The door to the Headmaster's office closed with a soft click that somehow echoed all the way down the empty corridor.
Saphine released a breath she didn't know she had been holding.
"Was she threatening us… or warning us?" she muttered as they stepped into the light.
"Both," Eris replied.
She gave him an incredulous look. "That's not comforting."
"It wasn't meant to be."
They walked in silence for a few moments, the distant toll of bells fading overhead.
Then Saphine spoke again — quietly this time.
"What did she mean… catalyst?"
Eris didn't answer immediately. His gaze drifted up to the vaulted ceiling, as though he could see something beyond it.
"Something has changed," he said at last. "And the wandering Echo is reacting to it — or waiting for it."
"And that something is… me?"
"At the very least" — his eyes shifted to hers — "it's paying attention to you now."
She swallowed. The hallway suddenly felt colder.
Meanwhile — Northern Balcony
Aerin stood alone, leaning against the marble balustrade. Below him, the main courtyard shimmered in the late afternoon light — peaceful, quiet, deceptively safe.
Meline sat on the railing, legs dangling, eyes still wary. The wind played with the white strands of her hair, but her body remained completely still — a hunter waiting for a sound.
"You're sure it was him," Aerin said.
She didn't nod. Didn't speak.
But her fingers tightened slightly against the stone.
She wasn't afraid of dying.
She was afraid of dying without understanding what killed her.
Aerin closed his eyes for a moment. This was supposed to be simple — gather information on the heirs, monitor the anomaly, test his theories.
But if Meline was unsettled…
That meant the academy had just become something far more dangerous than a trial ground.
He touched her shoulder gently. "Rest. I'll gather what I can for now."
She didn't argue — which, more than anything, confirmed his suspicions.
Back in the Archive Corridor
Saphine and Eris slipped down a narrow stairwell, torches flickering with Echo-forged flame.
"Where are we going?" she whispered.
"Below the east wing."Eris's voice was soft but steady."There is an abandoned archive where the resonance patterns of the school are recorded. If the anomaly has been moving for a year… it will have left a trail."
They reached a rusted gate. A single touch from Eris and it unlocked with a heavy groan.
Saphine raised a brow. "That's not creepy at all."
"Would you prefer it screamed?"
"Please don't joke about screaming doors."
They stepped inside. Dust. Old ink. Stone tablets stacked like forgotten bones.
Eris kneeled by a cracked sigil-plate and laid two fingers against it.The Grand Gaze flickered behind his eyes — a light that didn't illuminate so much as clarify.
Patterns emerged.
Like footsteps made of absence.
"It's been in every wing," he murmured. "Careful. Slow. As if it was…mapping the students."
Saphine knelt beside him. "Looking for its bearer?"
"Or choosing one."
He didn't say the rest. He didn't have to.
The thought alone made her shiver.
They spent hours tracing the pattern — comparing lines, dates, names. By the time they finally emerged from the archive, the sky above the academy had already turned blue-black.
Saphine stretched her arms with a groan.
"My head hurts," she said. "And I'm starving. And I still don't know what any of this means."
Eris gave a rare, faint tilt of amusement. "That means you're learning."
She elbowed him. Lightly.
He didn't dodge.
After a moment, she spoke again, more quietly.
"…If the anomaly finds me before I awaken my Echo properly… will I die?"
He looked at her for a long time.
"No."
"You're sure?"
"Because," he said simply, "I won't let it."
For a second she forgot how to respond.
She opened her mouth—
—and froze.
Because the way the moonlight fell across his face again (glasses off, hair a little disheveled, eyes glowing faintly from the strain of Grand Gaze) made her heart do something that had nothing to do with fear.
"…you're doing the glow-eyes thing again," she whispered.
"I'm not glowing."
"You are definitely glowing."
A pause."I'll try to stop."
"You should definitely stop."
He didn't.
She looked away quickly, ears turning red. "Just walk me back before I pass out again."
"As you wish," he said — and offered his hand.
Saphine took it.
They walked together, ignoring how the torches along the corridor flickered the moment their fingers touched.
From the Tower Above
Meline watched them quietly, one knee propped against the tower railing.
Aerin joined her a moment later.
He didn't ask again what she saw.
He didn't need to.
She pointed instead — down toward the courtyard — not at Saphine… but at Eris.
Aerin's expression darkened slightly.
"That's who we're dealing with?"
Meline's voice barely carried on the wind.
"…That's not just a bodyguard."
Aerin said nothing.
But somewhere deep and quiet in his chest… something shivered.
To be continued...