Chapter 35 – Belief

  The next day, Kaelin arrived at the gym around 10PM, but Zephyr wasn’t there so she started working out. Today was legs, her warmup was fairly tame, lunges and stretches dominating most of the first half an hour before she moved onto her proper sets. For the main event, she went for a healthy dosage of squats, deadlifts and split squats.

  By the time Zephyr arrived, she was halfway through the workout.

  “Hey Kaelin, how long have you been here?” Zephyr called out from across the courtyard.

  “Only an hour don’t worry. I was starting to think you might not be coming though.”

  “So what’ve you got to tell me?” Zephyr asked inquisitively.

  “Look. This is big. It changes almost everything you might know.”

  “Oh shut up and tell me. I don’t need any of this bullshit. Stop trying to drag it.”

  “Fine.”

  Kaelin sighed as she wobbled over to Zephyr. Her legs weak from the exercise. Once she made it over the low wall surrounding the gym, she placed her notes down on top and jumped up.

  “Come on, take a seat. You might need it.”

  Zephyr jumped up on the other side of the paper.

  “What’s this then?”

  Kaelin’s notes rested between them. The runes were laid out across the top one. All of her findings were spread throughout the pages.

  “This is ridiculous,” Zephyr muttered, flipping through the pages. “I said I didn’t want any bullshit. There’s no way this is true!”

  Kaelin nodded, her fingers tracing the symbols. “Trust me, I found these underground in the ruins. There’s no way I would lie about something like this.”

  “Look I don’t know what’s happened between you and Lena but you can’t just try to trick me with all this. What were you gonna do if I’d believed you? What was the point? There isn’t a single thing my belief could’ve got you. Is this a test? Were you seeing if I’d tell Lena? There’s gotta be something real. I said I wouldn’t tell her!”

  “Nah, this is it. Look, I wouldn’t lie to you. I have some other theories too if you want to see them. I only wrote down my research here in case someone found them. My ideas are all stored up here,” Kaelin said, pointing to her temple with a grin.

  “I really don’t need this right now. Just don’t’ talk to me until you’ve got all this figured out. Get a grip Kaelin.”

  “Stop, I’m telling the truth! You’ve got to believe me! I have some more proof!”

  “Do you? Are you sure, absolutely, 100% sure about this?”

  “If I’m being honest, no. But I think its pretty likely. When I showed this to Aric, he gave away something big.”

  “Go on…” Zephyr ushered lightly.

  “Well… Basically, when he took a look at them, he said nothing to the Ouroboros but for the star he said he hadn’t seen it before. I might be going crazy, but surely that means he’d seen the snake previously. He knows something. This is all true, I’m sure of it!

  Zephyr watched her carefully. “Just stop trying to convince me. If you get some proper evidence, maybe I’ll think about it. But right now? You’re just speaking out of your arse. Someone might have just been down there graffitiing or something, you don’t know. And about Aric, are you sure he wasn’t just talking about either of them? Maybe he hadn’t seen the Ouroboros before either.”

  Kaelin’s grip tightened on the book. She wasn’t sure. That really may have been the case. But it all felt right somehow. Something had resonated with her. “Look, I don’t have anything else, you just have to. Please!”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Zephyr turned and walked over to the gym to start his work out. Her jokes were starting to get to him. She sounded so insistent that it was true. What if… no. Of course it isn’t. There’s no way this had been kept quiet for thousands of years. There would have at least been some kind of writing or literature with it... right?

  ***

  Kaelin returned to her dormitory straight away, exhaustion tugging at her limbs but her mind buzzing with possibilities. She sat by the window, the midnight sky was an inky black, while the moon glistened, illuminating the campus.

  Tracing the symbols once more, she drew them out over and over, half-hoping they might respond. If there had been ‘new’ magic hidden in history… what else might be out there?

  She got up from her chair and looked around the room. Immediately, her eyes were pulled toward the corner of her room where an old trunk sat, untouched for months. A sudden, nagging feeling urged her forwards, and her vision was tinted orange, like it was being affected by magic. Kneeling beside it, she carefully lifted the lid and dug through its contents, feeling for the pull. She went through old notes, scraps of parchment, a few keepsakes from home. Then, her fingers brushed something unfamiliar.

  A folded piece of parchment, brittle with age.

  Slowly, she unfolded it. More runes sat at the top. But beneath them, a scrawled note in faded ink.

  They’re lying to you. Don’t trust Aric. Leave the runes for now, they’ll make sense soon.

  A chill ran through Kaelin’s spine.

  What the fuck. Kaelin thought.

  How long had this been here? What did it mean? Should she trust it? Why would she just forget about the magic?

  Too many questions. Kaelin was too engrossed in surprise to notice that both her vision had returned to normal, and the inherent pull she had felt was gone.

  There was no way Zephyr would believe her now. Maybe she should just come out and say it was a joke. Yea, that would be best. If he didn’t trust her enough to believe her the first time, it wasn’t worth chasing.

  Kaelin stared at the parchment, her breath shallow. The ink, though faded, still carried a sense of urgency, as if the writer had been desperate to get their message across. But who had written it? And why was it in her trunk? She had never seen this before, never placed it there – yet somehow, it had been waiting for her. Her hands trembled as she folded the note back up.

  Had someone planted it? If so, why now? Was it a warning, or was it a trick? The words echoed in her head. They’re lying to you. Don’t trust Aric. She shoved the note into the pages of her journal and slammed the trunk shut. She needed to clear her head, to step away from the suffocating weight of uncertainty.

  Grabbing her coat, she left the dormitory, letting the frosty nights’ air sting her cheeks. The campus grounds were nearly deserted at this hour, the occasional lantern casting elongated shadows across the cobbled pathways. As she wandered, her feet carried her back toward the gym, where Zephyr had gone to work out. Maybe he was still there. Maybe she could talk to him or at least watch him train. She’d do anything to ground herself in something real.

  The rhythmic sound of fists striking a training dummy echoed through the gym. Kaelin lingered near the entrance, watching Zephyr as he moved with precise, almost mechanical focus. His muscles tensed and relaxed with each blow, his breathing measured. Even now, with no one to impress, he pushed himself. It was admirable. Frustrating, but admirable.

  Kaelin trudged across the academy grounds, her resolve hardening with each step. The previous night had left her restless, questions spiralling in her mind, but Zephyr had made it clear that he wouldn’t entertain theories without solid proof. Maybe he was right. Maybe she had been grasping at straws. Maybe it was all just an elaborate coincidence.

  By the time she reached the training field where Zephyr often ended his days, she had settled on her course of action. If he wasn’t going to believe her, then she’d make it easier for him. She’d pretend it was all a joke, that she had been messing with him the entire time. That way, he wouldn’t dismiss her entirely in the future when she actually had something real.

  Zephyr was mid-stretch when she approached, his expression unreadable as she stood a few feet away, hands shoved into her pockets. The crisp morning air carried the scent of damp earth, and the faint mist that clung to the grass made everything feel quieter, more isolated.

  “Hey,” she called casually.

  He gave her a sidelong glance, finishing his stretch before straightening. “What do you want?”

  Kaelin rocked back on her heels, exhaling dramatically. “Alright, alright, I admit it. I was messing with you.”

  Zephyr’s brow furrowed. “What?”

  “The runes, the symbols, the secret magic,” she waved a hand dismissively. “It was all just a joke. I thought it’d be funny to see how long I could keep you hooked.”

  He studied her, eyes narrowing slightly. A silence stretched between them, the weight of it pressing against her ribs. The way he was looking at her – it was like he could see straight through the words, peeling back layers she didn’t even know were there.

  “You’re lying,” he said, voice low but sure.

  Kaelin smirked. “Am I? Or are you just mad that you fell for it?”

  Zephyr crossed his arms, the muscles in his jaw tightening. “That’s a lot of effort for a joke.”

  “What can I say? I get bored easily.” She shrugged, letting the grin linger, though inside, doubt gnawed at her. “Just figured I’d come clean before you started thinking I’d lost my mind.”

  He didn’t respond immediately, and for a moment, she thought he was going to press further, to demand the truth. But then he exhaled, shaking his head. “You’re ridiculous.”

  “You love it.” She winked before turning on her heel. “Later, Zeph.”

  As she walked away, she could feel his eyes on her back, but she didn’t dare look. Maybe this was for the best. Maybe, if she stopped digging, she’d stop seeing things that weren’t there.