Silence devoured the room.
Only Leximus' breathing—ragged, uneven, as if every inhale scraped against something sharp—broke the stillness. The shadows had vanished as though they'd never existed, leaving behind only a faint chill clinging to the stone floor.
Rylan lowered his trembling hands from Leximus' temples. His fingertips still buzzed with residual Mnemonic static—like touching the memory of lightning.The kind of static that only came after forcing Ether through another person's overloaded conduits.
Liam hovered by the doorway, pale, knuckles white against the doorframe.
"Is he… alive?" he whispered.
Rylan swallowed, forcing his shaking voice to steady. "Yes. For now."
He leaned closer to Leximus. "Lex? Can you hear me?"
Leximus' eyelids flickered. His lips parted.A single exhale escaped him—shallow and ghostlike, but real.
Rylan let out a slow breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
"Help me lift him," he said quietly.
Liam hesitated, fear visibly locking his joints, but he forced himself forward. Together, they slid their arms under Leximus and sat him upright against the wall. His head lolled forward, sweat-damp hair clinging to his forehead.
He looked drained—drained in a way that felt wrong, as though something had fed on him and left only the shell.Most Elemental surges didn't do this. Fire Avatars burned hot. Earth Avatars went rigid. Water surged emotionally. But this—this felt foreign.
Rylan checked his pulse. "It's weak… but steady."
Liam backed away again. "This isn't normal, Rylan. People don't do… whatever that was."
"No," Rylan agreed softly. "They don't."
A faint rustle rippled through the corridor outside.
Footsteps. Slow. Heavy. Purposeful.
Liam stiffened. "It's Calvin."
The door swung open.
Calvin entered, eyes instantly taking in the scene—Leximus slumped against the wall, the shattered lantern, the frost-like residue on the floor, and the lingering pressure in the air that didn't belong to any of the Four Known Elements.
His jaw tightened.
"What happened?" His voice was controlled, but too even—forced.
Rylan stood, subtly shielding Leximus with his shoulder. "Another Elemental surge. Worse than the first."
Calvin's gaze locked onto Leximus, studying him with a complicated expression—fear, fascination, calculation.
"Did he say anything?" Calvin asked.
"No," Liam blurted. "He just started… twisting. And the shadows were—" He stopped himself, as though speaking it aloud might make it real again.
Calvin knelt beside Leximus. "Leximus. Look at me."
Leximus' eyes fluttered open.
The first thing Calvin noticed was their color.
Not dark.
Not hollow.
But… depthless.
A darkness with movement. A depth that shouldn't exist behind mortal eyes—as if something was staring back from the other side of them.
"Tell me what you saw," Calvin murmured.
Leximus swallowed, voice barely holding shape."I heard… whispers."
"What kind of whispers?"
"Names," Leximus breathed. "Places."
Calvin's heartbeat stuttered once—almost imperceptibly. "What names?"
Leximus moved his lips slowly, as if the words themselves resisted being spoken.
"The Unlit Chamber… the Eve Mountains… the Scroll of Erised…"
Rylan's head snapped toward Calvin. Liam froze.
The room felt colder.
Calvin's expression didn't change, but something behind his eyes sharpened—alarm buried under a soldier's discipline.
"Rylan," Calvin said slowly, "help Liam take Leximus to the infirmary. Say nothing to anyone. Understood?"
Both boys nodded immediately.
Calvin stood, turned his back to them, and stepped toward the door. His voice was low, almost lost in the drafting echo of the hall.
"I'll inform Sirius."
But the way he said it wasn't routine.
It was weighed with dread.
Rylan and Liam half-carried Leximus through the corridor. Every flickering lantern they passed seemed to dim a little more, as if recoiling from him.Some reacted that way to raw Ether overflow—but only when the surge came from a very misaligned element.
"Hold on," Rylan muttered under his breath. "Just stay awake until we get there."
Leximus tried. His vision swam in overlapping shadows. The hallway walls distorted—warping inward, pulsing like veins under pale skin.
For a moment, he thought he saw figures in the corners.Figures shaped like the hands from the void.
He blinked hard.
Gone.
Only echoes remained.
"I'm… sorry," Leximus managed to whisper.
Liam almost stumbled. "Sorry? For what?"
"For scaring you."
Rylan shot him a look. "You don't have to apologize for something you can't control."
Leximus lowered his head.But he didn't correct him.
Because in the deepest part of him—the part the shadows had touched—he wasn't entirely sure he couldn't control it.
Or worse…that eventually, he might choose not to.
They reached the infirmary. Light—real, warm, steady lantern-light—washed over the room, driving away the oppressive darkness clinging to Leximus' mind.
The healer on duty, a stern woman with thin silver spectacles, sprang to her feet.
"What happened to him?"
"Elemental surge," Rylan answered. "Severe."
Her expression tightened. "Put him on the cot."
They laid Leximus down. His body sank into the sheets as though every muscle had been replaced by lead.
The healer rested a hand above his forehead—etheric diagnostic runes flickering faintly.Thin streams of blue light—Water Ether—flowed around her palm in cooling spirals.
Her breath caught.
"This… isn't like any element I've seen."
Rylan and Liam exchanged a glance—but remained silent.
The healer frowned deeply. "You said he's a new Initiate? No rank yet?"
"Yes," Rylan answered quietly.
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Then whatever is happening to him has nothing to do with standard awakening instability. His Ether isn't aligning to any of the four Elements."
She pressed her glowing hand to his temple. Water Mnemonics rippled gently—healing, stabilizing, soothing memory pathways.Normally, Water calmed an overload instantly.
Here… it recoiled.
Before Rylan could respond, footsteps approached—soft, gliding, deceptively calm.
Sirius entered.
The healer froze, bowed her head.
Rylan and Liam tensed.
Sirius moved to Leximus' bedside. His expression was unreadable. Not anger. Not shock.
Recognition.
He placed two fingers against Leximus' wrist and closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened them, he spoke with a stillness that chilled the air.
"Remove the other patients. Seal the infirmary."
The healer blinked. "Sir?"
"Do it."
She obeyed immediately, ushering the others out.
Liam whispered, "Why is he—"
"Quiet," Rylan hissed.
Sirius finally looked at the two boys. "You both leave too."
Rylan hesitated. "But—"
"That was not a request."
The stern finality of the command left no room for argument. They backed away, stepping out into the hall just as the door sealed shut behind them with a heavy iron click.
Liam exhaled shakily. "Rylan… what's going on?"
Rylan didn't answer immediately. He stared at the closed door, brows furrowed, breath shallow.
Finally, in a voice barely audible:
"I think… something is very, very wrong with Leximus."
Inside the sealed infirmary, Sirius pulled up a chair beside Leximus and studied the boy's unconscious face.
"You've finally awakened…" he murmured, almost to himself.
"…just not into anything this world understands."
He reached out, and for the first time since Leximus had met him, Sirius' aura faltered—flickering like a candle confronted by a wolf's breath.
Shadows crawled faintly under Leximus' skin.
And Sirius—one of the highest-ranked individuals in the organization—whispered words no one else would ever hear:
"You are not supposed to exist.