Chapter 147: His Discarded Pawn

Hundreds of novices filed out of the refectory.

They walked with their heads down and headed straight toward their theology classes.

The daily inspections instituted by Father Marius had the entire academy sweating bullets.

Raziel stood in the shadow of the eastern cloister and watched the crowd.

He waited for a specific target to appear.

He found him sitting alone on a stone bench near the perimeter wall.

Gideon wore his gray novice uniform, but the clothes hung loose on his frame.

Gideon kept his head down and stared at his own empty hands.

He just sat there and let the rest of the academy pass him by.

Raziel left the shadow of the cloister and walked across the dirt courtyard.

He needed to know if Gideon’s silence during the heist was born of trust or just pure apathy.

An apathetic witness could still talk to the Inquisition if the price was right.

Raziel had to secure this loose end before Mordecai arrived.

He stopped right in front of the stone bench.

Gideon did not look up.

“Brother Thomas placed you on medical recovery,” Raziel stated and kept his voice low so the passing novices could not hear them.

“He bought you time but you should be packing your bags for the southern front.”

Gideon raised his head. His eyes looked hollow. The red swelling from his suicide attempt was gone, but the exhaustion remained.

“I am packing my bags,” Gideon answered. “I am just waiting for the ink to dry on the transfer orders.”

Raziel looked at the boy. Elector Mordecai discarded Gideon the second he lost his utility.

The boy had zero future in the Church.

Raziel decided to take a calculated risk.

He possessed Soul Resonance and he remembered the raw despair radiating from Gideon during the healing in the bathroom.

He knew the boy hit rock bottom.

People at rock bottom had nothing left to lose, so they became either dangerous enemies or loyal assets.

“You do not have to go south,” Raziel said.

Gideon let out a bitter laugh.

“I have zero magic, Raziel. I failed the tournament. I am dead weight to the Exarchs, so I belong in the meat grinder.”

Raziel sat down on the stone bench next to him.

“The Church hurt me too,” Raziel stated.

Gideon stopped laughing and turned his head.

He searched Raziel’s face for a lie.

“They pretend to save us,” Raziel continued. “They promise us glory and salvation. But they just use us to maintain their own power. They brand us. They break us. They send us to die.”

He did not mention the time loop, the Umbral Paragon or the Shadow Parasite or the Forge.

He gave Gideon the partial truth because the full truth would break his mind.

“Elector Mordecai is not coming here just to inspect the dormitories,” Raziel explained.

“He is a threat to everyone in this building. This academy hides secrets in the foundation that could change the balance of power in Phaedra.”

Gideon stared at his empty hands again and rubbed his thumbs over his palms.

“My whole life they told me what to be,” Gideon said. “My family sold me to be a novice. Mordecai turned me into a weapon. You took that away from me.”

“Caius took the artificial Gift from you,” Raziel corrected him. “Not me.”

“You left me alive afterward,” Gideon countered.

He looked up and met Raziel’s gaze. “You visited me in the infirmary, healed my wrists and saw me.”

“Nobody sees me, Raziel,” Gideon continued. “They only see what they can use.”

Raziel processed the confession.

He recognized the sorrow but felt zero heat from it. He understood the specific shape of the pain because he lived it in his previous life.

“I was invisible once too,” Raziel answered.

He stood up from the bench. He offered the boy something nobody in the Church had ever offered him before.

“You can report us to Marius,” Raziel said.

“You can ignore us and go die in the south or you can help us. I do not ask for your blind loyalty, Gideon. I ask you to choose something for yourself for the very first time.”

Raziel turned around and walked away.

He left Gideon alone in the courtyard to make his choice.

***

DONG.

The midnight bell rang and the East Basement went dark.

Raziel stood inside the Inscription workshop with Lucian, Lara, and Zorya.

They gathered around the large wooden table to review the architectural blueprints.

They had six weeks before the sealing team arrived, so they needed to fortify the lower levels against the Inquisition’s magic.

Zorya drew defensive perimeters with her charcoal pencil.

Lara kept her eyes closed and monitored the upper floors for guards.

CLACK.

The heavy iron bolt on the workshop door slid back.

Lucian spun around and drew his practice dagger in a fraction of a second.

Raziel dropped his hand to his belt and channeled his Umbral core.

The heavy metal door pushed open.

Gideon stepped into the dim light of the basement.

He wore his standard gray uniform and held his hands up to show he did not carry a weapon.

He looked at the four faces staring at him and took a deep breath.

“Where do I start?” Gideon asked.

Lucian lowered his dagger and looked at Raziel.

Raziel nodded and released his grip on his dark magic. He accepted the new recruit.

Gideon joined the group at the table.

His contribution shocked everyone in the room.

He lacked a magical Gift and he possessed zero runic knowledge.

He did not provide physical strength or stealth.

He provided internal intelligence.

“I trained under Mordecai’s direct supervision for three months in the capital,” Gideon explained and leaned over the blueprints.

“He wanted me to serve as his personal enforcer. I know how he operates, his patrol routes and the artifacts he carries.”

Zorya picked up her charcoal pencil. “What kind of artifacts?”

Gideon looked at the glowing silver runes on the basement walls. He frowned and his face lost all its color.

“He is not coming here with just boiling lead and standard containment seals,” Gideon stated.

“He brings a specific artifact. I saw it on his desk in his private office.”

“What is it?” Raziel asked.

“He calls it the Silencer,” Gideon answered.

“It is a solid black sphere the size of a fist. It emits a frequency you cannot hear with your ears.”

Caius stepped out of the dark corner of the workshop. The transfer novice locked his pale gray eyes on Gideon.

“What does the frequency do?” Caius asked.

“It shuts down the consciousness of the Pantheon runes,” Gideon explained. “It does not seal the magic. It kills it.”

The workshop went dead silent.

“I saw him use it once,” Gideon continued. “We traveled to a minor ruin in the eastern province. He placed the black sphere on top of an ancient silver rune carved into a stone altar. The rune screamed.”

Raziel frowned. Runes did not possess vocal cords.

“It made a noise,” Gideon clarified. “It screamed for one second and then it ceased to exist. The magic died. The stone turned gray. The connection vanished.”

The blue interface blinked in Raziel’s vision.

[WARNING: EXISTENTIAL THREAT DETECTED]

[ARTIFACT IDENTIFIED: THE SILENCER]

The silver runes on the walls of the East Basement reacted to Gideon’s words.

The light scrambled and formed chaotic geometric shapes across the bricks.

The Academy heard the description of the weapon and recognized the threat.

Raziel slammed his fist on the wooden table.

THUD.

“We have six weeks,” Raziel said to the group.

“Mordecai brings a weapon that murders the foundation. We need to secure the third Gift and we need to fortify the node before he walks through the front gates.”

Gideon nodded and looked at the blueprint. He pointed at the main entrance of St. Celeste.

“I will map out his standard siege tactics,” Gideon offered. “I will tell you exactly how he breaches a building.”

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