Later that night, the dorm room was quiet. Mira was sitting on her bed, staring blankly at a small, silver hairpin in her hands.
Lina watched her carefully. "Mira? Are you okay?"
Mira looked up. Her eyes were wide and confused. "Lina," she whispered. "Who gave me this?"
Lina's heart squeezed. "You did. You bought it on our first day at the academy. You said it matched your eyes."
Mira frowned. She looked down at the hairpin again, her fingers trembling. "I do not remember that," she said softly. A tear slipped down her cheek. "I remember buying it, but I do not remember the feeling of buying it. It is just... empty. Like a hole in my head."
Lina walked over and gently took the hairpin from Mira's hands. She placed it on the nightstand. The Mirror Tax and the severed tether had left deep scars. Mira was losing pieces of her past, and there was nothing Lina could do to fix it.
"I will remember for both of us," Lina said firmly.
But Lina knew she could not just sit and wait. The academy was hiding things. The teachers were helping the False Kai. The countdowns were dropping. She needed to find the truth before her own number reached zero.
While Mira and Seren slept, Lina slipped out of the dorm room. She walked down the dark, twisting hallways. She avoided the main paths, sticking to the narrow, forgotten corridors near the old library.
She was looking for anything unusual. Any crack in the academy's perfect mask.
Suddenly, the hallway in front of her seemed to stretch. The stone walls groaned softly, like a sleeping giant shifting in its bed.
Lina froze. She watched as a section of the wall slid backward with a heavy, grinding sound. A hidden doorway appeared. It was narrow and made of dark, ancient wood.
She stepped closer. The air coming from the doorway smelled like old dust and dried flowers.
Lina pushed the door open and slipped inside.
The room was small and round. There were no windows. In the center of the room stood a single wooden pedestal. On top of it rested a thick, leather-bound book.
Lina walked over and opened the book. The pages were yellow and brittle. The handwriting was sharp and hurried.
She read the first line. Her breath caught in her throat.
We did not build the Academy of Veils to teach the gifted. We built it as a cage. The thing beneath the stone must never wake. The students are not the scholars. They are the locks.
Lina stared at the words. The academy was not a school. It was a prison. And the students were the bars keeping something trapped underground.
Before she could read more, the floor beneath her feet vibrated.
A loud, metallic click echoed in the small room.
Lina spun around. The wooden door was sliding shut. The walls were moving again. The room was shifting back into the solid stone of the hallway.
Panic flared in her chest. If the door closed, she would be trapped inside the wall forever.
Lina lunged forward. She threw her hands against the heavy wood. She pushed with all her strength, her shoes slipping on the stone floor. The door was heavy, but she managed to wedge her foot into the closing gap.
With a final, desperate shove, she squeezed through the opening just as the door slammed shut behind her.
She fell onto the cold hallway floor, gasping for air.
The wall was smooth and solid again. There was no seam. No crack. No sign that a door had ever been there.
Lina lay on the floor, her heart pounding in her ears. The Founder was not just a history lesson. The academy was a cage. And the thing underneath it was waiting.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2026
All rights reserved.
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Next Chapter Summary for Chapter 105: The False Kai corners Lina in the library, asking her the Three Question Trap with terrifying precision, while Jax's condition suddenly worsens in the infirmary.