The silence that followed Isaak's disappearance was not a normal silence. It was a silence that stayed, sitting in the space like an unwanted guest who had no intention of leaving. The hovering columns of the Silent Spiral continued trembling for several seconds after he was gone, like frightened animals trying to understand whether the predator had truly left.
Cedric was the first to move.Or rather, to collapse.He let himself fall to the floor with a groan that perfectly summed up panic, shock, and existential resignation.
"Why? Why us? Why not a team of trained heroes? Or at least someone who isn't… me?"
Marikka touched his arm—quick, short vibration: breathe.Cedric breathed. Badly, but he breathed.
Aurelian, meanwhile, stood like a statue with very clear opinions about the world. Still, rigid, focused on something neither Cedric nor Marikka could perceive.
"Isaak should not have been able to cross the Spiral's threshold," he finally said, slow and enunciated. "Either the Athenaeum is weakened… or Isaak is far stronger than we were told."
Cedric raised a trembling hand. "I vote for the second. Absolutely. One hundred percent."
The book in Marikka's arms vibrated—not weakly, like before, but with an intense, deep cadence. A cadence that did not belong to fear. Nor to memory.It was… preparation.
Something inside the tome was changing.
Marikka brushed her thumb along the cover. The vibration shot through her skin like a line drawn in boiling ink.
Attention.Attention.Attention.
Aurelian watched her closely. "What is it communicating?"
She signed: it's opening.
Cedric stopped breathing for the second time. "OPENING LIKE WHAT?! LIKE A FLOWER? A DOOR? A MOUTH?!"
Marikka didn't have time to reply.The book replied for her.
The tome snapped open.By itself.Pages flipped wildly, so fast the air around them rippled. The Spiral's columns recoiled as if seeking shelter.
The pages stopped.
And the vibration that followed felt like the heartbeat of something waking after centuries of silence.
Aurelian stepped forward. Cedric took about ten steps backward.
The text on the page was unstable, as if it were being written at the exact moment they looked at it. Letters were born and died in a continuous cycle.
Then suddenly, they began to merge.
It wasn't a known word.It wasn't a language of the Athenaeum.It wasn't even a language of Varenoria.
It was older than the Rewrite.
The book pulsed.
The page vibrated.
And a word formed, perfectly carved.
"Ariath."
The vibration that followed was so intense Cedric fell to the floor without realizing it.
Marikka pressed a hand to her chest.The word had echoed inside her, as if inscribed on her heartbeat.
Aurelian stiffened.There was no longer mere alarm in his eyes.There was real fear.
"That word should not exist," he whispered. "Not after the First Rewrite."
Cedric, still on the floor: "Is it… like… a name? An insult? A curse?"
Marikka touched the page. The vibrations were layered, fractured: fear, memory, identity, summoning.
The book pulsed again.
Ariath.
Marikka heard a voice that wasn't a voice.An echo of an echo.A name spoken in a language that had died two worlds before theirs.
Cedric trembled. "Please tell me Ariath isn't some terrifying entity that's going to come eat us."
Aurelian stared at him. "If it is, Cedric, I fear it will not limit itself to just us."
Cedric covered his face. "Great. Wonderful. I'm never sleeping again."
Marikka withdrew her hand. The ink on the page retreated as if exhausted by simply existing.The book stayed open but no longer moved.
Aurelian leaned toward her. "Marikka… what you felt. Was it a name?"
She nodded.
"And it comes from… where?"
Marikka didn't answer with signs.She placed her hand on the floor.
The floor responded instantly.
Below them.Far below.Beyond the Lost Memories Level.Beyond everything mapped.
A vibration.Slow.Ancient.
Like a giant shifting position in its sleep.
Aurelian inhaled sharply. "An original echo. A root of the Rewrite."
Cedric paled again. "And we… we woke it up?"
Marikka shook her head.No.They hadn't awakened it.
It heard them.
The book closed.No sound.No breeze.
The Spiral's columns all bent at once—like bowing, or hiding.
A new vibration rippled through the chamber.
Not from the book.Not from the Athenaeum.
From nearby.
Very nearby.
"Aurelian…" Cedric whispered. "Please tell me Isaak isn't behind us."
Aurelian turned sharply.
No Isaak.No Collector.No shadow.
Just a figure standing still.
A young figure, face dusted in parchment powder, eyes completely white like erased pages.
Marikka's blood turned cold.
It wasn't human.It wasn't a memory-creature.It wasn't a fragment.
It was something that should not exist.
The figure tilted its head.Its lips moved.
And it spoke an impossible word.
"Ariath."
Three things struck Marikka at once:
-The being had come for the book.
-Isaak had anticipated this.
-Nothing in the Athenaeum would ever be the same.
The figure stepped forward.The floor shook.The book in Marikka's hands pulsed with a desperate vibration.
Run.