Miralda furrowed her brows as she scanned her surroundings. Although everything around her looked perfectly normal, she couldn't shake the strange sensation rising from beneath the ground—a faint pulse of inner energy that seemed to call out to her, luring her to stay a little longer."Hmm, what would happen if I crossed this line?"With that thought, she reached out and touched the chain wrapped around a series of short posts—no more than thirty centimeters high—encircling the stone platform.None of the disciples had ever attempted to cross that boundary. Not out of fear, but because it was just something… you didn’t do. Like a painting or work of art displayed in a museum, surrounded by a chain to signal "do not touch." It wasn’t about magic or the supernatural—it was about respect. And crossing the line felt like crossing a line of decorum."Well, I won’t know the answer unless I try, right?"Murmuring to herself, the young duchess lifted her leg over the chain.She did it cautiou

Miralda’s eyes flew wide open in awe and wonder. She spun her head around, glancing in every direction.Before her stretched a room roughly twenty by twenty meters—on the surface, not too different from the chambers on each floor of the temple’s library.But the walls told a different story.Lining all four sides were massive shelves that stretched from floor to ceiling, perfectly symmetrical and interconnected. Each one was divided into two distinct sections.The upper shelves, open and fully visible, were packed with thick tomes whose covers looked ancient, yet meticulously preserved. Some were even bound in woven grass—proof of their immense age. Just a glance at the covers was enough for Miralda to know: none of these books resembled anything she had ever seen in any other library.While the top was exposed, the lower half of the shelving was made up of closed cabinets—hundreds of them. Each cabinet was topped with a drawer, also sealed shut.Unlike the books above, whose contents

Click!Her right hand reached toward the small table beside her bed, where the desk lamp sat. With a soft press of the switch, a dim light filled the room.Miralda climbed down from her bed and sat cross-legged on the floor. She took a deep breath, then closed her eyes."The Phoenix Incantation..."Her lips began to murmur the first words of the spell."Eternal flame, the fire that lights all space..."She continued, reciting the spell until she’d spoken about a tenth of it.It was an exceptionally long spell. While not the longest in existence, it was still far lengthier than most advanced spells listed in her textbooks.If it were written out on A4-sized paper using 12-point font, it would span nearly three pages.That’s long—too long to memorize easily, right? Exactly.If Miralda didn’t have an incredibly sharp memory, there’d be no way she could’ve memorized it in such a short time.For the next few minutes, her full attention was absorbed in the incantation.There’s something mos

“Miralda…”A deep, raspy voice—unfamiliar and strange—echoed inside her head. Miralda had never heard it before. With her eyes still closed, she had no idea how a voice like that could be speaking directly into her mind.“What? Who are you?”She spoke the words silently in her heart, still refusing to open her eyes.“Miralda, are you really going to obey him just like that?”The voice grew louder in her mind, not just in volume but in presence. It carried a weight—an inexplicable force—that pulled her inward, deeper into her own consciousness, into the private chamber of her heart. It was a place only someone as powerful as Varom could ever reach.And now, Miralda found herself standing inside that chamber.It was a bare, desolate space—not too dark, but far from bright. The room was surrounded by aged, grimy walls, with nothing else inside. No furniture. No people. Just her.A slow, icy draft crept along the floor, slithering up from her feet and crawling toward the nape of her neck,

“Miralda…”“Ahhh!”Miralda shot upright in bed the moment she heard the voice echo in her head again.“That dream… Why is it still haunting me?”Panting like she’d just barely escaped something that meant her harm, she muttered to herself in frustration.It had been a week since she lost consciousness after casting that spell. And ever since then, not a single day had passed without that eerie whisper invading her thoughts—constantly urging her to study, to practice, to give in to the spell.And this morning, unable to bear it any longer, the young duchess had found what she believed might be the solution to end her torment.She had used a powerful spell to seal away her own memories.Of course, that didn’t mean she’d lost everything. No. She specifically sealed off the memory of that cold, dark room—where it had all begun. The room where the voice had first made itself known.Miralda cast the spell hoping it would finally silence the whispers.But it seemed her efforts were in vain.