Orphaned Seed
Copyright© 2026 by Fantasylover11
Chapter 26: Open the Gate
The stairwell down to the foundations was not on any campus map.
Noah followed Mara through a maintenance door that looked like it led to mop buckets and old paint. The lock accepted her keycard without ceremony. The air on the other side felt damp and metallic, like the building was sweating.
Sienna walked behind him, quiet and focused. Jules was beside her, jaw set. Imani brought up the rear with a too-loose grin, talking like she could joke her way through a place that wanted blood.
Noah kept Masking on.
The drain on his Focus was familiar now.
What wasn’t familiar was how loud the Gate was.
Not sound.
Pressure.
Like the foundations were breathing.
The Interface timer hovered at the edge of his vision.
ENTRY TIMER: 03:41
Four minutes.
They hit a landing with a steel door and a reader plate that didn’t have a label.
Mara stopped.
“Last check,” she said.
Noah met her eyes.
Mara’s expression was clipped into something that looked like indifference.
It wasn’t.
“If it goes wrong,” Mara continued, “you don’t improvise miracles.”
Noah’s mouth tightened.
“No hero moves,” he said.
Mara nodded once.
“And Mercer,” she added, voice dropping, “they want you to be the story.”
Noah swallowed.
“Then we don’t give them one,” he said.
Mara tapped her ring against her knuckle.
“Good,” she said, and opened the door.
The Gate chamber was carved out of older foundations, rough concrete and brick, with new reinforcement ribs that looked like bones.
In the center of the space, a circular seal was set into the floor.
Chalked geometry. Inlaid metal. Sigils that made Noah’s teeth ache if he stared too long.
Beacons were mounted in the walls like listening devices.
Noah saw one immediately.
Black casing.
Two diagonal slashes etched into the face.
The sight of it made his stomach clench.
Imani’s voice dropped. “That’s not supposed to be down here.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Sienna replied.
Jules didn’t speak.
He was watching the room like it might rearrange itself.
He did too.
The Veil pressed against the edges of his awareness, trying to make the seal feel like a decorative floor drain.
He held on anyway.
An official stood on the far side of the chamber with a tablet.
No name.
No warmth.
“Entry trial,” she said.
Her gaze swept the group.
“You will proceed as a team through the first gate. You will not separate. You will not run ahead. The foundations punish disobedience.”
He caught the subtle shift.
Not a warning.
An invitation.
Do something wrong. Give us a reason.
“Team assignments remain unchanged,” the official said.
Noah’s attention snapped to Jules.
Anchor.
He felt Crownline eyes on him from somewhere in the shadows above the chamber.
Not the surface stands.
Something worse.
“Mercer,” a voice said from behind.
Noah turned.
Cassian Wren stood near the wall with two other students. He was too relaxed for a room like this.
“You made it,” Cassian said.
Noah kept his voice even. “Yeah.”
Cassian’s gaze flicked to Jules.
“Interesting choice,” Cassian said.
Jules stared at him. “You always talk like you’re narrating.”
Cassian smiled thinly.
“It’s a survival skill,” he replied.
Sienna shifted closer to Noah without touching.
“Ignore him,” she murmured.
Noah nodded.
Cassian’s eyes brightened, pleased by being ignored.
“They’ll try to split you at the first choke,” Cassian said softly. “They always do.”
Noah met his gaze.
“Not happening,” Noah said.
Cassian’s smile widened a fraction.
“We’ll see,” he said.
The official raised her hand.
“Mark,” she said.
The first gate opened.
The passage beyond the chamber narrowed into a corridor that felt too tight for five people.
The walls sweated cold water.
The lights flickered with a rhythm that wasn’t electrical.
Noah’s Focus dipped.
Masking cost more here.
The Veil didn’t like being under the university.
It didn’t like what lived here.
They moved as a unit.
Noah took point because he had to.
Sienna stayed just behind his shoulder, eyes on the walls and floor.
Jules stayed close, steady.
Imani drifted to the back, watching the rear.
The fifth team member, a Mirror student Noah barely knew, kept glancing over his shoulder like he was waiting for someone to jump.
“Name,” Noah said, low.
“Cal,” the student whispered.
Noah nodded.
“Stay with Jules,” Noah said.
Cal nodded too fast.
The corridor split.
Two routes.
Same paint.
Same pipes.
The Veil tried to make them identical.
Sienna held up a hand.
“Stop,” she said.
Noah stopped.
“Left is wrong,” Sienna murmured.
“How do you know?” Cal whispered.
Sienna pointed to a rust streak on the right wall.
“Water runs downhill,” she said. “That stain doesn’t belong on the left.”
Noah swallowed.
He would’ve looked for a sigil.
Sienna looked for physics.
“Right,” Noah said.
They took the right corridor.
Behind them, a quiet shuffle.
Cal hesitated.
Noah’s pulse jumped.
If Cal split, the corridor would punish them.
Temptation rose.
Presence could steady.
Presence could push.
He remembered his rule.
No coercive.
He made his voice low.
“Cal,” Noah said. “With us.”
Cal flinched, then hurried after Jules.
Jules didn’t grab him.
He just put a hand on Cal’s shoulder, steady.
Noah exhaled.
The Gate chamber’s pressure deepened.
They were close.
The seal wasn’t a door.
It was a change in the air.
One second the corridor was just concrete and pipes.
The next, the world felt like it had shifted by a half degree.
Cold.
Dense.
Like the space itself had weight.
Noah’s Focus dropped in a sudden bite.
FOCUS: 79/130
He forced himself not to look at the overlay.
He forced himself to look at the people.
Jules met his eyes.
Anchor.
Noah nodded once.
They stepped into the foundations proper.
The corridor opened into a wider space where the ceiling was higher, the concrete older, and the walls were scored with sigils that looked like they’d been carved in a hurry.
The Gate.
Not a circle this time.
A threshold.
The air hummed.
Then it cracked.
Not sound.
A pressure release that hit Noah behind the eyes.
Cal made a small choking noise.
Imani swore.
Sienna grabbed Noah’s sleeve.
“Noah,” she said.
Check-in.
He nodded.
“I’m here,” he said.
He let Connection sit in the back of his mind, not extended, just steady.
The world tilted.
The floor pattern under their feet shifted.
Sigils realigned like a lock turning.
One of the wall brackets sparked.
Then, from the left side of the chamber, a student Noah didn’t recognize stumbled.
Not on their team.
Different group.
She tripped as the floor shifted and her foot slid toward a dark seam in the concrete that wasn’t there a second ago.
A gap.
A drop.
The Veil pushed hard, trying to make Noah ignore it.
Trying to make the stumble look like nothing.
Noah’s body moved anyway.
He didn’t have time to think.
He saw her ankle go.
He saw her hands scrabble.
He saw the moment her fingers slipped.
No hero moves, he thought.
But letting her fall would be a choice too.
Noah made one.
He lunged.
Veil Step would get him there.
Veil Step would also look wrong in a room full of observers.
His mind went very quiet.
The Interface expanded.
LEVEL UP AVAILABLE
Noah didn’t take it.
Not yet.
He needed something else.
The new trait prompt flickered into existence like it had been waiting behind the door.
MILESTONE UNLOCKED: PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY
Noah swallowed.
He could feel the cost before he accepted it.
Stress.
Veil pushback.
Pain.
He took it anyway.
TRAIT GAINED: PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY EFFECT: HIDE ONE IMPOSSIBLE TELL PER SCENE COST: HIGH STRESS
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