CHAPTER 21: SHADOWS STIR BENEATH THE GARDEN

I by no means trusted quiet mornings.

The Academy’s gardens—lush again after months of turmoil—buzzed with warm temperature and blooming mana-lilies. Students lounged across stone benches, runes sparkling in gentle rhythm. It turned into peaceful. Too non violent.

Lilith sat beside me below the arched pergola, a cup of black tea among her palms. She watched the scholars with a strange appearance on her face—same elements wistful and cautious.

"You don’t like calm, do you?" I requested.

Her purple gaze flicked in the direction of me. "Calm is the lull earlier than some thing breaks."

Moments later, the earth below the lawn gave a low groan. Not a tremor—no, it become more like something waking.

Runes along the lawn course sputtered out. Nearby, a tree twisted unnaturally, bark warping love it changed into being rewritten via something... old.

Lilith rose immediately. "The seal under the garden is fracturing."

"Seal?" I blinked.

She gave me an extraordinary, pressing look. "Beneath the lawn is one of the Five Pillars. If it fails..."

She didn’t finish. She didn’t need to.