The memory of Commander Valera's unnerving smile lingered, a grim confirmation that his bluff had failed. Elias knew his time was running out, the Sutra Corps still a looming threat. He retreated to his cubicle, the chill of the Bureau no match for the cold dread settling in his stomach. He decided to revisit the 300-year-old judgment he had discovered, the one signed by High Sage Theronius. If the Sage was truly manipulating the Ledger for centuries, Elias needed to understand the full extent of their power.
He pulled up the ancient case file, the familiar lines of archaic code filling his screen. He focused on the specific section containing Theronius's digital signature and the subtle, manual override he had detected earlier. Elias leaned closer, his Karmic Lens pressed to his eye, seeking any new anomaly, any hidden clue.
What he saw made his breath catch. The entire section, the Sage's signature, the faint traces of the manual override – it was all gone. Not erased with the brute force of the Naga's earlier attempts, but removed with surgical precision, as if it had never existed. The ancient judgment now appeared pristine, a perfectly balanced outcome, devoid of any hint of external influence. The record had changed overnight.
A profound, terrifying implication settled over Elias. This wasn't merely the Ledger's slow self-correction at play. This was a deliberate act. The Sage, High Sage Theronius himself, was actively monitoring Ledger access to their old rulings. Elias's earlier discovery, his unwitting act of probing centuries-old secrets, had triggered a direct response from one of the Realm's most powerful, most ancient manipulators.
The realization was a crushing weight. If the High Sage could reach back centuries to alter a deeply embedded historical record, to erase their own past manipulations, then what else had they purged? What truths had they buried? The history of Jadeheart, the very foundation of its karmic justice system, could be a carefully crafted lie, maintained by the silent hand of a centuries-old manipulator.
Elias felt a primal fear. His own manipulations, audacious as they felt, were child's play compared to this. He was operating on the surface, moving pebbles. The Sage was shifting mountains, altering the very bedrock of reality. If they could erase their own history from the Ledger, they could just as easily erase Elias. His name, his existence, his very karma could vanish without a trace, a phantom in the grand, orchestrated deception.
The hum of the Ledger, once a source of fascination and challenge, now sounded like a silent countdown to his own oblivion. He was no longer just observed; he was a target. And the ancient shadow of the Grand Council had finally stirred.