Chapter 4: The Lockdown Protocol
The moment the Hollow King laughed, the Tower changed.
Runes flared along the walls—not the gold of academic magic, but a sickly green, pulsing like a dying heartbeat. The air thickened with the scent of rust and ozone. Somewhere above, a voice boomed through the halls:
"Containment breach. Initiate Lockdown."
Illana grabbed Elias's arm, her nails biting into his skin. "We need to move. Now."
Elias stared at his hands. The equation was gone—burned away after its use—but his fingertips were stained, the skin threaded with fine black veins. "What did I just do?"
"You woke up the Tower's immune system," Illana hissed, dragging him toward a hidden alcove. "And it's about to purge everything."
The Ivory Tower's Secret
The alcove led to a narrow stairwell, its steps worn smooth by centuries of forbidden footsteps. Illana moved like a woman who'd memorized every crack.
"The Tower isn't just a school," she whispered as they descended. "It's a ward. Built atop the Hollow King's prison. Every spell cast here reinforces the bars—except yours."
Elias's stained fingers throbbed. "So my math is... what? Poison to the system?"
"Worse. It's compatible." Illana halted at a landing, pressing her ear to the wall. "The King's been trying to break free for centuries. He needs a mind that can understand him. A Keybearer."
A shudder ran through the stone. From above came the sound of scraping—like claws on slate.
Elias's breath fogged in the suddenly frigid air. "And the others? The Keybearers before me?"
Illana's eye darkened. "They're why the Forsaken Section exists."
The First Madman
The stairwell emptied into a circular chamber, its walls lined with glass-fronted cells. Each held a corpse—preserved, seated at a desk, their skeletal hands still clutching quills.
Elias stepped closer to the nearest. The corpse's skull was split, the bone splayed open like a flower. Scrawled across the glass in frantic script:
"THE NUMBERS DON'T STOP SINGING"
Illana's voice was grim. "Every Keybearer cracks the same way. Their minds... expand. Too much."
Elias touched his own temple. The black veins itched. "How long do I have?"
"Depends. The fastest lasted three days." She nodded to the last cell. "The slowest? A month. He wrote an entire grimoire before his skull ruptured."
The scraping grew louder. Closer.
Elias turned—just as the stairwell's door slammed shut. The torchlight guttered, shadows pooling at their feet. From the darkness rose a whisper:
"Little Keybearer. Let me show you what real magic looks like."
The Living Shadow
It moved faster than thought.
One moment, the shadows were formless. The next—a thing lunged, its body a tangle of grasping hands and teeth. Illana's dagger flashed, slicing through it, but the severed pieces reformed instantly.
Elias backpedaled, his mind racing. Conceptual magic erased the cultist—but this is already a concept. Shadow. Absence. How do you unmake nothing?
The answer came in a burst of pain. The black veins in his fingers surged, and suddenly, he saw the shadow's true shape—not a monster, but an equation. A flawed one.
His hand moved on its own, tracing symbols in the air. The shadow stilled, its form unraveling into a string of numbers.
Then Elias twisted them.
The shadow screamed—a sound like shattering glass—and collapsed into inert dust.
Silence.
Illana stared at him. "You rewrote it."
Elias's nose dripped blood. The veins had climbed to his wrist. "I fixed the math."
Above them, the Tower groaned.
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End Chapter 4