The glow from the Source Weave prototype filled the secret chamber beneath the Mirror Courtyard, its pulsing light casting an eerie silhouette across Vahn's sharp features. The complex structure hovered mid-air—interwoven strands of Source Energy condensed into tangible form. It hummed with a resonance unlike anything Mystara had seen before.
To Vahn, it was not just a breakthrough—it was Leslie's legacy reborn.
"I've stabilized the weave's central conduit," he said, voice low but resolute. "It no longer fractures under dual-elemental channeling. We're one step closer to sustainable multi-affinity synchrony."
Across from him stood three of his trusted peers—Lira Ventaris, Kayden Marris, and Aruin Elensar. Each came from different divisions. Each had earned his trust over the past months. He had chosen them carefully, those who could grasp the complexity and secrecy of what he'd built.
Lira's eyes narrowed as she circled the weave. "This… Vahn, do you realize what this means? You've created a framework that could allow Awakeners to channel multiple affinities simultaneously without neural degradation."
"It defies everything the Academy teaches," Kayden murmured, brushing silver-blonde strands from his eyes. "This kind of innovation could reshape the entire balance of power."
Aruin, silent as always, knelt before the weave and extended his palm just shy of touching it. "It's perfect," he whispered. "Too perfect."
Vahn turned away from the weave and looked at them each in turn.
"I'm not sharing this with the Council yet. Not until it's perfected. Not until I understand what the Eleventh Seat wanted with it."
That was the risk.
He had followed whispers into the Circle's past—followed symbols scrawled in forgotten corners of the Academy, read transcripts of erased lectures, and broken into chambers sealed with spells older than the Empire itself.
And every lead had pointed toward the same truth: the Eleventh Seat, thought long lost, had knowledge of the Source Weave. Or at least, a version of it.
Vahn's work threatened to revive a war the world had forgotten.
And now he feared he had moved too quickly.
Threads Begin to Unravel
The next morning, Lira stood alone in the solarium garden, eyes distant as she reread the schematics Vahn had shared. Her hands trembled slightly—not out of fear, but temptation.
She wasn't like the others. She didn't come from a line of innovators. She wasn't a Romanoff. She'd clawed her way to the upper ranks of the Spellblade Division through talent, not inheritance. But even now, she sat three names below the elite.
This was her chance.
The Eleventh Seat wasn't just a ghost from the past. It was a faction—fractured, hidden, and hungry. Lira had once sworn fealty to it before defecting to Mystara. But old loyalties rarely die; they smolder.
And tonight, they would burn.
A Spark in the Dark
Two nights later, Vahn returned to the chamber and immediately sensed something was wrong.
The weave was still there—but its glow was off, dimmed. The structure had been accessed.
He activated the defensive runes.
The feedback spell told him the truth: someone with clearance had entered. Someone he had trusted.
"No…" His voice came out a whisper.
Then came the second revelation.
One of the encoded blueprints was missing—the one outlining the resonance stabilizer. Without it, replication was difficult… but not impossible.
Vahn clenched his fists, the storm in his blood beginning to boil. Lightning crackled at his fingertips.
He already knew who it was.
He just didn't want to believe it.