Chapter 5: The Council's Eye
The golden message hovered in the air, untouched by dust or code.
"Don't let them break her. The Rewrite has already begun."
Mia stared, heart thundering in her ears.
Adrian rose slowly, placing himself between Mia and the ghostlike projection. "Echo Vanguard," he muttered. "I thought they were wiped out."
"They were," Selene said, voice shaken. "A hundred years ago. Purged. Rebels who hacked Spirit links."
The beacon pulsed behind them—flickering now, glitching in tandem with Mia's Spirit.
Then a second screen unfurled, not from the System, but from Broken Wing itself.
[Bond Request: Override Pending]
Emotion Anchor Required to Proceed
Trait Chain Expansion: "Echo Sovereign Pathway"
Accept Rewrite Protocol?
Mia felt it.
Not just heat.
Not just power.
A choice.
She could accept.
Break free of the System's walls. Let her Spirit evolve down a path unseen by Council eyes. A path fueled by who she was. Not by stats. Not by rank.
Or she could refuse.
Stay within their borders. Stay under watch. But stay safe.
Her knees dug into the sand.
Behind her, Adrian whispered, "They'll mark you for deletion."
"I know."
Selene took a step closer, for once without venom. "If you do this, you won't just be flagged. You'll be hunted."
Mia looked at her screen.
Broken Wing pulsed in her chest—not begging. Waiting.
"I was already broken," Mia said softly. "This time, I break the rules."
She pressed "Accept."
The sand shifted.
The beacon exploded upward in a column of light.
Mia's Spirit UI went blank. Then lit again in pure white.
[Rewrite Accepted]
Spirit Classification: Fragmented Seraph
Rank: C
New Abilities:
– Empathic Barrier
– Light Wing Projection (10 seconds)
– Echo Pulse
Trait Chain Activated: Sovereign Echo (Stage 1)
And then came the glitch.
Visible to all.
SYSTEM ERROR
Spirit Classification Not Recognized
Forced Evolution Pathway Detected
Emergency Council Override Failing...
Mia rose to her feet.
Wings of light flickered at her back. Not whole. But not broken.
And above them all, far beyond the storm and sky, something ancient stirred.
Watching.
Waiting.
Remembering.
---
They summoned her without warning.
No student escort. No Spirit Advisor. Just a blinking directive on her UI as she walked the quiet garden between training cycles.
> [Council Command: Immediate Appearance Required]
Location: Core Ascension Hall – Level Omega
Failure to Comply = Termination of Enrollment Rights
Mia stood still for a long moment. The wind rustled the leaves around her, brushing against her Spirit mark like a hand trying to hold her back.
She went anyway.
The Core Ascension Hall was not made for students. It was made to intimidate. Marble floors embedded with Spirit tech hummed beneath every footstep. The ceiling was domed starlight, but artificial—programmed constellations that shifted based on council moods.
And today, they flickered.
She passed through three scan gates, each one pulsing red before grudgingly turning green. Her Spirit flickered inside her chest with unease. The temperature dropped the higher she climbed.
Then, the great doors opened.
Seven thrones lined the upper dais, each carved from a different ancient material—obsidian, Spiritglass, fractured starlight. Figures sat upon them, masked by code-fire veils. Their voices filtered through synthesized distortion.
"You are Mia Lancaster," the center voice said.
She nodded once.
"You carry a Spirit that does not exist in our registry. Its path violates stability protocols. Its traits replicate Echo Chain anomalies long deemed hazardous."
Mia looked up, voice steady. "I didn't choose this Spirit. It chose me."
"That," another voice hissed, "is precisely the problem."
She said nothing.
A third voice rose. "You accessed sealed Echo Vaults. Engaged a Rewrite without authorization. Your sync levels bypassed tier control parameters. Do you deny any of this?"
"No," Mia said quietly. "I lived it."
The chamber vibrated. The Council stirred.
A fourth voice snapped. "Then explain your intention. Is your path rebellion? Or ignorance?"
Mia stared into the shifting veil of code. Behind it, she felt it—something watching. Something ancient. Not the Council. The System itself.
"I want to understand," she said. "Why I was given something that shouldn't exist. Why it feels alive in ways your records can't explain."
Silence.
Then the center voice again.
"You are a variable. And variables destabilize."
The room dimmed. Her screen lit.
> [Council Recommendation: Spirit Extraction]
Risk Level: Red
Countermeasure: Removal and Reassignment Suggested
Mia's knees nearly buckled.
Broken Wing stirred with sudden heat.
A pulse shot up her arm.
Not from the Council.
From something beneath their control.
---
The Council's decree hung in the air like judgment carved from steel.
> [Council Recommendation: Spirit Extraction]
Subject: Mia Lancaster
Status: Pending Vote
Mia stared at the glowing line. Her pulse pounded in her ears. Broken Wing thrummed, unstable, defensive. The Spirit didn't speak—but its fear vibrated through her veins.
Then another voice rang out.
Unmasked.
Clear.
"I object."
Every head turned.
Adrian Kael Thorne stepped into the chamber like he belonged there—because he did. Council blood ran in his veins. The silver-blue coat he wore marked him not as a student, but as an Heir.
One of the few allowed to challenge judgment.
Mia's breath hitched.
The Council paused.
"You enter without summons," one of the veiled voices stated. "Explain."
Adrian stood tall, arms behind his back. "You're targeting a student for succeeding outside your parameters. That's not oversight. That's fear."
A murmur passed among the Council seats.
"Her Spirit bypassed regulatory evolution. The Rewrite protocol is a relic—unstable. We do not fear her. We fear the damage she could unleash."
"She's not the threat," Adrian said coldly. "You are."
Gasps echoed.
One of the voices flared with static. "You would accuse this Council of corruption?"
"I accuse you of cowardice," he replied. "Because you all know what she is. What her Spirit might be. And none of you want it confirmed."
The central voice grew colder. "Your father sits among us. Do you presume to speak for him?"
Adrian's jaw tensed.
"I speak for myself. He may hold your respect. But he does not own my voice."
Mia's heart raced. Not just from the scene, but from what she felt. Broken Wing pulsed again—not with fear. With recognition.
Adrian wasn't protecting her out of sympathy.
He was standing beside her because something inside him believed in the same thing.
Empathy.
Freedom.
A chance to break the System... without breaking people.
The Council shifted.
> [Override Request Logged: Adrian Kael Thorne]
Status: Delayed Judgment
Outcome: Spirit Retained (Temporary Hold)
Next Review: 48 Hours
The vote paused.
She was not free.
But she wasn't condemned.
Not yet.
---
The chamber doors hissed shut behind them.
Silence followed Mia and Adrian as they walked side by side through the empty corridor leading away from the Council's inner sanctum. The polished floor reflected broken lines of light. Mia's footsteps echoed unevenly.
She stopped first.
"Why did you do that?"
Adrian didn't stop walking. "They would've erased your Spirit."
"You don't usually care about 'would have.'"
He turned. "I care about cause and effect."
"That's not an answer."
He held her gaze. "You're awakening something the System doesn't want. That's either a gift... or a threat."
Mia swallowed. "And which do you think I am?"
"I don't know yet."
She laughed softly. It wasn't bitter. Just tired.
Adrian stepped closer. "But I do know this. You're not like the others. Even I don't sync with Kael. I command it. You... bond."
Mia's Spirit pulsed beneath her ribs, slow and warm.
"You don't trust your Spirit?"
"I don't trust myself enough to let it in."
Her hand tightened at her side. "Then why defend mine?"
"Because if the System fears you, then maybe it fears what it did to the rest of us too."
They stood like that for a long moment.
Then Mia's interface flickered again.
Not a glitch.
A vision.
The hallway vanished.
She saw light. Endless. Blinding. Then blood. Wing fragments scattered across the stars. A golden sigil cracking like glass. Seraphim screaming. Spirits chained. A war of Virtues consumed by silence.
She gasped.
Adrian caught her.
"What did you see?"
Her voice shook.
"She wasn't born broken. She was made that way."
---
Later that night, Mia stood alone in the Reflection Atrium.
Glass walls surrounded her. Beyond them, the stars of Virtura rotated in solemn arcs—artificial, beautiful, endless. The silence pressed close.
She touched her chest where the Spirit pulsed gently, not speaking, not guiding. Just there.
"I saw a battlefield," she whispered. "Your wings were whole once."
No reply.
She sat cross-legged on the warm floor.
The vision still clung to her—golden light fractured by war, celestial feathers falling like dying comets. Chains wrapped around Spirits that once ruled the skies. Council masks dipped in blood.
"Why did they break you?"
A soft warmth answered—not words, not feelings, but memory.
She turned her wrist over.
And saw it.
A mark.
Small. Barely visible. Tucked just beneath her skin like a scar carved in starlight.
A circle with three curved lines through it.
> Watcher's Seal
Her interface flickered to life without command.
> [Hidden Protocol Unlocked: Watcher's Seal]
Status: Dormant
Source: Unknown (Pre-System Era)
Function: Observation / Intervention / Rebirth Tracking
Authority Level: Admin-Level Override
She stared in horror and awe.
This wasn't a glitch.
It wasn't a reward.
It was surveillance from a time before the System ruled.
> "They branded you," Broken Wing whispered. "So they wouldn't forget what you were."
Mia traced the mark.
A symbol meant to track divinity. Now burned into her.
> "Watcher Protocol Activated. Subject Echo Flame: Monitored."
She closed her eyes.
They hadn't just feared her Spirit.
They feared her return.
---