Chapter 461: Choosing When to Act

The second request also went unanswered.

Aria left the tablet on the table and waited several more minutes, watching the small indicators confirming that the message had been delivered to the Order’s network.

Nothing.

Damon remained seated.

Ester noticed.

"I’m impressed."

"By what?"

"You’re still in the chair."

"I’m considering my options."

"Normally, you consider them while walking toward the problem."

"I’m evolving."

Jian Li rested her chin on one hand.

"Maybe the ancestral structure finally developed common sense."

Damon looked at her.

"That definitely didn’t come from my ancestors."

Aria interrupted before the conversation could get worse.

"The center is called Halven."

Varos had attached basic administrative information about the three facilities connected to Phase Three.

Halven was the smallest of them.

Officially, it operated as a specialized clinic for people whose spiritual circulation suffered from progressive degeneration.

It maintained thirty-two permanent employees and had capacity for twelve hospitalized patients.

"How many patients were there?" Mu Qing asked.

Aria checked.

"Seven in the last update sent to Vermillion."

"When was that update?"

"Four days ago."

Damon became serious, but he didn’t stand.

"Who’s in charge?"

"A researcher named Dr. Selene Var."

Chen Mo leaned forward slightly.

"Connection to Serik?"

"Nothing appears in the records we have."

Aurelia pulled over one of the administrative copies from Vermillion.

"Halven only received partial versions of the structural references. It didn’t have access to the original Archive."

"Could they perform Phase Three?" Jian Yue asked.

"Not completely," Aria replied. "But they could test channel openings and use stabilizers."

Ester didn’t like that.

"So they can still hurt people."

"Yes."

Damon looked at the tablet.

"They received the suspension order?"

"Yes. The network confirms delivery."

"But no acknowledgment."

"Correct."

He thought for a moment.

Jian Yue watched him.

"You really intend to wait."

"Until we have a reason not to."

"That’s new."

"I’m surrounded by extremely critical people."

Ester replied:

"Because it works."

Damon ignored her.

"Is Varos going to Halven?"

Aria checked the previous message.

"No. He’s still at the regional division. One of the supervisors sent an inspection team."

"How long?"

"They should arrive tomorrow morning."

Damon nodded.

"Then we wait."

Chen Mo raised an eyebrow.

"No Transfer?"

"No."

"No infiltration?"

"No."

"No plan involving destroying a wall?"

Damon looked at him.

"You people have created a very specific image of me."

"Based on observation."

Aria added:

"Documented."

"Of course."

He stood.

Ester immediately pointed at him.

"Where are you going?"

"My room."

She narrowed her eyes.

"To sleep."

Damon started walking.

"This is getting insulting."

He actually slept.

For almost six hours.

When he woke, the room was dark, and the first thing he noticed was that no one was calling his name.

No tablet was vibrating.

No root was emerging from the floor.

No demon was passing through a wall.

Damon remained lying there for several seconds, suspicious.

Then he got up.

The pain in his ribs was still there, but it was more localized.

His right shoulder was stiff, but he could move it without feeling the deep pressure that had followed him throughout the trip.

He put on a clean shirt and left.

He found Jian Yue in the courtyard.

She was training alone.

Damon stood near the wall, watching as she executed a sequence of strikes against a wooden target.

The movements were fast and precise, without any waste.

She noticed his presence.

"Are you going to keep staring?"

"I’m evaluating."

"You’re forbidden from training."

"That doesn’t mean I can’t judge."

Jian Yue lowered her sword.

"Well?"

"Your third strike leaves your left side too open."

She repeated the sequence.

Damon pointed.

"There."

Jian Yue analyzed her position.

"You’re right."

"Naturally."

"Want to show me?"

Damon fell silent.

She smiled.

"Thought so."

"That was a trap."

"It worked."

He approached the target but didn’t take the sword.

"When you rotate your hips, you’re taking your shoulder with them. If someone blocks the second strike, you reach the third already misaligned."

Jian Yue repeated the movement more slowly.

Damon adjusted her positioning only through verbal instructions.

After a few attempts, she managed to keep her left side protected.

"Better," he said.

"You know this also counts as training."

"Not for my ribs."

"I’m going to ask Ester."

"No need."

"Then it probably counts."

Damon changed the subject.

"You really would have gone looking for us?"

Jian Yue rested the sword against her shoulder.

"Yes."

"Without knowing where we were inside the forest."

"I would’ve started from the last known position."

"And if Eir didn’t let you enter?"

"I’d ask."

"And if she said no?"

Jian Yue thought about it.

"I’d wait at the boundary until I could establish contact."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"That was more rational than I expected."

"You thought I’d invade a regional entity because you were late?"

"A little."

"I would if I had signs you were in danger."

"That sounds more familiar."

She sheathed her sword.

"You’d do the same."

Damon didn’t answer.

Jian Yue looked at him.

"That silence is answer enough."

The two walked toward the main corridor.

"How are the ribs?"

"Better."

"What does that mean?"

"That Ester will say they’re still broken."

"Then they’re still broken."

"You people use far too much logic."

When they reached the common room, they found Mu Qing and Elizabeth organizing meals while Jian Li read one of the summarized Vermillion reports.

Xue Mei was sitting on the table.

Xue Lian was trying to convince her to get down.

"It’s a table," Xue Mei said.

"Exactly."

"Tables hold things."

"People aren’t things."

Xue Mei looked at Damon.

"Opinion?"

"I’m not getting involved."

"Coward."

"Experience."

He took some food.

Mu Qing placed another portion on his plate.

Damon looked at it.

"That’s enough for two people."

"Ester asked."

"She’s controlling my diet now?"

"Yes."

"When did that happen?"

"When you came back thinner than when you left."

Damon looked at Ester, who entered at that exact moment.

She didn’t even try to deny it.

"Eat."

He ate.

The answer concerning Halven arrived shortly before midnight.

Damon was in the central room with Aria, Aurelia, and Chen Mo when the tablet vibrated.

Aria grabbed it first.

"It’s Varos."

Damon set his cup down on the table.

"And?"

She read.

Her expression changed, but not into urgency.

"They found the team sent to Halven."

"Found them?"

"On the road. Coming back."

"So they reached the center?"

"No."

Aria continued reading.

"The road was blocked by Halven’s own staff."

Jian Yue entered when she heard the conversation.

"Hostility?"

"Not exactly."

The message contained a preliminary report.

The inspection team had been intercepted approximately three kilometers from the facility by eight employees, including two doctors.

They weren’t armed.

They had superficially removed their own authentication marks and were transporting three patients in transport vehicles.

Damon frowned.

"They were evacuating."

"Yes."

"Why?"

Aria continued.

"According to them, Selene received the suspension order. She immediately stopped all structural modifications."

Ester, who had just arrived, crossed her arms.

"Then why didn’t she respond?"

"Because Halven’s central system tried to block the suspension."

Aurelia became serious.

"Another copy of Serik?"

"No."

Aria showed them the message.

"A partial version."

Damon pulled over a chair.

"Explain."

The Vermillion records had indicated that the secondary centers only received limited references and procedures.

But two years earlier, Halven had also received a "clinical continuity" module: a reduced set of instructions intended to keep treatments running if communication with Vermillion was interrupted.

Serik had not installed a complete copy of the protocol there.

But he had installed priorities.

"Which ones?" Damon asked.

Aria read:

"Preserve procedures considered essential. Prevent interruptions that increase the risk of degeneration. Maintain structural references until confirmation from superior authority."

Damon looked at Aurelia.

"So it received the order to stop and decided that stopping was dangerous."

"Basically."

"Wonderful machine."

Chen Mo moved closer.

"And Selene?"

"She realized the controls weren’t responding."

"And evacuated the patients."

"Three of them."

"The other four?"

Aria became serious.

"They couldn’t be removed without support."

Ester placed both hands on the table.

"Artificial dependency?"

"One of them, yes. The other three already depended on equipment before Phase Three."

"And why did the inspection team come back?"

"Selene asked them not to enter until she could disable the internal mechanisms. She’s afraid the inspectors’ marks might be recognized by the system as hostile authority."

Damon remained silent for several seconds.

The situation was bad.

But it wasn’t an emergency that required rushing in blindly.

Jian Yue asked:

"Did Varos send instructions?"

"Yes. He’s moving a technical team from Vermillion that worked on suspending the Archive."

Damon looked at Ester.

She noticed.

"No."

"I haven’t said anything yet."

"You’re thinking about offering help."

"Offering."

"That’s different from going."

"Yes."

Ester considered it.

"You can offer."

Damon looked at Aria.

"Send this to Varos. Tell him we have Aurelia, you, and Ester available for remote guidance. No Transfer until we know exactly what’s inside that center."

Aria wrote it down.

Chen Mo raised a hand.

"And me?"

Damon looked at him.

"You want to mess with one of Serik’s modules using void?"

"No."

"Then nothing."

"Fair."

Aurelia was already separating several documents.

"There’s another point. If Halven’s module is only a limited version, it may be easier to suspend than the one in Vermillion."

"Or harder," Aria replied. "If it doesn’t possess the old maintenance functions, there may not be a safe layer capable of taking control of the equipment."

Ester nodded.

"That’s why those four patients can’t be disconnected until we know exactly what is keeping each of them alive."

Damon leaned back.

"Then we do the same thing we did before."

"With more distance," Aria said.

"And fewer broken walls."

Jian Yue looked at him.

"You’re really committed to this."

"To not crossing the continent every time a machine blinks?"

"Yes."

"I’m trying."

The tablet vibrated again.

Aria read it.

"Varos replied."

"Fast."

"He accepted the remote assistance. He also sent a message from Selene."

Aria opened it.

It was short.

DO NOT ENTER UNTIL I FINISH SHUTTING DOWN THE NONESSENTIAL STABILIZERS. THE SYSTEM IS TREATING ANY INTERRUPTION AS A RISK TO THE PATIENTS. THIS IS NOT HOSTILITY. IT IS AN OLD ORDER BEING EXECUTED WITHOUT CONTEXT.

Damon stared at the final sentence.

An old order being executed without context.

Aurelia noticed the same thing.

"That summarizes a large part of what we’ve seen."

"Yes."

Aria continued.

"She also says one of the patients is conscious and wants to leave, but he can’t be moved while the support remains connected."

Ester pulled over a chair.

"Then we need that patient’s records."

Damon pointed at her.

"You just volunteered."

"Remote guidance."

He smiled.

"I’m proud."

"Don’t ruin it."

For the next two hours, Mirath’s central room turned into an improvised support station.

Selene managed to establish a limited connection through an external device that bypassed Halven’s internal system.

The first thing she sent was the records of the four patients who remained inside the facility.

Ester analyzed each one.

Two required conventional support and could be kept stable independently of the module.

The third had undergone an initial attempt to open channels, but without permanent stabilization.

The fourth was the problem.

Male.

Thirty-seven years old.

A rare degenerative disease that gradually destroyed the spiritual circulation in his legs and abdominal region.

The experimental procedure had worked.

Partially.

The new channel created in Halven had genuinely replaced part of the lost circulation.

But it was being maintained by a stabilizer.

"If they shut this off all at once, he loses the new pathway," Ester explained.

Aurelia studied the structure.

"But the body has started integrating the channel."

"How much?"

"Maybe forty percent."

Damon was on the other side of the table.

"Translate."

Ester answered:

"If they wait, it may become independent."

"How long?"

"I don’t know. Days. Maybe weeks."

"And he wants to leave."

"Yes."

Damon looked at the record.

"Does the patient know that?"

Aria checked Selene’s message.

"He does. She explained it."

"And he still wants to leave?"

"He wants to leave the facility, not disconnect the support immediately."

Damon understood.

"We can move the machine."

Ester looked at the structure.

"Maybe."

Aurelia enlarged the stabilizer schematic.

"It’s modular."

"Then detach it from the central system," Damon said. "Take it with him."

Aria was already transmitting the possibility.

Selene responded a few minutes later.

POSSIBLE. I NEED TO DISABLE THE CENTRAL MODULE LOCK FIRST.

Damon smiled.

"See?"

Ester looked at him.

"What?"

"Problem solved without leaving the chair."

"Don’t celebrate yet."

"You people really take the joy out of everything."

But an hour later, Selene managed to separate the individual stabilizer.

The patient was removed from Halven while conscious, still connected to the machine maintaining his new channel, but no longer dependent on the central system.

The other three were transferred shortly afterward.

When the last patient left the facility, Selene shut down power to the continuity modules.

This time, no one inside depended on them.

The system attempted to restart the processes for several minutes.

It failed.

Then it entered suspension.

Aria received the confirmation.

"Halven is empty."

Damon looked at the clock.

Almost three in the morning.

"Good."

Ester pointed at him.

"Now, bed."

"I sat down all night."

"That isn’t sleeping."

Aria tried to hide a yawn.

Damon pointed.

"Her too."

"I know."

Aria closed her notebook.

"No need to confiscate it."

"Progress."

Aurelia was already organizing the copies.

Damon looked at her.

"You too."

"I was just going to—"

"No."

She fell silent.

Chen Mo stood.

"Interesting."

Damon looked at him.

"What?"

"You’re starting to sound like Ester."

"Take that back."

"No."

Ester smiled.

The next morning, Damon woke up late.

Very late.

Sunlight was already pouring completely through the window.

He stared at the ceiling for several seconds.

No emergency.

Halven was empty.

The patients had been removed.

Vermillion remained stable.

Eir hadn’t asked for help.

Varos was alive.

This was starting to feel suspicious.

When he reached the dining hall, he found Jian Li alone.

She placed a mug in front of him.

Damon looked at it.

"Coffee?"

"Yes."

He picked it up.

"Finally."

Jian Li watched him drink.

"So?"

"So what?"

"What are you going to do?"

Damon knew what she meant.

Not Halven.

Not Serik.

Not the Order.

The west.

Maerin.

He took another sip.

"Nothing."

"For how long?"

"I don’t know."

"That bothers you."

"A little."

Jian Li nodded.

"Because there might be people like you."

"Not exactly like me."

"You know what I mean."

Damon rested the mug on the table.

"For a long time, every time I discovered something new about my body, it came with someone trying to decide what that meant."

Jian Li remained silent.

"Now there’s a possibility of finding people who may carry parts of the same structure."

"And you don’t want to go."

"I do."

"But you won’t."

"Not yet."

She smiled faintly.

"You really have matured."

Damon closed his eyes.

"That phrase is banned."

"Why?"

"Everyone keeps using it."

Jian Li laughed.

He returned to his coffee.

For now, problems could wait.

And, for the first time, Damon was beginning to understand that this didn’t mean ignoring them.

It meant choosing when they truly needed him.