It started with a whisper in the walls.
One that most couldn't hear—too faint, too old.
But Karl heard it.
Because it wasn't in the stone.
It was in the glyphs.
The emissary moved without sound, leading Karl through a tunnel beneath Valdros that didn't exist on any student map.
No torches. No guards. No glyph-lights.
Only runes carved into stone older than the academy itself, glowing faintly as they passed.
"What is this place?" Karl asked.
The emissary didn't turn.
"A grave."
"Whose?"
The emissary slowed as they entered a great circular chamber, half-collapsed and coated in dust.
At the center, a shattered blade still stood, buried to its hilt in a pool of crystalized mana.
"Yours."
Karl stepped toward the blade instinctively.
The fifth glyph pulsed with every step.
Raiven's voice came in low from his shadow.
"This battlefield… remembers him."
The emissary moved to the opposite side of the chamber, resting a hand on the crystalized pool.
"The last time the Gate threatened to open, this is where you fell."
Karl's voice was a whisper.
"I died here?"
"No. You shattered here."
Meanwhile, above ground…
Aeris was on her knees, struggling to breathe.
Her Soulbind—Thalorien's Echo—flared wildly behind her, wings of light flickering and glitching, like the resonance was… misaligned.
Instructor Nyla held her by the shoulders.
"What's happening?!"
Aeris gasped.
"I don't… know—something's… wrong—"
Then her eyes snapped open, glowing gold and white.
She screamed.
Deep underground, Karl staggered as a burst of radiant heat hit his chest like a wave.
The fifth glyph erupted in violet flame.
The emissary turned sharply.
"Someone else is resonating."
Aeris's vision split in half.
In one eye: the courtyard. The sky.
In the other: darkness.
A shape moving.
Then a voice in her head—not her own.
"You stood beside him once. You bled beside him. Your soul remembers."
She collapsed.
Thalorien's echo vanished mid-air in a thunderclap.
Karl burst through the infirmary doors moments later.
He found her unconscious, sweat dripping down her temples, her mana still unstable.
The fifth glyph on his shoulder continued to glow.
He moved to her side, gently placing a hand near hers—but before he could touch her—
She gripped his wrist.
Eyes wide.
Glowing.
And she said:
"Don't leave me behind again, Veynrith."
The room fell into silence.
He whispered, "You remember?"
Her voice broke.
"Just fragments. A sword. A battlefield. You were walking into death and you didn't tell me why."
Karl clenched his jaw.
"Because I didn't want to say goodbye."
Later, as the two sat alone in the infirmary garden, Aeris leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I saw your death."
Karl nodded slowly.
"I felt it."
"You weren't afraid."
He looked at her.
"I was. Just not for me."
Elsewhere, the academy council had descended into argument.
Elaris stood unmoving at the center as voices clashed:
"He needs to be sent away—contained."
"He's our only key to the Gate!"
"Or the one who'll open it!"
Then a whisper:
"One of us is already missing…"
Everyone froze.
"Who?"
"Elder Reth. He hasn't been seen since yesterday."
In the southern wing of the academy, a young student collapsed near the mirror basin.
She stood moments later…
…but her eyes were not her own.
Aether flared from her back like wings made of nothing.
She looked toward the sky and spoke in a voice that echoed with two tongues:
"The Gate remembers. The Seal falters."
And then… she collapsed again.
That night, Karl returned to the reflecting basin on the dorm rooftop.
He didn't speak.
He simply stared into the water.
Then—something shifted.
The surface rippled, though no wind stirred.
And in the reflection…
He saw a face that wasn't his.
Older. Battle-worn.
Wearing armor laced with glyphs yet unseen.
And the reflection said—
"You're almost me again."