NOVPUBThey were halfway down the corridor when it passed through.
No sound. No tremor. Just a sudden weight in the air. Like something big had moved somewhere deep below the floor, and the world was trying to pretend it hadn't noticed.
Merlin stopped walking.
Elara stopped at the same time. Her stance shifted barely an inch, but he saw the change.
Nathan kept going. One more step before he noticed they weren't following.
He turned, confused. "What now?"
Neither of them answered.
Merlin's focus narrowed. He could feel it, like static in the air, except colder. Thinner. Like something had peeled a layer of the world back and let the silence stretch a little too far.
Nathan frowned. "Okay. That was weird."
Merlin didn't look at him. His eyes stayed forward, tuned to the space between tiles and the quiet beneath the floor. The pulse was already fading, but it left a trail. Not physical. Just presence. Residue.
It felt like a gap had opened and then closed just as fast.
Something had been here.
Something had taken.
[SYSTEM CORE: 66%]
[DOMAIN PRESSURE SPIKE DETECTED]
[THREAD RESPONSE WINDOW: 2.7 SECONDS]
[WARNING: ONE LIFE SIGN — LOST CONTACT]
His chest tightened.
'That wasn't just noise. That was someone being pulled under.'
He didn't know who. The system hadn't told him. But he could feel it. Somewhere, someone had vanished. Quietly. Completely.
Nathan was still watching him.
"Okay," he said slowly. "You both felt that, right? That pressure thing?"
Elara nodded once. Her eyes hadn't left the shadows near the junction up ahead.
Nathan's fingers twitched toward the side of his jacket. Not drawing. Just checking the weight of the daggers.
"I've never felt anything like that before," he said. "Not even during combat trials."
"It wasn't mana," Merlin said.
Nathan stared. "Then what was it?"
Merlin didn't answer right away.
Because if he did, Nathan would ask more questions. And Merlin didn't have answers that would make any of this easier to hear.
He turned his head slightly, looking down the hall toward the older wing.
Where the pressure had come from.
Where the breath had dropped out of the world for those three long seconds.
Nathan took a step closer.
"You said nothing was happening yet."
Merlin nodded once.
Nathan's eyes narrowed. "Then how does something that isn't happening take someone?"
Merlin's jaw tightened.
Elara finally spoke. "It's starting."
That made Nathan pause.
He looked at her. Then at Merlin.
No jokes this time.
"Do we know who it was?" he asked.
"No," Merlin said. "But it happened fast. Too fast for them to react."
Nathan didn't say anything for a few seconds. His face was hard to read. Not scared exactly, but unsettled. Like the ground didn't feel quite stable anymore.
"Right," he muttered. "Cool. Just going to casually add that to the growing list of horrifying things happening this week."
He paused. Glanced toward the shadowed corridor again.
"Are we going after it?"
"No," Elara said. "Not until we know how far it spread."
Merlin's thoughts kept circling the same question. Not who had been taken. Not how.
Why now.
The seed hadn't finished forming. There shouldn't have been movement yet. It should've stayed quiet. Dormant. Hidden.
But it didn't.
'So something triggered it. Something new.'
And whatever it was, the Labyrinth didn't wait this time.
It took.
And it would take again.
—
Morgana was standing at the far window of her office when it happened.
She wasn't focused on anything in particular. Just watching the afternoon light shift across the courtyard tiles far below.
The hour was slow, the kind that usually passed unnoticed between council reports and budget reviews.
Then it changed.
She didn't hear anything.
She felt it.
A weight settled against the glass. Not physical. Not mana. Something deeper. Older. It pressed against her senses like a ripple under the skin of the world, like a string pulled taut beneath the stone foundation.
Her hand froze halfway toward her cup of tea.
The porcelain didn't clatter. She set it down carefully.
Too carefully.
'What was that?'
Not a breach. Not an explosion. No sound of battle. No bells.
But the space around her knew.
Something had shifted.
The runes lining the edge of her window flickered once. Dim. Faint. Like the magic inside them had just been rerouted for a second.
She turned.
One step from the window. Then two. She didn't rush.
Morgana didn't rush for anything.
But her thoughts were already moving faster than her steps.
'That wasn't atmospheric. That was directed. Focused. Pinpointed.'
She walked to the desk. Her hand passed over the crystal node on the far end, activating a silent ward sweep.
The reading came back clean.
Too clean.
Nothing changed on the surface.
But the magic beneath it was still humming.
Subtle. Low. Like it had finished doing something and was trying to return to sleep before anyone noticed.
'Not a surge. A pull.'
Her brow furrowed slightly.
Something had been taken.
She didn't know what. Not yet. But she could feel the absence now, like a door had opened and shut somewhere in the building without anyone hearing it.
She moved to the back cabinet. Unlocked it with two fingers.
A small cluster of ancient binding scrolls rested inside, each one folded in thin black ribbon. She didn't touch them. Just scanned the seals.
None of them reacted.
Good.
But not good enough.
She straightened and reached for the long, thin chalk tucked behind the lamp at her desk. It was old. Burnt white. Never used for teaching.
She knelt beside the nearest stone tile and started drawing.
A narrow spiral. Five marks around it. Each one precise.
The instant she finished the fifth stroke, the rune pulsed.
And cracked.
Just once.
Barely noticeable.
She stared at it.
'So. It really did wake up.'
The line wasn't strong enough to trigger the council network. Whatever this was, it slipped under the threshold.
Intelligent.
Measured.
She stood.
And for the first time in weeks, she whispered a ward phrase she hadn't used since her student years.
"Trace the pull."
The chalk glowed once, then burned away into ash.
The trail it left pointed east.
Then down.
Morgana's expression didn't change.
But her next breath came slower.
'One student is already gone. Maybe two.'
She didn't panic.
But she didn't sit back down either.
The Labyrinth was moving.
And it had just reminded her that even quiet things could choose when to stop being quiet.
—
The chalk trail burned clean through the floor.
It left no smoke. No residue. Just a direction.
East. Down.
Farther than it should've reached.
Morgana stared at the faint mark for a second longer, then stood and brushed off her hands. The magic still hummed at the edge of her senses, quiet and deep. Like a current in a well. Old. Focused.
She didn't wait.
Her fingers shifted once. The rings on her left hand pulsed faintly, responding to the command. A fold of time opened just wide enough to fit her.
No swirl of light. No thunderclap. Just a quiet twist in the air as the office blinked around her and the space dropped.
She stepped out into polished marble.
Chandelier glow. High walls. Nine banners of council authority.
The City Council Hall.
Three members sat at the crescent table. One standing in the back near the projection crystal. Two empty chairs. One open flame in the center hearth, flickering too clean to be natural.
No one had time to react.
Morgana's coat didn't rustle. Her heels clicked once on the marble and then stilled.
The man closest to her flinched anyway.
Councilor Veren Ghalt. Fire affinity. Old money. Thin smile. Always talking like he had something to prove.
He leaned forward. "Morgana. You weren't expected."
"I don't need an invitation," she said.
The others turned.
Councilor Ren Ivelle, air mage, sat furthest to the right. Calm. Strategic. Never liked her, but never said it aloud.
Next to him, Orrin Valdeir, beast caller. Younger. Smarter than he acted. Raised one eyebrow.
"Something happen?" he asked.
Morgana looked at the central hearth. Its flame dipped lower as she stared at it.
"Domain activity," she said. "South corridor. One confirmed disappearance. Possibly more."
That silenced them.
Ren folded his hands. "How contained?"
"Not."
"Is it Gate-class?"
"Not yet."
Orrin shifted in his seat. "And you're sure this isn't just another cursed object leak? The Arcane Vault's been—"
"It's not a cursed object."
Her voice didn't rise.
It didn't need to.
The fire dimmed again.
Veren cleared his throat. "You realize bringing this directly to us without alerting the safety command is—"
"I didn't come here for permission."
Veren paused.
Then leaned back slightly in his seat.
Morgana took another step forward.
Her magic pulsed just beneath her skin, steady and precise. She didn't show it. But they felt it.
Ren exhaled slowly. "You're serious."
"Yes."
"Which Domain?"
She looked him in the eye.
"Hollow Labyrinth."
Silence.
The kind that wrapped around a room and refused to breathe.
Even the flame in the hearth flickered out.
No one moved.
Orrin sat straighter. No longer trying to play casual. "That's supposed to be locked."
"It was."
Ren looked at her like he was trying to see through her skin. "You're certain?"
"Trace confirmed. Pattern matches. First-stage activation. Seed is responding to presence."
"Host?"
"No. But it's feeding."
The pause stretched longer this time.
Then Veren stood. He walked to the back of the room, pulled down a scroll from the wall.
"You want military protocol on this?" he asked. "Evacuation sweep? Seal the perimeter?"
"No."
"Then what?"
Morgana's eyes narrowed.
"We watch who it chooses next."
Ren stared at her.
"That's a dangerous line to walk."
"It's already walking it."
Orrin drummed his fingers once against the table. "How many people know?"
"Three students. One instructor. No alerts yet."
"You plan to keep it that way?"
"Yes."
No one argued.
They didn't need to.
Morgana was already the strongest mage in the room, and in this city, that meant her silence weighed more than anyone's voice.
She turned without waiting for dismissal.
The air shifted again.
Time folded as she vanished.
