There were rules, even in the Order.
Especially in the Order.
And Maya had broken one the moment she let herself care.
She hadn't meant to.
At first, Aarav was just another test. Another blade to sharpen. Another heir to mold or break.
But then he looked at her, not like a weapon or a warning — but like a person.
That was dangerous.
She should have reported him the moment he hesitated with the silver knife.
She should have recommended cleansing when he asked about choice.
Instead, she watched.
And worse — she wondered.
Her chambers were hidden below the Institute's west wing — a repurposed vault of records long erased from official maps. The walls bled condensation. The mirrors refused to reflect clearly.
Tonight, she stood before the archive vault, fingers tracing the edge of a sealed drawer.
She wasn't supposed to open it.
It required two keys.
But she had both.
One stolen. One earned.
Inside lay the names of those who had tried to leave the Order.
The Forgotten Initiates.
Most were presumed dead.
A few were rumored to be mad.
One... had vanished completely.
Cassian Velin.
The Founder.
Marked in red ink. A traitor.
But what the Order had never admitted aloud — even to her — was this:
He'd left behind a prophecy.
A warning.
And a name.
She slid the file open. Her hands shook.
At the top of the page:
"The Axis. The One Who Remembers. Aarav Mishra."
Her heart stopped.
He hadn't stumbled into the Order.
He'd been designed.
Later, Maya sat in the corner of her chamber, knees pulled to her chest, the mask hanging limp in her hand.
She had spent years convincing herself she was in control — that her choices were her own, her rise deserved.
But now she wasn't sure she had ever chosen anything.
Not the Order.
Not the mask.
Not the blood she'd spilled.
And Aarav...
He wasn't becoming a monster.
He was becoming what they built him to be.
And she didn't know if she should protect him—
Or save the world from him.
That night, for the first time in years, Maya cried.
Not because she was weak.
But because she knew what came next.
The Order would send him on his first mission.
A final act to seal his place in the spiral.
And if she let it happen, there'd be no turning back.
"You didn't come here to escape," she had once told him.
"You came here to become."
Now she wondered—
What had she become?