Chapter 106: Dropping a Passionate Video with No Caption

Chapter 106: Chapter 106: Dropping a Passionate Video with No Caption

The training was paying off.

I could feel the chains as true extensions of my arms now: formation speed, tension, the extra link from the upgrade all answering as fast as intention.

Fracture Step sat in my legs like a loaded habit.

On paper I was becoming someone who could survive a real dungeon bracket.

Off paper, the problem was simpler and worse.

Two supports.

I didn’t want Gianna to stumble onto a corridor kiss or a "penalty" that looked exactly like what it was.

The system could call Rei in progress.

Rei could call it training.

None of that would matter if Gianna received the truth as an accident instead of a decision.

I walked into the research wing still turning the logistics over.

Jenna was in the lab, standing over a residual display with Mira, tired around the eyes but sharp as ever as they scrolled through overnight logs.

She glanced up when she noticed me at the glass, held my gaze for half a second in silent acknowledgment, then returned to the data.

I didn’t interrupt. I went straight to her office and waited.

A few minutes later, Jenna entered, closed the door, and gave me the look she used when she already knew this wouldn’t be a short conversation.

"You’re early," she said.

"Rei already filed a residual note about this morning. She claims you’re finally fighting like someone who intends to win."

"I need a straight answer about the entrance exam."

Jenna gestured at the chair opposite.

I didn’t sit.

"How many supports can one primary register?"

"In this cycle, two are standard. Three is possible with a formal variance and elevated compatibility documentation. Examiners allow it because real raids rarely run on monogamy."

She watched my face.

"You’re asking because you intend to put both Gia and Rei on your slate."

"Yes."

"Politically messy. Practically workable."

Jenna folded her hands.

"Shared registration means shared scoring in the final dungeon race, shared liability if one partner destabilizes the group, and shared visibility. Rei will treat it as a claim. Gia will treat it as a decision you made without her in the room unless you fix that before the forms lock. The board will treat it as a stress test of whether your network holds under observation."

"Is it allowed cleanly?"

"Yes. With signed acknowledgments from both supports and my sponsorship as your current handler. What it is not is subtle."

Her eyes narrowed a fraction.

"Have you told Gia?"

"Not yet."

"Then you’re carrying a schedule risk and an emotional one in the same hand. Fix the second before you file the first."

Jenna turned the schematic off.

"I’m not blocking dual registration. I’m telling you that if Gia learns about your training methods with Lawless from anyone except you, the week of distance will look merciful by comparison."

"She asked for a break."

"Yes. No one’s blaming you."

I nodded once.

The warning sat where it belonged.

"I’m going home."

"Eat," Jenna said.

"And Revien, do not let Rei control the timing of the truth. She will if you leave a vacuum."

I left the guild with that line still in my ears.

On the vehicle ride, I took out my phone, opened Gianna’s thread, and stared at the empty compose field.

The call option sat beside it.

I was still trying to decide whether a call or a message was the less cowardly version of we need to talk when the residential block rose into view.

I never got to send either.

When I opened the apartment door, Gianna was already inside.

Eh?

She stood in the living room with her jacket still on, hair tied back from training, expression locked down so tightly it looked calm at a distance.

Up close, it was not calm.

My body registered the wrongness before my mind finished the sentence.

"What?" I said, stupid with surprise.

Gianna didn’t raise her voice.

She turned her phone and activated a recording.

The angle was slightly high, slightly off-center, someone filming without caring about composition.

The private training room. Mirrored wall. My back. Rei’s hands. Clear as a medical exhibit: Rei kissing me, then me pulling her in instead of freezing, deepening it, holding the back of her neck like the contact had become a decision.

The timestamp was today’s session.

When did Rei even—

The clip ended on the moment I broke the kiss and said something the audio only half caught about timing.

Silence filled the apartment.

Gianna lowered the phone.

"Looks like you replaced me faster than I thought."

The words were flat. Not theatrical. That made them worse.

"Gia—"

"I’m still inside the week I asked for."

Her eyes stayed on me, red and steady and bright with something that wasn’t simple anger.

"I used part of it to get stronger and part of it to decide whether I could stand next to you without waiting for your hands to stop belonging to you. Then I get a file from Rei Lawless with no caption. Just proof."

My throat felt tight.

"I was going to tell you."

"When?" she asked.

"Before you registered both of us for the exam? After another week of ’training’? Or after I heard it from someone else in a corridor?"

"I left the guild intending to call you. Jenna and I just talked about dual registration. Two supports are allowed, sometimes three. I wanted you on that slate. Her too. I didn’t want you to find out like this."

Gianna let out a short breath that was almost a laugh and nothing like humor.

"You wanted me on a slate with her."

"I wanted you," I said.

"The exam structure allows more than one partner. The power, the academy, this entire world, none of it is built for the clean version. I was trying to stop pretending I could keep every thread in a separate sealed box until it became a worse betrayal."

She held up the phone once, not replaying it, just reminding the air that the image existed.

"This isn’t a thread, Revien. This is her mouth on yours and you answering. In the same building where I’m running circuits until my hands shake so I don’t text you. Do you understand how that lands?"

"Yes."

"Do you?"

Her voice finally sharpened.

"Because I have been trying to be an adult about what this life is. Supports. Compatibility. My mother. The fact that your class does not do monogamy like a story. I didn’t ask you to become celibate for a week. I asked for distance so I could look at what happened the night you locked up on top of me without you standing in the frame. And the person you used that distance to practice closeness with is the same person who forced a kiss on you in a crisis and talked about taking you out of this guild like a resource."