Soren woke up in a bed that wasn't his.
The first thing he did was count his heartbeats, because he could, and a day ago that hadn't been true.
The second thing he noticed was that Grimm was on the floor next to the bed.
She was the size of a large dog now, and her fur had gone from patchy gray to solid white.
He had almost gotten her killed getting her here.
He looked at her for a moment and let himself know that.
Then he put it somewhere he could reach later and moved on.
The third thing was Selah.
She was sitting in the chair by the window with her arms crossed and an empty water cup on the sill beside her.
She had clearly been there long enough to finish whatever was in it and not get up to refill it, which meant she had been waiting for him to wake up and had not wanted to leave in case he didn't.
He chose not to mention that.
"How long," he said and his voice came out dry.
"Nine hours."
"That's not bad."
"You were bleeding from your ears." She said it with the kind of flatness that meant she was keeping the real version of that sentence somewhere else. "Both of them and your nose at the same time."
"Right."
"The medic said your soul signature is at forty-one percent. She said she'd never seen a drop that steep without the subject dying."
She stood up and walked to the side of the bed.
"Do you know what that means?"
"It means I need to rest."
"It means you did something you shouldn't have survived, and you're talking about it like it was a mildly annoying afternoon."
Soren looked at her and did a fast calculation.
She had carried him out of the dungeon on her back, then sat in a chair for nine hours, finished her water, and not left.
Her arms were still crossed.
Her jaw was doing the thing where it was a little too controlled.
He thought: she's not angry, she's covering for the fact that she was worried, and she's annoyed at herself for it.
That was useful to know.
"I'm going to ask you questions," she said. "You're going to answer them."
"You carried me two floors."
"And my shoulder still hurts. Yes."
"Okay," he said. "Ask."
"How did you know about the column."
"I found an old survey from the original excavation team in the archives. Subsection C. The lock is broken."
She stared at him for a moment and he held it.
"I'll check that," she said.
"I know."
"Next question. Your beast evolved from F-rank to C-rank in one event. The theoretical maximum jump is two ranks. She jumped four."
"She's motivated."
"Soren Kane."
"What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to tell me why any of this is happening. Why the system flagged you as an anomaly. Why Troy Minden went to your room the first night. Why did your beast just do something the system manual says is physically impossible."
She paused.
"And I want you to tell me why you're acting like none of it is a problem."
He thought about it for a second and decided she had earned one real answer.
"I can see some of what was supposed to happen," he said. "Not everything, just a version of events, in order. And that order is already wrong, and it's getting more wrong faster than I expected."
She was quiet for ten seconds.
He counted.
"That's insane," she said.
"Yes."
"You're saying you can see the future."
"I'm saying I could see one version of it. Past tense. The version I knew is already breaking."
She looked at Grimm.
Grimm opened one eye just enough to show a red sliver underneath and made a low sound that was almost a purr.
"She likes you," Soren said.
"She bit me this morning."
"That's how she says hello."
Selah picked up her empty water cup from the windowsill, turned it over once in her hands, and walked to the door.
She stopped with her back to him.
"The survey," she said. "If it's in subsection C, I'll believe you for now."
She turned the cup over again.
"If it's not there, I'm going to the disciplinary board and letting them figure out why an F-rank knows classified layouts."
"Fair."
She left.
Soren waited until the door was fully closed, then exhaled and pressed his palms against his face.
The cup, he noticed, was still on the windowsill.
She had meant to take it and hadn't.
He let it go.
[DING!] — Soul Friction: 39%. Recovery in progress. Estimated time to safe threshold: 72 hours.
[DING!] — WARNING: Obsession Index, Grimm: 44/50. Approaching Convergence threshold. At current rate, soul bond will enter irreversible phase within 6 days.
[DING!] — Notice: a second bonded entity is exerting passive influence on your soul signature. Entity: UNREGISTERED. Duration of influence: unknown. Origin: unknown.
Grimm put her chin on the edge of the bed.
Master. You gave me too much. You're thin now. I can feel it.
Her voice had changed overnight.
What was left was a girl who had grown up fast and was trying not to show how much that had cost her.
"I'm fine," he said.
You're not. I can taste it. Your soul has a crack in it that wasn't there yesterday.
"Grimm."
I won't let anyone else take from you. Her tail moved once, slow. I'll be enough. I promise.
The shadows under the bed stretched about half an inch longer than they should have.
[DING! — Obsession Index: Grimm 45/50.]
The door opened.
Soren looked up expecting Selah with a follow-up.
It was not Selah.
Short dark hair, academy uniform, clipboard under one arm, and an expression he recognized immediately even though he had never seen this face before: the expression of someone who had already written the report and was here for the formality.
Dani Sloan, student disciplinary committee.
She was supposed to show up in chapter nineteen.
She was here in chapter six, and she had a Tier-2 Incident Report on that clipboard, which was the form the academy used right before they expelled someone, and she was looking at Grimm the way people looked at things they had already accounted for in a plan.
Soren had been awake for approximately ninety seconds and the plot was already trying to end his enrollment.
He sat up.
"Soren Kane," she said. "I have some questions about an unauthorized evolution event reported in the east dungeon this morning."
Sure you do, he thought.
He looked at the clipboard and started running the math.