Valmont Series - Inheritance Code

Chapter 9.6 - Sublevel Zero

Aiden didn't sit. He wasn't there to cast favor.

His gaze tracked the Sovereign Gallery—that elevated crescent of observation glass carved into the Core Nexus chamber wall. It hovered above the panel floor without signage or structure, accessible only by Prestige-coded clearance. No announcements. No seats. Just presence.

From below, it looked like an architectural afterthought.

To Avalon, it was the opposite.

That's where he scanned first.

For the anomaly.

And there—

Cassian Dantes.

No podium. No insignia. Not seated. Just standing near the elevated rear tier—black coat sharp against the platinum-veined wall, arms crossed like he already knew how every speech would end.

Their eyes didn't meet.

But something shifted—unmistakable.

Aiden moved instantly.

He bypassed the candidate tiers with calculated ease, slipping along the outer curve of the chamber's luminous incline. The next voice was already speaking—something rehearsed about inter-sectra cohesion and cultural parity. It echoed faintly behind him. Irrelevant.

Cassian was moving.

Not fast. Not hidden. But precise.

His steps cut through the ambient light as he passed through a seamless opening near the mezzanine's shadow edge—one of those rare architectural folds that most wouldn't notice unless they were meant to. The kind that shimmered just enough to suggest access.

Aiden followed without hesitation.

The hall narrowed. Light faded from overhead strips to reactive threads along the floor—soft, intelligent, sensing movement. The temperature dropped. Sound softened. Each step they took echoed in near-perfect silence, as if the space were carved out of Avalon itself.

Cassian didn't look back. He didn't have to.

He knew Aiden was there.

Level by level, they ascended through the Gravity Loop rings—silent pulses of light carrying them upward in seamless arcs, no commands given, no positions checked. Cassian moved without pause, his black coat slicing through the filtered glow like a blade of intention.

Aiden followed.

He no longer cared how many tiers they'd crossed. He didn't glance at markers or directional glyphs. The pursuit had become instinct—silent, magnetic, inevitable.

The final loop deposited them into a high, narrow corridor carved from obsidian-hued alloy. No signage. No traffic. Just stillness and power woven into the walls.

Cassian turned one last time.

Slipped around a corner.

Aiden followed—

And stopped.

A dead end.

A wall of seamless metal, too perfect to be accidental. No access panel. No visible break.

Empty.

He blinked once. Twice.

Gone.

No trace. No door. No exit glyph. Just the ambient hum of the infrastructure zone, barely audible beneath Avalon's gravity systems.

But Aiden didn't flinch.

Cassian had let him follow. Each step had been a signal. Every turn, deliberate.

This wasn't a mistake.

It was the final mark in the pattern.

Then, without sound—without warning—the wall before him breathed. Not visually. Not digitally. Just... shifted.

Subtly.

A faint arc of light skimmed its edge, no brighter than moonlit glass.

Aiden stepped forward.

The wall dissolved into itself.

An opening.

Not an invitation.

An initiation.

He exhaled slowly. Pulse steady. No hesitation.

This time, Cassian hadn't disappeared.

He'd opened the path.

Third attempt: complete.

Aiden stepped through.

Next: The Vault Between Questions – "Not everything sealed is meant to be hidden."