He had no name. Not anymore.
The Order had taken it long ago, carved it from his mind as part of the offering. In return, he had been given a designation:
Elder IX.
He was not the oldest among them.
Nor the most decorated.
But he was the one they feared.
Because Elder IX didn't kill with knives.
He killed with precision.
With memory.
With doubt.
He stood alone in the Mirror Vault — a chamber buried so deep beneath the Helix that even its architects had forgotten how it was built.
Around him, glass panels shimmered with reflections that did not match his movements.
Each one whispered a version of him that could have been.
He ignored them.
He was here for something real.
"Project AXIS: Status — Fractured."
The words hovered in the air as a projection. He tapped his finger against the spiral overlay.
"Rebel cell forming. Subject: Aarav Mishra.
Fragments confirmed.
Maya compromised."
He studied the data.
Then closed his eyes.
And remembered.
The Axis wasn't supposed to break.
The Axis was supposed to lead.
He had written the original simulation models himself — fed Aarav's genetic profile into the Helix and forecasted 98 possible futures.
Only one had resulted in spiral failure.
And that was the one they were now living in.
He moved to a drawer, sealed with boneprint, and withdrew an artifact: a shard of the Founder's mask — recovered after Cassian Velin vanished.
He stared at it for a long time.
"Another fracture," he whispered.
The Order had called him not to correct Aarav.
But to erase him.
Not his body.
His existence.
He touched a mirror.
A new simulation flared to life.
Maya and Aarav stood in a memory projection — on a rooftop, silhouetted against flame.
He watched Maya's hesitation frame by frame.
Watched her look away.
"Emotion," he murmured. "I warned them it was a contaminant."
He watched Aarav run.
Then turned away from the projection.
"This ends now."
He didn't wear crimson like the others.
He wore white — the color of absence. The color of erased chalk, clean paper, old bones.
He stepped into the teleportation ring at the center of the vault.
Destination: Aarav's last trace.
His voice activated the sequence.
"Engage Protocol: Echo Silence."
"Target: Axis Fracture."
"Authorization: Elder Nine."
The vault dimmed. The mirrors cracked.
And the hunt began.