The old rift scar lay east of the academy wall — a jagged tear in the earth that had never fully healed.
It was a place students were forbidden to go.
Not because it was dangerous — though it was — but because it was wrong.
The ground here didn't behave like ground should.
Grass grew in spirals.
Trees bent sideways.
And sometimes, if you stood still long enough, you could hear voices that weren't there.
Kael and Miko reached it just before dawn.
The sky was turning gray at the edges.
The auroras had faded.
Miko stopped at the edge of the scar — a wide, blackened gash maybe fifty meters across.
Steam rose from cracks in the stone.
The air smelled of sulfur and something metallic — like blood mixed with lightning.
"This is where it started," Kael said.
Miko looked at him.
"The first rift?"
He nodded.
"Twenty-three years ago.
The one that killed Lirien's entire class.
She was the only survivor.
For forty-two days."
Miko stared into the scar.
The seal pulsed — once, curious.
She pressed her hand over it.
"What are we looking for?"
Kael stepped forward — careful, shadows coiling around his ankles like guard dogs.
"Evidence.
Something the academy missed.
Or something they hid."
They descended into the scar.
The ground sloped sharply — loose stone shifting underfoot.
The deeper they went, the colder it became — not winter cold, but something deeper, like the absence of warmth.
At the bottom, the scar widened into a rough circle.
In the center — a single object.
A cracked obsidian shard — similar to the one in the vault, but larger.
It lay half-buried in the dirt, crimson veins crawling across its surface like roots.
Miko felt the seal flare — hot, eager.
Kael crouched beside it.
"This is a fragment of the original rift core.
The academy sealed the rest.
But this piece… they left it."
Miko knelt next to him.
"Why?"
"Because it's bait."
He touched the shard.
The crimson veins pulsed brighter.
The seal on Miko's collarbone answered — matching the rhythm.
She pulled her hand back.
Kael looked at her.
"It recognizes you."
Miko swallowed.
"What happens if I touch it?"
Kael's voice was quiet.
"We find out."
Miko looked at the shard.
Then at Kael.
She reached out.
The moment her fingers brushed the obsidian, the world tilted.
A flash — not light, not sound — just memory.
A girl with dark hair and crimson eyes — Lirien — standing in this same scar.
Shadows pouring from her hands — wild, uncontrolled.
Voices screaming.
Blood on stone.
Then silence.
And a whisper — the same whisper Miko had heard in her head.
"More."
The vision snapped shut.
Miko gasped, stumbling back.
Kael caught her arm.
"What did you see?"
Miko's voice shook.
"Her.
Lirien.
She… she was here.
And the seal was talking to her.
The same way it talks to me."
Kael's grip tightened.
"What did it say?"
Miko looked at the shard.
"More."
The seal pulsed — once, twice — almost satisfied.
Kael stood.
"We're leaving."
Miko didn't move.
"Kael."
He looked back.
She met his eyes.
"I think it wants me to break it."
Kael's expression darkened.
"Then we don't let it."
He pulled her away from the shard.
They climbed out of the scar — fast, silent.
Behind them, the obsidian fragment pulsed once more — brighter than before.
And in the distance, from the direction of the academy, a bell rang.
Not the morning bell.
The alarm bell.
To be continued…