and not these days. Regardless, we are going to need to spend some time on your Chaos core. You don’t know enough about and at my current--]

“--Level.  I know. There isn’t much that you can tell me. You know you’ve been saying that for five years.”

Eva snorted. [Well its true. We will finally be able to address it when we go in Cydalemore next month. Really I cannot believe I am still at level 1. Its super embarrassing, do you know what the other System Avatars are saying about me?” ]

“Eva…there are no other Avatars like you.”

[Obviously. It’s why you are so lucky but it doesn’t mean there aren’t other Ai out there that don’t have beef.”]

‘Beef?’

[Yes Beef. I will be happy to get some answers from Central Processing. Anyway, at present, your purpose is to survive the onslaught of attention you’re about to receive because of your maddening inability to LOOK THE OTHER WAY. My analysis projects a 97% probability of immediate, high-level scrutiny. Your public profile has, shall we say, exploded.]

I pulled out my wrist console and looked through my socials. It was already a firestorm. Notifications blinked faster than I could read them. Message pings formed a shimmering wall. Social feeds scrolled endlessly, each headline a new variation of my supposed heroism.

#Riftborn #Edgewalker #DeathKnightSlayer #UnnamedChampion

The sheer volume of it was suffocating. I slammed the console down. “Just… turn it off.”

[Wow…there are A LOT of woman that want to have your babies. Well that is just crude Who talks like that? Ok—hold—on--- Filtering primary alerts only. You need to see this.]

A single, stark message materialized in front of me, crisp and official, overriding all other notifications.

SUMMONS ORDER – Priority Alpha
TO: Zane Myles
FROM: Corvalis Arx, Office of the Grand Rector
RE: Mandatory Audience – Immediate Attendance Required
LOCATION: Grand Nexus Tower, Rectory Summit – Observation Chamber Gamma
TIME: As soon as physically capable. Transport provided upon confirmation.

My stomach dropped. “The Grand Rector?”

[The very same. They don’t typically summon first-year students unless said student has either broken a major arcane law or single-handedly altered the geopolitical landscape. In your case, it seems to be both.]

I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Great.”

This was it. The low profile I’d desperately maintained for five years was shattered. The thin veneer of normalcy, gone. I could feel the invisible threads of fate tightening around me, pulling me into a current I couldn’t escape.

I pictured Jordan, sick in his bed. Lila, fiercely protective. This wasn’t just about me. This was about what they would demand in return for my newfound notoriety and what I would ask for in return. Access to Jordan’s treatment? Better living conditions? Or would they just try to exploit me, dissect my powers, or worse—try to control me?

“What do you think they want?” I asked, my voice raw.

[Answers. Control. And quite possibly, to add your Soulbound Weapon to their strategic arsenal. There is a war going on remember. Also, to ensure you’re not an unaligned, world-ending threat. You are, after all, an anomaly with three active cores, one of which is currently hypothesized to turn you into a murderous lunatic. So yeah, there’s that.]

“Thanks for the reassurance, Eva,” I muttered, pushing myself off the stool. My legs felt heavy, but the anger, cold and sharp, ignited a familiar spark in my core. I hated this. I hated being exposed. But I wouldn’t be weak. Hell no.

I walked to my small wardrobe, pulling out the least damaged of my everyday tunics. “Tell them I’ll be there in twenty.”

[Acknowledged. I’ve requested an inconspicuous transport from the Ministry. A small, unassuming hover-mod that blends in with city traffic.]

“Sure,” I replied, pulling the clean tunic over my head. “Something discreet. I like it.”

I felt Eva’s digital sigh in my mind. [Oh, Zane. You really don’t understand, do you? Discreet died the moment that Death Knight bowed.]

“You are so not helping.”

I moved back to the kitchen and got ready to meet the Rector. The cheap ceramic mug felt warm in my hands, but the tea inside was lukewarm, a stale reminder of the chaos of the night.

I twisted and felt my ribs ache, a low thrumming under the skin, a ghost of the Death Knight’s blows.

Damn death mana was no joke. Even after healing with mana and divine power, it still freaking hurt.

The medicated bandages helped. Thank all the gods for Alchemy. I was also thankful for my Divine core. The heavenly bound power had mended the worst of it, but exhaustion clung to me like a second coat.

Apparently powers that supposedly came straight from the gods couldn’t do everything.

I thought that was sort of lame.

I checked on my siblings. Lila and Jordan were still asleep, their breathing soft of which I could hear even through their doors. I paused by Jordan’s, just a moment, feeling the steady thrum of his mana, no longer erratic. A small victory, purchased at a terrifying price.

[They’ve sent a standard Ministry Courier hover-cab. It’s waiting for you on the street below. As discreet as a neon-pink airship, given your current public status.] Eva’s dry commentary filled my mind.

“Just get me there,” I muttered, pulling on a clean, but still slightly frayed, tunic. My dark coat was beyond saving.

Stepping out onto the street was like walking onto a stage. Even at this early hour, a few lingering citizens and a trio of ambitious media drones hovered near the corner. Whispers died the moment they saw me. Stares, open and unashamed, followed my every step. The hover-cab, a sleek, government-issue grey, was exactly as unremarkable as Eva had promised, but it might as well have been a royal carriage.

The ride was quiet, the city blurring outside the reinforced windows. We passed over ley-line thoroughfares, the glowing paths carrying streams of smaller mana-mods and private sky-cars. Up ahead, the towering spires of Corvalis Arx shimmered in the morning light. Somewhere in that adminstrarive craziness was the Rector’s office, the Dean of the Entire Facility, an Mage of untold power and someone that has been leading the school for the better part of a century. And he wanted to see me.

This was not going to be fun.

[Estimated arrival: fourteen minutes. We should run a program neutralizer on your personal interface upon entry. You don’t want them getting any direct mana readings from your core before you decide what to reveal.]

“Got it,” I confirmed. A prompt popped and I acknowledged it with a mental flick. Eva was right. My actual stats were a liability. My manufactured public profile was my shield.

The hover-cab descended, smoothly passing through several layers of security wards that shimmered like invisible heat haze. We landed on a wide, manicured plaza at the base of the Corvalis Arx main tower. The air here was different—crisp, clean, humming with tightly controlled mana. A pair of uniformed Academy Sentinels, their mana-plated breastplates gleaming, waited at the entrance. They looked like statues, unblinking, their gazes sweeping over me with cold efficiency.

“Zane Myles?” one asked, his voice flat and devoid of emotion.

“That’s me,” I confirmed, stepping out of the cab.

“The Grand Rector awaits your presence. Follow me.”

He turned without another word, leading me through a set of massive, mana-reinforced doors. The interior was all polished onyx and shimmering spellglass, the air cool and hushed. Other students and Academy officials moved through the vast halls, but their hurried steps and hushed conversations seemed to die the moment I entered their line of sight. Heads turned. Whispers rippled. Hands darted to activate mana-crystals, recording my passage.

I kept my gaze forward, forcing myself to ignore the rising tide of attention. This was the price. This was the burden.

We reached a smaller, unmarked door deep within the tower’s silent heart. The Sentinel scanned his hand against a glyph, and it slid open with a soft hiss.

“Observation Chamber Gamma,” he announced, gesturing me inside. “The Grand Rector and the others are prepared to receive you.”

I raised an eyebrow; I spoke to Eva internally. “Others?”

She didn’t respond.

I stepped over the threshold. The room was circular, softly lit, and surprisingly sparse. A single, polished black table stood in the center. Around it, seated in high-backed chairs, were four figures. Each radiated authority like a visible aura.

At the head of the table sat an old man, his face a roadmap of ancient power, his eyes piercing and calculating even from across the room. Grand Rector Thalen. The man who supposedly believed that “Just because the System doesn’t see your power doesn’t mean you don’t have it.” I wondered if he still felt that way about mine.

Flanking him were others: a stern-faced woman in the uniform of the Adventure's Guild, a cloaked figure who exuded a dense, almost suffocating mana signature that tasted of arcane theory who appeared to be from the Tower Enforcement Department, and a younger woman I recognized instantly.

Agent Sera Valen.

She wore a more formal, but no less intimidating, tactical suit than last night. Her auburn hair was pulled back in a severe bun, and her violet eyes, sharp and assessing, were already fixed on me. A faint, almost imperceptible smirk played on her lips.

The door hissed shut behind me. The silence was absolute. Every gaze in the room locked onto me.

This wasn’t an interrogation. This was an evaluation. And I was the specimen.

Grand Rector Thalen finally spoke, his voice low, resonating with a power that filled the room. “Zane Myles,” he began, his gaze unwavering. “We have much to discuss.”