Dawn rose over the ridge in a pale, cold bloom of light. The ruined watchpost stood silhouetted against the paling sky, every jagged edge etched in silver. Jin stood at the high wall's edge, his cloak shifting around his boots. The Sovereign Circuit pulsed beneath his skin, steady as a second heart. Each beat carried the faint, metallic tang of power that had become as familiar as his own breath. Integration: 68%. He could feel the land itself now—the ancient ley threads running beneath the foundation stones, the memory of every oath and betrayal that had soaked these rocks in blood.
Far below, the valley was waking. Small shapes moved between the skeletal trees: riders, or perhaps scouts sent ahead of a larger host. He felt neither urgency nor fear. They would come, as they all must, to test the shape of his ambition. And when they came, they would leave changed or not at all.
Behind him, footsteps approached—measured, deliberate. Kasane joined him at the parapet, her spear resting across her shoulders. She said nothing for a moment, studying the movements in the valley with that same cool detachment he had come to trust.
"They've made camp near the south fork," she said at last.
"No banners?"
"None."
"Discipline?"
"Tight. At least two companies, maybe more waiting behind the ridgeline."
He inclined his head, considering.
"Arashi?"
She shook her head.
"Not their colors. Possibly mercenary captains."
He studied the dawn a moment longer before he spoke.
"Then let them come."
Kasane tilted her head just enough to look at him.
"You intend to meet them openly?"
He did not turn to her.
"I intend to make it clear what this place is. And what it will become."
She was silent for a time, watching the shapes below. When she spoke again, her voice was low.
"They will not expect an invitation."
"Good."
He left her there, descending the crumbling stair into the vault's main hall. The air within smelled of old dust and something older still—a latent charge that made the fine hairs along his arms lift. Daigo knelt amid a scatter of scrolls and cracked tablets, ink staining his fingers to the knuckle. He looked up as Jin entered, his face pale and eager.
"Master Jin."
"What have you found?"
Daigo swallowed, gesturing to a narrow slate engraved in a script even the boy dared not name.
"It's a fragment of the Codex. The glyphs here—"
He tapped a line near the top.
"—speak of the Sovereign Circuit's final threshold."
Jin stepped closer, feeling the Circuit's awareness spill across the slate like oil across water. Meaning unspooled in his mind—an elegant web of instructions so complex no living scribe could have ever recorded them by hand.
Integration: 69%.
His breath left him in a slow exhale.
"It is a ritual," he said quietly. "A convergence."
Daigo looked up, eyes wide.
"A convergence of what?"
"Self and source."
He turned the slate in his hand, feeling the deep grooves of the carvings.
"The Circuit was never meant to remain dormant. It's a catalyst—and a seed."
Daigo's throat bobbed as he swallowed.
"And when it…blooms?"
Jin set the slate aside, meeting the boy's gaze without blinking.
"Then everything changes."
Before Daigo could answer, Kasane's voice called from above, calm and clipped.
"Riders approaching."
Jin did not hesitate. He crossed the vault, his footsteps steady as he climbed into the pale dawn. Kasane waited by the gate, spear in hand. Below, three mounted figures picked their way up the ruined road. They wore no visible livery, though the shape of their armor and the way they moved told him they were professionals. One of them raised a hand in silent greeting as they drew near.
Kasane spoke without looking at him.
"Should I stop them?"
"No."
He stepped forward until he stood alone in the gap between the broken gates. The riders reined in a dozen paces from him. The lead figure dismounted and lowered her hood. She was older than he had expected, her hair streaked with iron and silver. Her eyes were bright and unsparing.
"You are Jin of the Arashi," she said, her voice carrying clearly. "Bearer of the artifact they call the Sovereign Circuit."
He inclined his head.
"And you are?"
She did not smile.
"Captain Yoriko of the Iron Cormorant Company. We have come under contract to deliver a message."
"Speak."
Her gaze flicked past him to Kasane, then back again.
"Your kin in the Arashi clan have declared you outlaw. They have set a price on your head—ten thousand scales of silver to any hand that bears your corpse back to their gates."
The wind moved across the ridge in a long, sighing gust. Jin did not look away.
"Is that why you came?"
"No."
She gestured to the other riders.
"We were paid to deliver the price. Not to collect it."
Kasane's voice came quiet and edged.
"And now?"
Yoriko met her stare without flinching.
"Now, we have fulfilled our contract. What comes next is a separate negotiation."
Jin considered her in silence. He felt the Circuit gathering in the hollow of his spine, a pressure that asked to be loosed. But he held it in check.
"Then speak your negotiation."
The older woman drew a slim packet from her belt, wrapped in oilskin. She tossed it lightly at his feet.
"Our patron bids you consider an alliance."
"Who?"
"You know them by reputation."
She paused.
"The Eclipsed Moon."
Kasane's expression tightened. Daigo, who had come up behind them unnoticed, made a small strangled noise.
"They sent you to hire him?" he blurted.
Yoriko ignored the boy.
"We were paid to deliver the proposal. To witness your answer."
Jin bent, retrieving the packet. He broke the seal and read the short, precise message within. Its language was courteous, almost perfunctory. An offer of resources. Shelter. And a single line at the end, written in a hand that felt familiar, though he could not place it:
Claim what you must. But remember: every sovereign serves a higher order.
He folded the parchment carefully and looked up.
"My answer is no."
Yoriko did not so much as blink.
"Then you understand the consequences."
He felt the Circuit surge, felt the storm in his marrow rise to meet the dawn.
"I understand that I will not serve."
Kasane stepped up beside him, spear angled low.
"Then this is the end of the conversation," she said flatly.
Yoriko inclined her head, as if conceding a polite match.
"So it is."
She swung into her saddle with a fluid motion, her companions mirroring her. Without another word, they turned and began the long descent down the ruined road. Jin watched them until the mists swallowed their shapes. Only then did he release the current that burned behind his eyes.
Kasane exhaled slowly.
"You just declined the one group that might have bought you time."
"I don't want time," he said.
He looked at her, and lightning flashed across his knuckles.
"I want victory."
Daigo looked between them, voice hushed.
"What will you do now?"
He turned back toward the vault.
"I will finish what was begun in this place."
Integration: 70%.
He descended into the dark, each step steady.
That evening, the wind shifted. By nightfall, scouts brought word that the Eclipsed Moon had doubled their presence in the valley. Kasane mapped their positions in silence, her jaw tight. Daigo hovered at her shoulder, translating the old scrolls by lamplight. The vault seemed smaller with every hour that passed.
When the first droplets of rain struck the broken stones, Jin stood alone before the dais, feeling the convergence of ley lines beneath his boots. Sparks licked across his skin. The threshold was near—he could feel it in every breath, in the marrow of every bone. He knew that once he crossed it, nothing would be the same. He did not hesitate.