[Veltharr — Outskirts — 7:00 AM]
The team was ready to leave when Marcus Steele appeared.
Not from the city. From the southern road — the opposite direction the team was going to take. Which ant he had co specifically to intercept them before they left.
Aurum on his shoulder. Not in reduced form — the dragon’s actual size, small compared to the dragons of historical records but with the presence of sothing that had grown in power even if not in size.
The team detected Marcus before Marcus reached speaking range.
Kira, with her ears still not visible — Veltharr’s enchantnt was still active — confird: "Alone. No Temple escort."
"Aurum?" asked Raven.
"Aurum counts."
"Aurum is a dragon."
"My exact point."
---
Marcus stopped ten ters away.
He evaluated the team with the sa calculating attention as always — but different. The novice tournant had shown Marcus’s arrogance as soone who knew he was going to win. Imperial City had shown the recalibration of soone processing new information.
This was sothing else.
Aurum looked at Grim.
Grim at 80cm on Alex’s shoulder looked at Aurum.
**"The dragon grew."**
"Aurum has always been this size," said Marcus.
**"No. He grew."**
Marcus looked at Aurum. Aurum neither confird nor denied.
---
"Carter." Marcus without preamble. "I need to talk to you."
"We’re leaving."
"I know. That’s why I got here before you left." He looked at the team. "In private if possible."
"Not possible."
Marcus processed that. Then — he nodded.
"Alright."
---
They sat on the inn’s outer bench. The team at enough distance to give space but not enough not to hear — which everyone knew and no one pretended wasn’t the case.
Marcus spoke first.
"The Temple assigned a mission before I left for the east." He said it directly.
Without the elaboration he would have used a year ago.
"Assess the bearer of Fragnt 1. Determine whether he represents a manageable threat or a threat that requires imdiate response."
"And?"
"And report to Father Agustín with a recomndation." Marcus looked at the southern road he had co from.
"Agustín wants a maximum threat classification. Capture or elimination."
Alex looked at him.
"Is that what you’re going to report?"
"I haven’t decided yet." Marcus looked directly at him. "That’s why I’m here."
---
The silence lasted several seconds.
Maya from her position — notebook closed but ntally open — processing the chain of implications.
Raven with that specific expression of evaluating whether the situation required imdiate response or patience.
The boy watching the exchange with the attention of soone learning how the world worked outside the Heralds.
"The Temple sent you to assess ," said Alex. "And what did you find?"
"That the reports I had were incomplete." Marcus. "What Cael’s team docunted in the Crystal Mountains didn’t capture the context. The scale of destruction without context is one thing. With context, it’s another."
"What context do you have that Cael didn’t?"
"None additional." A pause. "But I have the novice tournant."
Alex looked at him.
"The novice tournant that had nothing novice about it has nothing to do with—"
"It has everything to do with it." Marcus didn’t interrupt — he simply spoke over him with the certainty of soone who had thought about this more than he would admit.
"In the novice tournant, at level 23 with an E‑rank companion, you found a third option that didn’t exist in my combat analysis." Pause.
"That’s not level. Not power. It’s sothing different."
"So?"
"So I was wrong to assess you as a standard threat." He said it without drama. Just data.
"The Temple’s reports are also wrong. Agustín sees a Fragnt bearer with growing corruption and concludes that the inevitable outco is loss of control. That’s an incomplete equation."
---
Raven spoke from her position.
"What’s the point of this conversation exactly? What do you want, Steele?"
Marcus looked at her.
"I want a rematch."
Silence.
"Excuse ?" said Emily.
"A rematch." Marcus looked at Alex.
"Clean fight. No active Fragnts from either of us. No Temple squad. Just to know where I stand."
"And if you lose?" said Raven.
"Then I report to Father Agustín that the maximum threat classification is justified, but that capture requires resources the Temple doesn’t currently have available." A pause.
"Which buys the team ti."
"And if you win?" said Kira.
"So little faith in your Fragnt?"
Kira looked at him.
"That doesn’t answer the question."
Marcus evaluated her for a second.
"If I win, I report the sa thing but with a recomndation for surveillance instead of active capture." He said it without elaboration.
"The outco for you is better in either scenario."
"Why would you do that?" said Alex.
Marcus looked directly at him.
"Because since the novice tournant, I’ve spent a year understanding that I underestimated soone who didn’t deserve to be underestimated."
A pause. The first ti sothing in Marcus’s expression was difficult to categorize as purely calculation.
"And because Aurum recoiled in Imperial City in front of Grim, and Aurum doesn’t recoil."
He looked at Aurum.
"Aurum has better judgnt than the Temple on so things."
---
Alex looked at the team.
Raven with that expression she had when sothing seed tactically valid even if she didn’t want to admit it.
Maya with her notebook still closed but her pencil in her hand.
Kira evaluating the terrain around the inn with [Predator’s Sense] — the tracker’s instinct mapping combat spaces before combat was confird.
Grim.
**"Do you want to fight?"** Grim asked Alex. Not as a tactical question. As a real one.
Alex thought about the novice tournant.
About Imperial City.
About the way Marcus had arrived alone, without escort, with Aurum at full size and a proposal that could have cost him his Temple mission if he played it wrong.
"Yes," said Alex.
He stood up.
"Outskirts of Veltharr. Where the road opens into the field. Thirty minutes."
Marcus also stood up.
"Agreed."
---
Kira beside Alex as they walked toward the eting point.
"Do you trust him?"
"Not completely."
"Then why?"
Alex looked toward where Marcus walked ahead with Aurum.
"Because soone who cos alone to propose a fight when he could have arrived with a Temple squad has already chosen sothing."
Pause.
"I don’t know exactly what. But he chose."
Kira considered that.
Her ears — invisible under the enchantnt but with the instinctive movent as always — oriented toward Marcus.
"Aurum followed him here," she said.
"Yes."
"Dragons don’t follow their bearers into situations they calculate as losing."
Alex looked at her.
"What does that an?"
"That Aurum calculated this had an acceptable outco." Her amber eyes direct.
"And dragons have better judgnt than humans for that kind of calculation."
**"Sa thing I said,"** noted Grim.
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