The Academy locked down within minutes.
Barriers flared across the western sector, sealing the ruins of the collapsed array. Instructors moved with grim efficiency, ushering students away while diagnostic spells swept the area.
Eiden was taken first.
Two senior instructors restrained him with suppression cuffs, his aura flickering weakly under the strain. He didn't resist. He didn't speak.
He didn't look at anyone—
Except Rafe.
Just once.
Not with hatred.Not with arrogance.
With understanding.
Rafe stood at the center of the destruction, hands at his sides, breathing evenly. The Anchor held him steady, but the weight in his bones grew heavier by the second.
Delayed cost.
Elyra approached him carefully.
"Can you walk?" she asked.
"Yes," Rafe replied.
That, too, told her everything.
"Good," she said. "Because the council wants you. Now."
The chamber felt different this time.
No murmurs.No confusion.
Only tension.
Elyra stood beside Rafe. Selene stood behind him, advisory status or not, her presence defiant.
At the far end of the room, a projection shimmered to life.
The Commission liaison appeared.
Full authority.
"This incident changes the equation," the liaison said calmly. "The Unassigned candidate demonstrated constraint-dominant capability under live conditions."
Elyra's jaw tightened.
"You mean he prevented catastrophe."
"Yes," the liaison replied. "By weaponizing limitation."
Rafe remained silent.
The liaison continued.
"Therefore, the Unassigned classification is no longer accurate."
A sigil flared in the air, red dissolving into silver.
STATUS UPDATE: UNASSIGNED → FIXED VARIABLE
The room went still.
Elyra inhaled sharply.
"That classification hasn't been used in centuries," she said.
"Because it rarely survives long enough," the liaison replied.
Selene stepped forward.
"And what does it mean?"
The liaison's gaze shifted to Rafe.
"It means his growth is bounded," it said, "but his impact is not."
Rafe felt the words settle into him like iron.
Fixed.
Variable.
Both true.
The liaison raised a hand.
"The Commission will station an official observer within the Academy," it said. "Non-negotiable."
Selene's voice cut cold.
"You already are."
The liaison smiled faintly.
"Now we won't pretend otherwise."
Eiden's fate was decided swiftly.
"Suspended indefinitely," Elyra announced. "Access to Combat halls revoked. Psychological review mandatory."
No protest came.
Eiden bowed his head.
He accepted it.
Later, alone in his room, Rafe finally felt the cost hit.
His knees buckled.
He dropped to the floor, breath leaving him in a sharp hiss as pain flared through every joint like rust grinding against bone.
The Anchor held.
But it demanded payment.
Rafe stayed there until the pain dulled into a deep ache.
When he finally pushed himself up, a faint knock sounded at the door.
Selene entered quietly.
"They reclassified you," she said.
"I know."
"They've marked you," she continued. "Fixed Variable. That makes you… predictable to them."
Rafe leaned back against the wall.
"Predictable isn't powerless," he replied.
Selene studied him for a long moment.
"…No," she admitted. "Sometimes it's worse."
Rafe looked out the window, at the Academy lights shimmering against the night.
The future no longer felt infinite.
But it felt solid.
He clenched his fist slowly.
"If this is what remains," he said quietly,"then I'll make it enough."
Far beyond the Academy, the Director closed her report.
FIXED VARIABLE: CONFIRMEDCONTROL: PARTIALOUTCOME: UNDETERMINED
She smiled.
"Good," she murmured."Now the board has a piece that doesn't move… but decides the game."