The courtyard was quiet by morning, but Kaelen felt like the echoes of the duel still clung to the stone.
His name had spread. Not by voice, but by glance.
He felt it in the way students paused their steps as he passed, how whisper-runes on parchments flared and dimmed when he approached. No one spoke directly, but everyone knew something had happened.
Lorien hadn't returned to class.
That silence was louder than any rumor.
Classroom 9-R, Third Bell – Glyph Theory
Kaelen sat in the back row beside Selene, notebook in hand, though he hadn't written a word.
He could feel her beside him—composed, alert, like a blade hidden in a sheath. Her profile was calm as ever, but he noticed the smallest flick of her finger tracing over the carved edge of her desk. Counting time. Or calming herself.
"You're overthinking again," she said without turning.
Kaelen blinked. "How can you tell?"
"You always press your lips together when you're holding something in."
"That's… oddly observant."
"You sit beside someone long enough, you learn things."
He didn't reply.
But he couldn't help the warmth that reached his chest.
A few minutes into class, a parchment note flickered in through the warded classroom door—glowing slightly with minor flight enchantment. It floated, hovered, then drifted toward Kaelen's desk like it had chosen him.
His name was written in crisp, silver ink.
Selene looked at it, then at him.
"Are you going to open it?"
He frowned. "Is it cursed?"
"That's what I'm here for."
Kaelen unsealed the wax. A single line blinked into existence:
"Come alone. Hour past dusk. Mirror Hall."– For eyes that see more than they should.
Selene's brow furrowed as she read it over his shoulder. "That's not student protocol."
"I've noticed." Kaelen folded the note.
"You shouldn't go."
"I'm not letting someone else dictate what I can or can't face."
"Not even me?"
He paused. "Especially not you."
Selene narrowed her eyes at him, but a trace of a smile curved her mouth.
"I'm still following."
After Dusk – Mirror Hall
The Mirror Hall wasn't used anymore.
Once part of the original Reflection Order, the place was a gallery of enchanted mirrors—some cracked, some dimmed, others humming faintly with memory-stored light. It had become a sanctuary for secrets. And students with too many of them.
Kaelen entered the stone corridor with careful steps.
The air shimmered unnaturally.
He approached the center of the room where a tall, unbroken mirror stood. It had no reflection. Only ripples, like a pond.
Then the light shifted.
Someone stepped out from behind it.
Not Seraphine.
Not Selene.
A boy.
Perhaps seventeen. Skin like onyx marble and eyes made entirely of silver glyph-thread. His robes bore no faction colors. Instead, a dark sigil hovered behind his back like a halo.
"You're not Flameborn," Kaelen said.
"No."
"You're not Archive or Shardwalk either."
"I'm not meant to be known."
Kaelen crossed his arms. "Then why the note?"
The boy smiled, faint. "You drew on something ancient. The Tower noticed. And so did we."
Kaelen tensed. "Who's we?"
The boy didn't answer. Instead, he raised a hand—and a glowing glyph formed mid-air. Complex. Interwoven.
A memory sigil.
Kaelen stepped back. "That's a mind mark."
"Not to control," the boy said. "To show."
Kaelen hesitated—then nodded.
The glyph flared—
—a battlefield.Not of this world. Broken sky. Two moons. A tower shattered and burning.And Kaelen's sigil glowing on the wrist of a dead man lying atop a mound of crystal thorns.
Then it was gone.
Kaelen stumbled back, gasping.
"What was that?"
"Your legacy," the boy said. "One we thought extinguished."
Kaelen shook his head. "No. I'm just—"
"–A boy who carries Veritas," the figure said softly. "A power lost to the Ninefold Collapse. A curse and truth made flesh."
Kaelen looked up, hands trembling.
"You want me to join you?"
"No," the boy said. "I want you to remember. When the Tower comes for you, not all doors will be locked. Some were always waiting."
He stepped backward.
Faded.
Gone.
Later – Garden Steps
Kaelen sat with his hands folded, breathing carefully.
Selene found him first.
She sat beside him, close enough that their shoulders touched, but said nothing for a long while.
"Want to tell me what happened?" she finally asked.
Kaelen opened his mouth—then closed it.
He shook his head.
Selene sighed. "You're going to burn yourself alive holding all this in."
He turned to her.
There was a tired softness in her face.
"I'm trying not to," he said.
They didn't speak again. But they didn't move either.
Somewhere Else – Moonlight Chamber
Seraphine stood at the edge of the star-laced balcony, listening to the wind.
The Tower's wards were trembling again.
She felt it in her bones.
In the space between her ribs.
Kaelen's magic is changing.
She closed her eyes—and for a moment, she allowed herself to feel the ache that came with it.
If he breaks… I'll shatter with him.
She didn't want to care.
She hadn't meant to.
But here she was.
Already caught.