Hyran rubbed his hands excited. Redmoon even looked curious. Aeron came out of the portal, with the third book, walking into the redmoon library.
Nova's hair was half way up, wavy. She hadn't broken a sweat training earlier surprisingly. Her green eyes were on a spot on the floor, her brows furrowed. Fin felt it immediately through their bond: a memory pushing, surfacing, clawing its way to light.
He was about to ask her when Aeron's voice cut through and the sensation stopped.
"You are looking much better." Aeron said. "Don't push your magic today. You are not fully healed."
Nova's eyes went to him.
"You and I both know you won't. But just humor me and try." He added dryly.
Nova smiled warmly, "I'll channel where possible."
Aeron raised his eyebrows at her.
"And I won't use my own magic unless necessary." She added, feeling guilty because she had a feeling she was about to go into a trance and use magic.
"Good." He said, not noticing her guilt.
Aeron put the book in front of her, this time to an audience of about thirty mage-librarians, Rex, Redmoon, Bata Fang, Fin, Jax, and Hyran. All watching, all had either seen it once and lived to tell the tale, or heard about it from Hyran.
Her face flushed under the spotlight. She swallowed. You'd think she'd be getting used to it. But she wasn't.
"Could someone channel into me?" She asked, not looking up.
Per usual, Jax and Fin started channeling into her on instinct before their minds caught up. Her eyes flashed to both of them warmly.
"Thank you." She said softly.
She opened the book and saw fragments of a vision in her mind. But from the outside, it looked like she was reading at alpha speed. The book was a blur as the pages turned, like she was downloading the information.
One of the librarian mages dropped the pile of books in his hands, stunned.
She finished in under forty seconds. But this time a portal didn't open.
They had suspected this task would start under the redmoon library, but none voiced it to her, not sure if Ashbane would hear.
Instead of going to the stairs, as they expected however, she looked up towards a wall. Her eyes flared silver, hair glowed and became weightless, like she was under water. She moved at alpha speed, but Rex had seen this enough times. He swooped her up before she could move.
"Nope. Stairs." he said.
He shot Fin an apologetic look as he took the stairs two at a time. Fin didn't look irritated in the slightest—if anything, he seemed relieved Rex had intercepted her before she could follow whatever terrifying instinct had just taken hold.
Rex kept climbing, guided not only by the matebond tugging in his chest but by the way Nova's gaze had locked onto a single point the moment before she bolted.
The far-left corner of the upper level housed a tower—cylindrical stone, a quiet reading nook for scholars. Along the inner wall, faint Draken-Vorah sigils were carved into select bricks, unnoticed by most.
Nova reached it first.
In a blur of Alpha speed, she sprinted up the curved wall, stepping on the sigil-marked bricks as if they were floating rungs. For her, in that moment, gravity might as well have been optional. Each brick she touched ignited with pale silver light, symbols flaring awake beneath her feet.
Rex watched, stunned, as she reached the top—an open alcove with a dormant, dust-covered torch mounted in an ancient bracket.
Nova didn't hesitate. She leapt, grabbed the torch, and yanked it downward.
The mechanism groaned to life.
Deep under the library, gears clanked—heavy, ancient, echoing like something vast was turning after centuries of sleep.
Nova dropped back onto the glowing bricks and spiraled her way down the tower wall in seconds, landing lightly before tearing off again at alpha speed.
In a blur, she shot across the open hall to the observatory. The room lit with starlight refracting through enchanted glass, and without pausing for breath she spoke a command in Draken-Vorah.
The Armillary Sphere answered.
Its rings glowed—one by one—then rotated apart with a metallic whisper, revealing a hidden hollow at its core. A token lay inside, silver and ancient, suspended on a delicate chain. Nova plucked it free and wrapped the chain securely around her wrist.
She moved to the massive celestial globe beside it—older than the palace itself—and pressed a small protruding stud near its equator. The globe clicked, then the entire observatory rumbled.
The mage-librarians stared, mouths open. One dropped a quill. Another clapped both hands over her mouth. A few applauded in delight.
Hyran looked like he'd just discovered a new branch of magic. Aeron was grinning so widely it was nearly feral.
Nova spoke another phrase in Draken-Vorah. The Armillary Sphere obeyed—its rings folding neatly back into place, light dimming until it became nothing more than an inert, scholarly ornament once more.
She zipped out of the tower in a streak of silver, tearing down the open corridor. She didn't bother with the stairs—she leapt over the railing, dropping a full floor in a diagonal arc, boots thudding lightly against the marble banister before she vaulted again. Another diagonal drop—before anyone even realized she had moved.
"Nova … " Fin breathed, somewhere between worry and exasperation.
By the time Rex, Fin, Redmoon, and Jax reached the fourth level, she was already standing before the enormous carved fireplace, speaking Draken-Vorah in a rapid, fluid cadence.
The stone shifted.
A serpent-dragon's outline glowed along the mantle—scales lighting one by one—until the creature's head emerged fully from the stone, jaws parted. In its mouth, a hollow slot waited for a token.
Nova slid the chain from her wrist and placed the token into the serpent's fanged maw.
The moment it touched, the entire dragon-serpent came alive—stone moving like flesh, body twisting across the fireplace in a mesmerizing ripple. Each shift of its granite coils triggered another thunderous click somewhere deep behind the walls, mechanisms unsealing themselves in sequence, unlocking something vast and ancient.
The fireplace shifted, stone folding inward like a hidden door surrendering to her voice.
Inside lay shelves of ancient scrolls, weathered tomes, and a scattering of gold trinkets and relics—among them two massive hourglasses, one ruby, one sapphire, each framed in pure gold dragons, their wings forming the handles.
Nova ignored the glittering artifacts entirely.
Her hand went instead to the most unassuming object in the room—a small, dark-brown book, plain and palm-sized, ancient enough that one breath might turn its pages to dust.
Before anyone could speak, she opened it—and read it in a blur, flipping through every page at alpha speed. When she snapped it shut, her eyes still glowed silver, completely unaware of the stunned silence behind her, or the jaws hanging open at the sight.
Without hesitation, she reached up and took a scroll from its place on the shelf.
Then she turned toward the far wall.
She spoke again in Draken-Vorah, the command resonant, and a serpent-dragon unfurled from the stone—its carved scales rippling as though waking from centuries of stillness. In its open mouth rested a gold token on a chain.
Nova plucked it free and wrapped the chain around her wrist, the metal catching the faint silver in her eyes.
And without another word, she moved—swift, purposeful—out of the chamber.
She placed the scroll into Hyran's hands and murmured something low in Draken-Vorah, but did say Ashbane. Everyone picked up on that part.
Hyran's brows rose. He did not translate.
Rex understood what she said and why Hyran did not translate. The scroll was how to untether Nova, but she could not be aware of it, not while her mind was still vulnerable. Ashbane may be listening if he translated what she said aloud.
Fin and Jax exchanged a look—sharp, alert—both watching Hyran, but neither daring to interrupt.
She bolted toward the balcony ledge, eyes locked on the marble floor three stories below. She was poised to leap onto the bannister when Rex caught her around the waist in one smooth motion.
"I'll take you, Nova. Hold on," he said—understanding her urgency, but not about to let her swan-dive through four levels of Redmoon's library.
She begrudgingly allowed it, though her expression was thunderous. Rex carried her down the stairs at Alpha speed; she radiated frustration so strongly through the matebond he nearly felt singed by it.
Jax couldn't help the grin tugging at his mouth—she was too damn cute when she was furious. Fin shook his head as well, lips twitching. They felt her urgency, her focus, her impatience… but gods, she was adorable when she was trying very hard not to bite someone.
The moment Rex set her down, Nova moved to the center of the library, stopping in front of the head librarian's desk. Her gaze dropped to the floor—to the exact spot she'd been staring at earlier.
She spoke a sharp command in Draken-Vorah—old, resonant, unmistakably royal.
At once, an indent materialized in the marble at her feet, runes igniting around the entire bottom floor like a pulse of ancient fire. Nova knelt, fitting the gold token into the carved slot. It clicked, locking into place. She twisted it once. Twice. Three times.
A deep grinding sounded beneath them—iron and stone awakening after centuries. The floor trembled.
One of the mage-librarians clapped with delight.
Then the marble shifted.
Not the furniture, not the shelves—they stayed perfectly still—but the floor itself parted in a slow glide, like a curtain of stone peeling away to reveal a hidden world beneath. A thin glass-like layer separated them from the thing waking below.
A sweeping, breathtaking design unfurled beneath their feet—a massive golden serpent-dragon, coiled around the entire circumference of the library. Its body gleamed as though forged from molten dawnlight, stretching wall to wall. With every subtle movement of its form, deep gears shuddered and locked into place beneath the library.
The dragon was moving.
Nova's eyes flashed green for a single heartbeat when the final mechanism locked into place—a sharp metallic shift echoing through the library. Her irises flickered back to silver, and the three-story fireplace that dominated the open chamber suddenly blazed gold.
Another serpent-dragon unfurled across the stone—its runes waking like something stretching after ten thousand years of sleep.
Before anyone could process it, Nova jumped, hands catching the mantle in a fluid, effortless motion. She hauled herself up with alpha-strength.
And then she was moving.
She sprang to a jutting brick far above—one that hadn't been jutting out at all until her hand touched it. The brick flared with a glowing rune. Others illuminated in response, shifting outward by an inch, forming a rising path straight up the wall.
She ran upward, gravity an optional suggestion.
Her boots hit each glowing stone like stepping on light.
Another leap—she soared multiple stories up, fingers catching an ancient wall-torch.
The moment her skin touched the metal, the torch turned pure gold, pulsing with molten radiance.
She pulled it downward using her full body weight, the mechanism groaning in response.
Then she swung herself sideways, landing on another rune-lit brick, sprinting down the wall as though descending a staircase only she could see.
She crossed the mantle in a single stride and sprinted up the opposite side, new runes bursting to life under each touch.
Another leap—another torch—this one also blazing gold the instant her hand closed around it. She pulled it downward with her bodyweight, and swung catching a jutting brick in the same motion. The entire library floor rumbling in acknowledgment.
Then she descended again, impossibly fast, landing on the mantle with ease before dropping lightly onto the marble floor.
Every eye in the room was wide. Every mouth open including Jax, Rex, and Fin's.
And Nova stood there, eyes bright silver, not breathing hard or bothered. As though climbing a four-story wall of moving runes was nothing at all.
She turned, and said one additional thing in Draken-Vorah.