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Nightfall draped the academy like a heavy shroud, but Auretria did not sleep.
She lay still, listening.
There was… something.
A soft ripple. A whisper. A sound like breath brushing across stone.
It wasn't the voice she had heard as a child — not the gentle one from the glass palace.
This one was older. Hungrier.
And it knew her name.
"Auretriaaa…"
Her eyes shot open.
The dormitory was dark; her roommate Arienne snored softly in the other bed. Moonlight seeped in through the window, pale and cold. Nothing moved.
But the whisper came again — not from her room.
From beneath it.
The academy was warded, protected by layers of sigils and enchantments. Things weren't supposed to crawl under the students' rooms.
Yet something was.
Auretria sat up. The Aether stirred around her like a restless tide.
Should I check?
No instructor would believe her. They barely believed she could control Aether, let alone sense something unnatural beneath the building.
The whisper dragged along her spine.
"Auretria… child of starlight… come."
She stood.
The Stairwell Below
Most students never used the maintenance stairwell — the lights flickered, the air was stale, and it always smelled faintly of wet stone. But Auretria's instincts dragged her there like an invisible leash.
The deeper she went, the colder the air became.
By the time she reached the second basement level, her breath fogged.
She held out her hand. Aether pulsed at her fingertips, forming a small glow — not bright enough to draw attention, but enough to see.
That was when she noticed something strange.
The walls were damp.
Not from leaks — but from a thin layer of dark fog clinging to the stones like mold.
Auretria moved closer.
The fog retreated.
Not in a puff…
Not in a swirl…
It crawled away.
Auretria took one step back.
"…What ARE you?" she whispered.
The fog trembled, then suddenly darted down the hallway like a living thing.
And Auretria ran after it.
The Hidden Door
The fog stopped before a wall.
A plain, unmarked stone wall with no carvings or runes.
Then a faint outline shimmered — a door that should not exist.
The fog sank into the cracks.
Auretria swallowed.
"No one told me there was another floor…"
She touched the outline.
The stone shuddered.
A pressure spread from the wall, like something was waking up after centuries of sleep. The magic recoiled from her first — then recognized the Aether in her veins.
It opened.
A slow grinding sound echoed down the corridor.
The old air hit her face first — stale, dry, filled with dust and something metallic… like old blood.
Auretria stepped inside.
The Room That Should Not Exist
The chamber was circular, vast, and filled with fractured mirrors suspended midair — some small as her palm, others large enough to show her entire reflection.
Each mirror was cracked.
Each reflected her differently.
One Auretria was crying.
Another screaming.
Another smiling in a way that wasn't hers.
Another covered in blood.
A shiver ran down her spine.
"What is this place…?"
The whisper answered.
"Aether is truth. Truth takes shape. Truth shows what you fear."
Auretria spun around.
The fog gathered in the center of the room, forming a vague human shape — tall, thin, indistinct.
Its voice was many voices at once.
"You come because you hear us. Because you… awakened."
Auretria clenched her fists.
"You've been following me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
The entity tilted its head.
"You are the first Aether-bearer since the Queen. We are bound to your kind. We slept when she died. But you… little starlight… you woke us."
Auretria stepped back.
The presence leaned closer.
"Your Aether is still sealed. Suppressed. But the cage is cracking."
Auretria froze.
"What cage?"
The entity paused.
Then it pointed — not at her.
At the mirrors.
One mirror flickered, revealing a memory she had buried:
Her mother's hand gripping her chin.
Her father's voice booming, distant and cold.
Snap of magic.
Pain.
A burning force closing around her chest.
"You were sealed," the fog whispered. "By those who feared you. They feared what you could become."
Auretria's pulse hammered.
She had always felt it — that something inside her wanted to break free, a power wrapped in chains. But she had thought it was because she was weak. Because she lacked control.
No.
It was because someone had forced that weakness on her.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"Because," the entity breathed, "your chains are weakening. And once they break… we will return."
Auretria stared at it.
"Return as what?"
The fog smiled without a mouth.
"As your shadows."
Before she could react, the mirrors surrounding her shattered.
Sound exploded.
Aether surged like a tidal wave, filling the chamber with blinding gold. The shock threw her backwards, slamming her into the stone floor.
The entity dissolved into smoke.
"Auretriaaa…" it whispered as it faded. "The world will break for you…"
Then everything went silent.
The Instructors Arrive
Auretria stumbled out of the hidden chamber, coughing dust.
The second she reached the upper hallway—
"YOU!"
A sharp voice cut through the air.
Instructor Malien stood at the top of the steps, lantern raised, eyes wide with fury.
"What are you doing down here? These levels are forbidden!"
Auretria opened her mouth to speak.
She didn't get the chance.
A burst of white binding magic wrapped around her wrists.
"W–wait! There was something here! Some creature—"
"Enough." His voice was cold. "Do you intend to destroy the academy like you destroyed the Senior Combat Field?"
"I didn't destroy anything—!"
"You expect me to believe a child?" Malien snapped. "Whatever disturbance you caused tonight will be reported to the Headmaster."
Her stomach dropped.
No.
Not again.
Not another punishment for something she didn't do.
"I didn't cause it!" she shouted. "Something was calling me! Something inside the academy—"
"Silence!"
The bindings tightened until they stung.
Auretria bit her lip.
Behind her, the hidden wall was completely sealed again — as if the chamber had never existed at all.
There would be no proof.
Again.
Dragged Into the Light
As she was marched up the stairwell, students began peeking out of their dorms.
"What happened?"
"Was that an explosion?"
"Is it her again…?"
Auretria kept her head down as whispers followed her.
Her heartbeat thundered with hurt and humiliation.
Nobody ever believed her.
Nobody ever would.
But deep inside her chest…
Something new throbbed.
Something sharp.
Something dark.
Like a crack spreading through the cage.
And for the first time in her life—
Auretria didn't try to stop it.
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