The return to the Academy was quiet.
Too quiet.
Kael and Rin crossed the southern ridge before dusk and slipped through a back tunnel rarely used except during drills. Their boots left trails of dried mud and ash. No one stopped them. No patrols. No guards.
When they reached the courtyard, Kael realized what was wrong.
The air reeked of scorched stone.
Rin tensed. "Something happened while we were gone."
He nodded. "Let's find Elric."
They didn't make it far.
Halfway across the student dormitory plaza, a thin figure in gray robes stepped from the shadows. Her face was lined with age and disdain in equal measure.
Professor Merrow.
She was a scholar of sigil theory, and a woman Kael had once watched reduce a second-year to tears using only a chalkboard and twelve rhetorical questions.
"You," she said, eyes narrowing. "Where have you been?"
Kael opened his mouth. Closed it. Then tried again.
"Hollowwood."
She blinked. Slowly.
"…Why?"
Kael considered lying, then remembered who he was talking to.
"To find a gate."
She stared at him for several seconds too long.
"Come," she said finally. "Now. Both of you."
The lower levels of the Academy had always been off-limits.
Now Kael understood why.
Merrow led them down a winding staircase past locked doors and wards etched in glowing sigils. They passed a hall where the walls hummed and flickered like the air was fraying. Kael recognized none of it.
And then they entered the library.
Not the one on the surface with dusty books and suspicious caretakers.
This one was different.
The ceiling arched like a cathedral. Shelves curved in impossible spirals, reaching both upward and downward, vanishing into darkness. Scrolls hovered midair. Books glowed. Some of the tomes were breathing.
Kael muttered, "I think I'm in love."
Merrow gave him a flat look. "If you touch anything, it will kill you."
"…Noted."
They stopped in a narrow chamber lit by green fire.
Merrow gestured to a floating orb. "Place your hand here."
Kael hesitated. "Why?"
"To ensure you haven't been compromised."
"By what?"
"By what, not who, yes. Now place your hand."
Kael sighed and obeyed.
The orb flared. Pain spiked through his skull—sharp, fast, and gone. He reeled, breath catching.
Then the orb dimmed.
Merrow nodded.
"You're clean."
"Great," Kael muttered. "Now can someone explain what the abyss happened while we were out?"
She raised an eyebrow. "The east courtyard was attacked."
Rin straightened. "By what?"
"Something wearing the shape of a boy. It burned five students alive before collapsing into smoke."
Kael went cold.
Another one.
Merrow watched him closely. "You've seen it before."
He nodded. "We killed one in the Hollowwood."
Her expression didn't change, but Kael saw something flicker in her eyes. Fear. Maybe recognition.
"What do you know about the origin of the sigils, Kael?"
He hesitated. "Not much. The Council says they were discovered after the Collapse."
She snorted.
"Lies. They were recovered. Dug from ruins. Translated from stone. Bound into flesh."
Kael remembered the creature in the woods, its broken sigil oozing black smoke.
"They're not powers," he said slowly. "They're instructions."
Merrow's smile was razor-sharp. "Good. You're learning."
They walked through another hall, this one lined with sarcophagus-like alcoves.
Each held a person.
Sleeping. Breathing. Dreaming.
Some were young.
Some… very old.
"Failed Awakenings," Merrow said quietly. "Their minds couldn't hold the sigil's weight."
Kael felt his sigil twitch.
"And they're alive?"
"Barely. The sigils keep them suspended. Some still think. Some… don't."
Kael turned away, bile rising in his throat.
"Why show us this?" Rin asked.
Merrow looked Kael dead in the eye.
"Because someone has to break the silence."
They reached a final room.
Empty. Circular. Lit by white fire.
In the center stood a monolith of dark stone.
No markings.
No texture.
But Kael felt it as soon as he entered.
The same presence from the Hollowwood.
The weight of design.
"This is an Anchor," Merrow said.
Kael blinked. "What?"
"One of seven. Each tied to a core sigil. We believe they are the source."
Rin stepped forward. "So we could destroy them?"
Merrow looked pained.
"Or unlock them. But none of us have the key."
Kael stared at the monolith.
And, without thinking, reached out.
His sigil pulsed.
So did the stone.
For a moment, everything was silent.
Then Kael heard a whisper in a language not meant for human mouths.
His nose bled again.
But he smiled through it.
"I think it knows me."
That night, Kael sat on the roof of the dormitory, watching stormclouds gather.
Rin joined him, handing him a mug of bitter tea.
"I'm starting to think we're in over our heads."
Kael gave her a crooked smile. "When were we ever under them?"
She bumped her shoulder against his. "Seriously. You sure about all this?"
He looked out at the forest.
At the ruins beyond the wall.
At the dream he'd had the night before—of a sigil unburning itself from his spine and speaking his name.
"No."
He took a sip.
"But I'm sure I can't stop now."