Morning sunlight slanted through the tall arched windows of the east corridor, washing the stone floor in streaks of pale gold. Aira walked quietly beside Zara and Josh, her mind still replaying everything that had happened in the forest—the illusions, the attack, and the moment she'd seen him again. The memory of those violet eyes flickered in her mind like a haunting echo she couldn't silence.
It had been two days since they'd returned. Two days since every teacher and dorm tutor in the school had given them the same scolding expression—disappointment mixed with disbelief. No one cared that they'd been terrified; all that mattered was that they'd broken rules by entering the restricted forest.
Their punishment was straightforward: extra cleaning duties, library organization, and a week of lost privileges. But for Aira, it was a chance. A perfect excuse to investigate what she couldn't stop thinking about—the purple creep.
"Do you think the librarian's gonna notice if we check the archives?" Josh whispered as they reached the double doors of the library.
Aira glanced around. The grand hall was mostly empty, save for a few students studying near the back. "She won't," she said quietly. "We've already searched the classrooms, the dorm basements, even the old lab wing. The only place left is here."
"Yeah," Zara muttered, tucking her dark hair behind her ear. "Let's just make it quick. I don't want to get caught again. My dorm tutor already hates me."
Aelric said nothing. He walked slightly ahead of them, his usual calm expression unreadable. But Aira caught him glancing at her once or twice—subtle, cautious, like he wanted to ask something but held it back.
They split into pairs—Zara with Josh, Aira with Aelric—and started moving through the aisles. Dust floated lazily in the sunlight, making the air shimmer faintly. The place smelled like parchment and candle wax, old secrets lingering between the shelves.
For an hour, they searched. Nothing. Just faded textbooks and old student files.
"This is useless," Zara said, closing another dusty cabinet. "We've been looking everywhere. Maybe there isn't anything about him in here."
"There has to be," Aira murmured, running her hand across a shelf lined with cracked leather journals. "Someone must have recorded something."
Josh yawned, leaning against a table. "Unless he's some kind of ghost."
Aira froze. Ghost. That word sat uncomfortably in her chest. He didn't feel like a ghost—he felt too real, too sharp, too alive. She shook her head. "No. He's not."
Zara shot her a questioning look. "You sound really sure."
"I just… know," Aira said softly.
They moved deeper into the library. The shelves grew older, darker, dustier. The air changed—thicker somehow, quieter, as if the place itself was holding its breath.
Aelric stopped near the far wall. "What's that?"
Everyone turned. He was standing near a tall bookshelf pressed against the wall, where a faint seam ran down the stone behind it. He pushed lightly, and the edge of the shelf creaked.
Josh raised his eyebrows. "Is that… a door?"
Zara frowned. "No way. The school would never—"
But the shelf moved. Slowly, with a groan of wood and metal, it swung outward. A narrow passage yawned behind it, swallowing the light. Aira felt her pulse quicken.
"Well," she whispered. "I guess we found something."
They stepped inside.
The passage was narrow and damp, lined with stone walls that seemed far too old to belong to the modern part of the academy. Their footsteps echoed softly. After a few turns, they emerged into a circular chamber that looked untouched for decades.
Rows of ancient cabinets circled the room, their labels faded. A single chandelier hung crookedly overhead, its candles long melted down.
"Whoa…" Josh breathed. "This looks like something out of a horror movie."
Zara elbowed him. "Don't jinx it."
Aira walked ahead, drawn to a long oak table covered in dust. There were papers scattered across it—reports, handwritten letters, and one thick leather-bound book with a golden crest. She brushed the dust off the cover.
"'Student Records: 1890s,'" she read aloud.
Zara blinked. "1890s? The academy's that old?"
Aelric nodded slightly. "It was founded centuries ago as part of the royal academy system. But most of these archives were supposed to be destroyed."
Aira opened the book carefully. The pages were fragile, yellowed with age. Names, dates, photographs. She turned page after page until something made her stop.
Her breath caught.
There, in the corner of a black-and-white photograph, stood a girl who looked like her. Or rather—looked like what she could have been decades ago. Same eyes, same smile. Beneath the photo, the name read: Lillian Eris
Her great-grandmother.
But that wasn't what froze her blood. It was the man standing beside her.
Same violet eyes. Same face. Same faint, sharp smile.
He hadn't aged. Not a wrinkle, not a hint of change.
Zara leaned closer, her eyes widening. "Wait… is that… him?"
Josh whistled softly. "Holy crap. That's the guy, isn't it?"
Aira couldn't speak. Her hands trembled as she traced the outline of his face on the page.
"It can't be," she whispered. "This is over a hundred years ago…"
Aelric's expression darkened. "Either it's someone who looks exactly like him—or he hasn't aged in a century."
Aira shook her head slowly. "No. It's him. I know it."
Zara stepped back, glancing around the dim chamber as if expecting him to suddenly appear. "Okay, I officially hate this. Can we go now?"
"Not yet," Aira said quickly. "There might be more. There has to be something about why he was here."
She flipped through more pages, scanning notes and old attendance lists. Most of it was unreadable, faded beyond recognition. But one small note slipped out from between the pages—a letter.
Aira picked it up. The ink had bled with age, but she could still make out fragments of sentences.
…"Operation complete tonight: eliminate subject. Ensure no return."
Kyran
Her stomach tightened. The name hit her like lightning: Kyran.
Josh blinked. "Kyran? That's… that's him? The guy you've been seeing?"
Zara's hand trembled as she pointed to the photograph. "The same violet eyes… It's him… but—he's been around for over a century? That can't be natural."
Aelric's voice was quieter, tense. "There are rumors in the academy archives… about a man named Kyran. They say he's not human, that he appears to those who carry certain… abilities. That he experiments with students, pushes them to their limits… some say he can control time around him. That's why many students vanish… or lose themselves."
Aira felt the world tilt. "You… you knew this?"
Josh shook his head slowly. "No, but we found references in old student files and letters. Teachers tried to hide it. Everyone was terrified of him—decades ago."
Zara swallowed hard. "So he's… dangerous. And you've been seeing him. That's… horrifying."
Aira hugged the letter to her chest. Her mind swirled with every memory: the forest, the illusions, his violet eyes, the whispers in her head, and the terrifying knowledge that he was real—and connected to her bloodline.
The air grew heavier. Even the dust seemed to hang still. Aira felt something brush against her mind again—soft whispers, faint and fleeting. She'd thought they'd stopped. They had since the forest… but now, deep in this secret place, they returned, low and overlapping like distant echoes.
Find him. The truth sleeps where he stands.
Aira's breath hitched. She turned, scanning the room, but no one else seemed to hear it.
"You okay?" Zara asked, her voice softer now.
Aira forced a nod. "Yeah. I'm fine. Let's just… take this and go."
She folded the letter carefully and tucked it into her jacket pocket. The whispers faded again, leaving behind a ringing silence.
They left the secret library quietly, closing the shelf-door behind them. The normal library light felt almost too bright, too clean after what they'd seen.
As they stepped into the hallway, Aelric slowed beside her. "Aira," he said quietly. "Kyran… if he's really the same one you saw—what does that mean for you?"
Aira didn't answer at first. Her hand brushed the pocket where the letter lay. "It means," she said slowly, "that he's been here for a long time. Longer than any of us can imagine. And he's the reason everything's happening… why my powers reacted in the forest, why I almost lost control…"
And as she said it, she swore she heard it again—just barely, behind the hum of the hallway. A faint, amused whisper:
You're getting closer.