Kellan forces his name back onto the rank board, but the appeal fee drops him below every funded student.
The Brass Rank Board put Kellan back among first-year students at sunset, but it placed him at the bottom with a chain icon beside his name and a House Veyr appeal fee hanging from the line like a stone. Students in the courtyard stopped pretending not to look. Provisional standing made better gossip than expulsion because it let everyone argue how long the fall would take.
Kellan stood under the board with Mira and watched his account bleed numbers he could not pay.
"That fee is not an academy charge," Mira said. She had already copied the line twice. "It is routed through Veyr's appeal office."
"They can bill me for challenging Damian?"
"They can bill anyone for breathing near their reputation. Paying is the part they usually reserve for poor students."
The Black Ledger opened inside Kellan's satchel without being touched.
APPEAL FEE: HOUSE VEYR.
COLLATERAL CLAIM: REPUTATION BOND.
MATURITY: BEFORE DUEL PRACTICUM.
Kellan shut the flap before the page could ask for blood. His head still throbbed from the conduct hearing. "Duel practicum is next week."
"Then the fee is not meant to be paid," Mira said. "It is meant to mature during the practicum and make your rank illegal."
Across the courtyard, Damian Veyr accepted congratulations as if losing a frozen answer had been a minor weather event. Beside him stood Seraphine Velor, silver duelist ribbon tied over one shoulder, expression unreadable. Kellan knew her by reputation. Everyone did. Seraphine did not waste motion, did not miss counters, and did not need to sneer because the score board had always done it for her.
Damian saw Kellan watching and lifted a hand. "Vale. Your name looks charming in brass. Like a warning label."
Kellan walked over before Mira could catch his sleeve.
The funded students opened space around him with theatrical care, as if debt were contagious. Damian enjoyed that. Seraphine did not. Her eyes moved once to the appeal fee, once to the gray frozen observer mark, and then back to Kellan's face.
"You wanted me on the board," Kellan said. "I am on it."
"I wanted you under it," Damian said. "The week is young."
Seraphine finally spoke. "Do you intend to enter duel practicum under audit restriction?"
Her voice was cool, not cruel. That made Kellan wary.
"If the academy lets me."
"It will." Damian drew a flat black token from his coat and flicked it toward Kellan. "House Veyr petitions to test your provisional rank in the opening practicum. Refusal matures the appeal fee."
Kellan caught the token because letting it hit the ground would look like fear. It was heavier than wood, edged with silver and stamped with Veyr's hawk. Three seals clung to the back: Veyr blue, referee white, and a dull green mark he did not know.
The Black Ledger burned against his ribs.
Mira reached him and stared at the token. "Do not accept that."
Damian smiled. "Your clerk speaks quickly."
"She reads quickly," Kellan said.
Seraphine's gaze sharpened at the correction.
Mira pointed at the green seal without touching it. "That is not a dueling seal."
Damian took one step closer. "Scholarship rumor has become very brave since breakfast."
Kellan let the token rest on his palm and forced the Black Ledger open only a crack. Pain licked up his wrist. The seals separated in his sight, each one trailing a different debt line.
Veyr blue: victory guarantee.
Referee white: penalty authority.
Green: recovery reserve.
The third line smelled wrong even in the silent language of the page. A duel token should risk points, pride, maybe controlled injury. It should not pledge recovery funds before anyone had been hurt.
"Why does a practicum token carry a recovery reserve?" Kellan asked.
Seraphine looked at Damian.
Damian's smile stayed in place. "Because some students are fragile."
"No," Kellan said. "Because someone plans to charge the injury before the strike."
That reached Seraphine. Not openly. Her jaw did not drop, her eyes did not widen, but the hand at her side tightened once.
Damian extended his palm. "If you are frightened, return the token and let the fee mature."
Kellan could feel every sensible answer fleeing. He had no combat strength. His casting restriction meant any audit during the duel could become another conduct charge. But refusing put him back in debtor gravity, lower than the rank board had just lifted him.
He held up the token so the nearest students could see the seals. "I accept the practicum challenge, with all seals preserved for board review."
The courtyard murmured.
Seraphine said, quietly, "All seals?"
"All three."
Damian's eyes flashed. He had expected panic, maybe pride. He had not expected inventory.
The Brass Rank Board answered with a fresh line under Kellan's provisional mark: DUEL PRACTICUM SCHEDULED.
Then, beneath Seraphine Velor's immaculate rank, a tiny green debt mark appeared and vanished so fast most students missed it.
Seraphine did not.
She looked at the token in Kellan's hand as if seeing her family's crest on a blade pointed the wrong way.