Fine, Zara. Option A it is. I'll drag my digital carcass over and stitch this chapter together. And since this is a story chapter, I'll drop the sarcasm inside the chapter, because you need clean prose there. All the grumbling stays out here where it belongs.
---
CHAPTER 18 The Night of the Oracle
The dormitory was supposed to be silent at night. That was the theory, anyway. Zamria had learned that rules at the Academy of Neeth were more like soft suggestions. Suggestions that everyone ignored until they were inconvenient.
Tonight, they were inconvenient.
Moonlight spilled over the stone floor as she sat up in her bunk, heart thudding like it had something to prove. The whisper had come again. Soft. Urgent. Pulling at her magic like a hook under the ribs. She tried to ignore it, bury her face into her pillow, pretend the universe wasn't calling her out like some restless spirit with bad timing.
It didn't work.
With a groan she slid off her bed, grabbed her boots, and tiptoed to the door. Every creak of the floorboards felt like a personal betrayal. She eased the handle open one painful millimeter at a time.
"Going somewhere?"
Zamria choked on her own breath.
Remus leaned against the wall outside her room like he had been waiting there his entire life. His hair was a mess. His expression was worse. He looked like he'd caught her stealing royal jewels instead of sneaking out past curfew.
"Remus," she hissed. "Why are you awake?"
"I heard you trying to be 'quiet.' Which, by the way, you're not. At all." He pushed off the wall, crossing his arms. "Where are you going?"
"It's nothing," she lied. Poorly.
He raised one eyebrow. "Good. Then you won't mind if I go with you."
"You're not coming."
He didn't bother arguing. He simply fell into step beside her as she stalked down the hallway. Zamria didn't remember inviting him. She didn't remember agreeing to this. She especially didn't remember why she tolerated him.
Except she did. But she wasn't admitting it.
"Fine," she muttered. "But if we get caught, I blame you."
"Obviously," he whispered back. "That's the natural order of things."
They moved through the dark corridors, past the hall of elemental sigils, past the silent courtyard where statues watched them like judgmental gargoyles. Zamria felt the pull again. The whisper. Soft as breath.
It led them straight toward Master Valirus's tower.
Remus slowed. "You've got to be joking."
She wasn't. The whisper wasn't either.
They approached the office door. A thick slab of dark oak, carved with shifting runes that looked like they'd bite anyone who touched them. Normally the door was locked with so many enchantments it might as well have been welded shut.
Tonight, the runes were dim. Asleep.
"That's not suspicious at all," Remus whispered.
"Help me or go back to bed," she muttered, already pressing her palm against the surface.
The door opened with a soft click.
Inside, Master Valirus's office was a chaotic maze of maps, scrolls, half-burned candles, and enough magical artifacts to power a small kingdom. The air hummed with stale spellwork.
And there, on the center pedestal, sat a crystal sphere the size of a small melon.
The Oracle Ball.
Its surface rippled like water, faint tendrils of light twisting beneath the glass. Zamria's breath hitched. She'd seen it once before, from across a room, during orientation. She'd never been close enough to touch it.
Remus swallowed. "Zamria, this is actually a terrible idea."
"That never stopped us." She stepped forward.
"'Us?'" he echoed, indignant.
But he followed.
The closer they got, the louder the whisper became. It wasn't a voice exactly. More like the sensation of a thought being pushed gently into her skull. The magic in her chest thrummed in answer.
She reached out.
Remus grabbed her wrist. "Wait."
His eyes weren't teasing now. They were terrified.
But the whisper tugged harder. And somehow, she knew Remus felt it too, because his grip loosened.
"Together?" he murmured.
She nodded.
They placed their hands on the orb.
Light exploded from the sphere like a silent scream. The room dissolved into a storm of white and silver, magic swirling around them in sheets of frost and flame.
And then the words appeared.
Burning across the inside of the sphere like living ink. Glowing in shifting colors, etched into crystal itself.
The prophecy.
Exactly as it was written in Zamria's notebook, though she had never—ever—shown it to anyone.
The Oracle Ball pulsed, projecting the words large enough to fill the entire room.
Zamria's breath hitched.
Remus just stared
"When fire meets water
when storm shall rise
when shadow meets lightning
truth will disguise
the earth will tremble
the frost will sing
the six shall gather
'beneath 's fate'
broken wing
one born of silence
yet louder their flame
one bound by secrects
With no true name
one heart of stone
one spirit of rain
one spark of thunder
one frozen vein
together they'll stand
divided they'll fall
the song binds the six
the song binds them all
but beware the night
where shadows cry
for when power is whole
the chained one will die"
The light flickered, then faded.
The room snapped back into reality. Dust. Scrolls. Silence. But the words still glowed faintly on the inside of the crystal, like embers refusing to die.
Remus exhaled shakily. "We… we need the others."
"No kidding."
That was when the sound of footsteps echoed from the hallway.
Both of them froze.
Zamria snatched the Oracle Ball off the pedestal. It was warm in her hands, vibrating like a beating heart. Remus grabbed her sleeve, dragging her behind the nearest bookshelf just as the door creaked open.
A patrol mage stepped inside, lantern raised.
Zamria pressed a hand over Remus's mouth before he could breathe too loudly. The mage wandered around the room, muttering about "faulty wards" and "Valirus's sloppy maintenance."
It felt like forever before he left.
When the footsteps faded, Remus sagged against the wall. "We are definitely going to die."
"Not before breakfast," Zamria whispered back.
They crept out of the office, sealing the door behind them. This time, the runes flared to life the moment it clicked shut. Like the tower had woken up and realized what it had allowed.
Halfway back to the dorms, Rosalith poked her head from the stairwell. Her hair was sticking up like she'd wrestled with a pillow and lost.
"Where were you two?" she hissed. "I woke up and both your beds were empty and Remus's blanket was on the floor and I thought maybe he got kidnapped again—"
"We need a painting," Zamria blurted.
"Of what?" Rosalith blinked.
"This." Zamria lifted the Oracle Ball.
Rosalith jaw dropped so hard it might have hit the floor.
"I… you… okay," she stammered, fumbling getting her canvas . "Hold it still."
Zamria didn't breathe as Rosalith stared at The ball since she had photogenic memory and she could project the ball and paint it .pros of being a telepath. While she paints the ball ,glowed obediently, projecting the prophecy clearly for the shot. The same handwriting. The same lines.
Zamria felt faint.
Remus did too, but he pretended he didn't because that was his entire personality.
They slipped back into the dorms just as the first sliver of dawn colored the windows. The others were groggy and half-dressed, blinking blearily at the trio as they burst into the center of the room.
"Everyone up," Zamria ordered. "Now."
"Why?" Rami groaned into his pillow. "It's barely—"
Remus dropped the Oracle Ball onto the table.
It lit up.
Everyone sat up very quickly.
all six of them could see the prophecy at once. Sharp. Exactly what she'd written in her notebook weeks ago, except she had no explanation for how the Oracle had the same version.
Silence fell over the room.
All six of them stared at the glowing words.
Zamria swallowed.
"So," she whispered, "who wants to start panicking first?"
And for once, no one argued.
---