Lyra's POV
I couldn't stop shaking.
Nova's blood was still under my fingernails. I'd scrubbed them raw in the hidden chamber's tiny bathroom, but I could still see it—dark and accusing.
"Drink this." Kael pressed a warm cup into my hands. Some kind of tea that smelled like mint and something sharper. "It'll help with the shock."
"She saved me." My voice sounded hollow, distant. "Why would she save me after everything she did?"
"People are complicated." Kael sat across from me, his own hands wrapped around a cup. "My father's best friend murdered my family. But the night before, he'd helped me with my homework and told me jokes. Monsters don't always look like monsters."
I took a sip. The tea burned going down, but it cleared some of the fog from my brain. "The Primordial Beast. Where did it go?"
"Back through the seal. Professor Winters managed to reseal it before she escaped—probably didn't want to die either." Kael's jaw tightened. "But the damage is done. The Second Seal is critically weakened now. One more attack and it'll shatter permanently."
"And Nova?" I hated how my voice broke on her name.
"I called the medical team anonymously. They took her body." He paused. "I also grabbed this from her pocket before they arrived."
He held up a small notebook with Nova's handwriting on the cover.
My hands trembled as I reached for it. "Should we read it?"
"She died saving you. Maybe she wanted you to understand why she did what she did." Kael handed it over. "Or maybe it'll help us stop the Eclipse Covenant. Either way, we need information."
I opened the notebook with careful fingers, half-afraid of what I'd find.
The first page made my breath catch:
Day 1 of befriending Lyra Ashford: She seems nice but naive. This should be easy. I'll gain her trust, isolate her, and monitor for Cipher awakening. Standard recruitment protocol.
But as I flipped through the pages, the entries changed:
Day 47: Lyra brought me soup when I was sick. She didn't have to do that. No one's ever done that for me before.
Day 89: She helped me study for my Magical Engineering exam even though she was exhausted from her own research. She's genuinely kind. It's... weird.
Day 156: I think I actually like her. This is problematic.
Day 203: The Covenant wants me to sabotage her research project. I told them I would, but I can't. I'll find another way. She's worked too hard.
Tears blurred my vision. "She fought for me. Behind the scenes, she fought for me."
Kael read over my shoulder. "But not enough to tell you the truth."
"No." I wiped my eyes angrily. "Not enough for that."
The last entry was dated yesterday:
They're activating the final phase tomorrow. They're going to force Lyra to break the remaining seals or kill everyone she cares about. I've tried to warn her indirectly, but the Covenant is watching too closely. If I betray them openly, they'll kill my little brother. He's all I have left. I'm sorry, Lyra. I'm so, so sorry. You deserved a real friend.
I closed the notebook. My emotions were a tangled mess—grief, anger, understanding, betrayal, all swirling together until I couldn't tell them apart.
"She had a little brother," I whispered. "They were threatening her family."
"That doesn't excuse what she did," Kael said firmly. "But it explains it." He stood up, offering me his hand. "Come on. Sitting here won't help. We need to get you ready for what's coming."
"Ready how? I already activated Level Two powers. I nearly died doing it."
"And you'll die for real if that's all you can do." His dark blue eyes met mine intensely. "The Eclipse Covenant knows you're awake now. They'll come at you with everything they have. You need to be stronger."
He was right. Sitting in this hidden chamber crying over Nova wouldn't save anyone.
I took his hand and let him pull me up.
---
By the time we emerged from the hidden chamber, dawn was breaking. The Academy would be waking soon, and I was supposed to be expelled.
"Wait here," Kael said, then disappeared into the early morning shadows.
He returned ten minutes later with a satisfied smirk. "Done. You're officially my research assistant for a special project on dimensional magic. Full scholarship reinstated, all charges dropped."
I stared at him. "How did you—"
"My family name still carries weight, even with most of them dead. And I've saved enough professors' lives over the years that they owe me favors." He started walking, and I hurried to keep up. "We have two hours before your first class. Let's not waste them."
He led me through corridors I'd never noticed before, down stairs that seemed to shift position, until we reached a door marked with symbols that hurt to look at directly.
"Private training room," Kael explained. "Sealed with my family's magic. Nothing that happens inside can be detected from outside."
Inside, the room was simple—padded floors, high ceilings, and walls covered in strange markings that pulsed with faint light.
Kael turned to face me, and his expression shifted into something focused and dangerous. "Lesson one: Stop thinking of yourself as weak."
"But I was weak. For three years—"
"You were SEALED, not weak. There's a difference." He crossed his arms. "The Codex has been feeding you information, right? Showing you how to see magical structures, how to understand ancient languages?"
I nodded.
"That's because your brain was always capable of it. Your parents locked your power away, but your mind stayed sharp. That's why you excelled at magical theory while struggling with practical casting." He moved closer. "You weren't working harder to compensate for weakness. You were unconsciously working around a seal. That takes incredible mental discipline."
The words settled into me like missing puzzle pieces clicking into place.
"Now," Kael said, "show me what you can do."
"I don't know what I can do."
"Then let's find out." He gestured at a training dummy across the room. "Move it. Don't touch it. Just move it."
I focused on the dummy, reaching for the power I'd felt last night. The marks on my skin—hidden now under my uniform—tingled with warmth.
Nothing happened.
"It's not working," I said, frustrated.
"Because you're trying to use normal magic. Cipher magic works differently." Kael stood behind me, his voice low near my ear. "Don't push at the object. Understand it. See its structure. Then just... ask it to move."
I tried again, this time really looking at the dummy. And suddenly I could SEE—not with my eyes, but with something deeper. The dummy wasn't solid. It was made of threads, of patterns, of magical instructions woven together.
Move, I thought.
The dummy slid smoothly across the floor.
"Good," Kael said. "Again. Faster."
We trained for two hours, and with each exercise, I felt the seal on my powers crumbling further. I moved objects. I read ancient texts Kael pulled from his bag—languages I'd never studied but somehow understood. I even managed to create a small portal, though it collapsed immediately.
By the time we finished, I was exhausted but exhilarated.
"You're a natural," Kael said, and there was something in his voice—pride? satisfaction? "In three years of watching you, I suspected. But seeing you actually use Cipher magic? You're going to be extraordinary."
Heat flushed my cheeks. "Three years. You keep mentioning that. Why did you watch me for so long?"
"Because I was looking for you." He stepped closer, and suddenly the room felt smaller. "After Aria's soul shattered, I spent a year researching how to restore her. Every source said the same thing: only a Cipher could navigate broken dimensions. So I came to this Academy because it was built on the dimensional seals. I figured if a Cipher existed, they'd be drawn here."
"And you thought it was me?"
"I hoped." His dark blue eyes held mine. "You had the birthmark. The instinctive understanding of ancient magic. The way you could sense things other students couldn't. But I wasn't sure until last night."
"The birthmark?" I looked down at my wrist where the Codex marks now lived. Beneath them, barely visible, was the mark I'd had since birth—a small symbol I'd always thought was just a weird birthmark.
"It's the Architect's Sign," Kael said softly. "Every Cipher carries it. Your parents hid yours with illusion magic, but I have my family's sight. I could see through it."
My mind reeled. "So you've been protecting me because you need me."
"I started protecting you because I needed you," he corrected. "But after three years of watching you be kind when the world was cruel, work hard when others mocked you, help people even when you were struggling yourself? I kept protecting you because you deserved it."
The intensity in his voice made my heart race.
"Kael—"
A massive explosion rocked the Academy.
The training room shook. Dust rained from the ceiling. Somewhere in the distance, students screamed.
Third Seal, the Codex said urgently. They're attacking the Third Seal. Now. During class change when the most students are in the corridors.
Kael's face went hard. "They're creating chaos. Using students as hostages."
We ran from the training room, racing through corridors filled with panicking students. Smoke poured from the East Wing. More explosions thundered.
We burst into the main courtyard and stopped dead.
Professor Winters stood on the central fountain, surrounded by robed Eclipse Covenant members. She held a struggling student by the throat—a young girl, maybe thirteen, crying with terror.
"Lyra Ashford!" Professor Winters called out. "I know you're here! Come out, or I start killing students. You have ten seconds to surrender yourself."
Students pointed at me, recognizing me from the Grand Exhibition scandal. Some backed away in fear. Others looked at me with desperate hope.
Kael grabbed my arm. "Don't. It's a trap."
"She'll kill them," I said.
"She'll kill them anyway. That's what these people do."
"Ten!" Professor Winters shouted. "Nine! Eight!"
I looked at the crying girl. At the hundreds of students frozen in fear. At Kael's anguished face.
You can't save everyone, the Codex warned.
But I could try.
I stepped forward, away from Kael's reaching hand. "I'm here! Let her go!"
Professor Winters smiled. "How heroic. But I'm afraid I need something more than your surrender."
She gestured, and three more robed figures emerged from the crowd. They held people I recognized—Professor Chen from History class. Marcus, the kind librarian. And—
My blood turned to ice.
My grandmother stood between two Covenant members, her hands bound, her face pale but defiant. My grandmother who'd died three years ago. Who I'd buried. Who I'd grieved.
She was alive.
"Surprised?" Professor Winters laughed. "Did you really think we'd let the previous Cipher Keeper die peacefully? We've had her in our custody for three years, waiting for you to awaken."
My grandmother's eyes met mine across the courtyard. She mouthed two words: "I'm sorry."
Professor Winters raised her hand, and a blade of dark magic appeared at my grandmother's throat.
"Now then, Lyra. You're going to break the remaining seals for us. Or I'm going to kill every person you've ever cared about, starting with the woman who raised you. What's it going to be?"