As the chamber doors closed softly behind Joshua Clementine, Darius sat in silence, fingers tapped steepled before him, his expression composed as ever.

The green result hovered in his mind.

Green… nearing blue.

The voice echoed like a whisper of disappointment.

He had expected more.

A little due to hope, but more based on what he saw: the crystal had cracked and shattered under Joshua's hand. It had been real. It wasn't theory or hearsay—Darius witnessed it. And yet, the new crystal responded with green. Potentially blue, yes, but still a far cry from the kind of overwhelming force needed to fracture a calibrated awakening crystal.

So what went wrong?

He turned his gaze toward the pedestal where the crystal now pulsed faintly, resetting for the next candidate. Perfect. Untouched. Unstrained.

The tension behind his composed face deepened.

If Joshua wasn't the cause…

His mind retraced the events of that day. The sequence of events. The timing. He remembered a flicker—no, a glitch—right before the crystal shattered. At that time, he hadn't thought much of it. The result had been labeled "clear", the lowest possible potential. Practically zero. He had dismissed it without further thought.

But now… the memory clicked into place.

Darius straightened slowly in his chair.

While the attendant instructed the next participant, Darius turned toward the City Lord Richard, speaking quietly. "Do you recall the name of the candidate immediately before Joshua Clementine during the previous ceremony?"

Richard blinked, caught off guard. "Before Joshua?" He paused, brow furrowing. "I… don't recall. It was chaotic that day. The crystal shattered shortly after, and most of the attention turned to that."

Darius' tone remained cool, but there was an edge to it now. "Fetch me the record."

The city lord picked up his device, made a call, and another clerk emerged from the closed doors of the chamber. On her hand was a tablet with the records of the awakening sequence.

Within moments, they scanned the list of names, searching for the right moment in the sequence.

They found it. Joshua Clementine.

And just above it…

Aston Rhyner.

Darius leaned in slightly, his eyes narrowing.

That name sparked something—an image in the corner of his mind. A boy before the crystal, expression unreadable. A light flickered within the apparatus before it spasmed in a burst of distortion. A ripple of interference. And then…

[Aśṭǫń Řḧŷnėṛ - Pøŧëñṭïãł: ȺØβʆҾȒŞ]

[Aston Rhyner - Potential: Clear]

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He hadn't even spared the boy a second glance.

Now, realization began to form—slow, creeping, and cold.

What if… the crystal didn't crack because of Joshua? It was already unstable. From the awakening before…

From Aston Rhyner.

He leaned back, quiet for a moment.

The system had failed. The classification was wrong. The glitch wasn't mechanical. It was a symptom of overwhelming spiritual pressure. It was too much for the crystal's calibration to process. Instead of identifying the potential, it had defaulted to "clear".

Darius' eyes narrowed, sharp as blades.

He turned once more to the city lord. "Where is this… Aston Rhyner now?"

The city lord blinked, then turned to the same clerk who had earlier brought the file. "Fetch all the relevant documents for Aston Rhyner," he said, voice sharp but composed. "We need everything—his awakening record, follow-up documentation, any remarks filed post-incident."

The clerk bowed quickly and disappeared through a side hall.

Darius' hands clasped behind his back. His gaze lingered on the awakening crystal at the center of the chamber, where another child now nervously approached. The ceremony continued uninterrupted, just as he instructed—but his thoughts were elsewhere.

Only a few minutes passed before the clerk returned with a slim, rune-stamped folder. The city lord took it, opened it carefully, and skimmed the contents.

"Well?" Darius asked, his voice low.

"It says here…" Richard murmured, brow furrowed as he read the contents, "...that Aston Rhyner conducted a private reawakening at the City Hall… about two weeks ago. Under authorized supervision. The result: Red potential."

Darius said nothing.

Red.

The file was signed and stamped with the city seal, witnessed by one of the registry clerks. A short addendum had been attached explaining that the result was verified and submitted to Dawn Crest Academy through their fast-track system, just ahead of the selection deadline.

"Interesting," Darius muttered. His voice didn't change, but Richard caught the flicker in his eyes.

Without another word, the imperial envoy turned and stepped away from the chamber dais.

The city lord followed.

They exited the awakening hall through the side corridor, leaving the ceremony to proceed under the guidance of the senior clerk. The hallway was quieter—lined with scrolls, crystals, and data storage chips. Darius stopped beside a clerk's station, where a few idle assistants worked to process awakening paperwork.

"Summon the official who administered Aston Rhyner's reawakening," the city lord commanded. "Now."

Moments later, a female clerk in her late twenties arrived, sweat forming on her brow as she gave a nervous bow.

"You were the one who conducted the reawakening for a boy named Aston Rhyner?" Darius asked, voice neutral.

The woman, clearly confused about who this Aston was, tapped her tablet to search for the Aston's details. With a few taps, she identified Aston.

"Yes, my lord," the woman answered. "It was a standard procedure. Conducted under emergency authorization. The result came clearly as red potential."

"Did you notice anything unusual?"

The clerk hesitated, then added, "The boy… he was quiet. Polite. Focused. But the moment his hand touched the crystal… I thought the temperature in the room dropped. The light was vivid. It pulsed in strange patterns for a moment before settling into red. About average in color, clearly within bounds of a red potential."

"Nothing beyond that?"

"No, my lord. We recorded the result and submitted it as required. I did find something odd: most children don't request a reawakening so quickly—especially after a clear result. When I asked if he wanted to wait for the imperial crystal, he insisted it was urgent, and paid for the service."

Darius said nothing for several seconds. His mind was already turning over the possibilities.

If the first crystal couldn't register his potential and glitched out… and the second reading came out clearly as red… then he either suppressed it… or used something to mask his potential…

He turned to the city lord.

"Find out all the details regarding this child. His origins, his address, everything. I will need it before I depart from Shale tomorrow morning."

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