📖 Ashes of the Forgotten Star Chapter 7 – The Hidden Staircase
Wind howled through the cracks in the courtyard stonework.
The Old Courtyard, once a place of duels and ceremonies, now lay abandoned — choked with vines and moss, its grand statues broken and weatherworn. Faint moonlight spilled over fractured marble, painting everything in shades of ghostly silver.
I arrived early, hidden in the shadows of a crumbling archway. Elyra's note hadn't given much detail, but the message had been clear: Come alone.
At exactly midnight, footsteps echoed.
Elyra stepped into view, her silver hair catching the moonlight like starlight drawn to her. She wore a traveling cloak over her uniform, and in her hand, the same type of glowing crystal I'd been examining — shaped like a sliver of a shattered star.
"You came," she said softly.
I stepped forward. "You didn't leave me much choice."
"I could say the same for you," she replied. "Do you know what you did during the mana assessment?"
I raised an eyebrow. "You mean not explode the prism?"
"That prism hasn't reacted like that in over a hundred years." She paused. "Not since the last person touched by the Forgotten Star."
I stared at her.
Elyra walked over to a statue — a fallen angel cradling a sword — and pressed her crystal fragment into a shallow groove on its pedestal.
The ground trembled.
A low, grinding rumble echoed beneath us as a square of stone shifted, revealing a hidden staircase descending into darkness.
Without a word, she began down the steps.
I followed.
The passage was narrow and steep, lit only by the pale glow of Elyra's crystal. As we descended, the air grew colder. Ancient symbols lined the walls — not in any language I recognized, yet strangely familiar.
"How far down does this go?" I asked.
"No one knows," she replied. "This place predates the academy itself. Only a few are granted access."
"And you're one of them?"
"I'm a Candidate," she said. "For the Circle."
We reached a large stone door etched with runes that shimmered as we approached.
Elyra placed her hand on the center, and the runes pulsed in response — once, then again.
The door slid open.
Inside was a chamber carved from obsidian — smooth, flawless, unnatural. Seven crystal obelisks floated in a perfect circle, each humming softly. In the center, a pool of still water reflected not the room, but a sky full of stars.
Three robed figures stood silently around the pool. Their faces were masked, their auras carefully concealed.
"Is this him?" one of them asked, voice distorted by enchantment.
Elyra nodded. "He felt the pulse. The fragment reacted to him."
The tallest figure studied me. "Name?"
"Lioren."
A pause. "That is not your original name."
My fingers twitched.
They knew.
"You are a Revenant," another said slowly. "A soul reborn into this age, carrying echoes of a power long buried."
I said nothing. My instincts screamed to stay silent — not out of fear, but caution.
"Show him," the first figure said.
Elyra stepped to the pool and dropped her fragment into the water.
The surface rippled, and then it began to shift — like a window opening.
I saw a vision.
A city of crystal towers floating in the sky, surrounded by rings of gravity-defying stone. Above it burned a star unlike any in the heavens — alive, pulsing with raw mana.
Then came the rupture.
The star cracked — no, was broken — and light consumed the city. Towers fell. Sky shattered. And seven beings stood against a tide of darkened flame and twisted flesh.
Then darkness again.
When I looked away, I was breathless.
"That star," I murmured. "It wasn't just magic. It was… alive."
"Yes," Elyra said. "Aetherius, the First Source. Its fragments scattered across the world. The most powerful of them fell here — beneath Veltheim."
"And the Circle protects it?"
"We protect the balance," said the third robed figure. "And now, Lioren, we ask you: Will you walk the path of the Awakened? Will you face what your soul once ran from?"
That last line cut deep.
Because somewhere inside me… it rang true.
I clenched my fists. "What happens if I say no?"
"Then we seal your memories and send you back. You'll never touch the core again."
I hesitated.
The safer path was obvious.
But I hadn't come back to live quietly.
"I'll walk the path," I said finally. "But I do it on my terms."
The figures looked at one another — and bowed their heads.
"So be it," they said in unison.
Elyra smiled faintly. "Welcome to the Circle."
We returned to the surface before dawn. The courtyard was silent, bathed in early mist.
Before we parted, Elyra looked at me seriously.
"There's more," she said. "Other fragments. Other Awakened. Some of them… aren't on our side."
"What do they want?"
"To finish what the last age couldn't," she said. "To unseal the Heart of Aetherius."
"And destroy everything?"
"Or reshape it in their image."
I nodded.
The world was much bigger than I thought. And much older.
Later that morning, as I returned to my dorm, a message waited for me:
Mandatory Trial: Combat Evaluation.
Assigned Opponent: Kael Dyran.
Location: Arena 6 — Today.
A test?
Or a trap?
Either way, it was time I stopped hiding.
Let them see what a forgotten star could do.
To be continued…