Chapter 5: The Consequence of Zero
The silence in the Mote Concentration Chamber was broken by the sound of glass shattering—Ms. Riven had dropped her spectacles.
"Apprehend the Mote-Drain! He's still in the Annex!" she shrieked into the intercom. She then spun around, her eyes wild, and fixed them squarely on Lance and Opal.
"You two! The moment the breach happened, you had a score of zero! A deliberate, controlled failure!"
"It was an accident," Opal stammered, pulling her red bag tighter, the canvas suddenly feeling less like a shield and more like an incriminating piece of evidence.
"It was not," Lance stated, pushing down the residual adrenaline. He knew they were caught in Kian's trap. But before he could expose Kian, the door burst open.
It wasn't Ms. Riven's security detail. It was Dean Eris, flanked by two towering guards whose copper armor hummed with a powerful, stable Mote current. Eris's eyes didn't miss the smoking Resonator, the red warning lights flickering back on, or the two remedial students sitting exactly at the point of failure.
Dean Eris walked with the authority of a general, stopping directly in front of them. She didn't raise her voice; her quiet intensity was far more terrifying.
"The Auxiliary Power Grid was compromised," she announced, her eyes boring into Lance. "A significant breach, clearly utilizing a Mote-Drain technique. Yet, moments after the siphon initiated, the flow was instantly damped. Precisely, cleanly. And then, there is the matter of your score."
She looked at the Resonator, which still displayed the perfect, unnerving 0.
"A perfect zero requires extreme lack of focus, or extreme control. Which is it, Silverwoods? Are you a distraction, or the conspirator?"
Lance felt the weight of his lineage descend on him. He knew the obvious answer: blame Kian. But that would require explaining their failed plan for Tutor Maeve, which would only sound like a clumsy excuse for their ineptitude.
He decided to tell the truth about his immediate action, but nothing else.
"I didn't try to siphon, Dean Eris," Lance said, meeting her severe gaze. "I was trying to fail the test. But when the Resonator started to smoke, I only focused on stopping the vibration. It was too fast. I just... adjusted the dampening."
Dean Eris frowned. She was deeply suspicious of the answer, yet her initial anger seemed to temper itself with a reluctant curiosity. She looked at Lance's "weak tea" wristband, then back at his face.
The Silverwoods stillness. The thought, though unvoiced, seemed to pass across her mind, linking Lance's innate control to the unknown reputation of his ancestors.
"Adjustment of dampening," Dean Eris repeated slowly. "A subtle, precise maneuver. Unexpected, given your reported volatility, Verma." She turned her severe gaze to Opal, noting the cheap firecracker Motes still sputtering around her friend's wrist.
Opal flinched, but Lance instinctively reached out a hand, not to touch her, but to position his own Matrix near hers. He imagined a small, invisible wall surrounding Opal's chaotic energy. He wasn't using magic; he was containing it.
The subtle act of localized control instantly calmed Opal's sputtering motes. Her wristband stopped flashing, settling back to a dull pulse.
This was his first realization: his greatest skill was not generating power, but denying it. He was a magical brake, a perfect counterweight to Opal's chaotic surge. It was a defensive skill, the one thing he could do with 1% control.
Dean Eris watched the momentary stabilization with narrowed eyes.
"Very well," she said, cutting off any further defense. "The Mote-Drain has escaped into the service tunnels. He is a distraction, and we will find him. As for you two," she glanced at the perfect zero on the screen, then at the time. "You achieved the required zero. You are officially assigned to the remedial instructor Tutor Maeve. Consider this your final warning, Silverwoods. If your inherited gift is precision, use it to serve the Aetherium, not to conspire with thieves."
She gestured sharply to the guards. "Take them to their dormitories. Their Mote Siphoning course begins at dawn."
Lance and Opal were marched out of the chamber, leaving behind the smoking Resonator and the terrifying certainty that Kian, their supposed friend, had sacrificed them to cover his own escape. The Aetherium was far more dangerous than just failing a test.