Lyle didn't speak for a long time after they left the hidden chamber.
Neither did Juno.
The climb back up the canyon wall was narrow and quiet. Wind scraped at their clothes. The sky above had dimmed slightly, more gray than gold now, as if time passed differently beneath the rock.
Lyle's fingers still tingled from where the Arcai Echo Core had pressed into his palm.
His body felt the same.
But something inside didn't.
Like his own mana had shifted. As if the Codex now sat just slightly deeper in his chest, breathing slower, with purpose.
He didn't know what the Echo Core had done—not fully—but the Codex had accepted it. Which meant it was his now.
And that scared him more than anything.
> Power never comes clean.
Juno glanced back at him once as they scaled a narrow ridge. She hadn't said a word since he'd touched the stone.
She didn't have to. Her silence was louder than anything she could've said.
He couldn't blame her.
If their roles were reversed, he would've been halfway back to the surface by now, reporting him.
But she hadn't.
Not yet.
That was… strange.
And dangerous.
---
They crossed a series of old stone bridges over cracked ravines. Nothing attacked. Nothing followed. It was like whatever ancient things had once guarded that place had long since died—or had never meant to harm him in the first place.
The Codex pulsed again at the edge of his perception.
Soft.
But focused.
> [System Sync Stabilizing…]
[Stat Efficiency Improved: Arcane Recovery +5%]
[Sigil Casting Efficiency Bonus Unlocked: Ghost Thread Imprint Available]
> What… is that?
He almost tripped on a loose stone.
Not because of the message.
But because he felt it.
His casting hand—his dominant one—itched in a way that was too internal. Like something was lining itself beneath the bones, threading itself between nerves. Not painful. Just… invasive.
The kind of power that didn't ask for permission.
It rewrote him quietly.
Bit by bit.
And yet—he felt no immediate surge. No burst of ability. No explosion of strength. Just a whisper of change. Like the difference between a cracked door and one that had been left ever-so-slightly open.
A whisper of what could become real… if he let it.
He couldn't afford that. Not here. Not now.
Juno finally spoke as they neared the next checkpoint tower, a stone obelisk half-buried in the canyon wall.
"We'll reach the Phase 1 marker soon. Five minutes, maybe."
He nodded. "Good."
"You're not going to ask why I didn't report that room?"
"I assumed you had a reason."
She looked at him for a long moment as they walked.
"Someone built that place to be hidden. And you just… activated it."
Lyle didn't reply.
She narrowed her eyes slightly. "You didn't look surprised."
"I was."
He paused. Then added, "Just not at the chamber. More at myself."
That earned him another unreadable stare. But she didn't push.
---
They stopped just before the marker tower—an old signal pillar covered in fresh moss and crawling glyphs. The instructors would see their completion soon, mark them as having survived Phase One.
Lyle leaned against a crumbled wall and let himself breathe for the first time in over an hour.
The wind had finally calmed.
For now.
But his heartbeat hadn't.
> I touched something ancient. And it touched back.
> And now… it's watching me.
The Codex pulsed again—but this time, the message wasn't just his.
It was external.
And urgent.
> [Warning: Signature Beacon Detected – Surveillance Sweep Initiated]
He went still.
Someone was tracking energy spikes.
And not just generically.
They were scanning for him.