Arata sat by the window in his dorm, still half-asleep, watching fog curl around the lower towers. Every few seconds, a flicker of red light pulsed through it, it was like a heartbeat from the world below.
His hand hurt. The lines that had appeared after the tunnel incident had spread overnight, faintly luminous, climbing from his palm toward his wrist like the roots of a tree. The vein like lines on his hands mirrored the frequency of the real ones underground. When the underground veins pulsed, so did the ones on his hands.
Wrapping them with bandages had helped, Wanuy hadn't noticed them yet, or else he would have insisted in getting them checked by Lyra, and as much as Arata wanted to get them checked, he didn't want to be the test subject for Lyra.
As he was pondering his options regarding the growth on his hand, the first siren blared. Wanuy shot out of bed. he still hadn't got used to loud noises first thing in the morning. Ironically, he was fine with skull crushing vibrations.
"Good morning, Arata" Wanuy said as he realised Arata was also up.
"Morning man."
"What you looking at?" Wanuy said as he came to window and took a peak out. "It's beautiful out, though."
At that note he headed to the restrooms. After five minutes as Arata was getting ready to go do the usual morning nuptials, there was a announcement on the sirens.
All cadets of the second division are to report to the Medical Observation Ward for "harmonic exposure analysis. You have 30 minutes till the second siren. This will be the only activity today, so you will be given food after the analysis.
Another analysis, great. I wonder what might happen this time. Arata thought of the first trail, the screams of all the cadets, the deaths then of Flora. the conversation last night.
...
The medical observation ward ironically was not situated near the infirmary. That fact was enough to unsettle the cadets.
And then there was the fact that it was located deeper within the Academy, beneath a section of stone rarely used for lectures or training specifically an area where corridors narrowed, ceilings lowered, and the veinlight shifted from warm reds to a colder, almost surgical white.
The entrance was a wide arch cut directly into the rock, its edges unnaturally smooth, as if melted rather than carved. No doors. Just a threshold that felt like crossing from a place of learning into a place of assessment.
As Wanuy and Arata reached the entrance they realised they were the last one's there, even Flora was present there.
As they entered Flora noticed and waved to them, there was still that eerie smile on her face. Arata just waved back and smiled.
When he swept an look around he noticed the morbid ward they were in. The entrance opened into a long chamber divided by glass partitions and rune-etched frames. Beds of dark stone lined the walls, not padded, not restrained, but positioned with exacting precision beneath veins that branched downward like exposed nerves. Thin streams of light ran through those veins, pulsing slowly, deliberately, as if holding a breath waiting for someone.
Seniors in muted gray moved quietly through the space, checking instruments, adjusting vein-flow regulators embedded in the walls. No one spoke unless necessary. Voices, when they came, echoed too sharply, as if it was not meant to talk in. It was not meant to cure either.
It was a place meant to observe what could not be cured.
Machines sat between the beds—hybrids of old craftsmanship and newer mechanisms. Crystal lenses. Resonance meters. Plates inscribed with symbols Arata recognised vaguely from the First Trial. the runes that connected to the Flame. The Flame , Neil had described it as the core of the veins. It was the centre point from where they stretched out. All the power carried through the veins was from that Flame only. Even the powers the Wyrmbounds used Resonance had some sort of connection to the Flame.
After a few moments of waiting in complete silence, Lyra joined the cadets.
"Today's exercise" she said, "is not physical. It is perceptive. We are measuring the Flame's residual echo specifically how long it lingers within you after resonance."
Her voice was pleasant, almost musical. "You may experience… visions. Or hear voices. Don't panic. The residual echo is the lingering sort, does not like leaving the system."
Arata's stomach knotted. He remembered the overload of that cursed energy from the Veinworks incident.
Lyra's gaze swept across the cadets. "This is not a test" she said calmly. "There is no pass or fail. So just calm down."
No one believed her.
"You will lie down" she continued, gesturing toward the stone beds. "The ward will induce a low-level resonance stimulus. Your task is simple, remain aware of what you perceive, and do nothing with it. Do not interact, do not touch, anything you want to do, don't do it"
After a brief pause she said, "If you attempt to interact with the echo" she added, "we will know, and we will stop you right there."
The seniors began directing cadets to individual beds. Stone met fabric as people sat, then lay back, stiff and uncertain. Glass partitions slid into place between stations, translucent enough to remind them they weren't alone, opaque enough to ensure privacy.
Flora was guided to a bed two stations down from Arata.
She met his eyes briefly as she lay back. Her smile flickered, not gone but thinner now, as if it were something she had to hold in place. She was trying to be courageous, and not show fear.
Wanuy was positioned across from Arata. He gave a small, nervous nod before settling, hands clasped tightly over his chest. Arata lay down at last.
The stone was faintly warm beneath him. Not comforting but almost alive.
Bands of light descended slowly from the ceiling veins, settling just above each cadet's sternum. The hum in the room deepened, synchronising into a steady, measured cadence.
"Begin exposure" Lyra said.
The veins touched Arata, but unlike last time, he didn't blank out.
The world thinned.
For a moment, there was nothing but darkness threaded with red lines there were veins stretching endlessly, branching, reconnecting. He felt the echo slide into him like a remembered breath. Then came the images Lyra had talked about.
Stone folding inward. Roots growing through stone. Structures he had never seen before, made out of glass and steel. After a few moments he saw something familiar. Something vast, coiled far below, shifting as if turning in its sleep. Arata's fingers twitched. it wasn't voluntary. They were the veins. The growth on his palm was responding to the echo.
This caused the resonance meter beside his bed to flicker. Lyra looked up sharply.
"Cadet Arata" she said evenly. "Remain passive."
He forced his hand still. Slowed his breathing. Let the images pass without reaching for them. The echo didn't make it easy though. It persisted. It pressed closer, showing more images, conjuring up voices. Sometimes, it was Wanuy, other times Flora, at one point Arata heard Nebula's voice.
"End exposure" Lyra ordered suddenly.
Across the chamber, Flora gasped softly.
Arata turned his head just enough to see her through the glass. Her eyes were wide, not in fear, but in wonder. Tears traced silently down her temples as the light above her brightened.
"Beautiful" she whispered.
The word sent a chill through him. She had interacted with the echo.
Even after ending the exposure, the veins on Flora's bed had not let go of her.
"She interacted with the echoes." Lyra said as she tried to bring the unconscious girl back. "She isn't waking up."
At first, nothing happened. Then, her body arched.
The light pouring from the veins intensified, climbing up her body, crawling under her skin. She gasped but not in pain, strangely in delight.
"I can hear it" she whispered. "It's singing, so beautiful yet melancholic."
Lyra was taken back. all she could do was continue collecting data now. "Describe it."
Flora laughed softly. "It's beautiful. It's calling me by name. It knows me and I am honoured."
Arata's pulse spiked. He could feel it too it was the vibrations, faint but familiar, the same one he had experienced in the tunnels. But this time it wasn't calling him.
This time it was her. Flora.
The sound wasn't human, hell it didn't feel like a sound. It was like the heat through air, bending air, weaving itself into meaning. Something was calling her.
Arata's hand gave started shooting pain up his nervous system. The veins connected to Flora's body were like liquid fire at this point, burning so bright, it felt like the sun had risen in the ward.
Arata stepped forward before the intention ever entered his mind. "Stop it" he said. "She will die."
Flora started laughing maniacally.
Lyra looked at him with a look that could only described as despair. "She is the only one who can help herself. She will have top adapt."
"She's burning"Arata shouted, "Do something"
Flora's laughter turned to gasps. Her hands clawed at the air as if reaching for something invisible. "It wants— It wants—" Her voice cracked.
Then in an instant... silence. The veins retracted to the ceiling. Flora went limp, not n single moment in her body.
Arata tried to reach her, but before he could grasp her hand, he was stopped by the seniors, and escorted out of the ward.
Lyra was frantically trying to get Flora back to consciousness. There were tears in her eyes as she tried CPR, resuscitation and what not.
At the end her finger twitched just a little. She was hurried off to the Infirmary, where she was stabilised, but was still in a medically induced coma.