The Academy felt the shift before anyone spoke of it.
Crystals embedded in the towers of Spectrum Academy pulsed out of rhythm. The sky above Aurion Valley darkened unnaturally not with storm clouds, but with a deep violet hush, as if the world itself was holding its breath.
In the Astral Archive, Headmistress Veyra Lys stood alone.
Ancient shelves curved endlessly around her, filled with tomes bound in light, shadow, and things that had no color at all. Some books whispered softly. Others trembled, sensing what had been awakened beneath the ruins.
She pressed her palm to the central plinth.
"Open," she commanded quietly.
The plinth responded.
A circle of runes flared — older than the Academy, older than the Divisions. From its center rose a single relic:The Prism Codex — sealed for centuries.
Eira's breath slowed.
"So… the Vault has stirred at last."
The Forgotten Prophecy
As her fingers brushed the Codex, light spilled outward not blinding, but deep, layered, alive. Images flooded the chamber.
Six figures standing in resonance, their colors entwined:
Light
Time
Frost
Storm
Flame
Shadow
They were familiar. Painfully so.
Then the vision fractured.
A seventh presence emerged not a color, but an absence. A silhouette where light bent away, where sound died mid-echo.
Eira staggered back as words burned themselves into the air, spoken by no single voice:
"When six awaken the buried heart,The Seventh stirs where echoes part.Not born of hue, nor bound by flame—The Shadow walks without a name."
Her pulse quickened.
"The Seventh…" she whispered. "You were never lost."
The Codex slammed shut on its own.
A Glimpse Beyond the Seal
Far below the Academy deeper than the Vault, deeper than memory something shifted.
A place without walls. Without time.
A pair of eyes opened.
They reflected no color only fractured light, like broken mirrors stitched together. A low breath echoed, slow and patient.
"So… they've begun."
Chains of ancient sigils trembled around the figure, reacting to the same resonance Lumi had unleashed.
A smile not cruel, not kind curved in the darkness.
"Six lights always forget," the voice murmured."They were never meant to stand alone."
The eyes closed again.
But the silence was no longer empty.
The Council Divided
Back in the Academy, the High Council chamber erupted in murmurs as energy readings spiked across every Division.
"They accessed Aethern Hall," one Elder hissed.
"The Vault pathway reactivated," another said. "Impossible."
Eira stood at the center, unflinching.
"It's not impossible," she said evenly. "It's inevitable."
"And the Seventh?" a Councilor demanded. "The Codex spoke of it."
Eira met their gaze, unafraid.
"Then pray," she said quietly,"that when the Shadow rises… our students remember who they are."
Echoes Calling Back
Beneath the ruins, unseen by any of them yet, Lumi's glow intensified responding to something ancient answering its call.
Threads of light began weaving themselves through the Vault's pathways.
The bond was forming.
The trial was beginning.
And far above, the Academy's bells rang once uncommanded.
Not as a warning.
But as an announcement.
The era of the Seven Lights had begun.