The Archives of the Pillar Academy were usually the only place where Ahia Senan's mind found stillness.
She paced the length of the yellow-stone hall, her index and middle fingers pressed firmly against her lips—a habit that surfaced whenever she was deep in the "Flux Theory." To anyone else, the shifting nature of reality was a source of anxiety, but to Ahia, it was a beautiful puzzle. As a young Masani, her job was to understand the balance of the Seven Pillars, and today, she was lost in the study of Harmonic Force.
Her Yellow Aura hummed softly, casting a warm, honey-colored glow against the ancient scrolls. Her Dapabie—the spiritual vessel within her—felt light, anchored by her 88% Empathite. She felt at peace with the world.
"The flux is not a chaos to be feared," she whispered to herself, her pacing slowing. "It is a conversation between order and—
THUMP.
It wasn't a sound. It was a rhythmic, violent pulse that struck the center of her chest.
Ahia gasped, her hand flying from her lips to her heart. The air in the library suddenly turned cold, then white-hot. Her Yellow Aura flickered, turning a sickly, pale lemon color as a foreign Huenergy slammed into her.
Cold. Absolute. Merciless.
It was Righteous Fury. It wasn't the hot, messy anger of a student or a foundational level royal; it was a heavy, tectonic wrath. It felt like a mountain deciding to crush a village because the law demanded it.
"What... what is this?" Ahia choked out. She collapsed to her knees, her forehead hitting the cool stone floor.
Behind the fury came the Grief. It was a hollow, echoing sorrow—the kind that comes from making a sacrifice that no one will ever thank you for. It tasted like ash and iron. It was the grief of a man who had just ordered the deaths of hundreds to save millions.
Ahia's Alive Heartstate acted like a parched sponge. Because her appetite for empathy was so high, she couldn't just "feel" this emotion—she was drowning in it.
I didn't do this, she tried to tell her mind.
These aren't my memories.
I am in the Archives.
I am Ahia.
But the Huenergy leakage was too strong. Through the connection, she saw a flash of Prismatic White—a blinding, regal light that shouldn't exist in the Dapabie of a normal person.
"Ahia!"
The voice of her mentor, an Elder stage Masani, echoed down the hall, but it felt miles away. Ahia couldn't answer. She was too busy weeping for a loneliness that was currently tearing her Dapabie (mental realm) apart.