Astraedus Academy – North Practice Courtyard (Morning)

  Aeon stood motionless, as though the world had paused around him. His mind, though, was in turmoil. The words that had echoed in his dream—the voice that had spoken of the mirror that walked away—haunted him.

  “What does it mean?” Aeon muttered under his breath, as though the answer would appear if he asked often enough.

  Lysira stood beside him now, her eyes narrowing as she watched the clouds above them churn restlessly. “Aeon, you’ve been like this for days,” she said gently, her voice filled with concern. “What is it? What’s happening to you?”

  He didn’t answer at first, staring at the horizon, his thoughts far from the academy grounds. When he finally spoke, his voice was distant, as if speaking to himself. “I’m remembering... remembering things that shouldn’t be mine.”

  Lysira frowned, her concern deepening. “What do you mean? You’re talking about the Eye, aren’t you?”

  Aeon turned toward her, his eyes distant and yet full of something she couldn’t quite read. “Not just the Eye,” he said, his words heavy with something unspoken. “It’s like... pieces of a puzzle. Fragments of a life that were never mine. But they are mine. And I don’t know how to put it all together.”

  Lysira wanted to say more, but the words caught in her throat as a ripple of energy passed through the air. She glanced around. It was subtle, almost imperceptible, but the magic of the world seemed to have shifted in a way that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

  The ground trembled beneath them.

  “Did you feel that?” Lysira asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Aeon nodded slowly. “It’s the Eye. It’s watching again.”

  Central Observatory Tower – Faculty Restricted Level

  Professor Varnet Kaelos paced back and forth, his brow furrowed in deep thought. The distortion in the temporal mirror had grown more intense, more frequent. Something—or someone—was tampering with the flow of time, trying to break through the seals that had once kept everything in check.

  Madame Caltrae stood silently by the window, her blindfolded gaze focused on the distant sky. She hadn’t spoken since Varnet’s outburst, but she hadn’t needed to. She could feel the change.

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  “It’s him,” Varnet muttered, almost to himself. “The distortions are tied to him. We’ve been tracking them for weeks, but now… now it’s undeniable. He’s awakening.”

  “Who?” Madame Caltrae asked, her voice almost a breath, a soft murmur carried by the wind.

  “Aeon,” Varnet replied, his voice thick with fear and awe. “His powers are awakening. But something else—something worse—is breaking through. The seal is no longer enough to contain it.”

  Astraedus Academy – Library of Eldrith Vaults (Afternoon)

  Naelia Virelios sat cross-legged on the floor, her glowing fingers tracing the pages of a forbidden text. The ancient tomes whispered to her, the secrets of the cosmos spilling out like lost memories. The truth she sought was within her reach, yet elusive.

  Her pulse quickened as she stumbled upon something new. Something that had been hidden, perhaps even forbidden.

  “Aeon,” she whispered, her voice filled with a strange mixture of reverence and malice. “The One who would shape reality.”

  Her fingers danced over the glyphs, and as they did, the words twisted and reformed before her eyes. She smiled, a cold, knowing smile.

  “Elysiar… Not just a name. A throne. A crown. A destiny.”

  Her eyes flashed with a spark of something dark.

  Aeon’s Dreamscape – The Between Realm

  In his sleep, Aeon moved again—not as a body, but as a thought. His will wove through the threads of reality, touching places beyond the reaches of his own memories. He passed through landscapes of ash and flame, through moments frozen in time, and through the wreckage of worlds that had long been forgotten.

  At the center of it all stood the throne—an empty seat, carved of eyes, watching him.

  He approached it, feeling the weight of eternity pressing against his chest.

  "Who am I?" he asked again, though the words seemed hollow now, as if the very question had no meaning anymore.

  The voice that answered was familiar, yet distant. Not his. Not Vael’s.

  “The mirror that walks away... from the path of creation,” it intoned, its voice an echo of a time before time.

  Aeon’s hand hovered just above the throne, but before he could touch it, a sudden, sharp pain shot through him. It was like the force of a thousand realities crashing into him all at once. His vision blurred as he collapsed to his knees in the void of the dreamscape.

  “No!” he gasped, but the voice was already gone. The throne was silent once more.

  Back in the Real World – Academy Bell Tower (Night)

  Vael Virelios stood at the edge of the bell tower once again, gazing down at the academy below. His expression was unreadable, his hands clasped behind his back.

  He had known this moment would come. He had known that the seal would eventually break. That the Eye would awaken. That Aeon would begin to remember.

  And now, the pieces were falling into place.

  “The Eye watches, the seal shatters, and the path is revealed,” Vael murmured to himself, his voice smooth and calculating. “But what will you do, Aeon? Will you embrace your destiny… or fight against it?”

  He glanced toward the horizon, his eyes glowing with quiet anticipation. “Either way, the game has begun.”