Chương 19: The Blind Scale

"That's the lecture," Instructor Halden said, dusting the chalk off her hands. When no one spoke, she nodded toward the open dirt ring.

"Good. Enough sitting around. Everyone up." The trainees scrambled up, Stelle moving with her usual quiet economy. Halden ran the new group through foundational drills like footwork, controlled breathing, core stability that meant to test baseline endurance rather than drain them. For Stelle, whose internal architecture worked on entirely different rules, the routine was trivial, but she modulated her effort carefully, mimicking the light sweat and flushed cheeks of the children around her.

After an hour, Halden held up a hand.

"That's enough for today. Go wash up, review what you learned, and don't let me catch you slacking tomorrow." Her gaze cut toward the far end of the yard, where Kellan and the older trainees were still locked in heavy, mana-infused sparring.

"Rest of you seniors, back to the line!" As she walked off, the tension in the new group dissolved. Stelle gathered her wooden training sword, preparing to leave, when a few of the newcomers lingered nearby.

"Hey," said a girl with braided brown hair and an agile frame, stepping closer with a hesitant smile.

"You're Stelle, right? That was crazy during the sparring, how you held off Kellan like that."

"I just defend myself," Stelle said mildly.

"Defending against someone with a size and reach advantage in pure physical combat isn't simple." A tall boy with ink-stained fingers slung his wooden sword over his shoulder.

"He looked like he wanted to jump out of his skin when Halden called it. I'm Bram. Aiming for Pure Enhancer, once my core stabilizes."

"Liora," the braided girl added, thumbing at herself.

"Manipulator and Enhancer. My family runs a small farm outside the Low District, so controlling physical forces just felt right." She tilted her head, studying Stelle.

"I'll admit, I was surprised you picked Enhancer, you don't really look the type to brawl. But after watching you move, I think you're more qualified than me." Bram laughed, shaking his head.

"Honest answer? Half of what Halden chalked up on that board sounded like nonsense to me. Dual Paths, Hybrid splits… I'm just hoping my core doesn't backfire the first time I try to reinforce anything."

"At least you didn't get put on the sandbag line day one," Liora said, though her eyes lingered on Stelle with real curiosity.

"Are you staying in the barracks, or with Commander Vira? Everyone says you're her personal student."

"I stay in the barracks," Stelle said.

"Commander Vira oversees my training."

"Must be intense, I heard that Vanguard soldiers are tough and train like a beast." Bram murmured, glancing toward the hall.

"We're heading to the mess hall before the afternoon crowd hits. Want to join?"

"Thank you, but I have errands," Stelle said, with a small, polite nod.

"Aw… then let's do it next time. See you tomorrow," Liora called, already turning toward the courtyard exit with Bram, still trading theories about the Path divisions Halden had drawn. Stelle watched them go, filing away names, personalities, and Path tracks into her archive before slipping into a quiet corridor near the library grounds. Vira should be in the barracks, filling reports.

Her training regimen had settled into a rhythm predictable enough that Stelle could map her own free hours in advance, and today a tedious quartermaster meeting would buy her more than enough time. It was time to visit Corin. Drawing her oversized cloak tight against the afternoon chill, she let memory guide her down through Oakhaven's tiered streets toward the Low District. She retrieved the crumpled parchment and the dagger from her Spatial Inventory.

Wandering like a lost child with a hand-drawn note was a better cover than walking with quiet certainty, and the dagger was finally about to serve its purpose. The Blind Scale Antiquities — Low District, Alley of Serin.... The Low District smelled of damp stone and tallow candles instead of woodsmoke and polished steel. The alley was narrow enough that two adults couldn't walk it shoulder to shoulder, its buildings leaning together until they nearly blotted out the light.

A weathered sign creaked at its far end and a pair of balanced scales, both pans tipped, neither one quite level. A bell chimed as she pushed the door open. The shop's interior was crowded with curiosities—cracked pottery, a taxidermied creature with too many legs, unlabeled bottles holding liquids that caught the light strangely. And there Corin sat behind the counter, boots propped on a stool, exactly as unhurried as she remembered.

"Well, well." His eyes tracked her with immediate interest.

"The snowflake finally uses that note." He looked at the girl, his calculating eyes lingering on every shift in her expression as if searching for leverage.

"Ah, a much steadier pulse this time... marvelous. So, what is it you seek from old Corin? and what are you prepared to offer in return?"

"I have something to sell," Stelle said, skipping past pleasantries. His boots came off the stool at once.

"Now that's a greeting I can respect." She set the dagger on the counter. Corin turned it beneath the lamplight, testing its balance, and named a figure.

"One gold, ten silver. Generous, and you know it."

"I know it," she agreed, since arguing further would only cost her more. He counted out the payment, then leaned back, arms folded.

"So. What brings you here, besides cashing in your souvenir?" You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Information," Stelle said.

"About Oakhaven. The Tower in the Capital and how someone would travel there, if they needed to." Something sharpened behind Corin's lazy smile.

"Ambitious question for a stray with amnesia. Information isn't free. Especially the useful kind."

"How much?" He considered her.

"One gold." Internally, the number registered with cold weight. It's nearly everything she'd just earned. She glanced at the coins, then back at him.

"Take it." His eyebrows rose.

"Not even going to haggle?"

"You'd only raise the price to compensate for my effort." That earned a short, delighted laugh.

"Smart girl." He swept the gold coin back across the counter, leaving her the ten silver, and settled in.

"Don't worry, a small question won't cost you anything. Now, let's start."

"Oakhaven sits on the northern edge of the Kingdom of Valeria, about as far from the capital as you can get while still calling yourself part of the same crown. If you're picturing the Tower sitting inside the capital of Kingdom of Valeria, waiting for you to knock, well disappointing news. It doesn't."

"Then where is it?"

"It's right inside another kingdom at the dead center of another continent, inside Glia, the capital of the Archonian Dominion.' The Spire of Ascension,' some call it, though most just say the Tower." He traced a rough landmass in the dust on the counter." Valenthia, the capital of the Kingdom of Valeria, sits closer to the coast than the center. It's a long journey from Oakhaven; you'll need to head south along the roads for weeks, assuming the passes are clear.

Getting from Valeria to the Archonian Dominion, however, is a different matter."

"Why?"

"Because there's an ocean in the way." He tapped the space between his two marks.

"The central continent isn't connected to Valeria by any road a cart could survive. You cross by ship, if you've got weeks to spare and don't mind pirates, or by airship, if your pockets are deep enough to trust your life to something held aloft by a very expensive Catalyst array." He shrugged.

"Most who make that crossing are already sponsored Awakened heading for the Tower trials, or merchants chasing prices only that continent pays." Stelle absorbed the geography in silence, cross-referencing it against the fragmented map she'd already assembled from the library archives. The picture that resolved was larger, and more expensive, than she'd allowed herself to hope. Weeks to the capital. Then an ocean. Then whatever waits on the other side.

She looked at the ten silver still in her hand, weighing it against the value of the data, then slid it back across the counter.

"Can I use this for one more question?" Corin glanced at the small stack, then chuckled.

"Ten silver for real information? Normally I'd laugh you out of the shop. But I like a girl who spends her last copper on knowledge. Fine. What do you want to know?"

"How does an Awakened enter the Tower?" He leaned his elbows on the counter, chin on his hands.

"First, an Awakened needs to be at least Tier 3 to step inside. Not an enforced rule of the tower but a recommendation written in blood. Anything lower, and you're just suicide walking through the front gates." He tapped the counter.

"Second, reaching Tier 3 doesn't grant you a ticket. To enter, you need an Ascension Badge."

"It's exceptionally rare, and the ways are tight. Only those with powerful backing, established reputations, or noble born can have it. But you can have one by winning major regional tournaments, receiving prestigious awards, securing a formal recommendation from a top Academy, a High Guild, or royal decree." He flashed a crooked grin.

"And for those without noble blood or backing? Some steal them. Kill for them. Buy them on black markets for prices that could buy a small city. Only a handful of Awakened ever touch a badge in their lifetime." Stelle filed the parameters away.

"Anything else?" Corin asked, sweeping the silver into his pouch.

"…" She still had a question, though with her coin spent, she had no way to pay for an answer. Expecting to be turned away, she asked anyway.

"What Path do you walk?" Corin went very still. Then he smiled, slower this time and sharper than anything he'd shown her.

"Look at that. I did expect you to have a good eyes... but to this degree. You really know how surprise." He studied her with an intensity that had nothing left of the lazy merchant in it.

"Phantasm. Since you asked so plainly." Stelle reached for the framework Asha and Mik had given her days earlier.

"Deception," she said slowly, testing the word.

"You don't hide yourself the way a Stalker would. You make people question what they're already seeing."

"Close enough, for a girl who's known the word less than a week." His smile didn't waver, but something behind his eyes had gone entirely cold.

"Tell me, snowflake. In the days since you learned that word, how many people do you think have looked at me and correctly guessed what I am?"

"I don't know."

"None," Corin said.

"Not the guards at the gate. Not the clerks at the Union. Not even your Commander Vira, and she's sharper than most people in this stronghold." He let the silence stretch.

"Not even your Grand Master." The shop's clutter suddenly felt different—every shadow a fraction too deep, every corner a fraction too still. He raised one hand, and the air around him folded in on itself like a page turning. The lazy, unthreatening presence she'd cataloged since the carriage peeled away entirely. [WARNING] [Threat reassessment required.] [Mana Output: Tier 4] The number landed with real weight.

A Tier 4 core, sitting behind a counter in a back-alley shop, disguised as a man barely worth a second glance. Stelle didn't move, didn't let her expression shift beyond a small, appropriately frightened widening of her eyes, but every calculation she owned reorganized around the new threat in the room. She was already tracing the shortest line to the door.

"Relax," Corin said, and the illusion settled back over him as easily as it had lifted.

"If I wanted you dead, little snowflake, you'd have never made it past the doorbell. I'm considerably more interested in how you saw through something that's fooled a Grand Master." She didn't answer immediately, letting the silence stretch for a few seconds longer.

"I just… have a way to see things differently than other people. A special vision" Stelle said, letting her voice tremble at precisely the right register. It wasn't a lie, exactly. It simply wasn't the truth she was protecting. Corin studied her, weighing the answer against a lifetime of judging liars for a living. Whatever he found seemed to satisfy him.

"A special vision," he repeated.

"Whatever it is, it's rare enough that I'd rather have you as an acquaintance than a curiosity I've offended." He rose and crossed to a shelf of old, unlabeled books, running a finger along the spines until he found the one he wanted—a slim volume in cracked leather, its title stamped in faded gold. Blood of Will.

"A gift," he said, before she could ask.

"Payment for the entertainment, and for the visit. It won't teach you magic, but it'll give you something to think about on a quiet night." Stelle turned the book over once before taking it. She didn't offer a word of thanks since the thick, tense air inside the small shop left no room for pleasantries. Corin smile satisfied, before the dangerous stillness tucked away behind his usual charm.

"Off you go, before your Commander notices her student's gone missing. And snowflake… do come back. You're the first interesting thing to walk through that door in years." The bell chimed behind her as she stepped back into the narrow alley, the book settling into her Spatial Inventory alongside everything else the day had cost her. She walked back toward the barracks with her usual measured steps, giving nothing away to the thinning crowds.

But beneath the calm, her processors kept turning over the same recalculation, refusing to settle. A Tier 4 Phantasm, hidden in plain sight from everyone in this city who should have seen it. And I was the only one who did. She had expected him to be an Awakened after learning he followed the Path of Phantasm… but she hadn't expected a Tier 4. She was lucky to walk out unharmed. Still, there was no other safe way to gather information.

Asking Asha, Rakan, or anyone else in the Union or Vanguard would instantly spark suspicion that she was planning to leave. The library books were useless, too, filled mostly with history and basic mana theory she had no need for. Even the book of the Tower of Gods in her archive revealed nothing about how to actually reach or enter it. Their true purpose, however, would only become clear once she finally stepped inside the tower. She didn't yet have a category for what that meant.

She only knew, with the same cold certainty she applied to everything else, that it was a variable she intended to understand.