Chapter 3 Three

Kaien kept his face still. "I don't have another answer to give you."

"Then we'll find one for you." She set the parchment down. "You have until the end of the week. If we determine the technique came from an illegal source, you'll answer to the full Council. Not this room. All seven seats.

And if it didn't come from an illegal source?"

"Then you got lucky," she said, "and you'll still explain how."

Nobody in the room looked like they believed luck was on the table.

He was dismissed without another word.

Master Vaelor was waiting for him outside the training hall an hour later, arms crossed, expression unreadable in a way that used to be easy for Kaien to read.

"Sit," Vaelor said.

Kaien sat.

"I've known you since you were six years old." Vaelor didn't sit across from him. He stood, which made it worse. "I taught you your first sealing technique. I know exactly what you know and exactly what you don't. That technique today isn't in your training. It isn't in mine either."

"I improvised."

"Stop saying that."

Kaien said nothing.

"You improvised a fracture seal precise enough to save a boy's life in under ten seconds, on your first attempt, with no instruction." Vaelor's voice stayed level, which was somehow worse than if he'd shouted. "I've been cultivating for over two hundred years. I've never seen anyone do that. Not once."

"Maybe I'm talented."

"Don't." Vaelor's jaw tightened. "Don't do that. Not with me."

Kaien held his gaze and didn't answer.

"Something changed in you," Vaelor said, quieter now. "Overnight, it feels like. You're distant. You're guarded. And now you can do things you shouldn't be able to do." He leaned down slightly, close enough that Kaien could see how tired he looked, how much he wasn't enjoying this conversation either. "I need you to tell me the truth. Whatever it is. I can help you if you tell me the truth."

Kaien almost did.

The words sat right at the back of his throat, five years of grief and betrayal and the memory of this exact man's silence at his execution, and for one second he wanted so badly to say all of it that his hands curled into fists in his lap just to keep himself still.

"There's nothing to tell," he said instead.

Vaelor straightened up. Something closed off behind his eyes, and Kaien understood, too late, that he'd just watched the last of his master's patience run out.

"Fine," Vaelor said. "Keep your secrets. I hope they're worth—"

The door slammed open.

An Elder stood in the frame, out of breath, robes disheveled like he'd run the whole way from wherever he'd come from.

"Master Vaelor." His voice shook. "Tobin Ashe is gone."

Vaelor turned. "Gone where?"

"Gone. Missing. He was recovering in the infirmary an hour ago. A healer went to check on him and the bed was empty. No sign of a struggle. No blood. Nothing." The Elder swallowed hard. "He's just gone."

The room went very still.

Kaien felt the floor tilt under him, because this hadn't happened. Not the first time. Tobin Ashe had lived, unremarkably, for years after that arena match, and nothing about that first life had ever included this moment, this door, this Elder standing there out of breath with a piece of news that had no business existing.

Whatever he'd changed by saving Tobin's life, it hadn't stopped there.

It had only just started.