The night fell thick over Starpower Academy.
The spires cut black shapes against the moon, and the lamps along the walkways flickered with a faint blue glow, powered by the academy's mana grid. Students had already returned to their dorms; even the training yards were silent, the echo of sparring long faded into the dark.
Merlin Everhart sat alone in his dorm room, a dim crystal light hovering above his desk.
On the table before him were stacks of documents, holographic projections, and his own notes, names, shipment routes, transaction IDs. All linked to one company.
Invoke Armaments.
His hand traced one of the lines on the map projected above the desk: a trade route connecting Alderport to Silverspire District. The shipping record showed "non-lethal artifact components," but the mana trace embedded in the seal said otherwise.
Someone had replaced Invoke's official signature rune with a disguised variant, a trick used by smugglers and black-market handlers.
