The book hadn't stopped writing.
Lyra woke to find new ink on the pages — silver, looping, and faintly pulsing. It didn't shimmer like magic. It shimmered like breath.
> "She is not gone. She is waiting."
Maris sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at the book like it might blink. "It's writing in real time."
Lyra nodded. "Or remembering."
They hadn't told anyone. Not yet. But the school felt different. The walls leaned closer. The koi pond whispered louder. And the mirrors in the hallway had started showing things that hadn't happened.
Class: Memory Borrowing
Professor Umbra stood in the center of the room, her robes trailing mist.
"Today," she said, "you will borrow."
The students sat in pairs. Lyra was assigned to Corvin Dusk, the pale illusionist from Noctis Hollow. He didn't speak. He just stared, his eyes like fog.
Umbra placed a crystal between them. "Touch it. Let it pull."
Lyra reached out. So did Corvin.
The room vanished.
The Memory
Lyra stood in a hallway — not hers, not Corvin's. The walls were velvet. The doors were mirrors. And behind each one was a version of herself.
Laughing. Crying. Screaming. Silent.
She turned.
Madame Calyx stood at the end of the hall, her face hidden behind a porcelain mask.
"You're stitched wrong," she said.
Lyra tried to speak, but her voice was gone.
Calyx stepped forward. "That's why you were chosen."
She woke with a gasp.
Corvin was still staring. "You saw her."
Lyra nodded. "Did you?"
He shook his head. "She only shows herself to the ones who remember."
The Cafeteria
The Velvet Atrium had reshaped again — today, it was a spiral of floating platforms. Students leapt between them, trays hovering like satellites.
Maris joined Lyra, her eyes wide. "You saw her."
Lyra whispered, "She spoke."
Maris leaned in. "What did she say?"
Lyra hesitated. "That I'm stitched wrong."
Maris smiled faintly. "That's not an insult here."
The Rivals
Saphira Wynn approached, her golden uniform glowing.
"She's watching you," she said.
Lyra frowned. "Madame Calyx?"
Saphira shook her head. "The school."
Behind her, Juno Blaze kicked a tray into the koi pond. It hissed.
Nova Quinn danced past, whispering, "The mirrors are listening."
Zephyr Vale stood in the shadows, unreadable.
Cassian Thorn tossed a coin. It hovered.
The Book Again
That night, the book pulsed violently.
New ink appeared:
> "The fifth tower is not a place. It is a person."
Maris gasped. "It's you."
Lyra stared. "Or it's her."
The koi pond turned black.
The dorm trembled.
And beneath the floor, the door began to open.