Xavier launched.

White light gathered at both palms, dense and immediate, already moving before Arthur finished registering the wind-up.

"Brat." Roz’s voice cut sharp against his ear. ". Move. That magic is dangerous"

Arthur threw himself sideways. The ball cracked through the space where he’d been standing and hit the corridor wall behind him. Not a scorch mark. Not a burn. The entire section of stone came out clean, edges intact, like something had simply decided it didn’t exist anymore.

Arthur stared at the hole in the wall.

Then back at Xavier.

"You evil bastard!" Xavier hissed.

’He gave us credits to pass,’ Vexis hissed. ’He helped us pass just to turn around and kill us?’

Arthur gritted his teeth.

Krishka. The name settled properly now that the dagger wasn’t at his throat. I know that name. That’s Xavier’s arch nemesis. His main antagonist. The other regressor.

He raised both hands.

"Xavier. I’m not trying to fight you. Listen to me."

"Silence." Xavier’s voice was flat. "I will not be talked over by forces of evil."

Good lord. You absolute monkey mind.

Another ball of light formed at Xavier’s palm. Spinning slowly. Arthur watched it and calculated distance and decided he had maybe two seconds before it stopped being theoretical.

"Xavier, just let me explain—"

"I don’t want to hear lies from the likes of you."

The ball flew.

Arthur dropped low and it passed over his head and hit the far wall. Same result. Clean removal. No debris. Just absence where stone used to be.

Arthur came back up breathing hard.

"That’s photon magic," Roz said. Still flat. Still unbothered. "It doesn’t destroy. It displaces. That wall is somewhere else now."

"I know how it works."

"Then stop letting it hit things near you."

"Working on it."

He turned back to Xavier. Both hands still raised. No shadow. No anchor. Nothing that would give Xavier a reason to escalate past where they already were.

"Look." Arthur kept his voice even. "I don’t know Krishka. I’m not related to her. I’m not connected to her. Whatever you traced when you said her name—"

"Your surprise was real," Xavier said. Another ball forming. "Which means you’ve heard the name before. Which means you know her."

"Or I’ve heard the name and don’t know her personally. Those are different things."

Xavier’s eyes narrowed.

"Would you seriously kill a student inside the Academy premises?" Arthur raised his voice slightly. "Think about that. If you kill me here — the Lestilaut estate comes after you. Your family gets pulled into it. Everything you’re trying to protect gets complicated because you didn’t stop for ten seconds to think."

"You dare bring my family into this."

"I’m not bringing them in. I’m pointing out that you’d be dragging them in yourself." Arthur held the stare. "I don’t know what I did to make you think I’m connected to her. I’m telling you I’m not. So stop this."

Xavier’s jaw tightened.

The ball of light spun in his palm. Still there. Not thrown yet.

His expression shifted through something Arthur couldn’t fully read, not doubt exactly, but the specific look of someone whose certainty had found a crack and was deciding whether to acknowledge it.

The light went out.

Xavier closed his hand. The ball dissolved. He sheathed the dagger in one clean motion.

Then he walked forward and grabbed Arthur’s collar.

Yanked him close.

Up close, Xavier’s eyes were worse than across the corridor. The spite in them wasn’t hot. It was old. The kind that had been carried a long time and had stopped needing to announce itself.

"The second I find out you are related to that woman." His voice came out low. "Acquainted with her. Have spoken to her. Have been in the same room as her." He held Arthur’s eyes. "I will make sure you suffer for it. Do you understand me?"

Arthur looked at him.

At the blue eyes. At the certainty sitting behind them like a wall.

"I understand," Arthur said.

Xavier held it one more second.

Then he released Arthur’s collar with a snap and turned and walked away. His footsteps were even. Unhurried. Like the conversation was already filed and closed.

Arthur watched his back until he turned the corner and disappeared.

’What is he talking about.’ Vexis hovered close, voice lower than usual. ’Who even is Krishka. Do you actually know her?’

Arthur didn’t answer.

He stood in the corridor with two holes in the wall behind him and Roz sitting on his shoulder saying nothing and looked at the empty corner where Xavier had been.

In the novel, Krishka is Another regressor. A person that defied the rules of time. Different rules than Xavier — she wasn’t trying to preserve anything. She was rewriting. Pulling threads out of the timeline and replacing them with ones that suited her, systematically, across years of loops that nobody else could see or track.

Xavier had spent the entire novel trying to stop her. Trying to fix the timeline.

He’d failed once. Died for it. Came back.

And now he’s here accusing Vexis Lestilaut and looking at me like I have her fingerprints on me.

Why? Is it because Vexis Lestilaut didn’t die this time? In this timeline?

Arthur exhaled through his nose.

"Enough of this." He straightened his collar. "Let’s meet Cael."

The higher years’ dormitory section sat on the far east side of the academy grounds. Quieter than the main building. Stone paths between older structures, narrower windows, ivy covering the upper sections of the outer wall.

Most people were at the cafeteria. The break had emptied the usual foot traffic and left the paths open.

Cael was standing at the junction where the dormitory path met the main east corridor. Posture relaxed. Hands at his sides. His eyes found Arthur the moment Arthur came around the corner.

He took in Arthur’s collar. The tear across the fabric. The absence of any obvious wound beneath it.

"What happened to you," he said.

"Nothing. What did you find?"

Cael reached into his jacket and produced a letter. The wax seal had already been removed. He held it out.

Arthur took it and opened it.

The handwriting was small and precise. Clean lines. Someone who wrote quickly and didn’t second-guess their strokes.

The stock for now has been low since the demand is high and we are tight because of the Allright council investigation. But here’s a vial for now. The rest that you ordered will be delivered soon.

— Manager.

Arthur read it twice.

His eyebrows went up.

Manager.

Not a name. Not an alias with any personality to it. Just the title. Sitting at the bottom of a letter about Elven Tears supply chains like it was a signature on a business transaction.

Someone from Vak’s operation. Despite the investigation hit, it still running deliveries to students during a culmination event.

No maybe Elias isn’t the only one who has direct access to the drug.

If the academy is a close proximity to Vak’s operation. This might be a bigger problem than I thought.

Arthur thought about it for a second.

It’s not that I don’t care about the other students.

Its just.. that’s out of my reach.

I just need to save Welya, and the others for now.

Then:

"Do you recognize the handwriting?" Cael said.

Arthur looked at the paper.

The letters. The spacing. The way the T’s crossed slightly high and the R’s didn’t fully close at the curve.

Something moved in the back of his skull. Not a sting. Just a recognition that arrived quietly and sat there waiting to be confirmed.

’That’s Ivan’s handwriting.’ Vexis appeared at his shoulder. He was looking at the letter. His voice had the specific flatness it got when something landed that he hadn’t wanted to land. ’I know his handwriting. We grew up together.’

Arthur looked at the paper.

Then at Cael.

Cael’s mouth opened.

"That’s Ivan’s handwriting," Cael said.

The corridor was quiet.

Arthur folded the letter once and held it.

Ivan.

Not just running the operation after I stepped back. Running it well enough to have a title. Running it carefully enough to keep supply moving while the Allright council was actively investigating. Running it during a culmination event where half the academy’s attention was pointed somewhere else.

Running it and signing his letters Manager like he’d been waiting for the job.

Arthur looked at the folded paper in his hand.

Vexis said nothing.

Arthur said nothing.

Roz sat on his shoulder and fixed his bow tie and didn’t offer anything.

The fifty-minute break was still running.

Somewhere in the main building Theodore was saving a seat and Kreasial was probably eating something

Arthur put the letter in his own jacket. "What about the drug? Did you find any?"

"No. I couldn’t. He could’ve stashed it away."

"I see." A beat. "Thank you," he said to Cael.

Cael nodded once.

Arthur turned and walked back toward the main building.

He had maybe thirty minutes left.

And a new information filling his mind.

Arthur gritted his teeth.

Ivan. That bastard.