The silence in the study was heavy, broken only by the soft, rhythmic ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece. Rina’s report hung in the air like the lingering smoke of a spell, dense with implication.

  Cassian stared at Rina, his brow furrowed in a knot of confusion. He pulled a stack of notes toward him, flipping through pages with curiosity.

  “A Spell-Refraction Crystal Core?”

  he muttered, shaking his head.

  “And ancient golems from the deep archives? Those two things don’t belong in the same sentence, let alone the same room. One is light and illusion; the other is earth and binding. It… it does not make sense!”

  Eliza leaned back in her chair, her sharp eyes narrowing trying to process the information from her point of view.

  “And a hidden room behind the entrance?”

  she added, her voice skeptical.

  “Why build a door just to hide it? If the academy wants to test us, why start the test with a secret? It feels… unnecessary.”

  They looked to Ray, expecting him to share their confusion. But Ray Croft was not confused. He was gone.

  Ray sat perfectly still at the head of the table, his golden-flecked grey eyes unfocused, staring at a point in the middle distance. To the casual observer, he looked like he was daydreaming. In reality, he was presiding over a riotous, high-speed session of his internal committee. The clues Rina had delivered were not random pieces of a puzzle; they were the blueprint of a trap, and his archetypes were tearing it apart with voracious intensity.

  The Eccentric Scholar was the first to speak in his Ambient Presence, his voice a manic buzz of excitement.

  Scholar: “Fascinating! Cassian is looking at the components, not the function! A 'Spell-Refraction Crystal Core' isn’t a mirror, you fool! It’s a magical construct designed for high-fidelity mana replication! It doesn't just reflect light; it samples Aether and Mana signatures of the subject and projects a hard-light duplicate! It creates ‘Reflections,’ doppelgangers that know every spell you know, every weakness you have! It’s the classic ‘Test of Self’!”

  The Grizzled Veteran cut in, his voice a low, tactical growl that grounded the Scholar’s theory in brutal reality.

  Veteran: “Forget the mirror. Look at the muscle. Ancient Golems with runes on their chests. You don’t put runes on a combat golem’s chest; that’s a target. Unless they aren’t enemies. They’re locks. Gatekeepers. The runes are likely elemental or logical puzzles that require specific mana inputs to bypass. If you try to smash them, you die tired. You have to solve them while fighting off your own reflection. It’s a kill box designed to exhaust you.”

  Finally, the Gritty Detective slid his fedora back and offered the final piece of the psychological puzzle.

  Detective: “And the hidden room? That’s the tell. Why hide a room behind the main entrance? Because the big, fancy archway is the distraction. It’s a sucker’s door. The ‘Solhaven Philosophy’ is all about agency, right? Finding your own path? The entrance is the test of compliance. The hidden room… that’s the test of awareness. That’s the ‘True Start.’ If you walk through the front door, you’re already playing by their rules. If you find the side door, you’re playing by yours.”

  The synthesis was complete. Ray blinked, the room snapping back into focus. He looked at his friends, the disparate threads of logic weaving together into a terrifyingly clear picture.

  “It’s does make sense, Cassian,”

  Ray said, his voice quiet but commanding the room’s instant attention.

  “Maybe it’s a recreation.”

  Cassian stopped rustling his papers.

  “A recreation? Of what?”

  “The Legend of the First Sage,”

  Ray replied, letting the Scholar’s knowledge filter through his voice.

  “The story goes that before he could found the academy, the First Sage had to conquer the one enemy he could not outsmart: himself. He had to face his own shadow in a cave of mirrors.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Eliza’s eyes widened.

  “You think the ‘Scenario’ is a literal mirror match?”

  “I think the ‘Spell-Refraction Crystal Core’ is going to create exact magical duplicates of us,”

  Ray explained, his tone deadly serious.

  “Reflections that know every spell we know, every tactic we’ve studied, and every weakness we try to hide. If we walk in there expecting a standard dungeon crawl, we will be slaughtered by our own moves.”

  A heavy silence fell over the table. Cassian paled, looking down at his hands.

  “I… I can’t beat myself,”

  Eliza whispered.

  “I know exactly how I think. I’d counter my own spells before I even cast them.”

  “Exactly,”

  Ray said, leaning forward.

  “In a fair fight, a Reflection is the perfect opponent. Which is why we cannot fight fair.”

  He grabbed a piece of parchment and a charcoal stick, drawing a quick diagram: two circles representing Ray and Eliza, and two X’s representing their doubles.

  “The Reflection is tied to the individual’s mana signature,”

  Ray continued, drawing lines connecting the circles to the X’s.

  “But a reflection is rigid. It mimics the source. If I fight my double, it knows my moves. But if you fight my double, Eliza…”

  He drew a new line, crossing the diagram. He connected Eliza’s circle to Ray’s X, and Ray’s circle to Eliza’s X.

  “The Switch,”

  Eliza breathed, catching on instantly.

  “We swap dance partners.”

  “Correct,”

  Ray said.

  “For my double we can expect tactical misdirection and cantrip level magic spells. It won’t be prepared for your aggressive offensive spell barrages. And your double will expect a magical duel… it won’t be ready for my… unorthodox methods.”

  “Brilliant,”

  Cassian muttered, tapping the table.

  “But this plan hinges on you two starting the fight on your own terms. If you walk into the ambush, the Reflections will engage you before you can switch.”

  “Which is why we need the Hidden Room,”

  Ray said.

  “If that room allows us to bypass the main trigger, or enter the chamber from a vantage point, we win before the fight starts.”

  He turned to Rina, who was standing quietly by the bookshelf, her posture rigid.

  “Rina,”

  Ray said gently.

  “The hidden room behind the archway. Did the apprentice say how to open it? Or exactly where the trigger is located? We need to know if it’s a physical latch or a magical seal.”

  The room turned to Rina. For a moment, she didn't answer. She looked down at her hands, the hands that had glowed with violet light days ago, and Ray saw a tremor run through them. Her face, usually so composed in her new role as his operative, was flushed with a deep, painful shame.

  “I… I don’t know, young master,”

  she whispered, her voice barely audible.

  Ray frowned slightly, not in anger, but in concern.

  “Did the apprentice not say?”

  “He might have,”

  Rina admitted, her voice cracking.

  “But I… I couldn’t stay to hear it.”

  She looked up, her eyes wet with unshed tears, the memory of her failure burning in them. She opened her mouth, the words tumbling out in a desperate rush.

  “I was listening to them near the groundskeeper’s shed,”

  she confessed.

  “But then… I felt it. The cold. It started to come back. The shadows… “

  Ray’s eyes widened. She was about to mention the magic. She was about to reveal the unstable Umbral power that only he knew about.

  Courtier: “Cut her off! Now! Cassian and Eliza cannot know. That is a state secret!”

  “It's fine Rina, I understand.”

  Ray cut her off, not letting her finish her sentence.

  Rina froze, her mouth snapping shut as she realized her mistake. She looked at Cassian and Eliza, who were watching her with confusion, and then back to Ray, her eyes wide with panic.

  Ray softened his expression instantly, shifting gears to cover her slip. He turned to his friends, his voice smooth and calm.

  “She means the stress,”

  Ray lied smoothly.

  “Being that close to the faculty… the risk of discovery was immense. Rina has never done field work this deep before. The pressure to not be seen… it was overwhelming.”

  He turned back to Rina, activating the Understudy Protocol’s Resonant link feature with Rina and mentally told her..

  You are safe. I have you.

  “You made the right call,”

  Ray said firmly, speaking to the room but aiming the words at her heart.

  “If you felt your cover was about to be blown, retreating was the only tactical option. Staying to hear the end of a sentence is not worth being discovered.”

  Rina let out a shuddering breath, the tension draining from her frame as she realized he had protected her secret. She nodded, wiping her eyes, playing along with the narrative.

  “I… I didn’t want to fail you. I had to leave before they saw me.”

  Cassian nodded sympathetically.

  “Spying on the faculty isn’t for the faint of heart, Rina. Most students wouldn’t have gotten close enough to hear the first sentence.”

  Ray stood up and walked over to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder, activating the World Weary Healer’s ‘Calming Presence’ skill, a subtle wave of warmth radiating from him to stabilize her shaking nerves.

  “You did well.”

  Ray said softly, so only she could hear the full weight of his sincerity.

  “You brought us the Mirror. You brought us the Golems. You told us the hidden room exists. That is enough. Without that intel, we would have walked into the ‘Scenario’ with our eyes closed. You gave us a fighting chance.”

  He squeezed her shoulder.

  “We can find the door. We know it’s there. That’s all we need.”

  Rina nodded, her breathing steadying.

  “Thank you, young master.”

  Ray turned back to the table, his expression hardening. The emotional crisis was managed; the secret was safe. Now, the strategic reality had to be addressed. They had a clue now on what they could possibly be facing in the ‘Scenario’ part of the trial, knew what they were facing, but they still had to register for the trial, and they had to ensure the faculty didn't separate Ray and Eliza into different squads.

  “We have the strategy,”

  Ray said to Cassian and Eliza.

  “But a strategy is useless if we aren’t allowed to fight together. Tomorrow is the registration deadline. We need to make sure the faculty doesn't split us up.”

  “And, I need to have a little chat with my tutor before we go. If we’re going to be fighting mirrors, I need to know exactly how to break them.”