The lecture room held that same thick, sleepy tension it always did before midterms — half the class awake, half drifting, and no one brave enough to ask questions that might drag the clock backward.
Professor Lyron stood at the front, tall and lean, coat folded neatly behind him like it was part of a uniform he respected more than the students wearing theirs. He tapped through slides with the same dry rhythm as always.
"WAA operatives are bound to the Four Doctrines," he said. "Intervention Limits. Chain of Command. Rift Clearance Protocol. Civilian Desyre Containment."
The projection shifted behind him: crisp diagrams, footnotes, regulatory stamps.
Kael sat in the third row, two seats from the aisle, arms crossed over his desk. He wasn't taking notes. He didn't need to. He'd memorized most of the WAA codes before he even stepped through the academy gates.
Beside him, Charlotte was sketching with her finger on her tablet — bored circles, turning into loops, then into half-finished flowers. She wasn't paying attention, but she wasn't ignoring the lecture either. She was just... processing.
Levi was two seats down, slouched with his hood pulled halfway up and one leg bouncing against the floor. He looked more like he was waiting for a fight to happen than a class to end.
Lyron continued.
"Violation of any doctrine is a breach of World Ascender Authority Law. In the field, that breach can cost your life. In the city? It costs more."
Someone from the far corner raised a hand halfway — then just spoke.
"What about Bird?"
The room shifted slightly. A few students glanced up. Others stopped scrolling. No one laughed.
Kael didn't move.
Lyron's eyes didn't blink. "Clarify," he said.
The student leaned forward a bit. "The guy from the Jerusalem Rift. Masked. No record. No registration. Everyone online still talks about him."
A beat passed.
Lyron sighed once and tapped his console. The slide changed.
A fuzzy image filled the screen — pulled from satellite footage. Smoke. Fire. A man in a long black coat walking alone through Riftl. A sharp, black mask shaped like a bird's face, turned just enough to hide everything.
"Codename: Bird," Lyron said flatly. "First appeared in public record during the 2036 Jerusalem Incident. No rank. No Core signature. Cleared an S-Class Rift unaided. Then vanished."
He glanced around the room.
"Not a registered Ascender. Not an agency member. Not a WAA asset. By law, that makes him illegal."
"Even if he saved the city?" someone else muttered.
Lyron's gaze flicked over. "Intent doesn't excuse recklessness. He acted alone, without clearance, without authority. If that Rift had collapsed mid-fight, we'd have had no way of knowing how, why, or where. One mistake — and it would've taken half the continent."
Charlotte stopped sketching. Her eyes were on the image now.
"He didn't make a mistake," said a voice from the second row.
A few heads turned.
Levi stood up slowly, hands in his pockets, face unreadable.
Kael didn't look at him.
Levi didn't look at anyone but the screen.
"He didn't act reckless. He acted when no one else could."
Professor Lyron straightened slightly. "You're suggesting the WAA was incapable?"
"I'm saying 7 squads were already gone," Levi said. "It was an S-Class Rift — the kind that starts expanding if it's not contained. Comms were dead, Desyre levels were spiking… and then one guy walked in and ended it."
Lyron's brow creased. "We don't know how he did it."
"Maybe we don't need to," Levi said. "He didn't clear the Rift to get famous. He didn't leave a message. No core flare. No signature. Nothing. He just walked in, did what the WAA couldn't, and left."
A few students nodded quietly. No one interrupted.
Levi glanced at the photo one last time, then sat.
Professor Lyron let the silence linger before switching slides again.
"He's still unauthorized," he said. "And until we know who or what he is, that makes him a variable. Variables get people killed."
Kael didn't flinch. But his hand, resting lightly on the edge of the desk, had curled into a subtle fist.
Charlotte noticed.
She didn't say anything. But she stopped sketching entirely.
A few moments later, the next slide loaded — a boring case file. The class shifted back to its quiet drone.
But the mask on the previous slide still lingered in the edge of Kael's mind.
Sharp. Silent. Real.
They talk like they know him, Kael thought.
But they don't know anything at all.
The class ended.
Kael walked to the only placed that made sense