[Celestial Academy — North Wing Meeting Room — One day later — 2:14 PM]

The room was not the largest in the Academy.

But it was the one Agustín had chosen. This room. With the long gray stone table and the windows facing the east corridor and enough light for everyone present to see each other clearly.

Agustín did not need darkness for what was coming.

Twelve Inquisitors sat on either side of the table — those from Agustín’s faction, those who had arrived with him that morning. Levels 71 to 88. The people Agustín trusted not out of affection but out of loyalty to the Temple.

Davan at the right end of the table.

F5’s necklace visible. His hands on the stone surface. 2,200 HP and the exhaustion of someone who had held onto something that cost too much for too long, but his posture was straight.

Cael to his left.

Magnus at the opposite end of the table, facing Agustín.

Magnus’s eyes — one blue, one gold — looked at those present without saying anything. Without changing expression. Today was not a day for talking.

Magnus had decided that before entering the room.

Agustín opened the meeting without preamble.

---

"Structural damage to the administrative wing corridor." Agustín held the report in his hand but did not read it — he knew it by heart. "Four points of ceiling failure. The north corridor walls require complete reconstruction. The magical detection systems in the wing — destroyed. Estimated restoration time: four months, using resources this Academy does not have without Temple support."

The room was silent.

"Two level‑200 creatures active inside the facilities. A third — constructed — from combined material of the previous two. Twenty‑three students evacuated from the east wing due to proximity to the fighting." A pause. "Two of them with energy trauma from exposure to Fragment 1’s signature at maximum corruption."

One of the Inquisitors on the left flank made a note.

"And the Harvester," said Agustín. "The bearer of Fragment 1 at one hundred percent active corruption inside the Celestial Academy’s facilities for a period of at least twelve minutes."

The silence in the room changed texture.

Twelve minutes.

The Inquisitors at the table knew what that number meant — the Temple’s reports on maximally corrupted bearers described activity windows of two to four minutes before the destruction level became irreversible. Twelve minutes was a number that no existing report had a precedent to properly describe.

Agustín placed the report on the table.

"All of this," he said, "was caused by the Fragments."

---

Cael spoke.

He said it with the specific cadence of someone who had chosen exactly the right moment and words — not defensive, not urgent. Direct.

"The level‑200 creatures were not brought by the Fragments." A pause. "You released them, Father Agustín."

The room processed that.

Agustín looked at him.

Not with surprise.

"Circumstances required it," said Agustín.

"What circumstances require releasing level‑200 creatures inside an Academy with four thousand students?"

"Those of facing a bearer of Fragment 1 at ninety‑one percent corruption." Agustín. "With Fragment 4 active. In a building whose infrastructure the Temple needed to document before Carter destroyed it."

"The damage caused by the creatures—"

"Is damage contained in the administrative wing." Agustín. "The damage Carter would have caused if he had reached the student wing unimpeded would not have been contained."

Cael processed that.

"Davan," said Cael, changing the angle.

Agustín had been waiting for it.

"Davan did not choose to have Fragment 5." Cael. "The necklace was in a book that the old building contained before anyone in this room existed. Davan entered the building as part of an active intelligence operation — following the route I gave him, carrying out the task I gave him." A pause.

"What happened to him afterwards was not his choice."

F5’s necklace on Davan’s neck glowed faintly.

Davan did not look at Cael.

He looked at Agustín.

---

Agustín considered what Cael had said for a moment.

He did not dismiss it.

"Perhaps that is true," said Agustín.

Cael did not answer.

"Perhaps Davan did not choose the Fragment." Agustín looked directly at Davan. "Just as Seraph Nox did not choose Fragment 2 at the beginning."

The room grew quieter.

Agustín was no longer looking at Davan. He was looking at Cael.

"Who taught Seraph Nox to use Fragment 2’s power, Inquisitor Cael?"

Cael did not answer.

"Fifteen years," said Agustín.

"Fifteen years since Seraph Nox was expelled from the Temple for carrying a Fragment. Fifteen years since the Temple classified her as an active threat." A pause.

"In those fifteen years: eight documented incidents where Seraph Nox acted directly against the Temple. Four of them with casualties among Temple personnel." Another pause.

"Three direct attempts to eliminate Temple officials. Two of which were directed specifically at you, Inquisitor."

The corridor outside the room.

The sound of the Academy functioning — footsteps, distant voices, the building continuing to operate while this meeting took place.

"Seraph Nox is what she is today," said Agustín, "because someone taught her that the Fragment was a tool she could control."

Cael said nothing.

Not because Agustín was completely right.

But because the part where Agustín was right was real, and Cael could not dismantle it without also dismantling the parts where Agustín was wrong.

---

Davan’s hand on Cael’s shoulder.

Without saying anything first.

Cael did not move.

Davan looked at Agustín.

"Father Agustín."

Agustín looked at him.

"I am still loyal to the Temple." He said it with the same cadence he had used for everything that had been true since as long as he could remember — without drama, without needing anyone to confirm it.

"What happened today in the administrative wing — the Fragment, the fighting, the damage — I am partially responsible for it." A pause.

"And anything you believe necessary for me to pay for it and prove that loyalty, I will do."

The room processed that.

Davan did not take his eyes off Agustín.

F5’s necklace glowed with a light that the twelve Inquisitors of Agustín’s faction watched with the specific evaluation of people who had spent years being trained to see Fragments as a threat and who now had one three meters away saying he was loyal to the Temple.

Agustín looked at him for a moment.

And smiled.

---

It was not the smile of someone who had won something.

It was the smile of someone who had spent thirty years building an argument and had just found the last piece he needed to complete it.

"I’m glad to hear you say that, young man." Agustín with his usual calm. "Because what I need you to do is exactly that."

Davan waited.

"The Fragments are a threat," said Agustín.

"Not in theory — in practice. What happened in this Academy today is the clearest evidence the Temple has had in thirty years that bearers cannot control themselves, that the damage they cause is not accidental but inherent, and that the world needs to understand this not as Temple doctrine but as a verifiable fact."

A pause.

"The world needs an example."

Davan looked at him.

"The way to demonstrate it," Agustín continued, "is with your public execution."