Chapter 33: The Moth Girl Chose My Side And The OG Protagonist’s Beast Finally Spoke

Joan’s office wasn’t designed for seven people but seven people were in it.

Soren had walked back from the alliance handshake less than two hours ago.

Joan behind the desk.

Troy against the far wall with his arms crossed and his sword at his hip.

Selah by the window.

Maren in the corner with her tail tucked low and her ears rotating between every voice.

Yara was somewhere in the shadow under the desk, which Joan had definitely noticed because she hadn’t put her legs under it once.

Dani Sloan arrived last.

She came through the door with her moth on her collar, her clipboard under her arm, and a folder that was thicker than anything a student should be carrying.

The room was tight.

The only open chair was next to Soren and she took it, pulling it close enough that her knee pressed against his thigh when she sat down.

She didn’t move it.

"This is what I’ve been building since the archive discrepancy," Dani said.

She put the folder on Joan’s desk and opened it. "Lior Vasquez Sr. Bureau request trail, six months of it. Classified bond-classification data on shadow-type Primordial entities. Three thousand years of lineage records."

Joan pulled the folder toward her and started reading.

"He’s been searching for something specific," Dani said.

"Something his son’s proximity to Soren gave him access to." She paused.

"He knows what’s bonded to you or he suspects enough to act on it."

Troy looked at Soren. "The wolf?"

"Not the wolf," Soren said.

The shadow under Joan’s desk shifted by about an inch. Troy’s hand went to his hilt.

"If the Council tries to pull Soren during the Fracture,"

Dani said, "this folder is our leverage. Vasquez Sr. has been requesting restricted data without proper authorization channels. Three of these requests were flagged but never investigated because they came through his Council seat."

She tapped the page. "Joan can investigate them now."

Joan looked up from the file. "This is very thorough, Ms. Sloan."

"My moth has good ears."

Joan almost smiled. "I’ll take this under Bureau jurisdiction, The Vasquez requests get frozen effective immediately."

"Thank you," Dani said, and when she leaned back in her chair her shoulder touched Soren’s arm and stayed there.

He could feel the heat from her skin through his sleeve.

Her moth opened its wings once on her collar, gold in the office light, and Dani’s eyes were on Joan’s desk but the color in her cheeks said she knew exactly how close she was sitting.

◆◆◆◆

Troy’s Spectral Knight had been silent for the entire time.

The kind of silence that meant he was only able to communicate through Troy’s private channel in fragments and warnings.

So when the knight materialized in Joan’s office uninvited, with a full voice, every person in the room stopped breathing.

It was eight feet tall with a golden armor and no face behind the visor, just light.

"The seal is breaking."

Troy’s hand was on his sword. "I didn’t summon you."

The knight ignored him.

"The woman in the crystal is not sleeping," it said.

The shadow under Joan’s desk went very still.

"If the daughter goes, the cage opens. If the cage opens, the reset activates." The knight’s visor turned toward the shadow. "You cannot let the daughter go."

Every person in the room looked at the shadow under Joan’s desk.

Yara’s red eyes appeared in the dark.

Nobody spoke for about five seconds.

Then Yara’s eyes closed and the shadow pulled back until it was just a shadow again.

"What daughter?" Joan said.

Soren cut in before anyone else could answer.

"The entity in the Tier-3 crystal. The First Shadow. It has a connection to one of my bonds."

"The knight is saying that if that connection activates during the Fracture, it triggers a cascade."

"A cascade that does what?"

"Ends things."

Joan looked at him for a long three seconds.

She was smart enough to know he was giving her a summary instead of the full truth.

"Troy," Joan said. "Your knight can you control when it speaks?"

"No," Troy said. "It’s never spoken out loud in front of so many people."

"Then something changed."

"The seal," Soren said. "The knight is tied to the dimensional boundary. When the seal weakens, its restrictions loosen."

He looked at Troy. "It’s been trying to tell you this for weeks, you just couldn’t hear it."

◆◆◆◆

The third tremor hit while Joan was still holding Dani’s folder.

This one was different.

The first two had been warnings, the ground shifting for a few seconds then settling.

This one grabbed the building by the foundation and shook it.

The crack ran up Joan’s office wall from floor to ceiling in less than a second, plaster dust falling into Dani’s hair.

Soren reached for her without thinking, his hand going to the back of her head, pulling her forward so the debris missed her.

Dani’s face ended up against his chest for about two seconds and when she pulled back her cheeks were red and her moth was fluttering on her collar with both wings spread.

"I’m fine," she said.

"You had plaster in your hair."

"I said I’m fine." She brushed her collar with her fingers and didn’t look at him.

Through Pack Sense, Soren could feel it.

The Tier-3 seal was fracturing in real time.

Shadow-bleed was leaking into the upper levels, thin dark threads running through the stone like veins. Students on the first floor would start noticing within hours.

"How long?" Joan asked.

"Forty-eight hours before the sublevel breach goes public," Soren said. "Maybe less."

"The Fracture?"

"Three days."

Joan closed the folder. "Then we have three days to—"

The door opened.

Lior Vasquez was standing in the hallway.

He had a sealed document in his hand.

The seal was Council-grade, gold wax, the kind that burned your fingers if you weren’t authorized to break it.

He looked at Soren.

Then at Joan. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Then at the seven people packed into an office designed for two, and his expression said he was filing every face for later.

"My father believes the wolf is a Primordial," Lior said. "The Council wants to verify. They’re sending an auditor."

Joan stood up. "When?"

"She arrives tomorrow."

The room was quiet.

Soren did the math.

Three days until Fracture.

One day until Council auditor.

Forty-eight hours until the Tier-3 breach became visible to every student in the building.

Three timers, all converging, all pointed at him.

Lior was still standing in the doorway.

He looked at Soren and his eyes were not friendly to him.

"My father doesn’t send auditors for students." He held the sealed document out to Joan. "He sends them for threats."