The lamps steadied — one by one — but the silence that followed was wrong. Too heavy. Too aware.
Kael's breath came shallow, his gaze still unfocused as if he were listening to something buried miles below. The hum faded, yet its echo clung to the air, vibrating faintly through the stone floor.
Rynna swallowed hard. "Kael… what was that?"
He blinked, the glow in his eyes dimming to normal. "I—I don't know." His voice sounded distant, like it came from someone else entirely.
They stood there for a long moment, waiting for the lights to flicker again — but nothing happened. The corridors of the Academy, once alive with noise, were eerily still. Somewhere outside, thunder rolled like a closing gate.
Liran exhaled shakily. "Let's get out of here. Before someone finds us down in this wing."
Kael nodded slowly, though his mind wasn't in the present. Each step away from that place felt like walking against a current pulling him backward. He could still feel it — that pulse beneath the stone, faint but insistent, like a heart beating beneath the Academy itself.
By morning, the storm had passed. Sunlight cut through the mist, painting the stained glass in quiet colors. The Academy looked unchanged — but every whisper in the halls carried unease.
Students murmured of strange tremors, of lights that dimmed during the night. The Inquisitors dismissed them as electrical fluctuations from the storm, yet their patrols doubled, and certain corridors were suddenly sealed "for restoration."
In class, Kael struggled to focus. His mark pulsed faintly beneath his shirt whenever he closed his eyes. He heard echoes that weren't there — a faint voice, half-buried in the hum of machinery and prayer.
Eren caught him staring at the floor during a lecture and leaned over. "You good, man? You've been weird since the blackout."
Kael forced a grin. "Yeah. Just tired."
But Rynna saw the tremor in his hand. Liran noticed the subtle glances the Inquisitors were giving him. And none of them missed how the chapel bells that evening rang one tone too low — a sound that made the walls shiver.
Later, Kael stood alone in the courtyard, the air crisp and quiet. He pressed a hand to his chest. The flame beneath his ribs answered faintly, like a second heartbeat.
He didn't say it aloud this time.
But he knew.
They weren't gone.
And the Academy itself was beginning to remember.