The night after Yohan's interrogation, the Sacred Academy was eerily silent.
No bells, no footsteps in the halls—only the sound of the wind brushing against the ancient stone.
Deep in the lower archives, where forbidden tomes were sealed with wax and prayer, two figures moved like shadows.
Ciel's pale hair gleamed faintly in the torchlight as he flipped through a crumbling manuscript, his brow furrowed in frustration.
Beside him, Lily stood watch, one hand pressed against the wall to sense any incoming aura signatures.
"Nothing here," Ciel muttered. "Every record of the 'Fractured Flame' ends the same way—classified, redacted, or destroyed."
Lily frowned. "They've buried the truth. You know what that means."
He nodded. "That the Seers are afraid of him."
The torch crackled between them, casting long shadows. For a moment, Lily's expression softened.
"He's not the same boy we met a year ago."
Ciel looked up. "He's never been."
They both fell silent. In their minds, the memory replayed—the day Yohan was found unconscious in the forest outside the Academy, covered in ash, with no recollection of how he got there.
Since then, everything around him had felt… unstable. Like the world bent slightly toward him without meaning to.
Lily brushed her fingers over one of the old tomes. The cover read "Chronicles of the Founders: The Elemental Ages."
When she opened it, dust swirled into the air—forming faint motes that shimmered like fireflies.
On the first page, an inscription was written in an old script:
"Five became One. One was broken to save the Five."
Lily's breath caught. "Five elements… and one sacrificed to protect them?"
Ciel leaned closer. His voice dropped to a whisper.
"Or to control them."
Suddenly, the torches along the wall flickered violently, then extinguished—leaving only the faint blue glow of their auras.
A slow, deliberate set of footsteps echoed behind them.
"Searching the restricted archives?" a voice drawled. "That's a violation of Council law."
It was Professor Kael. His tone was calm, but his eyes glowed faintly—like embers beneath frost.
Ciel stepped in front of Lily, instinctively protective. "We had permission from—"
Kael raised a hand, silencing him. "Save the lies. I know why you're here."
He turned toward the open book, his gaze lingering on the inscription. "The Fractured Flame… I hoped it was just a myth."
Lily's heartbeat quickened. "You know what it means?"
Kael didn't answer. He simply reached forward and snapped the book shut, the air trembling around them.
When he looked up, his expression was colder than stone.
"Leave this to the Seers," he said. "And stay away from Yohan. If he breaks again, none of us will survive it."
He turned, the torchlight flaring back to life as he vanished into the corridor.
Ciel exhaled shakily. "He's hiding something. They all are."
Lily nodded, staring at the sealed tome in her hands.
The dust still swirled around her like glowing ash—each particle whispering faintly as it fell.
And in the dark silence of the archive, one whisper lingered longer than the rest, curling into her ear like a ghost's breath:
"The flame remembers."