Chapter 463: The Ones Who Chose to Leave

Damon received them in the courtyard accompanied by Aurelia, Aria, and Jian Yue.

Ester had been invited.

Ester had refused.

"If either of them wants to examine you, say no," were her words before leaving for the infirmary.

Damon considered the recommendation reasonable.

Orven inclined his head slightly.

"Damon."

"Orven."

The historian looked toward Aurelia.

"Aurelia of Valcair."

She raised an eyebrow.

"You know who I am."

"I work with historical archives."

"That doesn’t answer how you know who I am."

"Your name appears in documents predating the formal foundation of the Scarlet Order."

Damon looked at her.

"You’re in the Order’s archives."

"I appear in many archives."

"That sounds concerning."

"It usually is."

Saela interrupted.

"Can we discuss biographies later?"

She placed one of the boxes on a stone table.

"I want to confirm the access conditions."

Aria answered immediately.

"Only authorized historical documents. No medical records. No complete structural records of Eir. No information about Neria beyond what she expressly authorized."

Saela looked at Damon.

"And no examination of your body."

"Good. Someone read."

"Varos included that part in three separate messages."

Damon stared at her.

"Three?"

"In the third one, he wrote it in larger letters."

Jian Yue turned her face away to hide a smile.

"I’m starting to like him more than I should," Damon said.

Orven looked toward the box Aurelia was carrying.

"Are those the Vermillion copies?"

"Some of them."

"Are Vaelor’s records included?"

"Yes."

"Then we can begin."

Damon pointed toward a side room that had been prepared for the visitors.

"You work there. Aria or Aurelia remains present while you consult the records. Nothing leaves Mirath without an authorized copy."

Saela nodded.

"Agreed."

Orven did as well.

That had been far too easy.

Damon immediately became suspicious.

"You really agree with everything?"

Saela looked at him.

"I spent four days examining authentication marks capable of killing agents without their knowledge. At the moment, I’m very receptive to the idea of clear boundaries."

"Fair."

She picked up the boxes.

"Can we work now?"

Damon stepped aside.

"Please."

The first few hours were disappointingly normal.

Orven read.

Saela compared structures.

Aria took notes.

Aurelia corrected ancient translations.

No one tried to steal anything.

No one activated a hidden protocol.

No one attacked Damon.

He was beginning to believe he really was living through a strange period of his life.

At the beginning of the afternoon, however, Aria appeared in the courtyard.

Damon was practicing simple sword movements, still avoiding sudden acceleration.

The ancestral connection near his heart had reacted twice that morning, but he hadn’t allowed it to complete any adjustment automatically.

He had simply felt the alternative and decided for himself whether he wanted to use it.

Aria stopped a few meters away.

"We found something."

Damon sheathed the sword.

"Dangerous?"

"No."

"Urgent?"

"Also no."

"I’m liking this conversation."

"But strange."

"Naturally."

He followed her.

Orven stood before a table covered in copies of Vaelor’s records.

Saela had placed a sequence of much more recent Scarlet Order documents beside them.

Aurelia pointed at a symbol.

Three curved lines converging at the center.

Damon recognized it.

"The symbol associated with the unstabilized groups."

"Yes," Aria replied.

Orven placed another document beside it.

The same symbol appeared in the lower corner.

But that record was only one hundred and eighty-four years old.

Damon looked at the historian.

"That shouldn’t exist in that period."

"That was exactly what I thought."

"Origin?"

"Old regional archive. West."

Damon fell silent.

Aurelia noticed.

"It doesn’t mean it’s connected to Maerin."

"I know."

Orven explained:

"The document was cataloged as a commercial record. A community called Arvell supplied medicinal materials to three cities in the region."

"What materials?"

"Mostly plant tissue, mineral compounds, and processed animal blood."

Saela added:

"But there’s an unusual note. The person responsible for the shipment prohibited any member of the Order from subjecting the inhabitants to biological evaluations."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Specific."

"Very."

"Why?"

Orven turned the page.

"Because an earlier evaluation had ended badly."

Aurelia read the passage.

"Two researchers attempted to classify the inhabitants according to modern models. They found incompatibilities and recommended intervention."

Damon could already imagine the rest.

"They refused."

"Yes."

"So the Order tried to force them?"

Orven shook his head.

"No."

Damon was surprised.

"No?"

"Local records show that the regional commander at the time canceled the evaluation and prohibited further intervention without consent."

Aria pointed at the signature.

"That commander had no known connection to Serik."

Damon looked at the symbol again.

"So the problem ended."

"At the time, yes," Orven replied.

"Why is this relevant now?"

Saela slid another document across the table.

This one was newer.

Sixty-nine years old.

The same name.

Arvell.

But the classification had changed.

COMMUNITY CLOSED. POPULATION DISPERSED.

Damon read it.

"Closed how?"

"It doesn’t say."

"Disease?"

"No record."

"Conflict?"

"None either."

Orven showed him a third page.

"The inhabitants simply stopped appearing in administrative records."

Damon looked at Aria.

"This is the kind of thing that makes your face say ’expedition.’"

"My face isn’t saying anything."

"It is."

"It isn’t."

Aurelia interrupted.

"There’s something more important."

She pointed toward an old note describing Arvell’s inhabitants.

The researchers described significant variations between members of the same family.

Some possessed circulation linked to temperature.

Others had spiritual absorption structures.

Some displayed mild hematophagic characteristics without depending on blood.

Damon became serious.

That was far too familiar.

"That sounds like Maerin’s lineage."

"Possibly," Aurelia said. "But we can’t confirm it."

Saela crossed her arms.

"And even if they are descendants, we still don’t know whether any of those people are alive."

Damon looked at her.

"You’re trying to stop me from going."

"No. I’m trying to stop Aria."

Aria looked offended.

"I haven’t even said anything."

"You opened a map."

Everyone looked.

Aria had, in fact, opened a map.

She closed it.

"It was contextual."

Damon smiled.

"Your face."

"I hate that phrase."

"Now you know how I feel."

Orven continued examining the records.

"There’s something that may make this less mysterious."

"Finally."

"Arvell didn’t disappear suddenly. Its population declined over almost twenty years."

"Where did they go?"

"The trade records show different routes every few years. First south. Then northwest. Finally west."

Aurelia looked at Damon.

"In the same direction where Eir senses fragments."

"Possibly."

Damon deliberately added the word.

Aria noticed and smiled.

"You’re being careful."

"Don’t start."

Saela picked up another document.

"There’s another reason not to rush there."

"What?"

"If they are descendants of that lineage, they may have spent centuries avoiding institutions that tried to classify them."

Damon looked toward the symbol of the three lines.

"And showing up accompanied by Order researchers would be a terrible introduction."

"Exactly."

Orven looked offended.

"I’m pleasant."

Saela looked at him.

"You asked Aurelia if you could catalog her age five minutes after meeting her."

"It was a historically relevant question."

Aurelia replied without looking up:

"You still haven’t received an answer."

Damon liked them a little more.

"Then we’re not going."

Aria sighed.

"I know."

"But we keep the records."

"Of course."

"And we can ask Eir whether the name Arvell means anything to her."

Aurelia nodded.

"That doesn’t require an expedition."

"Perfect."

Damon turned to leave.

Saela called after him.

"There’s something about you."

He stopped.

"That sentence usually ends badly."

"I don’t want to examine you."

"Better."

She pointed toward one of the Arvell records.

"The researchers describe the same type of motor compensation Aria recorded in you."

Damon went still.

Aria stepped closer.

"What?"

Saela read:

"Injured individuals displayed temporary reorganization of movement without permanent structural alteration. The response disappeared after recovery."

Ester wasn’t present.

Damon silently gave thanks for that.

"So what my body did isn’t new."

"No," Saela replied. "And apparently it wasn’t considered extraordinary among them."

Damon liked that information even more.

"That’s great."

Aria looked at him.

"Great?"

"Yes. The more common this was among them, the less reason anyone has to treat my body as an unrepeatable anomaly."

Saela nodded.

"I agree."

Aurelia added:

"It also means we can learn from records without needing to provoke responses in you."

"Exactly."

Aria wrote something down.

Damon looked at her.

"You can record that part."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Generous."

Ester found out anyway.

Naturally.

At dinner, Saela mentioned Arvell’s motor compensation while discussing the records with Mu Qing.

Ester stopped eating.

Looked at Damon.

"You trained."

"With permission."

"You felt the connection."

"Once."

"You tested it again?"

"No."

She remained silent.

Damon waited.

"Good."

He almost dropped his spoon.

"Say that again."

"No."

"You just approved one of my decisions."

"Don’t turn it into a historical event."

Damon pointed toward Jian Yue.

"She stole my line."

"You use it too much."

No one showed him any sympathy.

After dinner, Orven continued talking with Aurelia about the ancient records while Saela asked permission to examine one of the authentication marks removed in Vermillion.

Chen Mo brought one of the preserved pieces.

She spent almost an hour studying the filaments.

Damon watched from a distance.

"Find anything?"

Saela didn’t raise her head.

"Yes."

"Bad?"

"Predictable."

"That isn’t necessarily better."

She showed him the small internal structure.

"The execution functions weren’t added when the marks were first created."

"When?"

"Later."

Orven approached.

"Can you date it?"

"Not exactly. But there are three different layers of modification."

Aria opened her notebook.

Saela pointed.

"The first is pure authentication. Identity, access authorization, communication."

"Legitimate," Damon said.

"Yes. The second adds physiological monitoring."

"Did the agents know?"

"The old documents say they did."

"And the third?"

Saela became serious.

"Execution, communication blocking, and automatic responses to certain security classifications."

Damon looked toward Orven.

"When does that third layer appear in the records?"

The historian was already searching.

"I’m checking."

Aurelia examined the piece.

"This confirms something important. The Order wasn’t founded with these marks functioning this way."

"Someone turned an authentication tool into a control tool," Damon replied.

Saela nodded.

"And probably did it gradually."

Orven found something.

"There’s a technical revision from two hundred and three years ago."

Everyone looked at him.

"Signed by a bearer of Serik?"

"Not directly. By the head of security at the time."

"But?"

"There’s a higher authorization identified only by code."

Saela compared it.

The code belonged to the protocol.

Damon exhaled.

"Serik."

"Yes."

It didn’t change what they already knew.

But it made clearer when an ordinary tool had crossed the line.

"This goes to Varos," Damon said.

Aria nodded.

Saela added:

"And to the technical audit. If we remove only the latest layer, it may be possible to preserve authentication without replacing every mark at once."

Damon looked at her.

"You’re already thinking about how to fix it."

"That’s my job."

"Good answer."

She looked at him.

"Thank you?"

"Don’t get used to it."

Two days later, Neria sent another message.

FORTY-SEVEN STEPS.

Damon replied:

HOW MANY WERE AUTHORIZED?

The answer took a while.

FORTY.

He laughed.

YOU’RE GETTING WORSE.

I’M GETTING BETTER.

Liora added:

SHE FELL.

Neria’s response appeared immediately.

I SLIPPED.

Damon stared at it.

Then showed Ester.

She closed her eyes.

"I’m going there tomorrow."

"I knew it."

"Not because she took seven extra steps."

"Of course."

"Because we need to review the removal of the first filaments that no longer serve any function."

Damon handed over the tablet.

"You’re going alone?"

"Mu Qing is coming with me."

He nodded.

"Good."

Ester studied him.

"You don’t want to go?"

"I do."

"But?"

"I don’t need to."

She smiled faintly.

"You really are getting better."

"Ribs?"

"Those too."

Damon realized too late.

"Trap."

"It worked."

That night, Damon returned to the courtyard.

Without a sword.

He simply sat near the wooden target.

His ribs were almost painless at rest.

His shoulder still required caution, but he could already raise his arm completely.

The small connection near his heart remained quiet.

He didn’t try to activate it.

After several minutes, Jian Yue appeared.

She sat beside him.

"No training?"

"No training."

"Are you sick?"

"Possibly."

She stared out across the courtyard.

"Did the researchers find anything?"

"Maybe a group connected to Maerin lived in the west until less than a century ago."

Jian Yue turned toward him.

"And you’re here."

"Yes."

"That must hurt more than the ribs."

"A little."

She smiled.

"Why aren’t you going?"

Damon thought before answering.

"Because now I know I can."

"That doesn’t make sense."

"It does to me."

He rested his arms over his knees.

"Before, every clue felt like it would disappear if I didn’t chase it immediately. Like I needed to understand everything before someone could use it against me."

"And now?"

"Now the records are here. Eir is there. The possible descendants, if they exist, have survived thousands of years without me."

Jian Yue nodded.

"So they can wait a few more weeks."

"Exactly."

"Until you’re healed."

"That too."

She stood.

Damon looked up.

"Going to train?"

"Yes."

"Your third strike still opens your left side when you accelerate."

Jian Yue stopped.

"You said you weren’t training."

"I’m not."

"You’re watching me."

"That’s different."

"Why?"

Damon smiled.

"I’m right."

She picked up her sword.

Damon remained seated while Jian Yue began the sequence.

For several minutes, that was the only problem in front of him.

A strike slightly too open.

A stance easy to correct.

No ancient civilization.

No millennia-old protocol.

No forest asking for help.

Damon discovered that he liked small problems too.

They left enough room to remember why the big ones were worth solving.