ECHOBURN

The envelope sat on the table for a long time before anyone opened it.

Kael finally broke the silence. He tore the seal and unfolded the documents inside. The rest of Dorm 7 gathered slowly—Ren last. He leaned against the far wall, arms crossed.

"Industrial zone," Kael said. "Eastern fringe. Old sector 12."

Lyra took the sheet and read further. "Abandoned warehouse cluster. Locals reporting power fluctuations, seismic interference, light distortion."

Veyra rolled her eyes. "So, haunted factories. Classic."

Anya didn't speak. She just watched Ren.

"No threat classification," Kael added, flipping the page. "No support. Unsupervised."

"That's not normal," Veyra muttered.

Lyra nodded. "They're not telling us something."

They packed fast. Quietly. Dorm 7 didn't need orders. Everyone had a rhythm.

Kael strapped a heavy blade to his back, muttering, "Finally."

Lyra ran a systems check on her gloves, precise as always.

Veyra stuffed a few essentials into a duffel and, without comment, slipped a spare comm unit into Ren's pack.

Ren didn't notice—but he felt it. That shift. Something like inclusion.

Anya was already waiting by the door, staring out the window.

Torin didn't come to see them off.

No one mentioned it.

The academy van hummed down cracked city streets, rain streaking the windshield. Veyra drove. Kael rode shotgun, flipping through the field packet again.

In the backseat, Ren sat between Lyra and Anya. The silence wasn't uncomfortable. It was observant.

Kael finally broke it. "You always this quiet, or just hate us?"

Ren shrugged. "Neither."

Veyra glanced at him through the rearview. "So… the beach. What happened?"

Ren looked out the window.

Lyra smirked. "We've heard stuff. That the thing saw you and bailed."

Anya added, "It didn't act like a normal Echo Caller. Evolved right in front of you. Ignored the rest of us."

Ren: "I don't know why."

Kael leaned back. "You didn't look surprised. That's why people are whispering."

"I didn't want anyone to die," Ren said.

That landed.

The van kept moving. The topic didn't come back up.

They pulled into Sector 12 an hour before dark.

The place looked like the shell of a forgotten war. Rusted cranes leaned sideways against cracked pavement. Derelict warehouses sat half-sunken into waterlogged ground. Neon from distant city blocks shimmered in the puddles.

A few apartment windows blinked from far-off buildings. The zone wasn't entirely dead. Just mostly.

A fence had been torn down near the rear of the cluster. Kael stepped out first, followed by Lyra and Anya. Veyra killed the van engine, sighed, and stretched.

Ren stepped out last.

No one spoke.

Behind the crumbling wall, something moved—a shape, maybe, or just the wind.

Veyra muttered, "I hate places like this."

Ren said nothing.

He looked once at the open warehouse ahead, then followed the rest in.