Calyra didn't speak for three days.
She walked the halls like a shadow stitched from silence. Her presence bent the air. Her footsteps echoed in places where sound shouldn't reach. Students gave her space. Professors watched from behind mirrors.
Lyra watched too.
Not out of fear.
Out of recognition.
The First Fragment
It happened in Dream Theory.
Professor Umbra asked each student to project a memory.
Calyra stood.
She didn't project.
She spoke.
> "The fifth tower was never meant to be buried."
The room froze.
Umbra dropped her chalk.
Nova Quinn whispered, "She's remembering."
Zephyr Vale nodded. "Or releasing."
The Second Fragment
In Emotional Alchemy, Calyra was handed a vial labeled Origin.
She didn't drink it.
She whispered:
> "Emotion is architecture. Memory is mortar. I built this place with grief."
Maris gasped.
Lyra felt the book pulse in her bag.
Cassian Thorn stood slowly. "She's not quoting. She's recalling."
The Third Fragment
In the Mirror Garden, Calyra stood before a pane that had never cracked.
She touched it.
It shattered.
She whispered:
> "They sealed me in silence. But silence is not containment. It is echo."
The koi pond turned silver.
The fifth tower pulsed.
Headmistress Virelle watched from the Clock Room.
She did not smile.
The Gathering
Lyra called the stitched ones together.
Nova. Maris. Zephyr. Cassian. Juno. Corvin.
They met in the Whisper Theatre.
"She's unraveling," Maris said.
"No," Lyra replied. "She's delivering."
Nova nodded. "She's a message stitched into flesh."
Zephyr murmured, "Then we must listen before she fades."
The Book Again
That night, the book pulsed violently.
New ink appeared:
> "She is not a person. She is a memory given shape. She will not last."
Lyra whispered, "Then we have to remember her before she forgets herself."