The summons came at dawn.
Not Thess's usual appearance-from-nowhere. An actual bell, deep and resonant, vibrating through the Academy walls like the building itself was calling them.
Yuna had been awake for hours. Couldn't sleep. Kept thinking about Silence's words scratched in that notebook: FALLING TOGETHER > SURVIVING ALONE.
She dressed quickly. The silver-blue training clothes Lyric had painted fit better now. Like they'd grown with her. Or she'd grown into them.
The corridor was already full. Marcus emerged from his room, massive frame filling the doorway. Aria wheeled past, tablet already active, analyzing something. David hurried behind, book clutched to his chest like armor.
Nobody spoke.
They all knew what today was.
The main hall had been transformed.
The geometric patterns on the floor, usually faint gold, now blazed silver-white. The walls seemed taller somehow. The ceiling had vanished into darkness that felt intentional, like the room was reaching toward something infinite.
Thess stood at the center. Her robes shifted through colors Yuna had never seen before. Deeper. Older. The gold light in her hands burned brighter than usual.
The seven summons gathered before her. A half-circle of insufficient people waiting to hear their fate.
"Five days," Thess said. Her voice carried without effort. "Five days since you formed a team. Five days of training, bleeding, failing, getting up again."
She looked at each of them in turn.
"Today you choose. The Ancient System requires unanimous consent. One refusal and we find another way. A slower way. A way that probably kills most of you before Day 60."
Silence shifted. Her form flickered briefly, phasing between solid and translucent.
"Or," Thess continued, "you agree. All seven. And we activate something that hasn't been used in forty years. Something that will accelerate your growth beyond anything natural. Something that will give you a chance."
"What's the cost?" Aria asked. Always the analyst. Always looking for the hidden variable.
Thess's expression didn't change. "The System demands commitment. Once activated, there's no backing out. You train until you reach Sixth Mark or until the hundred and twenty days end. Whichever comes first."
"And if we don't reach Sixth Mark?" Marcus's voice was quiet. Controlled. His hands weren't trembling.
"Then the Unraveling continues. The Weave keeps dying. And everything you've fought for means nothing."
The words hung in the air like a sentence.
"We vote," Thess said. "One at a time. Speak your choice and your reason. The System needs to hear why you're willing."
She pointed at Marcus.
"You first."
Marcus stepped forward. Those massive hands, the ones that had killed his brother, hung at his sides. Steady.
"Yes," he said. "I need control before I hurt someone else. The System can teach me what I couldn't learn alone."
He stepped back.
Thess pointed at Aria.
"Yes." Aria's voice was clinical, but something burned underneath. "Statistically, it's our only viable option. The probability of survival without acceleration is less than twelve percent. With it, we have a chance."
Chen Wei next. Military posture. Burn scars visible on her forearm.
"Yes. Honor demands I try. I failed my family once. I won't fail again."
Lyric stepped forward with theatrical grace, but their eyes were serious.
"Yes, darling. Beauty requires risk. And if I'm going to die anyway, I'd rather die becoming something magnificent than fade away being safe."
David's voice shook. He was seventeen. Too young for this.
"Y-yes. I don't want to die a coward. I want to... I want to matter. Even if it's just for a hundred and twenty days."
Silence moved forward. Her lips formed words that didn't come. But she nodded, fierce and certain, and her form solidified completely for the first time since Yuna had met her. Present. Committed.
Six votes. Six reasons.
Thess's ancient-young eyes found Yuna.
"And you?"
Yuna's throat tightened.
She thought about the rejection letter still folded in her pocket. Fifteen academies. Fifteen variations of the same message: insufficient.
She thought about her mother's hospital bed. The morphine drip. The hand growing cold in hers.
You are enough.
She thought about the void-hound. The wings that had held for twenty-three seconds. The team that had fought beside her.
"Yes," she said. The word came out stronger than she expected. "My mother said I was enough. She believed it even when I couldn't. I owe it to her to find out if she was right."
She paused.
"And I owe it to them." She looked at the other six. Marcus with his guilt. Aria with her chair. Silence with her lost voice. Lyric with their armor. Chen Wei with her scars. David with his fear.
"We're all insufficient alone. But maybe together we're something else."
Thess nodded once. Something flickered in her expression. Pride? Hope? Gone too fast to name.
"Unanimous," she said. "Seven consents. The Ancient System will recognize your compact."
She turned toward the back of the hall.
"Follow me."
The passage led down.
Stone stairs spiraling into darkness. The walls grew older as they descended, carved symbols replacing the Academy's clean architecture. Glyphs that pulsed with dormant energy. Writing in languages that hadn't been spoken for centuries.
The air thickened. Magic pressing against Yuna's skin like humidity before a storm. Each breath tasted like copper and ozone.
"This chamber is five hundred years old," Thess said as they descended. Her voice echoed strangely, coming from everywhere at once. "Built before the Fourth Unraveling. When the last great mages still believed they could stop the Weave's decay."
"Did they?" David asked.
"They delayed it. Bought time. That's all anyone has ever done." Thess's robes brushed against ancient stone. "The System was their greatest achievement. A way to accelerate growth beyond natural limits. To create champions in months instead of decades."
"Why isn't it used more often?" Aria's mind was already working. "If it's so effective, why wait forty years?"
Thess didn't answer.
They reached the bottom.
The chamber stole Yuna's breath.
Thirty feet across. Circular. The ceiling lost in shadow so deep it felt like staring into space.
And the floor.
A seven-pointed star carved into stone so old it had worn smooth in places. Each point marked with a symbol that glowed faint silver in the darkness. The lines connecting them pulsed with dormant energy, waiting.
Yuna recognized some of the symbols. The heart at one point. CHORD. The fracture pattern at another. RIFT. A wave. ECHO. A mountain. BEDROCK. A sun. RADIANCE.
Two points held symbols she didn't recognize. Empty. Waiting for Attunements that didn't exist in their group.
"Take your positions," Thess said. She walked to the center of the star, where all seven lines converged. "Stand on your Attunement's point."
They moved without speaking.
Marcus found BEDROCK. The mountain symbol flared brighter as he stepped onto it. Chen Wei joined him, the point large enough for two.
Aria wheeled to RIFT. David stood beside her, the fracture pattern casting strange shadows across their faces.
Silence drifted to ECHO. The wave symbol pulsed in rhythm with something Yuna couldn't hear.
Lyric positioned themselves on RADIANCE. The sun symbol blazed to life, painting them in gold.
Yuna walked to CHORD.
The heart symbol.
She stepped onto it.
The stone was warm.
Not hot. Just warm, like touching skin. Like the symbol itself was alive.
Yuna felt her wings pulse beneath her shoulder blades. Not manifesting. Just responding. Recognizing something in the ancient pattern.
"The compact is formed," Thess said. Her voice had changed. Deeper. Resonant. Not quite her own. "Seven bound by choice. Seven willing."
She raised her hands. Gold light blazed from her palms, brighter than Yuna had ever seen.
"By the Weave's binding."
The lines connecting the seven points flared silver.
"By blood's willing."
Warmth spread through Yuna's body. Starting at her feet, climbing up her legs, her spine, her chest.
"By time's allowance."
The chamber began to hum. Low at first. Building. The symbols on the walls pulsed in sequence, faster and faster.
Thess's voice rose:
"ACTIVATE."
Light erupted from the floor.
Silver-white brilliance consumed everything.
Yuna couldn't see. Couldn't hear. Could only feel.
Power flooding through her. Ancient and vast and terrifying. Like standing in a river and realizing the current was stronger than any force she'd ever known.
Her wings manifested without her willing them. Silver light blazing from her back, brighter than they'd ever been. She could feel them. Really feel them. Not just heat or pressure, but connection. Like they'd always been part of her, waiting.
The others were experiencing something similar. She sensed it through the CHORD. Marcus's overwhelming strength finally contained, channeled, controlled. Aria's mind expanding, seeing patterns within patterns. Silence solidifying, becoming more present than she'd been since the portal. Lyric's colors exploding outward, reality bending around their joy. Chen Wei's body hardening, becoming unbreakable. David's fear transforming into something sharper, something useful.
Seven insufficient people.
One ancient system.
And somewhere in the binding, something clicked into place.
The light faded.
Yuna blinked. The chamber had returned to its dim silver glow. But something was different.
She could feel the others. Not their emotions, not exactly. But their presence. Like threads connecting her to each of them, invisible but unbreakable.
"What was that?" David's voice was shaky.
"The compact," Thess said. She looked tired. Older somehow, though Yuna couldn't pinpoint why. "You're bound now. To the System. To each other. To the deadline."
A new voice spoke.
Not Thess. Not any of them.
It came from everywhere. From the walls, the floor, the air itself. Genderless. Ancient. Patient as stone.
"SEVEN BOUND. ANCIENT COMPACT RECOGNIZED."
Yuna's spine went rigid. The voice wasn't loud, but it filled every part of her.
"ACCELERATION PROTOCOL: ACTIVE."
The warmth in her chest intensified. Her wings pulsed.
"TERMINATION CONDITION: SIXTH MARK ACHIEVEMENT..."
A pause. Long enough for dread to build.
"...OR ONE HUNDRED TWENTY DAYS."
The voice continued, inexorable:
"BEGINNING COUNTDOWN. DAY ONE OF ONE HUNDRED TWENTY."
Silence. The real kind.
Then Lyric laughed. High and slightly hysterical. "Well. At least we know the deadline now."
Yuna looked at Thess. The professor's face was unreadable, but something was wrong. Her hands, usually glowing steady gold, trembled slightly. A flicker of shadow passed across her features.
"Professor? Are you okay?"
"Fine." Thess's voice was clipped. Controlled. "The System is demanding. It takes energy to maintain."
She straightened, and whatever Yuna had seen was gone.
"You have the rest of today to recover. Tomorrow, the real work begins. The acceleration will push you harder than anything you've experienced. Some of you will break. Some of you will grow."
She looked at them. Seven people standing on ancient symbols, bound by power they didn't understand.
"Try to be the ones who grow."
They climbed back up in silence.
The chamber's presence faded as they ascended, but the connection remained. Yuna could still feel the threads linking her to the others. Marcus's steady strength. Aria's sharp focus. Silence's flickering awareness. Lyric's burning creativity. Chen Wei's iron discipline. David's trembling courage.
And beneath it all, something else.
A countdown.
One hundred twenty days.
She could feel it now. Like a second heartbeat. Steady. Relentless. Marking time toward something she couldn't see.
At the top of the stairs, Marcus stopped.
"We're really doing this," he said quietly. "No backing out."
"We were never backing out," Chen Wei replied. "This just made it official."
Aria's tablet was already active, fingers flying across the screen. "I'm calculating optimal training schedules. The acceleration factor should allow us to compress six months of development into the first thirty days if we maintain intensity."
"Always with the numbers." Lyric draped an arm around her shoulders. "Some things can't be calculated, darling."
"Everything can be calculated. You just have to find the right variables."
Silence moved to Yuna's side. Her lips moved: How do you feel?
Yuna thought about it. Really thought.
"Different," she said. "Like something woke up that was always sleeping."
Silence nodded. She scratched a message in her small notebook:
ME TOO. THE FUTURES ARE CLEARER NOW. FEWER OF THEM END IN DEATH.
"That's... good?"
BETTER THAN BEFORE.
They emerged into the Academy courtyard. The violet sky had brightened to silver-gold. Morning light painting everything in colors that felt more vivid than yesterday.
One hundred twenty days.
Yuna pulled the rejection letter from her pocket. Looked at it one more time.
Insufficient.
She didn't put it back.
She held it up. Let the morning light illuminate the words that had defined her for so long.
Then she folded it. Smaller and smaller. Until it was just a tiny square of paper in her palm.
She didn't throw it away. Not yet.
But she put it somewhere different. Not her pocket. Her heart.
A reminder. Not of what she wasn't.
Of what she was becoming.
That night, Yuna dreamed of countdown.
Numbers falling like rain. 120. 119. 118. Each one hitting the ground and shattering into light.
Her mother's voice, distant but clear: You are enough.
The Ancient System's voice, closer: ONE HUNDRED TWENTY DAYS.
And somewhere between them, her own voice. Small but growing.
I'm going to find out.
She woke before dawn.
Day one had ended.
One hundred nineteen remained.
[END CHAPTER 10]