Riven Lux didn't return after the illusion.
The school didn't announce it. No alarms. No search parties. Just silence. His name vanished from the attendance scrolls. His desk in Obsidian Tower was empty. His mirror in the hallway showed static.
Lyra noticed first.
"He's gone," she whispered to Maris.
Maris frowned. "Gone where?"
Lyra stared at the koi pond. "Where we went."
The Classroom
Professor Umbra didn't mention Riven. She taught as if nothing had changed.
"Today," she said, "we study Emotional Echoes. You will listen to the feelings left behind."
Lyra's vial pulsed. It was labeled Absence.
Maris's glowed faintly. Fear.
Cassian Thorn leaned back in his chair. "Lux was always half here."
Zephyr Vale blinked slowly. "Now he's fully gone."
Nova Quinn whispered, "Or fully present. Somewhere else."
The Search
Lyra and Maris returned to the koi pond that night. It was silver again, but the door beneath the dorm pulsed faintly.
Lyra knelt. "He's in there."
Maris hesitated. "Or what's left of him."
They descended.
Beneath the Velvet
The room had changed.
The mirrors showed Riven — flickering, silent, trapped in a loop. He walked through the fifth tower, touching walls that pulsed with memory. His eyes were blank. His mouth moved, but no sound came.
Lyra reached out.
The mirror cracked.
Maris pulled her back. "You can't touch him."
Lyra whispered, "He's stitched into the tower."
The Book
Back in their dorm, the book had written again.
> "He remembered too much. The tower took him."
Maris stared. "It feeds on memory."
Lyra nodded. "And he was full of it."
The Rivals Respon
Saphira Wynn approached them in the Velvet Atrium.
"You're unraveling the school," she said.
Lyra didn't flinch. "It's already unraveling."
Saphira leaned in. "Then stop pulling."
Juno Blaze kicked a tray into the koi pond. It hissed.
Corvin Dusk stared at Lyra. "He's not the first."
Nova Quinn danced past. "He won't be the last."
The Mirror Garden
Lyra visited Riven's mirror.
It showed her own face.
Then it whispered: "You're next."