Hernan never made moves without mirrors.
Every lie he released reflected back at someone — a test, a pattern, a probe. This one was simple:
A rumor.
Just loud enough to carry, just quiet enough to feel like a secret.
He dropped it in the locker hall, between lectures. A careless word passed to Nico as Tessa walked by. Nothing direct. Just tone.
"He's hiding something in Training Bay Twelve."
That was all.
No names. No context. No follow-up.
The right people heard it.
The wrong people would chase it.
And Aya? He watched her out of the corner of his eye as the words passed.
She didn't react.
But her schedule changed.
That night, her training sim was logged for Bay Twelve. One hour. Solo session.
The next morning, she walked into their usual sparring rotation with dust in her hair and bruises under one eye.
"Someone's been busy," Hernan said.
Aya tossed him a practice baton. "Training accident."
He blocked her first swing, clean and fast. "Find anything?"
She didn't answer.
But her second swing was sharper.
Later that day, Hernan checked the sim logs.
Bay Twelve's camera feed had been scrambled at 0200. Unauthorized access. One override signature.
Aya's.
She was in.
She'd followed the bait.
But she hadn't reported it.
Good.
Across campus, another student didn't pass the test.
Callen Yehr — D-rank illusionist. Annoying. Too curious. Too clean.
He'd been quietly flagged weeks ago as a Zodiac informant — one of the little eyes embedded in student groups to sniff out radicals, monitor behavior, report "unusual patterns."
Hernan didn't confront him.
He waited until Callen accessed a terminal near the south observatory. Waited until his heartbeat spiked after reading a scrambled file. Waited until he tapped a silent alert to his handler.
Then Hernan moved.
The body was never found.
Just an empty pod in the recycling chute.
Just a corrupted datapad with five error codes.
Just another failed student "transferred" after a mental break.
No one asked questions.
No one cried.
But in the Zodiac surveillance network, a brief, silent alert flickered red:
SUBJECT: YEHR – INFORMANT NODE: OFFLINE.
That night, Aya found Hernan sitting in the dark gym, alone.
She dropped beside him without asking.
"You were watching me."
"Yes."
"You were testing me."
"Always."
She didn't flinch.
"Then what now?" she asked.
Hernan looked at her.
"I have three names," he said softly. "I need thirteen."
Aya stared at him. "You're going to kill them all?"
"No," he said.
"I'm going to dismantle everything that protects them."