Chapter Two: Fire Beneath the Split (Part Five)
Date: May 22, Year 204 PCR (Maelis 22)
Location: Trial Arena – Harmonic Lyceum
Time: Midday
The chime hung in the air like a cracked bell in a drowned temple.
Even the audience silenced.
Selka's glyph—split into three interwoven threads—didn't shine with power. It hummed with control. The bands didn't pulse with pressure or light. They stabilized. They compressed everything around her, like her presence was correcting the arena's rhythm.
Vessa stared across the arena—still breathing hard, knees bent, glyphs crawling like burning tide marks down her spine.
But for the first time, her eyes didn't carry anger.
They carried fear.
Selka stepped forward.
And the floor shifted beneath her. Not by pressure—but by command. Each step landed in perfect counter-rhythm to Vessa's crestfall surge. The ripples of the previous shockwave redirected, folding around her movements like water bowing to the hand that parted it.
"You don't disrupt force," Vessa whispered. "You dismantle it."
Selka didn't answer.
She lifted her hand again.
Only her index finger moved.
A thread of silver Veilmark energy extended across the gap between them—not as an attack, but as a resonant arc, tuned directly to Vessa's glyphwork.
"VEILMARK ART — THREADGLIDE REQUIEM: Tether Unspoken."
The thread didn't strike. It didn't even make contact.
It hovered—barely touching Vessa's chest.
And Vessa locked up.
Her legs didn't move. Her arm trembled mid-guard. The glyph across her back flickered like a half-finished memory—then froze.
"What did you—"
"You fight with everything you have," Selka said.
"I fight with everything I've let go."
The tether thread hummed once.
Then collapsed.
Vessa's blade dropped from her grip.
She didn't fall.
But her knees bent.
She looked up, eyes wide—not in defiance. In realization.
"You don't silence the fight…"
Selka nodded once.
"I silence the fear inside it."
The instructors exchanged glances. The outer glyphline of the arena pulsed white.
But the match wasn't called yet.
Vessa wasn't done.
Not yet.
She raised one hand—clumsily. Slapped her palm against her shoulder glyph. Reignited it with raw will.
"One last…"
"VEILMARK ART — SEACREST FURY: Final Shell Break."
A burst of condensed glyphs exploded beneath her feet—pushing her forward in a spiraling rush, blade raised again, not for grace, but for survival.
She reached Selka in two heartbeats.
The blade came down—
Selka closed her eyes.
"VEILMARK ART — Silencestep: Final Bloom."
She vanished.
Not visually.
Spiritually.
The glyph around her collapsed inward and folded her position back one second into stillness. She reappeared behind Vessa.
No strike.
Just presence.
She extended one hand.
Laid it softly at the center of Vessa's back.
And whispered:
"You were brave."
Vessa's glyph disarmed. Her body stilled. And her knees hit the stone.
She didn't move again.
Not because she was unconscious.
Because she had nothing left to give.