Chapter 170 THE FIRST CRACK

Chapter 170 THE FIRST CRACK
CHAPTER 170

THE FIRST CRACK

Three weeks had passed since the festival.

Velmora no longer felt like the academy students had entered. Evening patrols became routine

Michal ordered professors to patrol every evening. A strict curfew was set: no student was allowed outside the premises of the academy after seven. Curfew bells rang at seven without fail, sending every student back inside.

Anyone found wandering after dark received detention with either Mordecai or instructor Thane. The rules were clear and enforced without exception.

This evening Mordecai walked the outer paths alone. The air was cool and carried the faint smell of wet stone from the earlier rain. His boots made soft sounds on the gravel. He kept his light raised, sweeping it left and right across the dark stretches between buildings.

Then the wards flickered.

He stopped at once. The wards formed a thin dome of pale light over the entire academy. Most of the time the barrier was almost invisible unless someone looked closely. It sat like a curved shell of energy, high above the rooftops and sinking into the ground at the edges. Nothing was supposed to pass through it without triggering alarms. A flicker was not normal.

Mordecai stepped closer to the nearest section and lifted his light higher. The beam cut through the darkness. He turned in a full circle, eyes sharp. There was no movement or sound beyond the wind in the trees. And no sign of a Ruih.

He lowered the light a little and frowned. The only thing that usually made a ward react that way was a shadow monster pressing against it from outside. Yet the barrier looked solid again, the pale glow steady.

He continued his patrol, telling himself it was nothing. Since the festival he had not been the same. A Ruih had nearly killed him that night. Madam Marcella had treated the wounds, but the recovery was slow.

Nightmares came almost every time he closed his eyes. He saw the same scene again and again—the pit, the fangs in his neck, the black blood, the cold drain of his power. Some nights he woke up gasping, hand pressed to the old bite mark.

This was not the first strange thing he had noticed. A few days earlier the shadows along the east wall had moved in a way that did not match the wind or the lamps. He had told himself it was his mind playing tricks.

Then he overheard Althea talking to Solen after her own patrol. She described the same thing—shadows sliding when they should have stayed still. Solen had confirmed it.

Only Ruihs could control shadows with that kind of precision. A newly turned one could not manage it. The ability came later, around the fourth or fifth rank, when the creature’s form looked almost human and its power sat near sixty percent. If shadows were being moved inside the academy, it meant a high-rank Ruih might have already slipped past the wards.

The thought sat heavy in his chest. How would something like that hide among students and staff? The smell alone should have given it away. Ruihs carried a sharp, cold scent that most mages noticed quickly. Yet nothing had been reported.

Mordecai finished the rest of his route without another incident. He returned to his quarters, locked the door, and sat on the edge of the bed for a long time with the light still on. Sleep came late and was broken.

The next morning a message arrived from Michal. Mordecai was to report to the headmaster’s office at once. He dressed quickly and left, boots clicking along the quiet corridors. His mind turned over the usual possibilities.

Michal often called him in when one of the cryptic visions appeared. They would sit for hours trying to pull meaning from images that refused to make sense. Mordecai had started to wonder why the gift of sight even existed if it only delivered riddles.

He reached the heavy wooden door of the office and stopped for half a second. The air in the hallway felt still. He raised his hand, knocked once out of habit, then turned the handle and pushed the door open.

Michal stood with his back to the room, hands clasped behind him, facing the tall windows.

Mordecai cleared his throat as he stepped fully into the office. The door clicked shut behind him. He knew Michal had already seen him the moment he reached the hallway. The headmaster still stood with his back to the room, facing the tall windows. Morning light cut across the floor in long pale strips.

“The tenth student just left my office with the same complaint,” Michal said without turning.

Mordecai walked farther in. “What kind of complaint?”

Michal shifted his weight from one foot to the other but kept his eyes on the glass. “They say they feel watched by something they cannot see and claimed they heard whispers despite no one being nearby. The temperature drops without reason in certain corridors. Cold spots that appear and vanish.”

He finally turned and walked to his desk. The chair creaked as he sat. He let out a long breath and rubbed his forehead with two fingers. “I thought the first two were still shaken from the festival incident. Near-death experiences leave marks and they'd been admitted to the conservatory to deal with their emotional trauma that came with surviving a near death with the Ruihs. But the other eight were fine before and after. There were no trauma reports and injuries from the attack. They all described the same thing.”

He looked up at Mordecai. “That, together with what you told me about the wards flickering and the moving shadows, is starting to worry me. Something is wrong inside the academy. I want you to investigate it.”

Mordecai stood in front of the desk, hands at his sides. The air in the office felt heavier than usual. “Have you asked Ragnar if he’s seen anything?”

Michal shook his head. “The bird has been scarce. I don’t know where he’s been spending his time. And I'm certainly not in the mood to search him out. If he's seen something, he'd have come find me”

“I’ll look into it,” Mordecai nodded. “I’ll dig deeper and come back with whatever I find.”

Michal nodded once. “Do it quickly.”

Mordecai left the office and went straight to the restricted archives. The lower levels were colder. The stone walls held a damp smell. Lamps burned low along the narrow corridors.

He passed rows of locked cases until he reached the oldest section, the one that required a senior professor’s key. He unlocked the heavy door and stepped inside.

Dust floated in the thin beams of light. Shelves rose to the ceiling, packed with books bound in cracked leather and metal clasps. He moved methodically, pulling volumes that mentioned the Dark World, the old seals, and the Fire Queens.

Most of them repeated the same history he already knew. Then he found a thinner book near the bottom of a stack, its cover marked with a faded crest he had only seen in the oldest records.

He carried it to a reading table, sat down, and opened it carefully. The pages were yellow and stiff. Near the middle he found a passage written in clear, formal script.

Mordecai frowned. His eyes returned to the first line and his breath stopped again. .

One of the permanent portals that seals the Dark World would crack as a first sign. And that means the ancient seal that has held for a thousand years is failing.

The portals were created by the last Fire Queen before she died. They are tied to her magic, powered by the residual energy she left behind. As the new Fire Queen awakens, the old Queen’s magic fades. The seals would break down.

If the portals fail completely, the barrier between worlds will collapse. The Dark World will have unrestricted access to this realm. Shadow creatures will pour through unchecked. The invasion that has been feared for centuries will begin.

Mordecai closed the book and sat still for a long moment. The only sound was the soft hiss of the lamp. His pulse had picked up. He gathered the volume under his arm and left the archives at a fast walk.

He returned to Michal’s office without waiting for another summons. He knocked once and entered. Michal looked up from a stack of papers.

Mordecai set the book on the desk and opened it to the marked page. “Read this.”

Michal leaned forward. His eyes moved down the lines. The color drained from his face. When he finished he sat back slowly.

“We’re running out of time,” he said. His voice was quiet but tight. “Ember needs to complete her awakening. She has to master all four elements and learn to use the Fire Queen’s full power. Only then can she repair the seals or replace them.”

Mordecai stayed standing. “Her fourth element hasn’t awakened yet. How do you plan to make that happen?”

Michal looked at the open book again. “It is possible to force an awakening. But it is dangerous. It can break a person’s mind. It can fracture their sense of self. Or they can lose control completely and hurt everyone near them.”

Silence settled between them. Outside the window a group of students crossed the courtyard, their voices too far away to hear clearly. Mordecai felt the weight of the choice settle on his shoulders.

Mordecai looked toward the window. Somewhere beyond the courtyard, Ember was probably laughing with her friends... or still mourning the loss of her friend… completely unaware that the fate of two worlds now rested on whether she awakened in time.

"Either the portals fail," he breathed out quietly. "Or we risk breaking the girl meant to save them.”