The next morning, I found Elara sitting under one of the trees near the garden courtyard. She was holding a sketchbook on her knees, focused on drawing something in front of her.
A piece of charcoal was in her hand, and she didn't look up right away.
I stepped closer, keeping my tone quiet. "Do you have a moment?"
Elara looked up, startled at first. Then she quickly closed her sketchbook and slid it behind her back. "Lucian? What is it?"
"I need your help," I said. "It's about one of the students. Arlen Veris."
"He was still around not long ago," I said. "His room was across from where you used to stay. Now it's sealed off, without any explanation."
She glanced at me, then over her shoulder, as if checking who might be listening. "What are you thinking?"
"I want to check the room," I said. "It's not sealed like the others, but something about it feels off. If you come with me, you might notice something I miss."
"You think something's still inside?" she asked.
"I don't know. But if anything strange happened to him, I need to find out."
Elara didn't answer right away. Then she gave a quiet nod. "All right, but let me put this book away first. Then you can lead the way."
We crossed the quiet halls of the east dormitory wing. Most acolyte were still in their classes. The corridors felt emptier than usual.
I stopped in front of Arlen's old room. The door was closed but not locked. Just like earlier, there were no divine marks or warnings.
"This is it," I said.
Elara stepped beside me, scanning the surface of the door with narrowed eyes. "There's nothing weird about it."
I reached for the handle. It turned without resistance.
Inside, the room was dark. Dust covered the desk and shelves.
A single chair sat in the corner. The bedframe was intact, but the mattress was missing.
Elara stepped in behind me, frowning. "Nothing seem weird so far."
I moved toward the desk. There was a faint outline on the floor where a rug used to be. Something about the pattern bothered me.
"Elara," I said quietly. "Help me clear this spot."
We brushed the dust aside with our sleeves. Beneath the grime, a faint circle had been carved into the stone.
The lines were precise, but thin, as if someone had tried to hide them. The runes were foreign to anything the Academy used now.
"This wasn't made by us," Elara said. "Or if it was, they had help."
I crouched, touching one of the outer markings. The surface tingled under my fingers, like a static charge.
CRACKLE!
Before I could pull back, the circle lit up. The light spread fast, running through each line until the entire floor glowed.
"Elara—"
A low hum filled the air. The stone dropped beneath our feet.
We fell.
There was no time to react. The floor vanished, replaced by a pulling force that dragged us downward.
Then the world shifted. My back hit solid ground. A sharp ache ran through my spine. I groaned, rolling to my side.
Elara coughed beside me, pulling herself up slowly. "What-where are we?"
I sat up, trying to focus. The room around us was dimly lit by a single rune embedded in the stonewall.
The air was damp and cold. My ears rang slightly, but I was alive.
"Elara," I said, steadying my voice. "Are you hurt?"
"No. Just shaken." She looked around, confused. "That wasn't just a trap. That was a teleportation circle. But the rune used… I don't recognize it."
"We're underground," I said.
She nodded. "Far below. I can't sense the surface anymore."
We stood in silence, listening. No wind. No footsteps. Just the soft buzz of the glyph behind us.
I glanced down the dark corridor ahead. "I don't think Arlen left the Academy," I said quietly.
Elara looked at me, her voice steady. "Then let's find out."
I stepped forward first, keeping one hand near the glyph behind us. It was still active, but vibrate slower now, like it had entered a standby state. I wasn't sure if we could use it to return.
The corridor stretched ahead, barely tall enough to stand upright. The walls were made of the same stone as the Sanctum's lower chambers, but older, uneven, lined with shallow carvings that had been worn down by time.
Elara walked beside me, her steps quiet. She kept glancing at the walls, eyes narrowing at every faded marking.
"These aren't Luminis teaching," she said. "They're rune for a spell. Some of these symbols… they're pre-standard script. And this…" she pointed to a line of half-erased runes " -this looks like a sealing rune. Whoever carved this was trying to bind something in place."
"Or hide it," I said.
We kept moving. The further we went, the colder it became.
I held up a hand, stopping us near a junction where the tunnel split in two. A faint breeze flowed from the left path. The right one was still, dead air with no sound.
"We'll follow the airflow," I said.
We turned left. The corridor opened into a small chamber with a broken pillar at its center.
Around it were shattered tiles, most of them blank. One still held a marking, barely visible under dust and scratches.
Elara knelt beside it and cleared the dust. "This looks like a containment seal," she said. "But something shattered it from inside."
I scanned look around the rest of the chamber. A few bones lay scattered near the edges.
There was no sign of clothes or tags. Just a single carved token lying beside one of the rib cages.
Elara picked it up and turned it over. "This belonged to Umbralis. See the emblem?" She held it up. The mark of the Sanctum was scorched halfway through.
"They weren't supposed to be here," I said.
We turned to leave, but as I stepped over the tile, something clicked.
CRACKLE!!!
A sharp static crack burst out from the edges of the room. Runes flared across the walls, and before I could react, something wrapped around my wrist.