The room had no windows.
It didn't need them.
The Sanctum of Deliberation, buried five levels beneath Arcvale's inner tower, was carved from basalt veined with sealed runes. No sound entered. No truth escaped. Light was conjured, not cast.
Seven chairs formed a crescent around a crystal basin that pulsed with low, living energy.
Only five of the Council had gathered.
And already, the silence felt heavier than war.
---
Elder Veyra, First Harmonist, stood as she always did—flawless in white, her silver mask etched with a downward-pointing triangle.
"We warned them. We watched. And now the resonance has reached critical mass. The Fifth is stirring. We cannot afford hesitation."
Elder Malric, seated with his gnarled staff across his knees, exhaled slowly. His mask was ironwood, unpainted, carved like a weathered tree.
"We do not yet know who the Fifth is."
"Do you need to?" Veyra snapped. "We felt the shock when the Echo Sigil flared. And again with the girl Lunaris bloodline, Memory-bound. Now Fire. Wind. Memory. Three active. One flaring. Two unknown."
A third voice measured, calm cut through the rising heat.
"Still your fear, Veyra," said Elder Syrel, Keeper of Records. "The Vault remains sealed. The boy bears Echo, yes. But he is not yet the Gate."
Veyra turned sharply.
"That boy shattered an academy corridor with will alone. He cracked an instructor's harmonizer by walking past. And now he's gathering the others. Can you not feel the pull?"
Malric nodded, reluctantly. "The chain is reforming."
---
Elder Thane, the youngest among them, leaned forward mask shaped like a broken sun.
"The harmonizers are working. Slowly. The dampening fields are delaying awakening."
Veyra scoffed. "Delaying is not enough. We need a failsafe. Nullification worked on the last Wind-bearer barely."
Syrel turned his head. "And you want to repeat that mistake?"
A long pause.
Veyra's voice lowered.
"If we must."
Malric's staff tapped once against the stone. "We are not executioners."
"Then we'll become corpses," Veyra snapped. "You forget what lies beyond that Gate. The last Arkanite child chose imprisonment. We would be fools to let their kind roam free again."
---
The crystal basin flickered, showing ripples of old records.
A younger man. Caelum's father Garron Varrow stood atop the Academy walls, wind swirling violently around him.
"You cage us because you are afraid," Garron had once said. "You bind what you cannot wield. But the Veil remembers. And it does not forget."
The image faded.
Syrel sighed. "He refused the seal. But he did not open the Gate. He could have. He didn't."
Veyra turned to face him fully now.
"He ran. Hid. And now his son bears the echo."
"Perhaps," Syrel said softly, "that tells us something."
---
Elder Thane rose. "The Order of the Veiled Sigil reports there is division even among the bearers. They're not all aligned."
Malric stroked his beard behind the mask. "Then perhaps guidance, not force, is the better path."
"And if they do open the Vault?" Veyra countered. "If Chaos returns?"
Syrel's voice darkened. "Then maybe it should. You claim to fear the Arkanite curse. But what you fear is the return of power that you cannot leash."
Silence followed.
Then Syrel stepped back from the basin.
"We were never meant to keep the Gate sealed forever. Only until the time came."
Malric nodded once. "Then we must prepare… not for containment but choice."
---
When the others had left, only Thane and Veyra remained.
She leaned close, lowering her mask slightly.
"You hesitated, Thane. Why?"
He looked down. "I've been… hearing things. Dreams. A voice in the wind."
Her expression froze.
"You think it's echoing in you?"
He didn't answer.
She gripped his shoulder tightly. "Then you know what must be done."
Thane looked away.
"Do I? Or have we been wrong all along?"
---
At midnight, a single decree was passed through sealed channels
Effective immediately, all suspected Sigil-bearers are to be fitted with reinforced harmonizers. Surveillance is to double. Records are to be sealed.
Should any bearer attempt to approach the Vault… intervention is authorized.
A second line was added by Veyra's hand, alone
Echo must not reach Chaos.