⋱⌘⋰ Lore Scrap ⋱⌘⋰
"Some wings of the Library never wanted to be mapped."
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The second bell had barely finished its echo when the floor beneath the Hall of Unnamed groaned. Finnian was already moving.
Finnian had been halfway through cataloguing a misfiled grief-thread when the first glyph lit red. He didn't wait for orders.
Three days ago, he'd seen something behind Eira's eyes. A flicker — not hers. She hadn't noticed him notice. But it had stayed with him.
And now the breach alarm was ringing.
Thorn Serel's half-mad map burned hot against his chest. Whisper-taxonomy notebook under one arm, he ran.
He wasn't supposed to go to the Unbound Wing.
But Eira had once said: "Where it hurts is usually where the answer hides."
So he went.
He hadn't been invited to The Unbound Wing. No one had. But that had never stopped him. He clutched Thorn Serel's half-mad map in one hand and his whisper-taxonomy notebook in the other. He wasn't sure which one was more cursed. Behind him, the air rippled. The whisper-ink along the walls pulsed red.
He didn't see her behind him — but she had seen the flare.
Silver and black, the mark of breach-fire. It had flashed across the ceiling as the book in the Hall ignited.
Julian's voice was still echoing inside her skull.
She followed. Not Finnian. Not the rules.
The name.
"Finnian Vale!" Vessa's voice echoed from above. He winced. "I'll bring it back!" "Don't—" Too late. He slipped between the wards as they flickered and vanished into the breach corridor. The Unbound Wing was colder than he expected. Not dead. Just waiting. Meanwhile—above—the Library reorganised itself around alarm. Cael appeared like a shadow given thought. "Where is she?" he asked. Vessa didn't hesitate. "She followed the flare. She's gone after him." Cael's jaw clenched. "Then we go now." Eira followed the pulse of the flame — the remnants of Julian's voice still curled in her throat. She barely noticed the corridor folding around her, twisting the map she didn't have. Stairs dropped into silence. Stone hallways shifted into paper. There was no north. No time. Only the pull of the name. She crossed into The Unbound Wing with no resistance. Books with no titles hissed. Pages rustled though no one touched them. And there — Finnian. Kneeling beside a strange glyph door that bent light. "Eira! You shouldn't—" The door opened before he could finish. The air rushed inward. The corridor behind them vanished. They were in. And no one else could follow. Above, Cael reached the corridor too late.
The glyph-door was already open — not broken, not forced.
Just… absent.
"She shouldn't have been able to enter," Vessa said, breathless beside him.
"She didn't," Cael answered, voice hollow. "It opened for her."
Then, quieter:
"It remembers her."
He exhaled sharply — not fear. Recognition. "It begins again."
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Inside The Unbound Wing, Eira blinked. And from the shadows of the stacks, a figure emerged. Smiling. "Hello again," it said. She didn't know her. But something inside her remembered.
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To be continued…
⸻ ❖ Archive Fragment ❖ ⸻ *Some wings don't open. They unfold you instead.*
⋱◈⋰ End Chapter ⋱◈⋰