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Chapter 44: Searching for Clarity

Cel sat on the bed’s edge, staring at nothing.

The room was quiet. Too quiet. No whisper of ash settling. No distant tremors beneath the ground. Just the muffled sounds of the Academy beyond his walls – footsteps in corridors, voices too distant to understand, the creak of old wood settling.

His fingers traced patterns on his thigh without conscious thought. Small circles that meant nothing.

‘The Reckoning.’

The name felt strange in his mind. An organization that hunted corrupt Chosen. That killed those who believed power placed them above consequence.

Noble work. Necessary work, maybe.

But killers nonetheless.

His jaw tightened.

They’d voted on whether he