Pokner didn't go back to her dorm that night.

She waited until she was sure Arios had left the library and the corridors had emptied, then returned to her own desk, powered up the console, and began accessing the restricted archives.

The academy's network wasn't built for privacy. Every message passed through monitored channels, every data line was traceable. But Pokner knew the system better than most students — she had worked in the Academy Systems Division during her first term as part of a disciplinary internship.

That knowledge came with one advantage: she knew where the logs were kept and how to read what the system didn't want anyone to see.

She keyed in her student ID, masking it through a dummy process used by system auditors. The screen blinked once, then opened into a blank administrative interface.

"Alright," she muttered under her breath. "Let's see who touched it."

She began scrolling through the backend entries from the Dungeon Evaluation System, timestamped over the last 48 hours. Most were clean — student logs, mana flow charts, performance scores. Then, halfway down, one line stood out.

> [DATA ENTRY: SYSTEM MANUAL OVERRIDE – CLASS D – 13:28]

> Source: Encrypted Internal Access Node (Level 3 Clearance).

> Initiator: Redacted.

Pokner leaned forward. "Redacted?"

The Academy never redacted internal access. Not on logs visible to disciplinary staff. That meant someone with administrative-level access had intervened.

She ran a trace. The system refused. She ran a second trace manually, bypassing the verification with a maintenance protocol. This time, the result returned partial data.

> Node origin: Tower Server 3A — Council Internal Network.

Pokner sat back slowly.

"Council Tower," she said quietly.

She stared at the line for several seconds, then copied the metadata to a private file. The interference pattern Arios had mentioned wasn't a coincidence — it had been injected from *inside* the Council system.

And only three people had direct access to that level: Damien Ravencroft, Chase, and the Vice President, whose name Pokner had never actually seen in a meeting.

She wrote the names down, underlined the node ID, and saved the file into an offline crystal drive.

The door sensor blinked behind her. She turned off the projection immediately.

Lucy peeked in, wearing a loose academy jacket and holding a thermos.

"You're still up?"

Pokner relaxed slightly. "I had to check something."

Lucy stepped inside, setting the thermos down beside her. "You're checking something again, aren't you?"

Pokner gave a half-smile. "Maybe."

Lucy sat beside her, looking at the dimmed console. "Is it about Arios?"

"Yes."

Lucy didn't ask more. She looked down at the thermos instead. "He didn't eat anything tonight. You should bring him some."

Pokner looked back at the dark screen, then at the warm thermos. "You could take it to him."

Lucy frowned. "He listens to you more."

Pokner sighed quietly. "That's not true."

"It is," Lucy said, serious now. "He listens to me when it's simple stuff. But when it's important, he waits for you to speak first."

Pokner didn't respond.

Lucy picked up the thermos again, holding it out. "You should go."

After a few seconds, Pokner stood and took it from her. "Fine."

Lucy smiled faintly. "Don't let him overthink again."

---

Arios was still awake when Pokner entered the dorm.

He was sitting by the small table, sketching out diagrams in his notebook, his expression flat and analytical.

He looked up briefly as she entered. "You're still up."

"So are you."

She placed the thermos on the table. He glanced at it, then at her.

"Lucy's idea," she said.

He nodded once and opened it. The smell of soup filled the quiet room.

Pokner watched him eat for a moment, then sat opposite him. "I found something."

He looked up from the bowl. "About the logs?"

She nodded. "The tampering wasn't random. The source came from inside the Council Tower — a restricted internal node."

Arios stopped eating. "Confirmed?"

"Yes."

He set the spoon down. "Who had access?"

"Three people." She listed the names. "Damien, Chase, and the Vice President."

He frowned slightly. "Vice President?"

"You've never seen him, right?"

"No."

Pokner leaned forward slightly. "Neither have I. He doesn't attend Council meetings, doesn't appear in any public records. But his ID shows up on the system's administrative signature."

Arios thought for a long moment, then asked, "Can you track it?"

"Not directly. I saved the node metadata. But if I access it again, the system might flag me."

He nodded. "Don't. Not yet."

Pokner folded her arms. "So what now?"

He exhaled. "We wait. Then we make them show their hand."

Pokner studied him quietly. "You're not planning to take this to Damien?"

"No," Arios said. "If the interference came from inside the Tower, he already knows — or he's being used."

"And Chase?"

Arios didn't answer immediately. "He's the visible threat. The other one is hidden."

The clock on the wall ticked quietly.

Pokner finally said, "I'll keep digging. Quietly."

Arios nodded once. "Good. Don't risk exposure."

She stood, hesitated, then added, "You should rest. You're going to need it."

He didn't reply, but she could tell from his eyes that he wouldn't sleep anyway.

Before leaving, she stopped by the door. "Arios."

He looked up.

"You trust me, right?"

He blinked once, then answered without pause. "Yes."

Pokner nodded slightly and left.

---

The next day was subdued.

Students returned to class as if nothing was wrong, but the tension was still there — a subtle shift in how people looked, how they whispered.

Liza was the first to notice. "They're talking again," she muttered as they walked through the courtyard.

Lucy frowned. "About Arios?"

"Who else?"

Pokner said nothing. She was scanning through her portable device, pretending to read messages while discreetly checking for new system activity.

Arios didn't seem to care. "Ignore them. They'll stop once they get bored."

Liza looked skeptical. "That's not how rumors work."

Lucy nodded. "They'll just make new ones."

Pokner looked up briefly. "Let them."

Liza stared at her. "You're fine with that?"

"I'm fine with wasting less energy," Pokner replied.

Arios smiled faintly at that, though only for a second.

---

Later, during lunch, Pokner left the group quietly.

She went straight to the Systems Division office — officially under the pretext of returning old records. The supervisor wasn't there, which made things simpler.

She logged in through a maintenance console this time, bypassing the main terminal entirely.

The trace data from the previous night was already scrubbed. Someone had purged the last 72 hours of system logs.

Pokner stared at the blank record.

"That was fast."

She checked the security timeline — the deletion had occurred early that morning, right after sunrise. Only a high-level account could authorize that.

Her screen pinged. A message blinked at the corner.

Sender: Anonymous.

Subject: *You're looking in the wrong place.*

She opened it immediately. There was no text, only coordinates — a server room in the basement level of the Tower.

Pokner stared at it for several seconds, then whispered, "Trap or lead."

She copied the coordinates into a separate drive and disconnected from the console.

---

That night, she went.

No one else followed — she didn't tell Arios, or Lucy, or Liza.

The Tower's lower levels were restricted to maintenance staff, and the corridors were quiet, almost soundless except for the low hum of mana conduits running through the walls.

She found the door easily: labeled Server Storage 3A.

The same node ID from the log.

The lock read Clearance Required. She slid an old systems bypass chip into the slot. The light blinked green after two seconds.

Inside, the room was cold. Rows of crystalline data cores lined the walls, glowing faintly blue.

Pokner moved between them, scanning the serial numbers until she found the right one — 3A-77.

It was active.

She pulled out her small analyzer and connected it to the crystal. The screen filled with lines of coded entries.

For a moment, she thought it was gibberish. Then she saw the pattern: repeating sequences labeled *Manual Override – Simulation Layer Access*.

"Simulation layer…" she muttered.

That wasn't part of the exam system. That was *Council calibration code*.

Her pulse quickened slightly. Someone had used the simulation code to mask the tampering log.

She copied the entries into her portable drive.

Halfway through the download, the lights flickered.

She froze.

Footsteps.

They were faint but distinct — steady, measured.

Pokner quickly ejected the drive, pocketed it, and stepped behind one of the data cores.

The door opened.

Chase walked in.

He wasn't smiling this time. His expression was neutral, almost bored.

He looked around slowly, then said, "You shouldn't be here."

Pokner didn't move.

"I know you're here," he said, tone calm. "You're not the type to panic, so let's make this simple. Come out."

She stepped out slowly, expression blank. "I was just returning a system chip."

Chase's eyes flicked toward the nearby console, then back to her. "You're not very good at lying."

"I wasn't lying."

He smiled faintly. "You were digging. For him."

Pokner said nothing.

Chase's tone remained soft, even polite. "You think this is about one student's exam log?"

She watched him carefully. "Isn't it?"

Chase took a slow step forward. "Everything that happens here — every rumor, every record, every punishment — it's all by design. You'd understand if you saw the whole board."

Pokner's gaze didn't waver. "And you think you're the one moving the pieces."

He tilted his head slightly. "Not me. I'm just the one who knows how to play."

She didn't flinch. "Then you'll understand when I don't fold."

Chase's smile returned, brief and cold. "Then you'll understand why people like you don't last long here."

He turned and left without another word.

When the door closed, Pokner exhaled slowly and looked at the data core.

The drive in her pocket felt heavier now.

---

By the time she returned to the dorm, Arios was still awake again.

He looked up from his notebook as she entered. "You went somewhere."

She set the drive on the table. "Found proof."

He raised an eyebrow. "Proof?"

"Chase was there," she said.

That was enough.

Arios nodded once, expression steady. "Then it's confirmed."

Pokner sat across from him, tired but composed. "They're not just altering exam logs. They're manipulating simulation layers in the system itself."

He folded his hands. "You got a copy?"

She tapped the drive. "Everything."

He leaned back slightly, thinking.

Finally, he said, "Then the next move isn't theirs anymore."

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