Before Dawn — The First Tremor
The forest breathed before the sun did.
Not wind.
Not animals.
Not the shifting of leaves.
It was deeper than that.
A low pressure ripple passed through the earth beneath Ashthorne—so subtle most of the academy slept through it.
But not Caelum.
His eyes opened exactly as the tremor reached the lowest seal beneath the stone.
Not from sound.
From pattern deviation.
The threads beneath the academy twitched out of rhythm.
For the first time since the Great Stitching, the Weeping Forest responded first, before the anomaly chamber did.
That was wrong.
Caelum sat up slowly in his darkened room.
The entity stirred beneath him.
Not whispering.
Not taunting.
Listening.
Monitoring.
Calculating.
Caelum extended his Thread-Sense outward.
Not aggressively.
Not forcefully.
Just enough to feel the ripple.
It traveled from the forest roots, through underground ley fractures, brushed the Transcendent corpse's containment layers—and echoed back.
The echo carried something new.
Anticipation.
"The forest is awake early," he murmured.
The bond pulsed.
Across the academy, in Dorm Nine—
Lira woke with a gasp.
Lira — Fear Without a Dream
Her eyes snapped open into darkness.
No nightmare.
No screaming memory.
No vision of blood-soaked roots or whispering trees.
Just fear.
Pure and sudden.
Like something had leaned over her in the dark and breathed her name without making a sound.
Her heart slammed.
Her breath came shallow.
Then—
the bond tightened.
Warm.
Steady.
Like hands wrapped gently around her ribcage from the inside.
Caelum.
The fear didn't vanish.
But it stabilized.
She pressed a hand to her sternum, gasping softly.
"I woke up," she whispered.
Across the bond, faint response:
So did I.
Her stomach flipped.
She sat up, drawing the blanket tighter.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
A pause.
Then:
The forest moved before it was supposed to.
"What does that mean?" she whispered.
It means our timetable just shortened.
Her pulse spiked.
"Shortened to when?"
The bond pulsed again.
Now.
Lira threw the blanket aside and stood so fast she nearly fell.
Emergency Assembly — The Academy Doesn't Sleep This Time
By the time Caelum reached Dorm Nine's outer corridor, the halls were already lighting up.
Sigil-lamps flared to full brightness.
Instructor ward-alarms thrummed in low harmonic tones.
Students poured from rooms in various states of panic and confusion.
"Is it a beast surge?!"
"No, the walls aren't responding like a breach—"
"I heard the forest screamed—"
"Forests don't scream—"
"They do near Ashthorne!"
Jalen was already outside Dorm Nine, clutching his boots like a weapon.
"I told everyone not to sleep," he whispered hoarsely at Caelum. "I knew today was the day reality betrayed us again."
Marenne stood beside him, glasses already on, notebook already open, sigil-ink dripping faintly with activation charge.
"One anomaly tremor from the Weeping Forest border," she said quickly. "Small-scale, but unnatural. The timing is off."
"Yes," Caelum said.
Lira rushed from the dorm moments later, hair loose, eyes wide.
The moment she saw Caelum, the tremor in her hands softened.
"You felt it too," she said.
"Yes."
That was all they needed.
The Headmaster's voice rolled across the academy seconds later—amplified not by volume, but by weight.
"ALL STUDENTS REMAIN IN THE QUADRANGLES. INSTRUCTORS TO CONTAINMENT POSITIONS. ANOMALY RESPONSE LEVEL: AMBER."
Amber.
Not Red.
Not Green.
That meant the academy was uncertain.
Which was far worse.
The Forest Tests the Seal
They reached the western watchline before the containment teams did.
The Weeping Forest loomed beyond the outer barrier—its dark canopy rolling like a sea of shadow.
Mist curled at its edge.
Not drifting.
Waiting.
The outer sealing pylons glowed soft silver, threads of stabilizing sigils weaving across the boundary.
For now—
they held.
Then the forest exhaled.
Every tree inside the barrier shuddered at once.
Leaves whispered.
Roots groaned beneath the earth.
A ripple moved through the seal.
Silver threads went taut.
A sound like fabric stretching too thin echoed through the wardline.
Lira grabbed Caelum's sleeve without thinking.
"Caelum—"
"I know," he said calmly.
The bond flared.
The seal didn't break.
But it weakened.
Marenne's quill scratched furiously.
"Not an attack," she muttered. "That was a probe."
Jalen whimpered.
"It's tasting us. The forest is tasting us."
Kael Dravos arrived moments later, boots slamming into the stone as he vaulted onto the watchline.
His aura hit like a hammer—
battle-hardened, ruthless, absolute.
"Report," he barked.
"Minor tremor," Marenne snapped. "Kinesthetic and sigil pressure combined. No breach."
Kael turned his gaze—
and locked onto Caelum.
His expression twisted into something halfway between disgust and restrained excitement.
"You did this," he said.
Caelum didn't deny it.
"I accelerated the feedback," he said. "The forest responded."
Kael laughed once, sharp and humorless.
"So the rumors are true. You actually poke anomalies and wait for them to bite back."
"Yes."
Kael's grin sharpened.
"Good. That means tomorrow's trial just got a lot more interesting."
Lira stiffened.
"Trial?" she echoed.
Kael's gaze cut to her.
"You didn't think the prep days meant safety, did you, Anchor?"
Her stomach dropped.
"Today," Kael continued, "you train under real anomaly pressure."
The forest exhaled again.
Longer this time.
The seal groaned.
Caelum's eyes narrowed.
"Then we begin early," he said.
Day One Training — When the World Pushes Back
They took them to the sub-platform.
Not the arena.
Not the dueling pits.
The pressure chambers beneath the Strategy Wing—
where sigil-fields could simulate unstable environments.
Kael strode at the front.
Artheon the Bound watched from the shadows, his chains scraping faint warnings across the stone.
The moment the chamber sealed behind them—
the air thickened.
Gravity shifted half a degree off-center.
The sigil-field activated.
Lira gasped as invisible pressure pushed against her ribs.
Her knees threatened to buckle.
The bond immediately tightened.
Caelum stepped closer—not touching—but aligning.
"Breathe," he said.
"I am breathing!"
"Do it with me."
She tried.
The pressure increased.
Threads whipped into visibility.
Kael watched with arms crossed.
"Field intensity rising," Artheon croaked. "Matching the forest's harmonic tremor."
Marenne's voice trembled slightly.
"This is too early for this level."
Kael grinned.
"That's why we do it."
The pressure doubled.
Lira cried out.
The bond flared.
Caelum's threads wrapped partially around her—conceptually, not physically.
Fear spiked—
then stabilized.
She didn't collapse.
Kael's brows rose.
"Again."
The pressure tripled.
This time the chamber fought back.
The walls rippled.
The sigil-field distorted.
Reality bent—
just slightly.
Lira felt herself slipping.
Not physically.
Internally.
"Caelum—I—!"
He shifted.
Planted his stance.
Thread-Sense locked.
"Anchor," he said.
She grabbed onto his presence through the bond like a handhold in a storm.
Her fear slammed into him.
He absorbed it.
Redirected it.
Grounded it.
The distortion stabilized.
Silence fell.
Kael stared.
Artheon's chains rattled in agitation.
Marenne's eyes were wide behind her lenses.
Jalen had fainted.
Kael slowly started laughing.
Not mockery.
Not cruelty.
Approval.
"Well," he said. "Would you look at that."
He looked directly at Lira.
"Anchor," he said slowly. "You didn't just survive that."
She swallowed.
"What did I do?"
"You held against conceptual pressure," Kael said. "That wasn't a training field anymore. That was the beginning of a breach."
Her blood ran cold.
Caelum's voice was calm.
"She will improve," he said.
Kael's grin widened.
"Oh, I believe that."
He turned toward Artheon.
"Prep the next threshold."
Artheon hissed.
"You will break them."
Kael nodded.
"Yes."
The Entity Watches
Far beneath the academy—
the chains creaked.
The entity pulsed.
"…she holds…"
"…she resists the pull…"
"…little anchor grows teeth…"
A ripple passed through the Transcendent corpse.
The forest responded.
Roots twisted.
Something ancient shifted beneath the soil.
"…good…"
"…let her be tested…"
"…let the Threadbearer see what it costs to keep a soul intact…"
The chains tightened.
The entity laughed without sound.
After the Chamber
They stumbled out of the pressure chamber an hour later.
Jalen was carried.
Marenne was pale but vibrating with analytical mania.
Lira could barely feel her legs.
But she was standing.
Kael watched them go with predatory satisfaction.
"You'll survive tomorrow," he said.
Then his gaze locked on Caelum.
"But the forest won't go so gently."
Caelum inclined his head.
"I would be disappointed if it did."
They walked in silence back toward the dorms.
Lira finally whispered:
"I didn't break."
"No," Caelum said. "You adapted."
Her breath trembled.
"That was terrifying."
"Yes."
"…You're not going to say 'good' again, are you?"
"Yes."
She laughed weakly.
The bond pulsed.
Steady.
Stronger than before.
And in the distance, beyond the walls—
the Weeping Forest shifted again.
This time, in response.