❖ Scene: Azurean Academy – Midnight
The academy should have been asleep.
But Kai wasn't.
He stood alone in the northern courtyard, cloaked in silence. The air felt... strange. Not cold. Not warm. Just off. The wind didn't move, the stars were hidden behind thick clouds, and even the lanterns lining the walkways flickered as if uncertain whether they should be burning.
He wasn't here by chance.
A letter had appeared in his dorm hours ago. No name. No seal. Just a single line:
"Come alone. Midnight. North courtyard."
He would've ignored it—if it weren't for the symbol etched faintly at the bottom.
A spiral. Split through the center.
The same symbol that had appeared inside the Spiral Mirror.
And the same one he'd seen on the dark figure standing beside the Nightspawn.
Kai stepped into the open, hands casually at his sides but fingers resting near the hilts of his daggers.
"You came," a voice murmured.
It came from nowhere. And everywhere.
Then—movement.
