Chapter 87 - Allies in Shadow

Date: February X787

Location: Blue Pegasus Guildhall – Upper Data Archive

The Archive Chamber at Blue Pegasus wasn't built for comfort—or beauty, a rare concession from the vanity-laced guild. It was quiet, cold, lined with floating data screens and projection glyphs that hummed softly like a well-tuned instrument. Here, knowledge lived in circuits and silence.

At its center, Hibiki Lates sat surrounded by translucent blue threads of information. His Archive Magic pulsed in rhythm with his breath, hands weaving complex diagnostic paths as he parsed data lines from across Fiore.

On the edge of his interface hovered a glyph matrix—delicate, disjointed, and wrong.

He'd seen it three times now.

Three instances of the same layered glyph pulse, intercepted in fringe zones near Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail perimeters. Too sophisticated for freelance dark mages. Too quiet for a guild craving attention.

This was a signal, not a spectacle.

Eve Tearm entered, brushing snow from his coat. "Just back from patrol. Jura sent an inquiry—some magical disruption near Lamia Scale's mountain wards. He wants cross-guild surveillance confirmation."

Hibiki didn't look up. "Lamia Scale isn't wrong. The disruption's systemic. Someone is threading residual energy into the leyline folds. It doesn't trip alarms, but it rewrites minor field behavior—scrying distortion, teleport delay, elemental noise. Nothing lethal. Just... intrusive."

Eve frowned. "What's the goal? Why thread glyphs through passive zones?"

"To observe," Hibiki said simply. "To map us."

He magnified one thread. The triple-fang seal shimmered—thin, almost imperceptible.

Eve leaned closer. "That emblem... Raven Tail?"

"No," Hibiki corrected. "Raven Fang. A different beast."

Eve blinked. "I thought they were gone."

"They were," Hibiki said. "Then Teresa dismantled half their network after the Trial of Blood and Chains. The rest scattered."

"And now?"

"Now," Hibiki said, leaning back, "they're gathering again. Different tactics. No brute force. No flare. Just precision."

Eve hesitated. "You think they're after Teresa?"

"No," Hibiki said. "They want her watching. They're baiting her—slowly. They want to see how far she'll walk before she draws her blade."

Location: Lamia Scale Guildhall – Observation Balcony

Snow dusted the rooftops of Lamia Scale's mountainside compound, where Jura Neekis stood in contemplative silence. The wind didn't bother him; earth magic required patience, stillness to hear the world breathe.

Lyon Vastia approached from the corridor, a sealed report in hand.

"Surveillance confirmed the glyph anomalies," Lyon said, offering the scroll. "Scattered. Low-level. But consistent with Ky'run residue."

Jura's brow furrowed. "The vault energies resurfacing again..."

"Not naturally," Lyon added. "Someone's pulling them up."

Jura unsealed the scroll, scanning it slowly. His frown deepened. "Teresa's name appears five times."

Lyon nodded. "They're assigning her to coordinate containment and trace routes."

"She'll go alone," Jura murmured. "She always does."

Lyon leaned on the railing beside him. "What do you make of her?"

"Precision incarnate," Jura said. "She moves like silence—only noticed when she wishes."

"You sound like you admire her."

"I respect clarity," Jura replied. "And she is nothing if not clear."

Lyon smirked. "I don't think she likes anyone."

"That's not required," Jura said. "Only that she chooses the right moment to act."

He folded the scroll. "Send scouts to the southeastern vault ruins. Don't engage. Just observe."

"You think she'll need help?"

"I think," Jura said quietly, "the storm she walks toward won't wait for help to arrive."

Location: Magnolia Outskirts – Abandoned Observation Point

Teresa stood beneath a rotted arch once used by Rune Knight surveyors. The area was long abandoned, protective glyphs broken and half-buried. Her boots left no trace in the snow-dusted mud.

She extended her Yoki in a focused pulse. It moved beneath the surface like sonar—soft, unintrusive. The glyph field beneath the earth responded, trembling faintly as if recognizing her signature.

Not repelling her.

Testing her.

She knelt, pressing a gloved palm to a moss-covered stone disk. Symbols lit faintly beneath her fingers—then vanished.

They weren't meant to trigger.

Not for intruders.

For her.

She stood.

"They're watching me," she said aloud, voice low.

A shadow stirred nearby.

"Glad I caught up."

She didn't turn. She already knew the mana thread: Hibiki.

"You shouldn't be here," she said.

"Neither should you," he replied. "Which means we're both in the right place."

He stepped from behind a collapsed wall, adjusting the projection crystal hovering beside him. "You activated a receptor glyph. It traced directly to three suppressed nodes on my grid. It only responded to your presence."

She didn't answer.

"They're not afraid of you," Hibiki said. "They're inviting you."

She turned to face him, eyes cold. "A mistake."

"Maybe," he said. "But they know you won't ignore it."

"I never ignore traps," she said. "I simply walk through them."

He crossed his arms. "You're not alone, you know. Lamia Scale is stirring. Jura isn't blind. Even Sabertooth has scouts sniffing the perimeter."

"I don't need them."

"No. But the war that's coming does."

She stepped past him.

"If they follow," she said, "they should know: where I go, there will be no cover left to hide behind."

And she vanished into the night wind.