The silence after the page-creature vanished wasn't a relief. It was a threat. A silence too tense, too heavy, as if the Athenaeum itself were holding its breath along with them. Marikka had never felt the place's emotional vibration so clearly—this wasn't fear, nor anger… it was preparation.
Something was about to happen.
Aurelian remained frozen in the middle of the hall, his gaze fixed on the empty air as if he were listening to words no one else could hear. Cedric, on the other hand, chose the universal survival strategy: he sat on the floor and tried to make himself as small as a forgotten footnote.
"I'm just saying," he muttered, shaking, "I never signed up for this. Nothing. Not even those forms with the tiny, tiny print."
Marikka touched his arm: you're not in danger.
Cedric looked back at her as if that were very much a lie.
The book vibrated— not violently like before, but with surgical precision. One short pulse. One long. Then a double. Marikka recognized the pattern instantly.
Direction.
Call.
Approaching.
"The Second Fragment…" Aurelian whispered, as if naming it were some forbidden act. "It's seeking the first. Or it's seeking Marikka. Or both."
Cedric jumped to his feet. "Why is both always an option?!"
The Silent Spiral moved. Literally. Marikka felt the floor shift by just a few millimeters—enough to tell her the path was changing ahead. The suspended columns began rotating slowly toward a new direction, one she had never seen.
Aurelian inhaled deeply. "It's opening a path. Not for Isaak. Not for the Order. For us."
Cedric waved his arms. "For us?! But we don't want a path! We want an exit, a door, a staircase out of here, maybe a trapdoor that leads to a nice tavern!"
Marikka stepped forward before anyone else could speak. She didn't know how she was doing it—she simply moved. The book guided her with vibrations so subtle they felt like a second heartbeat. The corridor ahead grew darker, but not because the light dimmed… it was as if the space itself narrowed, refusing any distraction.
Cedric followed, muttering something new every two steps, while Aurelian closed the line like an ancient guardian. From time to time he placed a hand on a column, and the column responded with a faint tremble, as though greeting him.
"Where is it taking us?" Cedric asked after several minutes. "This is not rhetorical. I genuinely want to know."
Marikka brushed her fingertips over the cover.
A short vibration: below.
A longer one: where it sleeps.
Cedric paled. "We're going… where what sleeps? What sleeps?!"
Aurelian answered, voice low: "Complete Fragments don't truly sleep. They rest. And… they dream."
Cedric made a strangled noise. "And we're going into the dream of a fragment? Why has no one ever said that's a terrible idea?!"
Marikka didn't reply, because despite how absurd it was, she felt the book wasn't afraid. It was tense, yes, but determined.
When the Spiral finally opened into a wider chamber, Marikka felt the vibration before she saw anything. This place wasn't on any official map: dark walls, trembling lights, and at the center a massive stone table scarred by grooves that looked like they'd been carved with corrosive ink.
A faint smell of wet paper hung in the air.
And then a slow, cyclical vibration filled the room.
It didn't belong to the Athenaeum.
Nor to the book.
Cedric peeked through the doorway, saw something, and immediately stepped back. "Nope. No. No. I'm not going in there."
Marikka pushed him gently: minimum courage.
Cedric complied with the grace of a dropped potato sack.
Aurelian stepped forward and inspected the table, his face tightening. "It's here. Or it was… moments ago."
Marikka felt the room's vibration deepen, like a sound with no source.
Close.
Complete.
Waiting.
Then she finally saw what had terrified Cedric.
Not an object.
Not a creature.
Not a shadow.
A page.
One massive, floating page suspended in midair as if torn from an enormous book. The surface was white… but not blank. Words moved across it on their own, sliding forward and backward, reshaping themselves again and again, as though alive.
Cedric whispered, "Is it… breathing?"
It was. The page was breathing.
Aurelian exhaled slowly. "A shell. A preparatory form."
Marikka read the vibration and shivered.
Second Fragment.
Nearly awake.
It called us.
The page folded itself like an origami creature.
No wind.
No visible magic.
It simply folded.
Then the words froze.
All of them.
At once.
Cedric panicked. "That's NOT good! Nothing that stops moving is EVER good!"
Marikka stepped closer despite everything—fear, logic, instinct. The book was pulling her forward.
The tome pulsed.
The page reacted.
The ground trembled.
Aurelian raised his voice. "Marikka, WAIT! We don't know what it will do once fully awakened."
She stopped.
But the book didn't.
A page inside flipped open on its own.
The vibrations it emitted were sharp, rapid, warning-like:
Do not touch.
Not yet.
Too unstable.
But the floating page began to spin.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
It halted abruptly.
Marikka held her breath.
One word surfaced on it.
Clear.
Unmistakable.
"Key."
Cedric nearly fainted. "KEY?! A key to WHAT?! A door? A trap? OUR DOOM?!"
But Aurelian understood something deeper. "It's not a physical key. It's a role. A function. The Second Fragment… is searching for a key. Or creating one."
Marikka felt the word's vibration.
It was directed at her.
The chamber quaked.
The page crumpled—
And then burst into glowing fragments that swirled like inky snow.
Cedric screamed.
Aurelian shielded his face.
Marikka stayed still as the fragments circled around her.
One fragment settled onto the back of her hand.
The vibration it carried was so intense she had to shut her eyes.
You are the key.
Marikka jerked. Cedric shouted: "KEY TO WHAT?!"
And at the exact moment he said it, the Silent Spiral shook like a titan waking from sleep.
Something rose from below.
Something that had heard the word "key."
And it was coming.