[Shortly after the library]
---
The Artifex building occupied its own area, separate from the main academy grounds. The atmosphere here felt different—more like a museum or reservation than a place of education.
Vel followed the paved path that split through the greenery. The grass on either side was deliberately kept low, trimmed to a uniform height.
As he approached the entrance, two massive statues flanked the doorway. Beneath each stood a brazier, their flames burning in unnatural hues—shifting between blue and violet. The left statue held a scale, the right clutched an ancient-looking book.
The tower itself rose before him—white stone spiraling upward, each level narrower than the last. Lush green vines climbed portions of the surface, woven into the architecture as if they'd grown there by design rather than accident.
Vel climbed the steps and pushed through the arched entrance.
He stopped just inside.
The building's interior was hollow—completely open from ground level to nearly the top. Natural light filtered down from somewhere far above.
From where he stood, Vel could see each floor's walkway and balcony spiraling upward around the hollow center, level after level reaching toward that distant light. Strange beams gleaming with dark gold metal stretched vertically through the space, connecting the floors. Not quite stairs, not quite supports. They hummed faintly with magic, their purpose unclear.
His gaze dropped to a long desk positioned to his right. An old man with gray hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, the style revealing a substantial portion of his forehead lined with age.
"Can I help you, young man?" he asked, his voice surprisingly clear despite his apparent age.
"I'm looking for Instructor Nalren," Vel said, keeping his voice respectful.
The old man didn't look up from his journal. "Is this pre-appointed or occasional?"
Vel hesitated. "Occasional."
"Purpose?"
Vel weighed how much to reveal. Too little might get him turned away, too much might raise suspicions.
"I'm researching... a possibility that combines magic and alchemy. I need to study a certain artifact."
The old man lifted his head to look at Vel while still maintaining his hunched posture. His eyes were sharp despite his age, with a clarity that suggested decades of careful observation.
"It's true that Nalren is in charge of alchemy class, but he does not hold permission for artifacts. Look around you."
Vel followed Moana's gesture and scanned the building properly this time. Figures stood at intervals along the pathways and near doorways—guards, he realized. Not ceremonial ones either. Each had a wand at their belt, hands clasped behind their backs, gazes fixed forward yet somehow tracking everything.
His enthusiasm wavered. Right. The Academy wasn't just a school—it was the kingdom's premier magical institution. A place that housed artifacts valuable enough to need this level of security.
Those guards weren't decorative. They were a warning.
But he'd come this far. And if his identification spell could help them prepare for the tournament—maybe even understand the strange phenomena happening across the kingdom—then it was worth the risk of asking.
"Is there any way for me to examine the attunement artifact?" Vel asked, keeping his voice steady despite his intimidation.
The old man set his quill down. "That depends. Regardless of your purpose, you need accommodation from at least two instructors. And I should make it clear—the artifact will not leave this building, or even its chamber."
Vel calculated quickly. Lyvenna would certainly give her permission if he explained his theory. But who else? He didn't have connections with many other instructors yet.
"Maybe..." Vel leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice. "Can I just look at it? During the entrance test readings, the crystal was fluctuating and struggling when reading my attunement, unlike with other students."
He paused, watching the old man's reaction before adding, "I think something might have happened to the artifact."
This seemed to pique the man's interest. He straightened slightly, his eyes narrowing with curiosity.
"Struggle how?" he asked, his tone more engaged than before.
"It was flashing multiple colors erratically before settling into a white cloud," Vel explained.
The old man's eyebrows rose. "White? Are you sure it wasn't grey?"
"I'm certain," Vel insisted. "The examiner might have called it grey, but what I saw was definitely white—almost blinding."
The old man studied Vel with open doubt, his expression flat.
"I've never heard anything like that," he said simply. "White cloud. Erratic flashing. In all my years working with these artifacts, no such phenomenon has been recorded."
Vel's mind raced. He needed to convince this man, but what leverage did he have? He was just a first-year student with an unusual entrance reading. No authority, no connections, nothing to—
"I can prove it to you," Vel said quickly. "If you let me take the reading again."
The old man's eyebrows rose slightly. He studied Vel for a long moment, then leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Are you Velarian?" he asked suddenly.
Vel blinked in surprise. "How would you know that?"
"Lyvenna has been over here a few times," the man explained, his tone casual but his gaze sharp. "She mentioned a student this year. One who seems to know more than his age would suggest."
He was silent for another moment, then sighed heavily.
"I don't believe your story," he said flatly. "But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt—for Lyvenna's sake, not yours."
The man stood up slowly, brushing down his robe with deliberate care. "Follow me."
The old man led Vel to the center of the empty space, where a circular platform stood. Upon closer look, Vel noticed complex patterns etched into the stone—concentric rings filled with delicate runes and symbols, each ring connecting to the next as they radiated outward from the center.
Their boots clicked against the stone as they stepped onto the platform. The sound echoed through the open space around them.
"Don't trip," the old man said, his voice carrying a hint of amusement.
With a casual gesture of his hand, the platform began to glow. Magical light pulsed from the center—a soft shade of green that spread outward along the carved sigils, following the concentric patterns. The color gradually shifted to gold as it traveled, stopping precisely at the platform's edge, illuminating every rune along its path.
A faint hum filled the air, the sound of magical resonance vibrating through the stone beneath their feet. Slowly, the platform began to rise, lifting them up through the hollow core of the building.
Vel shifted his feet, trying to maintain balance as the platform suddenly began to rise. The beams stretching from floor to ceiling—they were guides, he realized. Rails for this magical platform to follow.
"An elevator," he whispered without thinking.
The old man glanced at him. "A what?"
"Nothing," Vel said quickly.
About five floors up, the platform slowed and then stopped. It shifted horizontally, connecting smoothly with the pathway of the floor.
"This way," the old man said, stepping off the platform.
He turned to Vel with a serious expression, his eyes narrowing. "Young man, if you happen to be lying, I will bar you from these grounds for the unforeseeable future."
Vel couldn't read the old man's expression—was he genuinely concerned about deception, or simply warning Vel about wasting his time? Either way, the way he held Vel's gaze made it clear this wasn't a casual visit.
They walked into a room with plush crimson carpet that muffled their footsteps. A guard stood by the door, giving them a curt nod as they entered. The door closed behind them with a soft click.
The room was lined with dark wooden shelving from floor to ceiling. Built into the shelves were small compartments, each sealed with a metal door bearing elaborate locks.
"My name is Moana, by the way," the old man said, his voice filling the quiet space. "I should have introduced myself earlier, but I don't usually bother with students who won't return."
Moana moved between the shelves with surprising agility for his age, running his fingers along the wood as if greeting old friends.
"There are only five artifacts like this in the entire kingdom," he continued, stopping before a particular shelf. "One in the king's vault. One in the guild's treasure."
He selected a key from a ring at his belt, inserting it into a lock that seemed to shimmer slightly at his touch.
"Three in the academy," he finished, pulling open the small door.
Moana reached inside and carefully extracted a wooden box, its surface polished to a deep shine. The wood itself seemed to pulse with faint energy, tiny threads of light occasionally running across its surface like lightning across a night sky.
"Do you know where these artifacts came from?" Vel asked as Moana carried the box toward a nearby table.
Moana paused, considering the question. "Most artifacts like this existed before the first void emergence. There's not a lot of record from before that time." He set the box down with care. "As if the world hadn't lived before then."
Vel felt a chill run through him. That was a perceptive observation—more than Moana realized. Five hundred years ago, when the void emerged, was exactly when his game had "ended." Everything before that had been just lore, scripted history, NPC backgrounds. Not real lived experience. No wonder it felt hollow to them, like fake memories of a world that hadn't truly existed yet.
With reverent hands, Moana opened the box.
Moana slowly pulled out the crystalline device—just as Vel remembered from entrance day. The artifact caught the room's light, its faceted surface gleaming. Even sitting still on the table, it seemed to pulse with latent energy.
With careful hands, Moana placed it on a velvet cloth spread across the table. The deep purple fabric made the crystal's clarity stand out even more dramatically.
"So. Let's see if what you said is true," Moana said quietly.
Vel's heart thumped against his ribcage. There it was—the object that had revealed his anomalous nature to the entire Academy. He already knew what should happen, yet he still felt nervous. What if it didn't behave like last time? Either way, he needed to be extremely cautious, unlike during the entrance examination when he'd been caught off guard.
With a mental command, Vel toggled on his interface, careful to keep his expression neutral so Moana wouldn't notice anything unusual about his behavior. He needed to gather every bit of information he could during this rare opportunity.
The familiar translucent display appeared in his vision, overlaying his perception of reality without obscuring it. Vel focused his attention on the crystal, and information began to populate his view:
[Affinity Detector]
Category: ItemClass: ArtifactStatus: Inactive
Moana watched Vel with a keen, almost hungry gaze. His weathered hands hovered near the artifact, fingers twitching slightly with anticipation.
"Go on," he urged, nodding toward the crystal. "Let's see this phenomenon for ourselves."
Vel took a deep breath and stepped closer to the table. He extended his hand slowly, fingers trembling slightly as they approached the gleaming surface. The moment his fingertips made contact with the cool crystal, he braced himself.
For a split second, nothing happened.
Then chaos erupted.
The artifact flashed wildly—red, blue, green, yellow, white, black—each color appearing for just an instant before being replaced by another. The crystal hummed, its pitch rising unnaturally as the colors began cycling faster.
But this time, with his interface active, Vel noticed something he'd missed during the entrance ceremony. A new detail appeared in his vision:
[Affinity Detector]
Category: ItemClass: ArtifactStatus: Malfunctioning
The device continued its frantic display for several more seconds before eventually settling into a compromised state. A bright white cloud filled the crystal, pulsing gently like a heartbeat.
Vel's interface updated:
[Affinity Detector]
Status: Analyzing
Wait. It was still analyzing something?
Vel hadn't known—he'd never activated his interface during the entrance ceremony. Without it, he wouldn't have seen any of this information. He decided to keep his hand still for a few more moments, curious what would happen.
After a moment, something new appeared.
The device projected a faint magical circle above itself, unlike anything Vel had seen during the standard readings. The circle contained detailed patterns and sigils that shifted and reorganized themselves, as if the artifact was trying to communicate. Not a reading—a debug message about the error it had encountered.
Moana gasped, his eyes widening. He stumbled backward, nearly knocking over his chair.
"Impossible," he whispered, his voice hoarse.
The old man approached the table again, circling it slowly as he studied the projected magical circle from different angles. His face had lost its skepticism, replaced by a mixture of awe and concern.
"This isn't just an unstable reading," Moana said, more to himself than to Vel. "The artifact is trying to communicate something. It's found an anomaly it doesn't know how to process."
Vel stared at the artifact's frantic display, but his attention was fixed on something else entirely—the debug message that had appeared in his interface, superimposed over his vision.
[Debug message received]
[Translating…]
[Execution error. Division 02 — Sigil: _getTargetProperties()]
The sigil zoomed forward in his mind's eye, expanding to fill his vision with its complex patterns.
Along with it came related sigils, branching out in a network of connections that revealed exactly how the artifact functioned. Vel could see the elegant architecture of its design—how it was meant to detect and classify magical affinities, then convert the reading into crystal signature.
And there, at the heart of the error, was the reason for its malfunction: it was trying to read his [Null] affinity.
Vel's breath caught in his throat. The device wasn't broken—it was trying to categorize something that didn't exist in its system, an affinity that defied its entire classification structure.
Vel carefully removed his hand from the crystal. The white mist continued to pulse within the artifact for several seconds before slowly fading, leaving the crystal clear once more.
"Remarkable," Moana whispered, his eyes never leaving the artifact. "Simply remarkable."
The sigil that had malfunctioned—_getTargetProperties()—was the exact one he'd been searching for. Thanks to the debug message, it was now imprinted in his memory, every pattern and connection crystal clear.
But Vel's eyes shifted to Moana, who was staring at the artifact in stunned silence.
This was going to get complicated.
Moana's sharp eyes shifted from the artifact to Vel, studying him with newfound intensity.
"Who are you, exactly?" he asked, his voice low but pointed. "Not just Velarian Novalance, unstable attunement student—but who are you truly?"
"Just a student interested in magical theory," Vel replied, trying to sound casual despite the hammering of his heart. "I told you my reading was unusual."
"Unusual?" Moana barked a short laugh. "Young man, in forty-three years of working with this artifact, I've never seen it react like that. Not once."
He began to circle Vel slowly, reminding him uncomfortably of a predator sizing up potential prey.
"Saint Landre's brother, Lyvenna's star pupil, and now this..." Moana's fingers drummed against his thigh as he walked. "Three extraordinary circumstances surrounding one unremarkable-looking boy."
Vel needed to deflect this dangerous scrutiny. "Maybe it's just a coincidence?" he offered weakly.
"There are no coincidences in magical phenomena," Moana dismissed with a wave of his hand. "Only patterns we haven't yet recognized."
He stopped directly in front of Vel, leaning forward slightly. "This warrants further investigation. We should inform Archmagister Elyssia immediately. Your affinity reading—or lack thereof—could represent a previously undocumented magical condition."
Alarm bells rang in Vel's mind. The last thing he needed was to become a research subject for the entire Academy, with mages dissecting his magical nature and possibly discovering his true identity.
"I'm not sure that's necessary," Vel objected, trying to sound reasonable rather than panicked. "It's probably just some anomaly with my particular mana signature. Nothing worth troubling the Archmagister about."
"Not necessary?" Moana's eyebrows shot up. "This could be groundbreaking! A new classification of magical attunement—perhaps even a new understanding of mana itself!"
His excitement was growing by the second, each word increasing Vel's anxiety.
As Moana rambled on about research protocols and potential publication titles, Vel desperately searched for a way out of this situation. He needed to redirect this enthusiasm without appearing suspicious.
"Actually," Vel interrupted, inspiration striking, "maybe we should wait until after the Ternion Tournament?"
Moana paused, turning back to face him with a questioning look.
"I'm competing," Vel explained. "Any unusual tests or procedures might throw off my mana balance right before the matches. It would be a shame to compromise my team's chances because of research that could wait a few weeks."
Moana's expression flickered between disappointment and understanding. "The tournament... yes, I suppose that's a consideration."
Vel pressed his advantage. "If we wait, we could also gather data on how my anomalous attunement affects combat performance. That would make your research even more comprehensive, wouldn't it?"
This suggestion visibly appealed to Moana, who nodded slowly. "A practical application component would strengthen the paper considerably..."
Moana sighed, reluctantly returning the artifact to its box. "I suppose a few weeks won't matter in the grand scheme of academic discovery."
As he secured the box back in its compartment, Vel said.
"Thank you for showing me the artifact," genuinely grateful despite his anxiety. "This has been... illuminating."
"Indeed it has," Moana agreed, locking the compartment with a soft click. He turned to face Vel with a shrewd expression. "But don't think I'll forget about this, young man. Once the tournament concludes, I expect you to return for proper analysis."
"Of course," Vel promised, already planning ways to avoid that particular future.
As they descended on the magical platform, Vel felt both triumph and trepidation. He'd obtained the crucial sigil he needed for his appraisal spell—a significant victory.
But everything has a price, doesn't it?
The only consolation was the tournament's impending deadline, giving him a temporary reprieve from Moana's academic curiosity. For now, that would have to be enough.
Vel left the Artifex building with quickened steps, his mind already racing with possibilities for completing his identification spell.