All Chapters of The Codex System:From Forgotten Teacher to Author of Worlds
: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
185 chapters
Chapter 31: The City of Tomes
The Admissions Hall was a chastened contrast to the city's external pomp. It was a mood of unadorned, official efficiency. The queue stretched on, twisting between brooding, sentinel stone golems. The applicants were a diverse selection from the Continent: pale blue-eyed northerners as icy-looking as their eyes, dark-faced southerners with square face tattoos, two elves who somehow made the air within their vicinity feel cool, and a huge scaled creature from distant Dragontooth Mountains. Felix, with his tattered attire and plain features, felt utterly faceless. It was a comforting experience.Hours later, he stood before a high, dark wood desk. The administrator behind it didn't look up. She was a severe-looking woman with a face that seemed set in a mild disapproval permanently, her fingers tapping on a floating slate of crystal that glowed with runic script."Name and origin?" Her voice was cold, no warmth, a data-extracting tool."Felix. Of the Northern Reaches." He'd picked the m
Chapter 32: Entrance Exam
Sunrise in Hafthor was not heralded by the sun, but by a shift in the city's atmospheric buzz. The studious hum of the drone was replaced by a harsher, more nervous vibration, a wave of hope and terror that penetrated the cold stone hallways of the Orrery Dormitories and into the circulatory fluid of each probationary student.Felix pulled on the coarse grey robe. It was a uniform of camouflage, and for that, he was grateful. Kaelen wore his already, performing a set of slow, measured stretches that suggested formal combat training."Nervous?" Kaelen did not shift stance."Yes," Felix answered honestly. Lying would be useless."Fine. Fear is a fine stimulant. Just don't let it catch you." Kaelen finished his stretching and adjusted his robe. "They don't expect anything from us, that is our only advantage."The Starfall Arena was bigger still by day. The deceptive starfield disappeared, and in place of it was the unadorned, clear sight of the Academy's spires. Seating was filled by a g
Chapter 33: Words as Weapons
The written exam was conducted in the Grand Scriptorium, a chamber so expansive that the vaulted ceiling was lost in shadows. There were thousands of desks in pristine rows, each one containing a quill that never needed ink and a scroll of unblemished vellum that had no end.The atmosphere was thick with the smell of anxious sweat and evaporating ink. Felix remained in his assigned seat, under the weight of a number of thousand gazes. His display of proficiency in the physical Gauntlet had not been forgotten. Whispers had made the rounds about the "Orrery Nullifier," the enigmatic probie who could eliminate magic. The torment had subsided, giving way to suspicion and active hostility from a few.There was an Archon at the hall entrance, his voice somehow amplified to a gentle, but audible voice that could be heard at every desk. "Three hours. The test will assess your fundamental knowledge of Mana Theory, Historical Precedents, and Applied Thaumaturgical Ethics. Your answers will be g
Chapter 34: The Professor's Doubt
The room was so full of silence that it could be tasted. It was a chamber behind walls of deception, its curved walls lined with glimmering silvery pools—scrying mirrors—each displaying a different student straining over their examination scroll in the Scriptorium far below. Behind them, a cluster of Archons and older proctors sat, their countenances somber.Their gaze was focused on a single scrying pool, its sight focused on Felix. His quill danced not with the wild, frenzied scratching of the unlearned, but with an even, stubborn cadence. He was not filling the scroll; he was disassembling it.Arch.on Therus, the bearded man whose eyes held the weight of centuries and who seemed to be the epitome of ancient wisdom, stroked his chin. "Interesting. And you're certain the resonator malfunctioned?"The severe administrator from the Hall of Admissions stood stiffly at his elbow, slate clutched in his hand. "The crystal was calibrated and tested this morning, Archon. The scan was authent
Chapter 35: Kael Returns
The notice pinned on the central board in the Arcadium, a simple list of names under the heading "Preliminary Examination Results - Top Quartile." Already a crowd stood, faces alight with excitement, faces pale with disappointment.Felix fell behind, and the crowd jostled and pushed against him. He didn't want to look at the list. He already knew. Hi. performance. would've gotten him either on top of it or out of the game. No middle ground.Kaelen pushed through the crowd, a self-satisfied grin on his lips. "Quadrant Seven makes their presence known. They've put me in the College of Artifice. A good one. And you, Felix? I'm sure you shattered all hopes."Felix was about to offer some comment when another wave of muttering passed through the crowd. It had nothing to do with the list.He cut through the students like a shark cutting through minnows. He was taller than Felix remembered, his shoulders broader, and the sharp hunger of his face smoothened by a rough, burnished aura of confi
Chapter 36: Ink Duel II
The message arrived not on the public board, but in the form of a silent hovering automaton that delivered a sealed scroll onto Felix's desk. The wax seal bore the stamp of an equal balance overlaid upon a quill.Kaelen, polishing a set of intricate drafting tools, glanced over. “The Sigil of the Collegiate Arbiters. That’s either a summons to a disciplinary hearing or a challenge to an Inquisitive Duel. Given your… performance… I’d wager on the latter.”Felix broke the seal. The script within was formal and precise.Through the authority vested in the Office of Academic Discourse, you, Felix of the Northern Reaches, are ordered to a Session of Inquisitive Review. Your responses to the examinations have been deemed 'provocatively unorthodox' by a committee of sponsorial houses. For purposes of clarification of your standing and appropriateness of your methods, you will present a formal argument. Your opponents shall be Scions of Houses Valerius, Croft, and Montague. Presiding: Archon
Chapter 37: The Codex Grows
The victory in the Hall of Disputation was pyrrhic. Felix had shut down his aristocratic critics, but he had also put a bullseye on his back that glowed in the dark. He was now the话题 of the Academy, a man of intense scrutiny. Everything he did was watched, every word parsed.He spent the next few days in the only place where he felt at ease: the bottom-most, oldest sub-levels of the Grand Library. A labyrinth of deserted stacks, the air thick with centuries of dust and light from floating, ethereal lumen-orbs being the only source of illumination for the room. There, amidst shelves stacked high with yellowed scrolls and books on outdated magic, he could breathe. He was seeking something—a mention of void magic, to personal skills, to others who might have been like him.It was during one of these study sessions, his fingers tracing over the ancient, worn ink of a pre-Sundering bestiary, that it happened.A searing, slashing pain sliced through his temples, behind his eyes. He gasped,
Chapter 38: The Banned Wing
The Codex was a shadow in his dream, a voice in his head. The gray, ghostly Annotations floated on the rim of consciousness, a torrent of hidden verities he was desperately attempting to block out. He saw in passing trivial rivalries between ephemeral students, hidden fears between teachers, and unexplored potential in a shattered paving stone. It was a never-ending, exhausting din. The one silence it uttered was in the lowest, darkest parts of the library, where the centuries of silence pressed down into the here and now.He stood in one such subterranean aisle, an alley so narrow his shoulders nearly brushed the shelves, when a voice spoke softly behind him."You appear lost."Felix started, whirling around. He hadn't realized anyone was approaching. Leaning against the edge of a shelf, arms folded and lips curled into a gentle, knowing smile, was the girl from the Gauntlet—the ice-princess one with the Annotation predicting a core at risk of shattering. Up close, she was all jagged
Chapter 39: The Blood Script
Days went by with the Banned Wing a constant obsession in Felix's head. It was a siren's call, a storehouse of horrors and questions that were intertwined. He avoided Liora, not prepared to deal with the sheer scope of what she'd shown him. The Crimson Annotations in that room were brimming with a history the Academy had tried to keep hidden, a history of power that was wild, unyielding, and hugely dangerous.His own Codex, the Unseen Tide, was where it belonged. It was turbulent, itsAnnotations flashing more hungrily whenever he recalled the titleless black-bound Codex. Never that one, Liora had warned. Which, of course, made it the central point of his obsession.He waited until a time when the library was almost deserted, only sounds being the faint hum of the city's magical center in the distance. Using the order Liora had instructed him to use, he stepped into the passage and entered the Banned Wing alone.The night air was more dense, the quiet more profound. The Crimson Annotat
Chapter 40: Saved by Knowledge
Felix lay on the stone floor of the central archive, his chest heaving. Phantom pain of the Blood Script was gone, but memory seared in his nervous system—a full-body convulsion replayed in his soul. The Codex of the Unseen Tide had returned to its usual dim, silver-notated background, its frightful, commanding incursion over. It had saved him, but at cost, a profound and terrible understanding: information he sought was not inert. It lived, and it starved.He remained on the ground for a long time, just breathing, with the rock's unmagical, hard surface against his back, anchoring himself in the mundane. The desire to flee, to never return to the Banned Wing, was a physical draw. Yet he couldn't. The book was still within. A "key, a door, a mouth." And he had almost eaten lunch. If he didn't take it with him, someone else would. Someone like Liora, whose shattered center and desperate search made her vulnerable. He needed to go back. Not as a curious student, but as an exterminator.