Lyle woke before dawn.
Not because of a nightmare.
But because the Codex was already open.
Pages fluttered despite the still air.
Ink shifted on its own, rearranging into half-formed glyphs—
Not ones he recognized.
Not even the Codex seemed to understand them.
> [Untranslated Glyph Signature Detected]
Origin: UNKNOWN.
Thread Alignment: Distorted.
Attempting to parse…
A knock broke the silence.
Three soft taps.
Too soft to be Juno.
He stood, hand on the ring, and opened the door—
No one was there.
Just a mark on the floor.
A sigil scratched in soot.
Simple. Crooked.
And impossible.
Because he'd seen it before—
On the first page of the Codex.
Back before the book ever opened.
Before he'd cried into it.
---
Juno stirred when he returned.
"What was it?" she asked groggily.
Lyle hesitated. "Nothing."
She sat up, eyes sharper. "You're lying again."
"I'm protecting you again."
"Lyle."
"…Someone else is here."
---
That day's training was different.
No instructor.
No silent watcher.
Only Quinn.
And he didn't speak.
He moved.
A blur of blood and shadow, warping the courtyard into a battlefield of silhouettes.
"Learn by dying," he muttered.
Then attacked.
---
Lyle had no time to think.
Only to move.
Shadowstep carried him inches from death.
The Codex snapped glyphs into place without permission—
Autocasting based on pure instinct.
Quinn was relentless.
Every strike calculated.
But none were killing blows.
He was watching.
Measuring.
Lyle staggered back, breath ragged. "Why—why are you pushing so hard?"
Quinn stopped.
Because he'd finally seen it.
The new glyph trailing behind Lyle's movement.
The one even the Codex didn't recognize.
"…You've been touched."
Lyle froze. "What?"
Quinn stepped forward slowly.
"You brought something with you."
---
That night, Lyle couldn't sleep.
The Codex kept pulsing.
And when he finally dozed off—
He didn't dream.
He remembered.
A hand reaching through shadow.
A voice not quite his own.
Whispering:
> "You are not alone in your inheritance, Lyle Greenbottle."
"And not all who wear the blood wish to serve Quinn."