*The Arc Hall Interrogation Where Truth Tightens Its Fist*
The walk to the Arc Hall felt like a march toward judgment.
Aru didn't speak.
Kairo didn't joke.
Even Veyra—normally unreadable—felt tense, her rhythm aura flickering in small, sharp pulses.
By the time the enormous obsidian doors of the Arc Hall opened, Aru's chest felt like it was carrying a second heartbeat.
A colder one.
A watchful one.
The grand hall was empty at this hour, lit only by floating lantern orbs that dimmed as they passed beneath them. Their footsteps echoed across the carved stone.
Kairo nudged Aru lightly, whispering:
"You sure you're okay?"
Aru nodded.
He wasn't okay.
Not even close.
---
## **THE SILENT ROOM**
Veyra led them into a smaller chamber—a circular space with mirrored walls and a single stone table. It felt like a confessional made of steel.
She turned, arms crossed.
"Sit."
Kairo sat immediately.
Aru hesitated.
The walls hummed softly.
Veyra tapped a rune on the wall.
A shimmering barrier snapped shut behind the boys.
Not to trap them…
but to isolate their rhythms from the outside world.
"Now," she said quietly. "Tell me what happened on the rooftop."
Aru swallowed.
Kairo glanced at him, waiting.
Aru felt the memory like a hand grasping his hair:
—Eidolon freezing Kairo
—calling Aru by a name no one else knew
—mentioning threads
—hinting at death
—watching from the rooftop earlier as if testing Aru's choices
He opened his mouth—
—but a cold whisper slithered through his skull:
**"Not her."**
Aru jolted.
Kairo grabbed his arm.
"Bro?"
Aru's pulse raced.
"I… I can't explain it. But something was there. Something strong."
Veyra's gaze sharpened.
"A creature?"
Aru hesitated.
Lied.
"Maybe. It looked like a shadow—glitching. And it froze Kairo."
Kairo nodded vigorously.
"Yeah. I couldn't move at all. Felt like my rhythm got unplugged."
Veyra exhaled slowly.
"That matches the signature we detected. A Distortion-class Aberration shouldn't be able to reach this district… unless someone *brought* it."
Aru flinched.
Kairo widened his eyes.
"You think some student summoned it!?"
"Or worse," Veyra muttered, "someone outside the Conservatory."
The room dimmed slightly as she stepped closer to Aru.
He felt her studying him.
Too closely.
"Aru," Veyra said, her voice low, "when the Aberration appeared, did it react to you? Look at you? Follow your rhythm? Anything unusual?"
Aru's chest seized.
He knew the real answer.
**It knew him.**
It knew *everything*.
It acted like it had been waiting for him.
"Aru?" Veyra repeated.
He forced a slow breath.
"No. Nothing like that."
Veyra didn't believe him.
She didn't call him out, but she didn't believe him.
And her next words were a blade:
"Your rhythm readings have been… inconsistent lately."
Aru froze.
Kairo sat up.
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning," Veyra continued, "Aru's emotional output spikes and dips in ways that do not match known human patterns."
Aru felt cold.
"So I'm… malfunctioning?" he whispered.
"No," Veyra said.
"You're evolving."
Aru stiffened.
"Your rhythm is changing," she continued. "Becoming something else. Something older. Something I haven't seen in years."
Her eyes softened—barely.
"Kairo… stay close to him. If an Aberration truly sought him out, he's in danger."
Aru flinched.
So did Kairo.
"But you can't tell anyone else," Veyra warned.
"Not the instructors. Not the Nobles. Not even the Headmaster."
Aru blinked.
"Why?"
Veyra hesitated.
"Because if they find out that a Distortion creature connected itself to you…"
Her voice dropped.
"…they won't see you as a student anymore."
Aru's stomach twisted.
"What will they see me as?"
Veyra answered with silence.
Sometimes silence says too much.
---
## **THE UNSEEN LISTENER**
As Aru and Kairo walked out of the hall—released but shaken—Kairo muttered:
"Great. So now we're on some secret warning list. And you're evolving? Bro, what does that even mean?"
Aru didn't answer.
Because the world blurred for a second.
The lantern lights distorted into glitching shards.
The hallway rippled as if reality blinked.
Kairo didn't notice.
Aru did.
And within that distortion, Aru saw the faint outline of a figure leaning casually against the wall—
Eidolon.
Except this time…
his eyes were no longer cold.
They were *sad*.
"Aru," he murmured, his voice threading through the air like woven static only Aru could hear, "you're worried about the conservatory finding out what you are…"
He tilted his head.
"Maybe you should be more worried about finding out yourself."
The distortion snapped away.
Kairo walked a few steps ahead.
"Aru? You coming?"
Aru stared at the hallway where Eidolon had been.
His heartbeat was a drum in a collapsing world.
**What am I becoming?**
he wondered.
And a whisper, soft as breath, answered from the shadows:
**"Exactly what you were designed to be."**
Aru shuddered.
Not from fear—
—but from recognition.
Something deep inside him knew that voice.
And it knew him back.