The map wasn't perfect.
It was old, older than Arcvale itself. Reian had retrieved it from a forbidden section of the Academy's archive, half-burned and ink-faded. But one thing was clear beneath the Vault, beyond the public sanctum, existed another chamber unmarked in official records.
That was where the Sixth Sigil lay dormant.
And it was where they were going.
---
"Everyone ready?" Caelum whispered, crouched at the edge of the dormitory grounds under a blanket of early fog.
Eo adjusted her gloves. "As ready as we'll ever be."
Lira gave a quick spark-flick to check her magic wasn't reacting to the suppressor fields. It wasn't. "No heat. That's a bad sign."
Seren, silent as always, simply nodded.
Reian tapped the hilt of her dagger. "Once we go past the eastern ward line, the Council's private surveillance picks up. Stick to the blind spots. Speak only when you must."
Caelum exhaled slowly.
This is it. One mistake and we're not just expelled. We vanish like the ones before us.
He looked at his friends. They waited for his lead.
Garron Varrow, he thought, what would you do?
He stepped into the mist.
---
The eastern stairwell behind the greenhouse led to a cellar door rusted from disuse. Beyond it was a tunnel one of Arcvale's oldest its walls slick with condensation, veins of old Veilstone running like frozen lightning through the rock.
The group moved in silence.
As they descended, Caelum felt the air thicken. Not with heat or pressure, but with memory.
Every step felt... familiar. Like the Vault remembered him.
Or maybe, he thought, I'm remembering it.
They passed through crumbling archways and deactivated wards, avoiding pressure plates and glyph traps that would alert the Harmonizer Array above.
At one point, Lira stopped and held up a hand.
"Wait. Magical pulse… up ahead. Someone's there."
They flattened against the wall.
Footsteps slow, deliberate echoed from the next chamber. A figure in white and grey passed by, carrying a tuning-fork staff.
A Warden.
But they didn't see them. The Warden walked right past.
Reian had cast a veil spell that shimmered like heat behind their backs.
They didn't speak until the Warden disappeared into the dark.
Caelum's pulse thundered in his ears.
Too close.
---
The path ended at a vast gate twin doors of obsidian, etched in swirling script that moved when Caelum blinked.
The same Sigil that marked his hand pulsed above the threshold Echo.
Eo whispered, "These doors were meant to respond to your presence."
Caelum reached forward.
The mark on his palm flared and the doors slowly groaned open.
Inside lay the Chamber of Restraint.
Seven stone pedestals formed a ring. Five glowed faintly. Two remained dim.
Lira stepped in and shivered. "This place feels… old. Like the magic here isn't just ancient it's asleep."
Eo wandered to the pedestal marked with water runes. "They weren't just chambers. They were meant to awaken us. Safely. In sequence."
Caelum nodded. "The Council kept us away. They feared what would happen if we connected."
Reian moved toward the far wall. "Look."
A mural part mural, part map showed seven shapes, each forming a constellation of light across Arcvale.
At the top glowed a symbol they hadn't seen before.
Not flame. Not echo. Not memory. Not disruption.
But balance.
The Sigil of Equilibrium.
The Sixth.
---
As the others studied the mural, Caelum found himself drifting toward the center pedestal the one left untouched.
He stared at the floor beneath it. Carvings spiraled out like veins.
And he felt it.
They're waiting for us.
But one is resisting. Still asleep. Still afraid.
He sat cross-legged and pressed his hand to the center glyph.
Wind curled upward.
His friends turned.
"What are you doing?" Lira asked.
"Trying to listen."
And he did.
The wind dropped to a hush. The air trembled around him.
A voice—not from the Vault this time—but from inside him:
She stands at the edge of light, afraid of shadow. She is still searching for balance. But the world has already tipped.
---
A pulse burst from the pedestal subtle, soft, but spreading outward.
In the far corner of the chamber, a lantern ignited on its own.
Seren turned.
"That wasn't from the Vault. That was from her."
Caelum opened his eyes.
"The Sixth… she's alive. Awake. But she doesn't know it."
Eo frowned. "Then she's like Seren. Suppressed. Inverted."
Reian moved to the pedestal glowing in the color of dawn. "If we can draw her here trigger a resonance chain we might awaken her."
Lira crossed her arms. "Draw her in how? Put up signs? 'Free awakening this way'?"
But Caelum was already moving.
He placed a sigil stone an ancient resonance shard on the pedestal and fed it his magic.
"This will act like a beacon. It'll call to her. Subconsciously."
"And if the Council traces it?" Eo asked.
Caelum stood. "Then we're already too late."
---
They turned to leave.
But the Vault had other plans.
The doors slammed shut behind them.
The air grew heavy. Gravity pulled like a tide.
Veins of red energy crawled across the walls.
Reian cursed. "It's a test."
"No," Seren said quietly. "It's a **warning**."
From the walls, constructs emerged shimmering, faceless golems woven from shadow and stone.
Guardians.
The Chamber was protecting the Sixth's secret.
"Defensive protocol," Caelum muttered. "It thinks we're a threat."
"Then we pass the test," Lira snapped, summoning fire to her fists. "Or we burn trying."
---
The battle was unlike any they'd fought.
The constructs didn't fall to fire or wind they absorbed it, redirected it.
Eo tried memory manipulation, but the golems had no minds to alter.
It was Seren who realized it first.
"They mirror us. Counter our strengths."
Caelum paused.
"Then we need to invert. Do the unexpected."
He drew in wind but then channeled it downward, shattering the floor rather than the enemy. The golem stumbled.
Lira diverted her flame not as a weapon, but as illumination. It blinded one long enough for Reian's blade to sever its anchor.
One by one, they adapted.
One by one, the Vault accepted them.
When the last construct dissolved, the chamber glowed gold.
And the doors reopened.
---
Outside, the night had turned to pre-dawn.
They stood, breathless, bodies bruised but hearts alight.
Caelum looked up.
"We did it."
Reian nodded. "The signal's set. The Sixth will feel it."
Seren tilted their head. "But so will the Seventh."
Everyone fell silent.
The Seventh.
The one the Vault feared.
The one who remembered everything.