Chapter 18
The academy buzzed with a haunted silence.
Despite the Echoers being pushed back, fear lingered in every corridor. Teachers walked the halls with tighter formations. Wards were doubled. Students whispered not just about the attack—but what it meant.
The veil between the celestial and the cursed was thinning.
And someone inside Sanctum Astrae had drawn the eyes of the darkness.
---
Astern sat by the dorm window, watching sunlight creep across the courtyard. Kaela lay on her bed, tossing a small knife into the air and catching it with practiced ease. Lunaria sat cross-legged, her hands weaving through floating frost sigils.
No one spoke of the battle.
Not yet.
Then a knock came at the door.
It wasn't loud. Just… final.
Astern opened it to find Selkyr standing tall, her silver armor slightly scuffed, her eyes unreadable.
"Follow me," she said.
Kaela looked up. "All of us?"
"No. Just him."
Lunaria frowned. "Why?"
Selkyr didn't answer. But Astern already knew. The veil. The Echoers. The visions. It all pointed to him.
He followed her in silence.
---
They passed through layers of Sanctum Astrae most students never even knew existed—lower catacombs wrapped in silverlight runes, halls that shimmered with captured prayers, chambers that hadn't been opened in centuries.
At the end of the descent, a door of obsidian stood waiting.
Selkyr placed her hand on the center.
The door opened without sound.
Inside stood Seraphon, Nysera, and a third figure—cloaked, but massive. His eyes glowed a quiet crimson.
Astern entered. The door closed behind him.
---
Seraphon began. "You've passed every trial. Survived every test. But we must ask again—who are you, Astern of Duskvale?"
He took a breath. "I don't know."
Nysera stepped forward. "You carry dual essence—Umbrenox blood and something else. Something older."
The third figure finally spoke.
"A shard of void. The Ghoul King's taint."
Astern flinched. "I'm not corrupted."
"No," the figure said. "You're bound.
"A tether between what was broken and what will break again."
Selkyr cut in. "We need to protect you, Astern. But more than that—we need to prepare you."
Seraphon turned toward Nysera.
"From this moment on, your veil is lifted. Your mentorship with him is no longer silent. Guide him. Train him. And if he falters…"
"I won't," Astern said sharply.
Seraphon stared at him.
"Good," he replied.
The air shifted. The truth had weight now.
Astern didn't just belong to the academy anymore.
He belonged to its fate.
---
Later, as they walked back through the long halls, Nysera didn't speak.
Astern broke the silence. "What did they mean, shard of void?"
She sighed. "Part of the Ghoul King's essence resides in you. Not as corruption. As inheritance."
"I'm not a monster."
"No," she said. "But monsters may come to see you as their kin."
He stopped walking.
"And if they do?"
Nysera turned to him, eyes bare and sharp.
"Then show them what kind of kin you are."
---
That night, the wind howled louder over the academy walls.
Somewhere far beyond, in the ruined remnants of a lost realm, the Ghoul King opened his hand—and watched a single black feather fall.
It drifted.
Toward Sanctum Astrae.
Toward Astern.