The afternoon sun slanted through the stained-glass windows of Azure Breeze Magic Academy's library, casting fragmented rays of red and gold across the dusty shelves. Lynn slipped through the oak door of the third-floor reading room, his boots barely making a sound on the stone floor. In his arms, the Forbidden Codex hummed faintly, its black patterns throbbing in time with his steps—as if the ancient scroll itself was guiding him toward the depths of the library.
Ever since his clash with Karen that morning, Lynn had known he couldn't afford to waste a single moment. Karen, humiliated and injured, would not let the matter rest; rumors had already spread across the academy that a "backwater handyman" had used "unidentified dark magic" to wound a noble student. Tutor Irene had summoned him after class, her eyes sharp with suspicion, asking no fewer than ten questions about the gray energy he'd unleashed. Though he'd lied his way out of it—claiming it was a "crude fire-element variation" he'd stumbled upon in old scrolls—Lynn knew the lie wouldn't hold forever.
Strength. He needed strength—enough to protect himself, enough to keep the Forbidden Codex's secret, enough to make nobles like Karen think twice before daring to bully him again. And the library's abandoned典籍 section, tucked away in the farthest corner of the third floor, was where he intended to get it.
The third floor was quieter than the bustling first and second floors, where new students pored over basic spellbooks and tutors debated elemental theory. Here, the air smelled of mildew and aged parchment, and the shelves were crammed with tomes bound in cracked leather, their spines faded or torn. Most of these were discarded works—outdated spell manuals, incomplete elemental analyses, even fragments of forgotten magical histories—left to rot because they were "useless" to the academy's curriculum.
But to Lynn, they were gold.
He paused at the entrance to the abandoned section, glancing over his shoulder to ensure no one was watching. The only other person in the reading room was an elderly librarian dozing behind a oak desk, his head lolling against a stack of ledgers. Satisfied, Lynn slipped into the shadowy aisle, his fingers brushing the spines of the forgotten books as he walked.
The Forbidden Codex in his arms grew warmer, its hum rising to a faint vibration. Lynn followed the sensation, weaving past shelves stacked with water-damaged scrolls and termite-eaten tomes, until he reached a recessed nook at the very back of the section. Here, the shelves were nearly collapsing under the weight of crumbling books, and a thin layer of dust covered every surface—no one had set foot here in years.
Lynn knelt beside a low shelf, his fingers brushing the cover of a thick, black-bound book. Its title, etched in faded silver letters, read Treatises on Elemental Residue Utilization—a work so obsolete, even the academy's oldest tutors had likely never heard of it. But as soon as his palm touched the leather, the Forbidden Codex lurched in his arms, sending a jolt of energy up his arm.
He quickly glanced around again, then pulled the Forbidden Codex from his shirt. The scroll unfurled slightly in his hands, its black patterns flaring to life like tiny ink-colored flames. Without hesitation, Lynn pressed the scroll's edge against the old book's cover.
A soft, hissing sound filled the air. The Forbidden Codex's patterns glowed brighter, and Lynn could feel a faint current of energy flowing from the book into the scroll—weak, but steady. It was the same residual magic he'd absorbed from the broken scrolls in Fallen Dust Town, only stronger: decades, even centuries, of dormant elemental energy, trapped in the parchment and leather of the abandoned tomes.
Lynn closed his eyes, focusing on the energy as it traveled from the Forbidden Codex into his dantian. The Ashen Spark there, still the size of a soybean after his morning clash with Karen, greedily latched onto the incoming energy. He could feel it swelling, its surface growing smoother, the faint black lines crisscrossing it becoming sharper, more defined.
For hours, he worked in silence, moving from book to book, scroll to scroll. Each time he pressed the Forbidden Codex to a discarded tome, the scroll drank deep, siphoning residual fire, wind, even faint traces of earth-element energy from the aging pages. The Ashen Spark grew, inching from soybean to chestnut size, and Lynn's senses sharpened—he could now feel the faint hum of magic in every stone of the library, every thread of the tapestries hanging from the walls.
By sunset, his arms ached from holding the scroll, and his legs were numb from kneeling. But when he closed his eyes and reached for the energy within him, Lynn smiled—there was so much more of it now, thicker, more responsive, like a well-tended flame instead of a flickering spark.
Just as he was about to pack up, the Forbidden Codex suddenly shuddered in his hands, its black patterns flaring so brightly they cast shadows on the shelf. Lynn's eyes flew open—something nearby was radiating magic, not the weak residual kind, but a dense, cold energy he'd never felt before.
He followed the scroll's pull to the end of the nook, where a loose floorboard had lifted slightly, revealing a small cavity beneath. Inside, half-buried in dust, was a small, leather-bound journal, its cover embossed with a strange symbol: a skull wreathed in black flame.
Lynn's breath caught. He'd seen that symbol once before, in a tattered history scroll he'd found in Fallen Dust Town—it was the mark of the Liches of the Withered Wastes, an ancient order of necromancers wiped out by the Holy Light Council three centuries ago.
He reached down and pulled the journal free. As soon as his fingers touched the leather, the Forbidden Codex let out a low, resonant hum, and the journal's pages flipped open on their own, stopping at a page filled with angular, black ink characters—ancient runes, older even than the ones on the Forbidden Codex.
Lynn frowned. He'd studied basic runes during his time sorting scrolls in the town workshop, but these were nothing like the elemental or Holy Light runes he knew. They twisted and coiled like serpents, their shapes seeming to shift the longer he stared at them. He traced one with his fingertip, and the Forbidden Codex pulsed—if only he could read them, he thought. These runes might hold clues to the scroll's origins, to the true nature of Ashen Magic…
"Those are Necromantic Runes. You won't get anywhere with them unless you know the old tongue."
Lynn nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun around, his hand flying to the Forbidden Codex tucked back in his shirt, and found himself facing a girl standing in the aisle behind him.
She was about his age, with raven-black hair that fell in tangles to her shoulders and pale skin that seemed to glow faintly in the dim light. Her cyan academy robe was too big for her, its sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and in her hands she clutched a thick book titled On the Resurrection of Lesser Undead—a book so explicitly about necromancy, it was supposed to be banned from the academy's shelves. But what caught Lynn's eye most were her eyes: a strange, silvery gray, like moonlight on tombstone marble.
The girl tilted her head, her lips curving into a half-smile. "Relax. I'm not going to report you. If I did, I'd have to report myself too." She held up the necromancy book, wiggling it slightly. "Academy rules say 'no forbidden magic texts,' but they never specified where we can read them, right?"
Lynn stared at her, still tense. "Who are you?"
"Leah," she said, stepping closer. Her boots crunched on the dust, and Lynn noticed a small silver locket around her neck, engraved with the same skull-and-flame symbol as the journal in his hand. "Leah Voss. And you're Lynn—the one who beat up Karen this morning. Everyone's talking about you."
Lynn's jaw tightened. "I didn't 'beat him up.' He attacked me first."
"Sure," Leah said, waving a hand dismissively. Her gaze drifted to the journal in his hand, and her silver eyes widened slightly. "Wait—that's a Voss family journal. Where did you find that?"
Lynn blinked. "Voss? You mean… this is yours?"
Leah nodded, her smile fading. She reached out, her fingers brushing the journal's cover as if it were something precious. "My great-grandfather's. He was a lich—one of the last ones before the Holy Light Council wiped us out. My parents sent me here to hide after the Council raided our sanctuary in the Withered Wastes. They said Azure Breeze was 'safe'—as if any place is safe from the Council's dogs."
Her voice dropped to a whisper, and Lynn saw a flicker of anger in her silver eyes. "But they hate me here. Call me a 'death witch.' Say I'll 'corrupt' the other students. The only place I can breathe is here—in the library, with the books no one else wants."
Lynn looked at her, and suddenly, he understood. She was just like him—an outsider, hiding a secret that could get her expelled, or worse. A strange kinship stirred in his chest.
He held out the journal to her. "Here. It's yours. I was just… curious about the runes."
Leah hesitated, then took the journal, her fingers brushing his. "You want to know what they say, don't you?" she said, her voice softening. "The runes. They're about Ashen Magic—about how it can absorb necromantic energy without being corrupted. My great-grandfather wrote that the Ashen Mages and the Liches were allies, once. Before the Council turned the world against both of us."
Lynn's heart skipped a beat. "You can read them? The runes?"
Leah nodded, tapping the journal's page. "My mother taught me the old tongue. It's the only thing she could give me before…" She trailed off, then looked up at Lynn, her silver eyes bright with determination. "I'll make you a deal. I'll translate the runes for you—all of them, in the journal and in that scroll you're hiding." She nodded at his chest, where the Forbidden Codex pressed against his shirt. "And in return, you help me hide. The Council's been sending hunters to the academies, looking for Voss descendants. If they find me…" She shuddered. "You're strong. Stronger than you look. If someone tries to hurt me, you'll help me. Right?"
Lynn thought of the Holy Light Council's spies, of Karen's threats, of the way the academy's students whispered about him behind his back. He thought of the Forbidden Codex, its secrets still locked away in ancient runes, and of Leah—alone, scared, but brave enough to fight for her life.
He held out his hand. "Deal."
Leah smiled, and for the first time, it was a real smile—warm, relieved, like the sun breaking through clouds. She took his hand, her palm cold but her grip firm. "Good. Now—let's start with that scroll of yours. Show me the patterns. I bet they're connected to the runes in the journal."
Lynn pulled the Forbidden Codex from his shirt and unfurled it on the floor. The scroll's black patterns flared as soon as Leah's eyes fell on them, and she gasped.
"They're the same," she breathed, tracing a pattern with her fingertip. "Not identical, but… related. This one—" She pointed to a twisting line that looked like a snake eating its tail. "It means 'absorption.' And this one—" A small, flame-shaped mark. "Means 'rebirth.' Together, they're saying that Ashen Magic doesn't just destroy energy—it recycles it. Turns death into life. Turns corruption into power."
As she spoke, Lynn felt a jolt in his dantian. The Ashen Spark there flared, and suddenly, a flood of images flashed through his mind: a gray-cloaked figure standing beside a lich, their hands glowing with matching energy; a tower made of black stone, filled with scrolls and journals; the Holy Light Council's army marching, torches burning, as screams echoed in the distance.
When the images faded, Lynn's head throbbed, but his body felt different—lighter, more in tune with the energy around him. He closed his eyes, focusing on the Ashen Spark, and whispered a single word, half-remembered from the images: "Split."
A faint pop sounded. When Lynn opened his eyes, he nearly fell backward—there, beside him, stood another Lynn. Same gray eyes, same tattered academy robe, same faint smudge of dust on his cheek. The only difference was its transparency: it looked like a ghost, its edges wavering slightly in the air.
Leah's mouth dropped open. "An Ashen Clone. My great-grandfather wrote about these—physical projections of your own energy, strong enough to fight, but invisible to anyone who doesn't know what to look for."
Lynn stared at his clone, his heart racing. He lifted his hand, and the clone lifted its hand too. He took a step left, and the clone mirrored him. It was like looking in a mirror—except this mirror image could move on its own, could distract enemies, could even take a hit for him.
"It's not just a clone," Lynn said, realization dawning. He could feel the clone's connection to his own energy, like a thread linking their dantians. "It can absorb energy too. If I send it into a crowd, it can siphon residual magic without anyone noticing."
Leah nodded, her silver eyes shining with excitement. "And that's not all. The runes say there's a 'Devouring Aura'—a field you can expand around you that absorbs all magic in its range. But you need more power to unlock that. More residual energy." She gestured to the shelves around them. "Good thing we've got a whole library of 'useless' books, huh?"
For the rest of the afternoon, they worked side by side. Leah sat cross-legged on the floor, translating the runes in the journal and scribbling notes on scrap parchment, while Lynn moved from shelf to shelf, feeding the Forbidden Codex with more abandoned tomes. With each absorption, the Ashen Spark grew, and new abilities unfurled in his mind—how to make his clone solid for short bursts, how to sense residual energy from farther away, how to weave the gray energy into a thin, invisible shield around his body.
By the time the library's bells rang for curfew, Lynn's clone could last for nearly a quarter of an hour, and he could feel the outline of the Devouring Aura in his dantian—weak, but growing. Leah had translated three pages of the journal, revealing that the Ashen Mages had once guarded a "Source of Rebirth" in the heart of the academy's后山, a place where Ashen Magic and necromancy could coexist without corruption.
"We need to go there," Leah said, folding up her notes. "The Source of Rebirth. It could make both of us stronger. But it's in the forbidden trial grounds—guarded by traps, and probably by tutors too."
Lynn nodded. He thought of the black stone stele he'd found there with Eve, of the pure Ashen energy that had surged into him. If the Source of Rebirth was anywhere, it was there.
"I'll talk to Eve," he said. "She knows the后山. She can help us get in."
Leah raised an eyebrow. "Eve? The senior with the water magic? I've heard about her too. They say she's cold, that she doesn't talk to anyone. Why would she help us?"
Lynn thought of Eve's sharp eyes, of the way she'd defended him from Karen's friends that morning, of the way she'd nodded at him in the library days before—as if she'd known who he was, what he was hiding.
"Because she's hiding something too," he said. "Just like us."
Leah smiled, tucking her notes into the pocket of her robe. "Then it's settled. Tomorrow afternoon, meet me here. We'll plan the trip to the后山. And Lynn—" She paused, her silver eyes softening. "Thanks. For not calling me a death witch. For… being my friend."
Lynn felt a warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with the Ashen Spark. "You're not just my friend," he said. "You're my ally."
They slipped out of the library as the last of the sunlight faded, Leah heading toward the east dormitories and Lynn toward the west. The Forbidden Codex hummed in his arms, its patterns glowing faintly, and Lynn smiled to himself.
He was no longer alone. He had Andy, who stood by him even when Karen threatened to hurt them both. He had Eve, who seemed to know more about Ashen Magic than she let on. And now he had Leah—smart, brave, and the key to unlocking the Forbidden Codex's deepest secrets.
Karen's threats, the Holy Light Council's spies, the academy's suspicions—they still loomed, dark and dangerous. But as Lynn walked back to his dorm, the Ashen Spark in his dantian burning bright, he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time: hope.
He would grow stronger. He would unlock the Forbidden Codex's secrets. And when Karen or the Council came for him next time, he wouldn't just defend himself—he would fight back.
In the shadow of the library's stone walls, a figure watched him go. Eve stood beneath a gnarled oak tree, her blue staff tucked under her arm, her sharp eyes following Lynn's retreating form. In her hand, she held a small, weathered locket—engraved with the same skull-and-flame symbol as Leah's.
"Finally," she whispered, her lips curving into a faint smile. "The Ashen Mage and the Lich's descendant. Just like