12. Sorin: Dragon Bones

Before dawn, Sorin slips through hidden passages to meet Magnes in a concealed library chamber. He reads Sorin’s memories, forcing her to present curated scenes of classes and surveillance of Arcady while she buries doubts. Magnes admits He cannot read Arcady because Arcady’s shared magic with a dragon shields their mind.

Magnes leads Sorin through sealed wards into an old laboratory filled with freshly harvested dragon remains—skull, bones, claws, scales, and preserved tissues—radiating power and sacrilege. He frames the stockpiled relics as essential defense, while Sorin suppresses revulsion, remembering the dragon’s death in the forest.

Questioned about the newly revived University Trials, Sorin deduces Magnes’s motives: distract from Chancellor Yrsa’s murder, manage volatile succession politics, and scout future leaders. Magnes confirms and adds distrust of Ansel influence, stressing that transitions invite coups. Sorin further infers the Trials are a trap to test how Arcady’s dragon bond has altered their magic.

Magnes hints at a deeper, older threat beyond the Veil and a plan to use Arcady’s power to “heal” something long damaged, securing unchallengeable authority. Turning to Sorin’s role, He insists she should enter the Trials despite her modest magic and produces a potent elixir to boost her abilities briefly, promising training on the tasks.

Sorin protests that it is cheating; Magnes calls it necessary in a life-and-death game and binds her to secrecy. He presses her to profess trust as He anoints her as an operative. Sorin agrees aloud, concealing her shaken faith, and accepts the vial, committing to His strategy while privately lying to Him.