Inari stood frozen for a long moment outside the sealed door of the Echo Vault, hands clenched tight in front of her cloak. The thrum of the barrier still tingled faintly at her fingertips. No sound. No sense of the world inside. That was by design. The Echo Vault was meant to isote and reveal, not comfort.

  Still, she couldn’t help the nervousness she felt in leaving him in there to his fate; one that could either lead to ruin, or his future. Whether it was a bright one, she could not know.

  She turned and made her way into the observation chamber, tucked just beyond a narrow adjoining corridor lined with wards. The room beyond was circur and paneled in seamless crystal, the outer walls flickering softly with pulses of Essentia drawn directly from the Vault.

  Three figures waited inside.

  Councilor Aethryn Solivar stood with his hands csped at his waist, thoughtful as ever, and his eyes flicked to a central floating sigil matrix dispying metrics and readings in spiraling scripts. Inari could see both excited curiosity and wariness as the two emotions battled for room on his face.

  Councilor Maerion Thaleth, by contrast, was pacing like a hound that smelled blood. His ever-present sneer was front and center as he seemed to be deliberating in his mind over something incredibly important—at least to him.

  Director Vaesth stood at the back of the room, arms folded, expression unreadable.

  "Schor Velsh," Thaleth said without greeting, his voice sharp. "How long will it take?"

  Inari inclined her head respectfully. “Unknown, Councilor. We have yet to fully begin and, as you know, every test subject is different.”

  “I suspect Dane Walsh will be quite different,” Solivar said, as he focused on the initial readings.

  Long moments passed and Inari let the three men’s whispered discussion fall to the back of her mind as she kept a keen eye on what she was seeing. Not being able to hear exactly what was happening inside the sealed room had been frustrating for her for many years, but as the command of her own skills grew, she had learned to piece together much more through the data the crystals revealed.

  She sat back, suddenly, and let out a sharp breath, then began a complete scan of the Shardhall’s records for comparison.

  “Schor Velsh?” Director Vaesth said. “What is it?”

  She hesitated, not wanting to divulge too much, but relented. “No subject on record has ever produced such elevated preliminary readings. It appears that we are operating in uncharted territory.”

  Thaleth scoffed. “A polite way to say this might blow up in our faces.”

  Solivar raised a brow. “It might also be unprecedented insight. We should not be so quick to dismiss how beneficial this data could be. I suggest we observe without assuming the worst.”

  The readings pulsed. The glyphs began to brighten, then pulse again—faster. The ambient hum of the room elevated, and all four occupants began to feel uneasy.

  Inari leaned forward, mouth parting. “This...” she began, pausing to confirm. “Director, these readings aren’t scaling properly. The attunement matrix is already near critical alignment, and we’ve only just begun the memory sequence.”

  Vaesth peered over her shoulder. When he finally spoke, his voice was tight. “What does that mean, Schor?”

  “It means—well, it means he is resonating with the Vault in ways we’ve never measured. It’s as if the Vault is struggling to contain him.”

  There was a loud snap from one of the panels. Sparks flew, and the chamber lights flickered.

  “Gods!” Thaleth barked. “Is he attacking the system?”

  “No,” Inari whispered, focused on reading the pattern in the data stream. “He appears to be grieving.”

  Thaleth looked at her as if she’d gone mad. “Grieving?!” he asked, incredulously. “Grieving! The Vault is on fire and you’re talking about emotions?”

  Solivar held up a hand. “Let her work.”

  Another glyph shattered with a loud pop, and a thin fracture spread through the crystal housing. Inari tapped at the various controls, her hands a blur as the adjusted glyphs and fractals, attempting to help the system accommodate to the raw power output she was seeing.

  More lights flickered, then some shattered as the central crystal housing above them cracked and went dark. Inari turned and bolted for the Vault’s threshold.

  The sigil on the outer wall responded to her approach, dimmed, and with its st vestiges of energy, opened the sealed door.

  Inside, the chamber was quiet—too quiet. Faint embers of Essentia flickered across the floor where glyphs had failed.

  Dane was on his knees, his face pressed to the chest of High Arcanist Velira, arms clenched around her like a lifeline. He was trembling. Sobbing.

  Velira was unmoving, one hand gently resting on the back of his head, the other cradling his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry.”

  The shock of hearing those words from the High Arcanist and knowing they were for a test subject, was overwhelming. Velira had never said those words within this chamber, and Inari suddenly felt like she was an intruder, vioting someone’s personal space.

  But she had a job to do, and the High Arcanist required an update on the system.

  Inari cleared her throat softly.

  Velira didn’t move at first but then gnced over and nodded. "Help me with him."

  They eased Dane to his unsteady feet. He looked hollowed out, not just exhausted but drained from the inside. As they walked him slowly toward the exit, Velira murmured to Inari without taking her eyes off Dane.

  "He is not what the stories feared. I’ve been probing gently while we waited. There is great pain, yes. Also, incredible power. But no malice. No hate—not toward us. Only toward the man who hurt his sister."

  Inari nodded, swallowing her emotion. “What now?”

  “Escort him to his room,” Velira said. “There’s a somnolith band in the medkit there—attach it. He must sleep but not dream. Too much unfiltered emotion could trigger another surge. I fear what he might do outside of a shielded room.”

  Inari looked at Velira questioningly. “No dreams?”

  “Please do it, Schor. And then return to the control room as quickly as you can. We need diagnostics, and fast. The Vault is critical to more than just the Ashkaari.”

  “Yes, High Arcanist.”

  As Inari helped Dane through the hall, her thoughts were already racing ahead. The damage was severe. The insight, staggering. But what terrified her most wasn’t the power of the Ashkaari.

  It was the raw, unbearable weight of what he’d survived.

  * * * * *

  Velira entered the control chamber, the air still sharp with the scent of scorched runework. The hum of the machinery had dulled, several sigils flickering erratically. Councilor Thaleth turned on her like a hawk diving on prey, his thin finger pointing accusingly.

  “You dare step in here as if this hasn’t just proven every concern I voiced?” he snapped. “That creature is unstable. A threat to every one of us. That dispy was not grief—it was a warning. A monster filing in pain still leaves corpses in its wake.”

  “He is not a monster,” Velira said coolly, not flinching under his words. “He is a man. One who endured things that would break any of us. The Vault didn’t fail because he lost control. It failed because it wasn’t designed for someone carrying that much truth.”

  Thaleth scoffed, already turning to Vaesth. “Director, I want armed containment on this Ashkaari at once. We must assume he’s a hostile asset.”

  Velira stepped forward, voice sharper now. “No. I will not authorize that. You asked for insight. I gave it. He holds no hatred for Tavelyn and none toward the Shardhall. If he wanted to hurt us, we would not be standing here.”

  “Convenient,” Thaleth sneered. “And how exactly do you know he isn’t simply biding his time?”

  “Because I was inside his mind, Councilor!” Velira said, now exasperated. “And I know the difference between wrath and sorrow. Between threat and trauma.” She closed the distance on the man. “Or have you forgotten your own experience within the chamber?”

  Solivar finally stepped in, raising his hand gently. “Councilor Thaleth, perhaps we should take a step back. High Arcanist Velira is trusted with our most sensitive assessments for good reason. You, yourself, agreed that she was the best for this job in all of Velkarin. If she says the Ashkaari is no immediate danger, we must accept that—with due vigince, of course.”

  Thaleth scowled but said nothing further.

  Director Vaesth cleared his throat. “Then we are agreed. He remains under observation, no lethal force unless absolutely necessary. Velira, please keep us apprised of when the assessment resumes.”

  “It will resume,” Velira said, “but only when he is ready.”

  With nothing more to add, the councilors turned and exited, their footsteps leaving echoing tension behind. Alone in the control room, Velira looked down at the cracked glyph array and whispered to herself, “May the next truths be gentler ones.”

  * * * * *

  Inari walked slowly beside Dane, her arm still under his for bance, though he hardly leaned on her. His steps were steady now as if he were moving automatically. There was no light in his eyes, no words on his lips. He moved like a man made of stone, crumbling slowly with each footfall.

  She gnced at him now and then, unsure what to say. Silence felt safest.

  What she’d seen in the Vault had shaken her. Not just the devastation to the systems, but the soul-deep grief that had surged like a tidal wave. He hadn’t done it with a spell. He hadn’t done anything, really. It had simply poured out of him.

  As they walked, she thought about everything she’d heard about Dane Walsh. Firm, but fair. Jovial, but stern when needed. And how the confusion and dismay at his sudden transport to Velkarin from his own world was being masked by humor. That, alone, had to weigh on him more than he was letting on, and Inari wondered if the suppression of his true feelings about being here were making him more...antsy.

  Combining the psychological effects of being transpnted in such a way with reliving such a horrific and deeply personal trauma from his past had to have been what caused such a response from him within the Echo Vault. Had it been one or the other, she was certain some feedback would still have presented, but not with such ferocity.

  Such unparalleled power.

  That was when she recalled their earlier conversation. The constant buildup of power that had to be unleashed was not helping him, physically or mentally. It must have been the remaining pent-up energy that was released within the Vault.

  She stopped, a hypothesis forming. Was that what had happened to the other Ashkaari? Were they also pgued with a constant barrage of power entering their bodies?

  Noticing Dane still shuffling down the corridor, she rushed to catch up.

  She thought of the old stories—Ashkaari razing cities, tearing through armies like fire through dry grass. Were they monsters by nature, or had they simply overflowed due to a buildup of power with no outlet?

  Could it have been that simple?

  The hallway lights shimmered overhead, Essentia threads dancing like northern lights through the crystal. Dane didn’t even notice.

  He just walked.

  She guided him to his quarters, activated the panel to unlock the door, and stepped inside with him. The somnolith band was waiting where she’d been told it would be—a thin, metallic disc nestled in the medkit beside the bed.

  She turned to him with concern, finally breaking the silence. “This will help you sleep,” she said gently. “There will be no dreams. Just rest. That’s all.”

  His eyes flicked to hers. For a heartbeat, something passed between them; acknowledgment, maybe even gratitude before he gave a single nod and y on the bed.

  She set the disc gently against his temple. It activated with a soft chime. Within seconds, his entire body rexed and his eyes fluttered closed.

  Inari hesitated. Then quietly whispered, “You endured what would break most.”

  She turned and left without waiting for a reply.

  * * * * *

  Velira stood silently in the observation chamber, her eyes taking in the damage for the fourth time. She could not help but feel utter astonishment from the results the feedback of power had on the Vault. Somehow, Dane had surged with over ten times the capacity the primary crystal sensor array could handle—and that was just the reading before everything went dark.

  To her knowledge, no one had come anywhere close to the Vault’s capacity during these tests which told her that she knew even less about Ashkaari than she realized. Great power, a near-constant need for confrontation, and, historically, evil or destructive desires were all she knew. Dane definitely held great power, but so far, she’d not seen anything else commonly associated with Ashkaari from the past.

  What was it that made him different? She wondered if that one event, the death of his younger sister, was what guided him away from the stereotypical Ashkaari narrative and into one of his own making. That train of thought made her wonder what other memories he carried—memories that had forged him into something so unlike the Ashkaari of legend.

  Velira had seen many minds unravel. She had walked through the nightmares of kings and the ambitions of tyrants. But this—this had been different. The grief she found in Dane Walsh’s memory didn’t cw or sh out. It simply endured, heavy and honest, and it had left its mark.

  The door slid open to reveal Inari’s return to the observation chamber after nearly twenty minutes. The Schor found her mentor standing amidst the smoldering remains, arms folded and face grim.

  “You took longer than I expected,” the High Arcanist said without looking up. Her tone was not accusatory, just stating the facts.

  “He needed a moment,” Inari replied, her tone soft but firm. “And I... needed one, too.”

  Velira gave a small nod of acknowledgment, then gestured to the main control panel. “Can you provide a status with what is left?”

  Inari crossed the room and activated a diagnostic rune. It flickered briefly, and Inari poured a small amount of her own Essentia into it. Threads of light suddenly stretched across the surface as metrics and fault lines appeared. With a satisfied nod to her own handiwork, her eyes studied the dispy. Moments ter, she blew out her cheeks and slumped.

  “The glyphs are unrecoverable. The ttice’s integrity is compromised in six pces, and at least two of the Essentia regutors blew their cores.” Inari looked upward and winced. “And the central crystal housing is cracked. I’d estimate 3-4 days of repair work if we pull in a full attunement team and have a spare crystal for the housing.”

  Velira sighed, frustrated. She didn’t bme Dane. In fact, the damage he caused was something they could learn from.

  “Make it happen,” Velira said. “Request staff from the inner sanctum, if needed. We can’t afford downtime with a subject like this.”

  “I assume he’s not the only one scheduled?”

  “No,” Velira said. “But he is the most important. I also want a design team down here with a copy of the diagnostics. The Echo Vault appears to be in need of a major upgrade.”

  They were quiet for a moment, the Vault's ruined hum still present, like an echo of the storm it had witnessed.

  “You saw it,” Velira said softly. “I know you did.”

  Inari hesitated, then nodded. “Not all of it. But enough.”

  “Then you understand why I said what I said.”

  It still shocked Inari to have heard the High Arcanist’s soothing words for Dane, or even how she comforted him so intimately. Anshar Velira was of such high station that she was untouchable, and to see her like that, with a stranger, no less—no, with an Ashkaari stranger, sent her mind spinning.

  But the High Arcanist was unparalleled in her mind magics. If there had been the slightest hint of animosity from Dane Walsh, his arrival at the Shardhall would have ended on a very different note—an abrupt one.

  And in her own way, Inari had formed an odd connection to him as well. So, was it truly such a strange act?

  “I do,” Inari said with an affirming nod. “He’s dangerous, but not to us.”

  “Exactly.” Velira turned toward the shattered panel. “And it is our job to prove it lest a certain Councilor demand more aggressive action.” She moved to the room’s main scry-pad and began logging requisition orders. “Get some rest, Schor Velsh. We’ll need your analysis when the team arrives.”

  “I will. And High Arcanist?”

  Velira gnced at her.

  “I’m gd it was you in there with him.”

  Velira’s expression softened, the weight in her eyes briefly lifting. “So am I.”