The tower shuddered again, dust falling like powdered snow. Lira clutched the door she had just locked, eyes wide with fear.
"Master Orion," she said quickly, "what do you mean destroyed a city? That's impossible"
"Not impossible," Orion interrupted, voice low and hard. "Merely forgotten."
Nox felt the room tilt slightly.Something about Orion's words rang too close to the whisper in the Verge.
"Tell me," Nox said. "What happened to the last Verge-Bearer?"
Orion didn't answer immediately. Instead, he released Nox's wrist and began pacing slow, deliberate steps, like someone arranging pieces on a chessboard only they could see.
"You must understand," he said at last, "time is not a river. It is a glass labyrinth. To walk the Verge is to step into corridors not meant for mortal feet."
He paused beside the floating hourglass.
"And when a mortal takes a step… the labyrinth shifts."
Lira swallowed. "And the city?"
Orion's gaze flickered, shadowed by old memory.
"It was called Thalesis," he said. "A city of scholars, astronomers, and dreamers. They studied the flow of time… as if it were a puzzle they had the right to solve."
He raised a trembling hand.
"One night, the sky above Thalesis cracked. Not the stars the hour. A Verge-Bearer attempted an Accord beyond their mastery. Time folded… and the city slipped out of its own existence."
Nox's breath hitched."Vanished?"
"No," Orion whispered."Worse. It never was."
The room fell silent.
Even the Astrarium dimmed, as if mourning something only it remembered.
Lira stepped closer to Nox, her voice small. "People… lived there."
"Lived," Orion corrected bleakly, "and then un-lived. Their timeline collapsed inward. Only fragments remain ruins scattered across forgotten timelines, shreds of moments trapped in static echoes."
Nox felt cold.The brand on his hand pulsed once in response, like a heartbeat out of sync with his own.
"…And you think I'm like him?" Nox asked quietly.
Orion's gaze softened not with comfort, but with grim clarity.
"No. I think the Astrarium chose you because something approaches. Something that requires a Verge-Bearer." He exhaled shakily. "But whether that is salvation… or disaster… I cannot say."
Nox tried to steady his breathing.He had never asked for this.He had only wanted to learn maybe earn a place in the Observatory someday.
Not become a walking catastrophe.
Lira reached out and touched his arm gently.
"You're not that person, Nox."
Her voice steadied him.More than she knew.
But Orion's next words cut through the fragile hope:
"You must learn control immediately. Before the Council senses the shift."
"Why would they care?" Nox asked.
Orion stared at him.
"Because the Council is built on the ruins of the Verge-Bearers. They outlawed the cycle. They swore none would rise again."
He took a step closer.
"If they learn you bear the Mark… they will silence you before dawn."
Nox froze. Lira swore under her breath.
Silence stretched through the tower, heavy and suffocating.
ThenA knock at the door.
Three slow, echoing taps.
Lira's face drained of color."That's a Council rhythm…"
Orion's expression hardened, ancient and grim.
"They're early," he muttered. "Damn them."
The knock came again, louder this time.
"Nox," Orion whispered sharply, "hide your hand. Stay behind me. And whatever they ask say nothing about the hourglass or the mark."
Nox nodded, pulse racing.
The lock on the door clicked open from the outside.
The door slowly creaked inward.
A tall figure stepped inside, wrapped in dark sapphire robes, the insignia of the Scholars' Council gleaming on their chest.
Their eyes landed immediately on Nox.
Cold.Calculating.
"Apprentice Nox," the Councilor said, voice smooth as glass, "we felt a disturbance.You will come with us."
Orion stepped between them instantly.
"He will not."
The air thickened two forces, old and powerful, straining against each other.
And the Astrarium behind them began to glow.