The Eastern Wing of the library was quieter than the rest. Less about spells or combat. More about forgotten glyphwork and arcane theory long buried under more fashionable disciplines.
Kaelen stepped carefully over scattered scrolls on the marble floor. The moonlight streamed through high arched windows, catching the dust in its glow. Even the magic lanterns here hummed at a lower pitch.
"You're late," Seraphine said, without looking up.
She was seated on the floor between two ancient stacks, legs crossed, a tome opened across her lap. Her hair was pulled back, and for once, she wasn't in uniform. Just a dark, worn tunic and soft boots.
Kaelen dropped into a crouch beside her.
"You asked me to come. I didn't know there was a time limit."
She didn't reply. Just nudged a second book toward him with her elbow.
"Read that. Slowly."
He raised an eyebrow, flipping it open.The page was filled with glyph sketches and hand-inked notes in what looked like… Seraphine's handwriting?
"You wrote this?"
"Copied it from a destroyed volume in the ruin archives."
"Why?"
Seraphine's gaze stayed on the book in her lap.Her voice was soft.
"Because no one else remembered it. And I couldn't forget."
That answer hit differently.
Kaelen set the book down.
"You always seem like you don't care. But then you show me this."
"I don't care about approval," she murmured. "I care about truth. And sometimes… about people who try to find it, even if they're stupid about it."
She glanced up at him briefly, something flickering in her eyes.
"Like you."
Kaelen almost smiled. Almost.
"Is that your version of a compliment?"
"Don't get greedy."
They sat there, books between them, the silence filling in the spaces words didn't need to cover.
Outside, a low gust of wind whispered through the window cracks, rustling the parchment slightly. Kaelen turned another page.
"You marked something here. A glyph I haven't seen before."
"It's a binding glyph, nested in a lattice structure," Seraphine explained. "Not Academy-approved. It's ancient. Pre-Tower."
"Same symbol you gave me yesterday?"
"Related. It's what keeps the sigil-lost from fragmenting."
"The girl. Elaris."
Seraphine flinched, barely. But Kaelen saw it.
"You know her," he said quietly.
"I knew someone like her," Seraphine replied. "Before they erased it. Before they made me forget."
Kaelen frowned.
"What do you mean—"
"Not tonight."
She cut him off, but not harshly.
"Not here."
She stood up and dusted off her knees, then hesitated.
"I didn't bring you here for answers. Just to remember that the past still matters. Even when the Tower wants to rewrite it."
Her eyes lingered on him longer than usual.
"You're not what I expected when I first saw you. All edge and secrets. But you're not a liar."
Kaelen looked up at her, caught in the faint silver halo of library moonlight.
"Neither are you. You just lie to yourself more than others."
That earned a very small smile.
"Shut up."
"I could—"
She held up a finger, silencing him.
Then she turned, walking toward the far stacks.
But just before disappearing behind the shelves, she added:
"You can stay. As long as you don't mess up the order of the scrolls. I actually care about that."
Selene stood in the shadows of a courtyard arch, hidden by spell-woven wards.
She had followed Kaelen on instinct. Not to confront him. Just to see.
Through the stained-glass windows, she caught a glimpse of Seraphine's silhouette as it moved. Laughing? No… smiling, at least.
Selene's hand clenched.
She wasn't sure what she feared more—that Seraphine cared for Kaelen…Or that Kaelen might need her in a way he didn't need Selene anymore.
As Kaelen leaves the library hours later, a wind cuts across the courtyard—warm, wrong.
A single feather, blackened and scorched, drifts down before him.
He picks it up.
The moment he touches it, the glyph on his palm flares.
In his mind:A voice.A single word.
"Soon."