The air hadn't moved in minutes.
The Council was gone—vanishing like ghosts swallowed by time. Even the Headmaster stood motionless, eyes flickering with thoughts Riven couldn't begin to guess.
Only he and Lira remained under the broken sky.
She was sitting now, knees pulled to her chest, small hands clutched around the pendant she never took off. The chaos, the Reaver, the Council… all of it faded behind the way her hair blew softly in the wind, like a child caught in a storm she couldn't name.
Riven knelt beside her.
"You okay?"
She nodded slowly. "Just tired."
He wanted to ask a thousand things—what she saw, what she became, what she forgot to remember—but none of them would fix the fear coiled in his gut.
So he said nothing.
Just sat with her, watching the cracks in the courtyard glow faintly with residual magic, like scars not yet healed.
Somewhere beyond the veil of stars...
The Sleepless Ones moved.
They did not breathe. They did not blink. They did not remember names, only targets.
Bound in chains forged from collapsed timelines and stitched into the skin of forgotten gods, they slipped through the barriers of reality, invisible to all but the most ancient wards. Each step they took bled the color from the world around them.
And now, they walked toward the Academy.
Back in the infirmary...
Riven watched Lira sleep beneath layers of enchantments and sigils, each glowing faintly. The Librarian herself had etched them by hand, muttering things like null echoes and memory seals.
He stood at the window, fists clenched.
"Why her?" he muttered. "Why now?"
No answer came.
Only the system returned—its screen sluggish, flickering.
[Alert: Critical Synchronization Lag Detected][Skill: Passive Chaosborn Resonance - Awakening Stabilized][System Note: Two polar cores detected. Compatibility: Pending][Recommendation: Begin Dual Alignment Training][Warning: You are being tracked.]
His breath caught.
Tracked?
He turned quickly—and saw nothing.
No shadows. No movement.
But something was there.
Not watching.
Hunting.
Beneath the Academy, at the sealed vault...
The Headmaster stood before the door carved in celestial bone. The Librarian hovered beside him.
"You didn't tell the Council everything," she said quietly.
He nodded. "I couldn't."
"About the boy?"
"No," he said. "About the class he's slowly becoming."
The Librarian's face tightened.
"Chaosborn?"
The Headmaster shook his head.
"That... was just the beginning."