The forest was dead silent.
Hope stepped forward, standing between the glowing violet-eyed student and London. Her hands sparked with magic, eyes scanning the two figures behind the speaker—one tall and cloaked, the other small but armed with black-glass daggers.
They were students. Blackmoor uniforms, enchanted badges, and magic signatures all confirmed it.
But their auras pulsed wrong—tainted, corrupted… awakened.
The girl at the front smiled.
"We didn't come to fight," she said, stepping closer. "Not yet."
Richard raised his hand. "Who are you?"
"Someone who remembers what this school was built on."She glanced down at the charred bones in the crater.
"Buried secrets. Forgotten lives. Blood magic swept under stone tiles and golden hallways."
Jessa snorted. "So you summon a monster? You call that justice?"
"No," the girl replied coolly. "I call it a warning."
Hope narrowed her eyes. "You knew about the attack?"
"More than knew. We sent it."
Raphael shifted closer to Jessa protectively. "You hurt innocent students."
The girl's voice hardened. "We tried to send a message. But your wards tried to destroy it. It defended itself. That was never part of the plan."
London stepped forward, fire still faintly flickering around his hands."What do you want?"
The girl looked at him then—truly looked. Her eyes locked on the fire behind his pupils, the heat in his skin.
"You're not what you seem."
"And neither are you."
She nodded, accepting the challenge. "We want truth. We want the Council held accountable. We want to stop pretending that this school protects everyone when it only protects the chosen."
Richard's jaw tightened. "You're wrong. We protect all students."
"No," she said. "You protect the ones whose names are written in your books. The ones with old bloodlines. The rest of us? We disappear. Or we die."
Hope stepped closer, voice soft but cutting. "So you'd risk everyone to make a pointThe girl didn't flinch. "Sometimes a fire has to burn through the forest before anything new can grow."
Then she turned to Richard.
"You buried something under Blackmoor. A prison. A power. You and your Council sealed it beneath the library after the War of Hollow Names. But you lied. You called it a myth."
Richard's face turned pale.
"How do you know that name?"
The girl smiled.
"We have friends in high places. Even in the faculty."
Then she held up a small black stone etched with moving symbols—and vanished in a blink of shadow.
Her companions followed, disappearing into the mist.Back at the Academy, Richard called an emergency meeting in the War Room. Dozens of professors filled the hall, all arguing at once.
"Some of our students are conspiring with whatever that was?"
"There are traitors among us."
"We need to search every dorm!"
Hope stood near the wall, arms crossed, overwhelmed. But London was calm. Focused.
"She was right about one thing," he said. "You're hiding something. What's the War of Hollow Names?"
Richard's expression turned grim.
"A rebellion. Long before this generation. It was put down—and covered up."
"Why?"
"Because it started in BlackmoorLater that night, Hope couldn't sleep.
She sat on the roof of the astronomy tower, legs swinging off the ledge. London joined her, handing her a cup of enchanted cocoa.
"Can I tell you something?" he said.
"Always."
"I don't think I'm the same person I was when I arrived."
Hope looked at him, smile small but sincere. "You're not. You're stronger. Braver. You have… purpose now."London's eyes burned faintly gold. "And I'm scared of what I'll become."
Hope reached out and laced her fingers with his. "Then let's become it together."
---
Far below them, in the shadows of the stone walls, that same student from the forest walked through the library's secret tunnels.
Behind her, a dozen students followed her silently.
She reached a dark door—sealed for centuries.
The girl placed her black stone on the lock.
It hissed open.
And from the other side… something ancient whispered:
"You've found me, child."