The bell rang in its typical dismissive clang, echoing down the hall of Oakridge High like a death rattle for another day of unsuccessful education. Felix Kane stood in front of his classroom door, watching the wave of teens surge toward freedom. He offered tired smiles and halfhearted nods as they passed, a thirty-two-year-old man who already felt decades older."See you tomorrow, Mr. Kane!" Emily, one of his small group of genuinely history-enthusiastic students, said."Stay curious, Emily," he replied, the words familiar enough to be nearly instinctive. They were part of his end-of-day ritual, like wiping down the whiteboard or stacking chairs.After the last straggler had vanished around the corner, Felix retreated into his classroom. The familiar scent of old books, lemon disinfectant, and chalk dust wrapped around him. This was his sanctuary—shelves stacked with maps of dead empires, bookshelves bowed beneath the burden of recorded lives, and the faint afternoon light fighting i

Felix's connection to the Codex dissolved into nothing but white noise as the world turned gray. Malakar's quill emitted malevolent intent, eager to rewrite Felix out of existence. Liora's knife slipped to the ground as she stood between them, but Felix realized it was futile—against a High Archivist, they were both insects to be crushed.Think, Felix! His brain spun with his teacher's. If active operations in Erasure and Inscription cost energy, how much more for passive ones?The Codex, its faint glow fading, still displayed one line:Historical Access: Active. Energy not sufficient for active operations.Felix clung to that thread. Historical Access does not cost energy? He focused on Malakar, and the Codex reported:Scriptorium High Archivist Malakar. Written by Scribe Lord Valerius. Historical revisions: Earth Event #7382 (Felix Kane's death), Dragon Ignis Erasure (Year 327 of Scriptorium Rule). Psychological profile: Perfectionist. Phobia: Scriptorium authority undermined by his

The ozone and rain-scented sky outside the Sunken Library. Emily Chen grasped Felix's sleeve, knuckles clenched white as if he would prove to be a mirage. Her frayed Oakridge High sweater and jeans were dirty and torn, but her eyes blazed with a fierce, unbroken light.They took all of them, Mr. Kane," she whispered. "Sarah, Miguel, Mr. Jenkins from the chemistry department—I saw them being hauled through. tears in the air following the fire."The Codex glowed in Felix's palms, its energy level stable at 100/100. It presented a serious confirmation: Reality Tears Identified: 7. Each is linked with a unique energy signature that corresponds to Earth-origin displacements. Probability of additional survivors: 94%.Liora stood at the horizon, thinking like a scholar, already categorizing dangers. "The Scriptorium would not have scattered them randomly. Every tear would be in a pattern—most likely about centers of power or knowledge they had wished to corrupt or control."Ryna, cleaning bl

The plan of the Great Library seared in Felix's mind, a flame of impossible hope. The Keystone was their sole entry. And the Keystone was human."'The Academy of Whispers,'" Liora murmured, her tone awed and fearful. "I applied once. They turned me down for 'excessive independent thinking.'"The Codex indicated a stream of information: Academy of Whispers: Preeminent academy for historical information curation and reality management. Curriculum consists of: Selective Truth Management, Memory Editing, Ethical Revisionism. Where: Cloaked in perpetual mist on the Isle of Echoes. Security: Unbreachable. Graduation: In 6 days."We can't attack it," Ryna expressed the plain fact. "We'd be rewritten before we reached the island.""Then we don't attack it," Felix replied, his teacher's mind already in lesson-planning mode. "We enroll."They stared. Elian blinked. "You… want to attempt it? The process of choosing is years. We only have six days.""Not as ourselves," Felix said. "As exchange st

The balcony erupted into chaos. Scriptorium guards surged forward, their blades humming with energy-dampening fields. Kael Draven hung back, his face a stone mask, already recalculating his world now that the Codex held the Key.“Go!” Kaelen yelled, shoving Felix toward the balcony’s edge. “I’ll hold them!”“You don’t have your power anymore!” Liora shouted, parrying a guard’s strike with a dagger she’d concealed in her robes."I'll wear my name!" he snapped back, and it was enough armor. The Draven scion stood between the guards and their target, and for a heartbeat, they hesitated, not eager to strike down their master's nephew. It was all the chance Ryna needed. She fired a grappler from her wrist, the hook biting into a floating tower on the other side of a chasm. "Swing line! Now!"They jumped—Felix clinging to the now-blazing Codex, Liora, Ryna, and Elian. They hurtled through the cold, misty air, laser shots sizzling around them. Kaelen, guarding their escape, remained to face