Principal Albrecht Vaelor rose from his chair with measured effort and motioned for Kael to follow.
"Come," he said. "I will take you there myself."
They left the office and walked through quieter corridors, far from the noise of students. With every turn, the academy seemed to grow older. The walls thickened, the lamps dimmed, and the air itself felt heavier, as though time had settled here and refused to move.
At last, they stopped before a pair of enormous doors.
Vaelor placed his hand against the iron handle and pushed.
The library revealed itself.
It was vast.
The ceiling soared so high that it vanished into shadow, supported by towering stone arches. Massive chandeliers hung above, their warm light spilling downward in slow golden pools. Hundreds of candles burned steadily, untouched by drafts, illuminating the knowledge beneath them.
Rows upon rows of long wooden tables stretched across the floor, each paired with heavy chairs worn smooth by generations of scholars. Some tables stood empty. Others bore scattered books, ink bottles, and notes left behind by minds that had wrestled with ideas late into the night.
Stairs were everywhere.
Narrow staircases spiraled upward along the walls. Iron ladders slid across rails, granting access to shelves that climbed impossibly high. Platforms connected different levels, forming a layered maze of learning stacked upon learning.
And the books.
They were everywhere.
High racks lined the walls from floor to ceiling, packed so tightly that no stone showed between them. Leather-bound tomes, cloth-wrapped volumes, metal-edged grimoires, and ancient scroll cases rested side by side. Some spines were freshly polished. Others were cracked, faded, and scarred by time, their titles barely readable.
The scent hit Kael at once.
Old paper. Dust. Ink. Leather.
Knowledge.
He stood still, momentarily overwhelmed.
"This library," Vaelor said quietly, his voice echoing upward, "contains records spanning nearly a thousand years. What the city discards, we preserve. What the world forgets, we remember."
Kael slowly exhaled.
This was not merely a library.
It was a monument to memory.
And somewhere within these towering shelves lay the answers he had crossed the city to find.
Kael moved deeper into the library.
At first, he searched methodically.
Shelf after shelf. Row after row. Titles whispered past his eyes, histories of empires, theories of spirit engines, manuals of medicine, forgotten philosophies. The scale of the place began to press down on him. The library was too vast. Knowledge here was not meant to be found quickly. It demanded patience, or surrender.
He climbed short stairways, slid ladders along rails, scanned upper racks and lower shelves. Minutes stretched into something heavier.
Still nothing.
A quiet frustration settled in his chest.
Then, as he turned down another aisle, his gaze halted.
One title stood apart.
Previous Life.
The letters were faded, pressed into a dark, time-worn spine. Nothing about the book was ornate. Nothing tried to draw attention. And yet, his eyes refused to move past it.
Kael stepped closer.
He reached out and pulled the book free.
Dust bloomed into the air.
It was thick, gray, untouched. The kind of dust that only gathers when a book has been forgotten for years. Perhaps decades.
Holding it carefully, Kael carried the volume to one of the long tables near the center of the library. He pulled a chair back, the wood scraping softly against stone, and sat.
Around him, students studied in silence. Pages turned. Pens scratched. Quiet breaths filled the space. No one paid him any attention.
Kael placed the book before him.
When he opened it, more dust fell between the pages, drifting like ash. He brushed it away slowly, his fingers gentle, almost reverent.
He flipped to the first page.
No author's name.
No dedication.
No introduction.
Only the title, written once more in faded ink.
Previous Life.
Kael stared at the empty space where a name should have been.
And for reasons he could not explain, a strange certainty settled over him.
This was the book he had been searching for.
Kael began to read.
The library around him faded into a distant hush. The murmurs of students, the soft scrape of chairs, the slow ticking of time itself seemed to retreat as his eyes moved steadily across the page.
By the time he reached the third chapter, his posture had changed.
He was no longer reading casually.
The words there felt… deliberate.
Heavy.
The chapter began without ceremony.
" You may experience fragments of your past lives."
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly.
He continued.
" These glimpses are not memories in the ordinary sense. They surface only under extreme conditions—when the mind is subjected to severe brutality, prolonged emotional torment, or deep psychological damage."
His fingers tightened against the edge of the page.
The text went on.
" Such moments weaken the barrier of the present self. When that barrier fractures, echoes from previous existences may bleed through."
Kael swallowed.
The next lines were colder. Sharper.
" This phenomenon is not a blessing."
"It is dangerous."
The words felt precise, almost clinical.
"The intrusion of past-life cognition places immense strain upon the brain. Recorded consequences include partial memory loss, dysfunction of the central nervous system, neural degeneration, and in extreme cases, catastrophic failure of cerebral function."
Kael's breathing slowed.
His gaze dropped further.
" Some subjects have developed irreversible conditions. Others have suffered sudden collapse. A few did not survive."
The page seemed heavier in his hands now.
Then came the final passage of the chapter.
It was written differently.
Not instructional.
Almost… direct.
"If you are reading this, it means you have survived a threshold event."
"Once."
Kael felt a faint chill move through his spine.
"You have crossed death and returned."
The next line was short.
Unforgiving.
"Do not believe this will happen again."
The sentence beneath it ended the chapter.
"The next time the barrier breaks, death may not release you."
Kael closed the book slowly.
The sound of the pages meeting echoed louder in his ears than it should have.
For a long moment, he did not move.
The quiet of the library pressed in around him, unchanged, unaware.
And yet, something inside Kael had shifted.
Not fear.
Not disbelief.
Recognition.
As if the book had not revealed something new—
But had named something he had already survived.
Kael took a deep breath.
Slowly, he reached for the glass of water resting on the table and drank. The cool liquid moved down his throat, steadying him, grounding him in the present moment.
The words he had read still lingered in his mind.
Yet, he did not close the book.
Instead, Kael opened it again.
And continued reading.
Time passed quietly.
The light from the tall windows shifted little by little. The sounds of the library changed as students came and went, but Kael remained where he was, his focus unbroken. Page after page, chapter after chapter, he read without pause.
When he finished the first book, he set it aside and reached for another.
Then another.
And another.
Hours slipped by unnoticed.
By the time he finally stopped, five books lay stacked beside him.
Not once did his attention wander.
From this, one thing became clear.
Kael did not read out of duty.
He loved it.
But it was not only love for books that kept him there. There was something else driving him. A quiet hunger for understanding. A need to find answers hidden between old pages, written by minds long gone.
Reading was not just comfort for him.
It was purpose.
At last, a distant bell echoed through the academy halls.
Lunch time.
Kael lifted his head, blinking as if waking from a long dream, the weight of knowledge still heavy in his thoughts.
Kael closed the last book gently.
For a moment, he remained seated, his fingers resting on the worn cover, as if acknowledging the weight of what he had just consumed. Then he stood, carefully returning each book to its proper place. Every spine was aligned. Every shelf left exactly as it had been. He treated the library with quiet respect, as though it were a living thing.
Once finished, he left the massive hall and made his way back toward the principal's office.
Principal Albrecht Vaelor was still seated behind his desk when Kael knocked and entered.
Kael inclined his head slightly.
"Thank you, sir. For the books."
The principal looked up from his papers, adjusting his spectacles once more.
"Did you find what you were searching for?" he asked.
Kael did not hesitate.
"Yes, sir. I found it."
The old man studied him for a second longer, as if trying to read what kind of answers Kael had uncovered. Then he nodded, slowly.
"Good," he said. "Not all searches are meant to end empty-handed."
Kael bowed lightly in respect. Without further words, he took his leave and stepped back into the academy corridors.
The atmosphere had changed.
It was lunch time.
The once orderly halls were now alive with motion. Students poured out of classrooms, some walking in groups, others running, laughing, shouting to friends across the wide corridors. The air buzzed with voices and footsteps, energy colliding from every direction.
Kael walked through it all calmly.
And yet, eyes followed him.
Many students slowed as he passed. Some stared openly. Others whispered. For most of them, Kael was a stranger. A face they had never seen before within these walls.
The attention was especially noticeable among the girls.
Black hair. Dark brown eyes. A composed expression. Features sharpened by noble blood.
Ravenshade genes.
Whispers spread quickly.
"Who is he?"
"I've never seen him before."
"Is he a noble?"
"He's… handsome."
Kael heard none of it, or perhaps chose not to. His expression did not change. He kept walking, his thoughts elsewhere, his mind still heavy with the words he had read.
Then, in the moving crowd, something familiar caught his eye.
Red hair.
The same shade he had seen that morning.
Kael slowed.
Ahead of him stood a girl speaking with a group of students, her posture confident, her presence unmistakable.
Zara.
His sister.
When Zara noticed Kael, she did not look surprised.
She already knew why he had come to the academy.
She stepped away from her group and walked toward him, her expression calm and familiar.
"Did you find what you were looking for, Kael?" she asked.
Kael nodded once.
"Yes. I found it."
Their exchange was simple. Quiet. Normal.
But it did not go unnoticed.
Zara's friends froze where they stood.
They stared.
Zara… talking to a boy?
And not just any boy.
Tall. Well dressed. Black hair. Sharp features. Calm eyes.
Handsome.
Whispers sparked instantly inside their heads.
One of the girls leaned closer to Zara, eyes wide.
"Zara…" she whispered, barely holding back her excitement. "Is he your boyfriend?"
Another added quickly,
"And why didn't you tell us?"
A third crossed her arms dramatically.
"Don't you think of us as your friends? You could have told us!"
Zara blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Her face went blank for a second, as if her mind had stopped working.
"Wait , What…?" she muttered.
Then she straightened immediately, her voice firm and clear.
"Don't talk nonsense," she said. "He's not my boyfriend."
She pointed toward Kael without hesitation.
"He's my brother. My real brother."
Silence hit the group.
The girls froze.
"…Your brother?" one of them repeated slowly.
Their expressions shifted from shock to disbelief, then straight into excitement.
"You have a brother like that?"
"And you never told us?"
"That's unfair!"
One of the girls stepped forward eagerly, smoothing her hair and smiling brightly.
"Well then," she said, turning toward Kael, "since you're Zara's brother… let me introduce myself."
She extended her hand, eyes shining with curiosity.
"My name is—"
Kael watched the scene quietly.
For the first time since waking from his long sleep, he felt something strangely normal.
No danger. No darkness.
Just noise, curiosity, and life moving forward without asking his permission.
Zara raised her hand sharply.
"That's enough," she said.
Her tone was calm, but firm enough to cut through the chatter.
Her friends stopped at once, surprised by the sudden change in her voice.
Zara turned to Kael and looked at him properly.
"You should go home now," she said. "You've already done what you came here for."
Kael nodded.
"…Yeah."
He did not argue. He understood.
Zara stepped slightly in front of him, blocking the curious stares.
"I'll talk to you later," she added quietly.
Kael gave her a small nod in return, then turned and walked away down the corridor.
The moment he left, the girls stared after him.
"…He's really your brother?" one of them asked again, still in disbelief.
Zara crossed her arms and sighed.
"Yes. He is."
And without waiting for more questions, she turned away, ending the topic completely, while Kael's footsteps slowly faded into the noise of the academy halls.
Kael whispered to himself with a smirk 😏 on his face" Hmmm,Today's Kids".