Ray watched Cassian from across the library, his mind calculating the best approach to that supposedly suppressed research paper of Master Thaddeus he found. The Courtier and Detective were in heated debate.

Courtier: "Direct questioning about Thaddeus would raise red flags. We need subtlety."

Detective: "But we can't let this lead grow cold. The suppressed research could be crucial to understanding the academy's secrets."

Ray waited until Cassian was alone, surrounded by his usual nest of scattered papers and ink-stained references. Approaching with carefully cultivated casualness, he placed the newly organized section of notes on the table.

"Senior Cassian,"

Ray said softly, letting a hint of scholarly excitement color his voice.

"I've found some fascinating correlations in your work on resonance theory."

Cassian's eyes lit up immediately.

"Oh, Do tell!"

Ray guided him through several pages, building a foundation of academic rapport before carefully steering the conversation.

"There's one reference that particularly caught my attention, about cascade failures in crystalline matrices. But the citation seems incomplete."

"Ah, that one!"

Cassian's face showed a mix of frustration and enthusiasm. Ray continued,

"It's been driving me mad. I found mentions of it in other papers, but the original research seems to have vanished from the archives."

Scholar: "Notice his choice of words, 'vanished,' not 'missing.' He suspects deliberate removal."

"The author's name was partially obscured,"

Ray ventured carefully.

"Thaddeus, I believe?"

Cassian's expression shifted subtly, excitement tinged with caution. He lowered his voice.

"Yes... Thaddeus Ashvane. My ancestor, actually."

"He was a professor here, generations ago. Brilliant theorist, by all accounts, but..."

He glanced around furtively.

"Well, let's just say his later work became... controversial."

Detective: "He knows more than he's saying. But he's afraid to speak openly."

Ray nodded thoughtfully, maintaining his mask of innocent academic curiosity.

"It's a shame when valuable research becomes lost to time, especially regarding something as crucial as resonance theory."

"Indeed,"

Cassian replied, his tone carefully neutral. But there was a glimmer in his eyes recognition of a kindred spirit, perhaps, or appreciation for Ray's discrete approach.

Courtier: "We've planted the seed. Let him wonder about our interest. Sometimes the best way to get answers is to let others volunteer them."

Suddenly a profound caution slammed down over Cassian’s features, extinguishing the manic, scholarly light in his eyes. He glanced around the deserted reading room, his posture shifting from that of an excited academic to a man who had just realized he was standing on thin ice over a deep, cold lake.

“This has been… most enlightening,”

Cassian stammered, his voice a full octave higher than it had been a moment before. He refused to meet Ray’s eyes.

“Your work, your organizational talent… a generational gift.”

“In fact,”

Cassian continued, fumbling with his own Scholar’s Medallion,

“the agreed-upon commission was seventy-five Marks, but your insights have been so revolutionary, so… foundational, that a simple fee feels insulting.”

He tapped his medallion with a trembling finger.

“Please accept this with my deepest gratitude. For services rendered. And concluded.”

A familiar, welcome chime echoed in Ray’s mind, a cool counterpoint to the sudden, hot tension in the room.

[ACADEMIC MARKS TRANSFERRED: +125]

The next day Ray was working in the library, the scratching of Ray's quill against parchment halted at the sound of rapid footsteps approaching his workstation. He didn't need to look up to recognize Cassian's distinctive gait, a peculiar mix of scholarly shuffle and barely contained excitement.

Scholar: "Here we go, brace yourself for the intellectual tempest."

"Ray! Oh, thank the Founders I caught you,"

Cassian burst out, his untamed black hair even more disheveled than usual. Papers jutted from his robes at odd angles, and ink stains decorated his fingers like battle scars.

"I've been reviewing some old family records, and I think, well, I have a theory about the research paper you found."

Conman: "Careful now, Cassian has old ties to this place. Could be useful... or dangerous."

Ray carefully set down his quill, maintaining the composed demeanor expected of a prodigy.

"Oh, what kind of theory, Senior Cassian?"

"The harmonic resonance paper you showed me?"

Cassian leaned in, lowering his voice conspiratorially. His blue eyes gleamed with that particular intensity Ray had come to associate with academics on the verge of either brilliance or madness.

"I think they might be related to some experimental work my ancestor conducted here at Solhaven Academy."

"He was... well, he disappeared suddenly, but his notes!”

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“I found fragments in our family archive."

Veteran: "Too convenient, why share this now?"

But Ray's own curiosity was piqued. In his eleven-year-old body, he had to crane his neck to meet Cassian's eager gaze.

"Disappeared, you say? That's... intriguing, what exactly did these notes contain?"

"That's just it!"

Cassian fumbled through his robes, producing a weathered journal.

"Most of it is encoded, but the fragments I've decoded, they're talking about something called 'The Resonant Threshold.'"

"It's all theoretical, but if the paper you found is connected..."

He trailed off, eyes distant with possibilities.

Scholar:'This could be the breakthrough we need,"

Veteran:"Or a terrible trap,"

Ray felt the familiar weight of decisions settling on his small shoulders.

"Perhaps,"

He said carefully,

"should we discuss this somewhere more private?"

Cassian's face lit up at Ray's suggestion.

"Yes!"

"The Archive's Reading Room C should be empty this time of day."

"No one ever uses it since they moved the popular sections."

As Ray gathered his materials, the voices in his head engaged in a heated debate.

Scholar: "His ancestor's work is fascinating! An opportunity to access primary source material that is completely unknown to the public record. We must see it!"

Veteran:"Or it's bait. The timing is too perfect. Keep your guard up."

Conman: "Let's hear him out. Information is currency, and right now, this is the only seller in town."

They walked through the winding corridors of Solhaven, Ray's small feet keeping pace with Cassian's longer strides. The familiar musty scent of old books grew stronger as they descended into the archive levels. Reading Room C was indeed deserted, its oak-paneled walls lined with empty reading stations. Dust motes danced in the pale light streaming through narrow windows near the ceiling. Ray chose a seat that gave him a clear view of both exits, an old habit that felt oddly comforting in his child's body.

"Look at this,"

Cassian said, spreading the weathered journal pages across the table. The ink was faded, the script a complex, elegant code filled with arcane symbols and numerical sequences.

"The encoding is complex, but these symbols here?"

"They match perfectly with the theoretical framework in the paper you found."

Ray leaned forward, studying the faded ink. The moment his eyes focused on the script, the system chimed in his mind.

[COMPLEX CYPHER DETECTED. 'Cryptic Acuity' skill is passively analyzing structural patterns.]

[Cross-referencing with previously deciphered Aeridorian fragments... Anomaly detected. This cipher is significantly more complex.]

The Eccentric Scholar was practically buzzing with excitement. Ray took a piece of blank parchment and a stick of charcoal, his movements becoming sharp and focused.

"You said you were unable to decode all of it?"

"Only small sections,"

Cassian admitted, pointing to a dense block of text.

"This part, for instance, seems to be the core of his final theorem, but it's a complete mystery."

"The symbol frequency doesn't match any known linguistic model."

Ray began to work, his small hands moving with a speed and precision that was unnerving. He didn't just copy the symbols; he deconstructed them, breaking them into component parts, running frequency analyses, and searching for repeating patterns, just as he had done with the Aeridorian fragments. But this was harder, the patterns more deeply layered. After several minutes of intense, silent work, he made a breakthrough.

"You are right, the symbol frequency is a dead end,"

Ray murmured, his focus absolute.

"Because you are assuming each symbol represents a single letter, it doesn't."

He circled a recurring, complex symbol.

"This isn't a character, It's a key, a rotating modifier that changes the value of the three symbols that follow it.”

“It's not a simple substitution; it's a polyalphabetic cipher."

He quickly applied his new theory to a single line of text, his charcoal flying across the parchment. The gibberish resolved into a coherent, chilling phrase:

"...catastrophic decay in the primary matrix..."

The world seemed to go silent for a moment as the system's evaluation appeared in his vision.

[SKILL ATTEMPT: CRYPTIC ACUITY]

[PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: ADEPT]

[Host successfully identified the core methodology of a novel and complex cipher, achieving a partial breakthrough where senior scholars have failed. Standard Mastery Gain.]

[MASTERY GAIN: Cryptic Acuity +10%, Pattern Recognition +5%.]

Ray's eyes widened as he recognized patterns that seemed eerily familiar; it was the same conceptual framework as the incomplete Thaddeus papers.

Scholar: "Those equations... they're addressing the same harmonic principles! But they're approaching it from a completely different, more practical angle!"

Veteran: "Why would his ancestor's work just happen to surface now?"

Ray's fingers traced the symbols, his mind racing.

"These dates,"

He said carefully,

"when exactly did your ancestor disappear?"

Cassian's enthusiasm dimmed slightly, replaced by a cautious gravity.

"That's the strange part, it was during the Great Purge of the Academy."

"Many records were lost then, but according to family stories, he was working on something revolutionary."

"Something that scared the wrong people."

The word 'Purge' sent a chill down Ray's spine. The phrase from the journal catastrophic decay in the primary matrix echoed in his mind. He had thought there might have been a dark period in the academy's history. Now he had proof.

Conman: "Kid, we're playing with fire here. But sometimes that's exactly what we need to light the way forward."

Ray's footsteps echoed through the darkening corridors of the academy as he made his way back to his accommodations. The weight of Cassian's revelations pressed heavily on his mind.

Scholar: "The implications of combining Thaddeus's work with these new findings could revolutionize the world's understanding of harmonic resonance!"

Veteran: "And that's exactly why people suddenly disappeared during this 'Purge'. We are delving into something we shouldn't!"

Ray nodded to himself. The Veteran was right. He had already drawn enough scrutiny with his "impossible" light display in Vorlag's class. Adding forbidden research to the mix would be foolish.

Conman: "Let's shelf it for now. We can always revisit when we're more established."

Lost in thought, Ray almost walked right into Kaelen Thorne. She stood in the shadows of an archway, her cool, calculating gaze fixed upon him. His heart skipped a beat, but years of performance kept his face carefully neutral.

"Young Lady Kaelen,"

He said, offering a perfectly proper bow.

"What a surprise."

"Is it?"

She asked, her voice carrying that familiar mix of politeness and subtle danger.

"I heard the most fascinating story about your performance in Master Vorlag's class today."

Ray felt his muscles tense.

Veteran: "Careful, she's fishing for something!”

"Just a fortunate accident,"

Ray replied modestly.

"Sometimes these things just... work out."

Kaelen's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Light without mana, a miracle, some are saying, others whisper... heresy."

She took a step closer, lowering her voice.

"You're drawing attention Ray, the wrong kind of attention."

The warning was clear, but was it meant to help or threaten? With Kaelen, it was impossible to tell.

"I appreciate your concern,"

Ray said carefully,

"but I'm just trying to pass my classes like everyone else."

"Are you?"

She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"Just remember, some lights shine so bright, they burn those who cast them."

With that, she turned and walked away, leaving Ray with a chill that had nothing to do with the evening air.

Conman: "Well, that was delightfully cryptic and terrifying."

Scholar: "First Cassian's dangerous research, now this. The pieces are moving."

Ray watched Kaelen's retreating form, feeling the weight of too many secrets pressing down on his small shoulders. Sometimes he forgot he was supposed to be just a child. The world seemed determined to remind him that he wasn't.