The mood at Arcanis Academy was thick with unspoken fear. Whispers ran through the halls like dark shadows with teeth, instigated by fear and awe. Elira had not slept for two nights after what had transpired beneath the stone room. Not really. Not after she saw the strange glyphs on the walls of the old building—glyphs which seemed only she seemed to recognize.
She was in one of the Grand Library's corner booths, a pile of old books looming above her like a protective heap. They consisted of largely dusty tomes years and years ago untouched by scholars. She prodded at a creaking page and her hands trembled.
"Die Weapers of Schicksal. Voidbinding. Seele Spiegel." she half-whispered to herself, scanning with her eyes as she aligned symbols in her mind to weathered images.
You're going to incinerate the whole library with that expression," Kael whispered, appearing behind her like a specter. His nearness, as always, sent a shiver running up her spine.
Elira turned around, startled. "Don't sneak up on people like that."
He raised an eyebrow. "You've been neglecting meals. Sleep. I thought you were dead. Or worse, caught reading trash.".
She shut the book with a sigh. "I am attempting to attempt to decipher what those runes were. The ones beneath the location of the remains of the chapel. I am certain that I have seen them before."
The expression on Kael's face grew somewhat grim. "You shouldn't have returned there alone. The entire wing is off-limits by the Council."
"So why would they leave the door open?" she persisted. "It's as if they wanted someone to find it."
Kael didn't answer. Instead, he sat across from her, curling fingers into contemplation. "The glyphs. they were Aetherian, weren't they?"
She stiffened. "You saw them too?"
"I recognized some of them. My mother used to read a book to me before she. before things changed."
The subsequent silence was significant. Elira had learned her lesson and did not push him when he talked about the past. The Void Prince did not relinquish his ghosts so easily.
There was a sudden throb of a faint pulse in her bond. Her heart constricted. She turned to Kael.
"You felt that, too?"
Kael rose from where he was sitting, nodding slowly. "Someone's practicing blood magic somewhere around here.".
The two of them ran, their path through empty corridors until they blundered into the outer courtyard. Glowing scarlet light flickered in the distance. They followed its source to a secret garden known as the Whispering Hollow—a necropolis for broken spells and dying magic.
There, a ring of hooded students stood with their mouths agape, chanting in low, rasping voices. A burning sigil lay at their feet, and bound at the center of the spell was a creature—half-beast, half-shade. Its form shuddered, contained by magical runes.
"What in the name of the Ancients—" Elira gasped.
Kael's grip on her wrist tightened. "Don't step into the circle."
But she already had.
One of the hooded forms whirled around. Familiar eyes clashed with hers—cold, purple, and mean. Selene Vaelor, first student of House Cindralis. A strident defender of the Council.
"Elira Thorne," Selene taunted. "I knew you'd be inserting your nose into where it shouldn't be."
"What are you doing? That's a blasphemed binding sigil," Elira snarled, voice slicing.
Selene smiled. "Cursed? No. Right. We're purging the Academy of leeches. Creatures like this one carry imprints of the Void. It's our duty to remove them before your kind taints it further."
Kael moved forward, his presence altering the air. The void within him seethed in silent anger.
"My kind?" he snarled, venom in his tone.
Selene taunted him. "Oh, I forgot. The pet prince is always around."
Selene hurled a spurt of fire their direction with a snap of her wrist. Kael dodged them readily, stealthy darkness curling about his palm. The fires dispersed against the dark cloak.
"I won't hurt you," Kael warned. "But if you insist on—"
"What will you do?" Selene taunted. "Burn me out? Do it. Show yourself to be as afflicted as they say."
Elira straddled them. "This is not the way. That thing—it's afraid. Not corrupted."
Selene's face twisted. "Do you know anything of corruption?"
The runes on the floor blazed brightly. The trapped animal howled, eyes locking with Elira's. And for a moment—
—a vision flashed.
It was brief, like lightning through the thoughts.
She saw a broken throne.
A crying child with white hair and purple eyes.
A sunlit sword—and a hand reaching out to it, shaking.
Elira shrieked and cringed. The monster had spoken to her in the bond. It had memory. Mind.
"It's not a monster," she breathed. "It's human. Or. it was."
Kael growled. "Soul-twisted."
Selene winced. "All the more reason to kill it."
She turned from him. "If I sever the soul-bond's connection for a moment, I can redirect its madness. I can stabilize it."
"You'll tear your mind apart," Kael growled.
"I won't." She grasped the edge of the circle. "I have to try."
The moment her hand made contact with the pulsing sigil, pain shot through her like a broken spear. Shrieks resonated in her mind—not hers—the beast's.
**
She dropped.
Down and down into a well of memories not her own.
There was struggle. Fire. Screams. She saw the ancient city of Aetherion perish, felt the last breath of magic fade as the void swallowed it whole.
Then the cold. The hunger.
The Void god cursing oaths in a dead language.
And then. her.
Elira.
A light in the infinite darkness.
**
"Elira!"
She awoke with a terror. Kael was holding her, his face pale with rage and fear. The circle had been broken. The beast was gone.
Selene and her crew were withdrawing, pale-faced and shaking.
"You bonded with it, didn't you?" Kael snapped.
She nodded slowly. "Only for a moment. Long enough to see. there's more at play here than we expected."
Kael stood her up. "We need to speak to Professor Varin. Now.".
As they staggered away from the defiled garden, neither of them noticed the small sigil burning on the back of Elira's neck—a new brand, put there in the tongue of the long-forgotten gods.
**
Shadows within the headmaster's tower started to shift.
And in a locked vault under the council chambers, something old began to stir.
--