🏫 Ashenwell Combat Hall – Upper Chambers
Grim stood in the high observation room, eyes locked on the massive map hovering above the center table. Thalum was marked in crimson threads—Lume flares, soul frequency bursts, signs of warfare.
Kaia leaned on the edge of the display, face unusually pale, her coat damp from rain.
"They're sending you both in," she said finally. "You and Max."
Grim's expression didn't change. "What's the catch?"
Kaia touched a control rune. The map zoomed in.
"Three days ago, the diplomatic barrier between the Court and the Thalum Coalition broke. Civil unrest spiked. But that's not the issue."
Another tap. A file opened—grainy footage.
A girl with glowing pink veins and a wild, electric grin stood at the heart of a shattered vault. Lume energy coiled around her like a living storm.
Hadi. Destruction.
She turned to face the camera and blew a kiss. Then it went dark.
"She's out," Kaia said. "Vault 03-A is gone. And she didn't leave alone."
Grim felt Sparks twitch on his shoulder.
"Who was with her?"
Kaia hesitated.
"That's classified. Even to me. The Court scrubbed the secondary signature. But from what I saw… she's heading toward Thalum."
Max was silent. Watching. Processing.
"You're sending us into a trap," he said.
"Maybe," Kaia said, unfazed. "But if we don't move, Hadi could tear that kingdom in half."
"And what does the Court want?"
Kaia looked directly at Grim.
"They want to see what you do. And who follows you when you burn."
⚡ Meanwhile – Sparks' Inner Code Core
She drifted inside her own space—a liminal void laced with corrupted threads and golden fractures. Her consciousness was a tangle of flames and whispers.
And then she saw it again.
The boy.
Not Grim. Younger. Blonde. Crying over a shattered sword.
The girl beside him with her hand on his chest—not Ayesha, but familiar. Hair like starlight. Eyes burned by Lume.
And behind them, a sigil. Etched into stone.
∆—The Line of Solace: Twin-Born Flame.
"No," Sparks said aloud. "That's not in the archives. That's not real."
But it felt more than real. Older than any Court record.
Like a memory inherited through something deeper than blood.
Then a voice called out to her—cracked, glitched, like hers but not hers.
"You're not just code, Sparks. You're tethered to a flame the Court couldn't erase. You're remembering the original line."
🧪 Elsewhere – Thalum Border: Court Drop Site Gamma
A broadcast flickered to life in the back of a traveling command skiff.
Tristan watched in silence as the footage looped—Hadi laughing in a field of ruin, pink energy pulsing off her skin like thunder.
Behind her, the camera caught a blur.
A face.
Tristan rewound. Froze it.
Not Max. Not Ayesha.
A face he knew—but had never expected to see again.
He rose slowly.
"Solace is moving," he whispered again. Then turned to the cloaked agent.
"Ready the team. The Court won't like what he finds in Thalum. And neither will we."
🕯️ That Night – Ashenwell Dorms
Grim sat alone, file pages scattered across the table. Sparks floated above them, dim but stable.
He touched a page where an old drawing had been tucked—one Sparks had tried to delete during a glitch spike.
It was a symbol. The one from her vision.
He traced it with his finger.
Max stood behind him.
"What is that?" he asked.
Grim didn't answer for a long time.
Then:
"Something they erased from all of us."