The training hall was mostly empty now.
Only the distant clack of practice blades echoed faintly from a chamber down the hall, first years most likely, or overachievers without much else to do.
rlin stayed where he was, seated on the edge of the bench. His posture hadn't moved in minutes. Just his fingers, curled loosely around the rim of the blunted longsword he'd chosen earlier. Still felt wrong. Still felt heavy in all the wrong places.
He glanced at it again, expression unreadable.
'Keryx was made to feel like an extension. This…'
He shifted the blade a little on his thigh. Even after an hour of drills, he couldn't decide if he hated it or not.
'No. I don't hate it. I just… don't know it. Not yet.'
A beat passed. His gaze slid to the scuffed stone floor.
'Reinhardt didn't comnt much. He saw, of course. But he didn't say much.'
That silence had been the loudest part of the day.
A few more seconds passed before footsteps reached him from the rear doors. Not rushed. Not cautious. Just steady, confident, familiar.
Nathan was the first to appear. Shirt slung over one shoulder, towel around his neck. Hair still damp from washing off the sweat.
"You always sit here alone after class?"
rlin didn't answer right away. He looked up, caught Nathan's raised brow, and offered sothing halfway to a shrug.
Adrian ca in next, followed by Liliana. Elara was with them too this ti, a half-empty water flask in hand. She didn't speak, just leaned against one of the old columns near the edge.
Seraphina, noticeably, wasn't with them.
Adrian plopped down beside rlin without hesitation, his usual grin sowhat subdued.
"I saw you use a longsword today," he said. "Didn't know you could."
rlin said nothing. He simply placed the longsword back onto the rack and exhaled.
Nathan smirked. "Was good form. Not as flashy as you usually are with your sword, but solid."
Liliana tilted her head. "So… what brought that on?"
He glanced at her. There was no accusation in her voice. Just curiosity.
'Because I don't know if I'll ever move the sa way again.'
"Trying sothing different," he said. "Nothing more."
That was enough for most of them.
Elara's eyes lingered longer than the rest.
Adrian stretched his arms behind his back. "Reinhardt looked like he approved, by the way. Didn't say anything, but I swear he nodded at one point."
Liliana chuckled. "You sure he wasn't just adjusting his collar?"
"No, no, it was a full nod. The ancient sign of professorly respect."
rlin let them talk.
It was easier like this. Letting them fill the silence. Letting their voices cover the small, unspoken shift that had settled in since he picked up that sword.
Nathan took a sip from his flask, then frowned slightly. "Anyone else notice the lights flickering in the hall near the lower dorm stairs?"
Liliana made a face. "Again?"
"They keep saying it's a wiring thing," Adrian said. "But we use glyph conduction. There's no wires to ss up."
"Could be a mana well fluctuation," Elara murmured.
Nathan looked at her. "That normal?"
She shook her head. "Not this often."
rlin didn't say anything. He was still watching the sword rack.
Adrian added, "It's probably nothing. But… yeah. Weird vibes lately. Like sothing's just off. Not dangerous. Just… off."
'The air's been heavier. Not always. Just in monts. Like walking through a room that soone left in a hurry.'
He pushed the thought away and stood.
The others followed suit.
As they made their way out of the training hall, rlin let his pace lag just slightly behind the others. Their conversation shifted to dinner plans, rumors about the next mock duel evaluations, the usual things.
But his eyes drifted up.
There, near the arch of the western archway, a patch of old stone seed darker than usual. Barely noticeable. A faint stain along the upper corner, shaped almost like branching veins.
He stopped walking.
Elara turned when she noticed he wasn't beside them.
"You coming?"
He looked at her. Then back at the mark.
It was gone now.
Maybe it had never been there.
rlin's eyes narrowed just slightly.
"…Yeah," he said, and followed.
—
He waited until they drifted off. One by one. Nathan had sothing to deliver. Elara was pulled aside by one of the seniors. Liliana left without a word, her usual exit. Adrian was the last to stand, offering rlin a nod.
"Don't sit too long. The stone eats warmth faster than a grave."
rlin gave a faint smirk. Just enough. Not too much.
He stayed until the sky turned from deep blue to a muted iron, the kind of grey that swallowed sound. Then he stood and turned toward the east wing. Not the dorms.
He moved slow. Intentional. Letting the steps take shape on their own.
'I need to see it.'
The corridors of the eastern halls were quieter after dinner. Most of the student body didn't bother venturing out this far unless they had to.
The administration wing connected here. Archive storage. So of the older practice chambers that hadn't been used in months. Or years.
rlin moved past them all.
His hands were in his coat pockets. His back was straight.
He turned down a hall that should've dead-ended at the records office. But it didn't. Not now.
His feet ca to a stop.
The corridor ahead extended farther than it should've. The light sconces here hadn't been lit. It stretched past the point of what could be called architecture. Seamless walls. No doors. Only stone and silence.
'There it is.'
He didn't walk forward.
Not yet.
He stared at it, quiet.
'It begins when people stop noticing. When sothing stretches a little longer than it used to. When a door that should lead to a classroom opens into stairs. When a hallway forgets where it ends.'
This wasn't a gate. This wasn't a dungeon. It wasn't even alive in the way mana-afflicted places sotis were.
It was The Hollow Labyrinth. A wrong thing. A bad thing to be more precise.
That was its only constant.
Wrongness that didn't scream. It seeped.
'How early is it. This shouldn't be here yet. Unless… the tiline's shifting faster than I thought.'
He leaned slightly closer, but didn't cross the invisible line yet.
He watched.
There was no breeze. No sound. No distortion. But even still, the hairs on his arms lifted.
'The others wouldn't understand. Not yet. They'd treat it like a curiosity. Like another training ground. They haven't read what happens to the people who go in before it's fully ford. The walls move. And when they co back, they don't.'
A flicker.
Not in the hall.
In his head.
A mory of lines from the novel.
A side character lost for four chapters. Returned with new eyes. Except they weren't new.
They were soone else's.
rlin took a breath.
Backed away.
Three steps.
Then turned.
He didn't look again.
His footsteps didn't rush. That would draw attention.
But his pulse quickened.
'Tomorrow. I'll check for more. If the layout's begun to bend, I'll need to start mapping it now. Before it grows.'
He exited through the side door, stepped into the night air.
Cool. Thin. Nothing in the wind.
He didn't speak to anyone on the walk back to the dorms. No thoughts wasted on small talk or food or lecture prep. Only the corridor.
And the story he'd already read.
Because this ti, he wasn't watching from the outside.
This ti, he was inside it.
—
The next day he left before first bell.
No breakfast. No chatter. Not even a glance back at the dorm. Just a stolen piece of chalk.
The door shutting behind him, soft and certain.
The stone corridors of the eastern annex were silent again. Most students hadn't even stirred from their rooms. Too early for lectures. Too late to be a morning run.
Perfect.
rlin's boots moved light over the floor. Not careful. Just practiced.
He'd morized the route last night, every turn and shadow, every alcove and hollow pillar. The sort of thing normal students wouldn't even see, let alone rember.
But he wasn't a normal student.
He turned down the final passage and it was still there.
That impossible stretch of hallway, too long, too smooth. No seams in the walls. No scuff marks on the floor. It hadn't collapsed back into the mundane like most unstable distortions did.
It had grown.
Only slightly. A ter, maybe less. But he could feel it.
Sothing deeper.
Sothing turning.
'It's stabilizing.'
He stepped forward.
This ti, the air changed.
Not cold. Not warm. Just off.
Like a space missing sothing fundantal.
rlin crouched. Ran two fingers along the floor, pressing near the edge of where the normal corridor ended and the labyrinth began.
Stone. But not the sa stone.
Too fine.
No mortar between the bricks. No variation in color.
Just that smooth, pale material that never reflected light the right way.
'This isn't stone. Well not really. It just looks like it.'
He stood again and reached into his coat.
Taking out the piece of chalk.
He marked the left wall. A single dot at chest height.
Then he moved forward.
Five paces in.
Silence. Stillness. The corridor behind him didn't shift. Not yet.
He marked the wall again. This ti on the right.
Another five paces.
Mark.
He did it again.
And again.
Eight marks in, he turned.
Looked back.
The first one was gone.
He walked back.
Carefully. Steps exact.
But it was gone.
Erased. Or never there.
He touched the wall where it should've been. Nothing. Just cool smoothness.
'It's begun. Phase two. It's spatial manipulation.'
He stepped back. Didn't go further.
Not yet.
This was just recon.
Just confirmation.
The Hollow Labyrinth had arrived early.
And it had teeth.
'Still no door. Still no sounds. It's not hunting yet. But it will. And when it does, it won't stop.'
He exhaled once through his nose and turned on his heel.
Back down the corridor.
When he erged into the eastern wing proper, the first class bell rang in the distance.
Students would be up. Moving. Laughing.
As if the school weren't about to beco a maze that ate people whole.
'Should I tell them?'
His pace didn't change.
'No. Not yet. Not until I have sothing solid. They'd ask questions. Too many. And I can't afford questions. Not when I'm the only one who knows how this ends.'
He reached the stairs, took them two at a ti.
No one saw him.
Just the way he needed it.
By the ti he stepped into the courtyard, the sun had fully cleared the towers.
His friends were waiting.
But his eyes flicked once toward the eastern wing before he crossed over.
Just once.
Enough.
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