The Vault

"I can't believe I just stopped a robbery," Luke mused as he munched on a blueberry pastry. He sat in an overstuffed chair in one corner of the space designated for the Vault Cafe. Lila floated nearby, looking at some of the titles on the nearest bookshelf.

Lila laughed musically, "These are the exploits of Heaven's Knights. This is what the Knights do. And the Celestials, of course."

Luke shook his head. Everything was starting to sink in now that his stomach wasn't yelling at him. He'd already downed a salted caramel macchiato, and was on his third blueberry pastry. He thought about the trust fund he'd been gifted on his eighteenth birthday. He was never more grateful for that money than when he needed food. 

His mind wondered while he finished his sugary meal. So much had happened in so little time, he still wasn't sure if he actually believed it was all real or not. Of course, if it wasn't real that would make him a crazy person, which wasn't a better outcome. Still, though, it was hard to believe. 

He focused his attention on the mana in the air and was suddenly able to see all of the small flecks of energy floating about lazily as if they had nowhere to go and nothing to do. He willed his body to absorb the mana that was within range, and immediately the strange, blue energy particles responded. 

As his mana vortex pulled in the mana, it flowed quickly to his opened mana veins. He immediately felt reinvigorated. His mind and body buzzed with energy. He jumped up, feeling pumped and ready to go.

"What are you doing?" Lila asked, staring at him strangely.

"What do you mean? I'm, just… I don't know. I feel good. I needed to stand up!" Luke replied.

Lila's eyebrows rose and she smiled softly. "Well, okay then." 

The tension in Luke's body faded, replaced by a light, almost electric hum beneath his skin. His mana veins pulsed with newfound energy, the exhaustion from earlier all but forgotten.

Then—a shift.

The air thickened, like the moment before a thunderstorm when the sky holds its breath. Not physically—but in a way he could feel in his bones. Luke blinked, scanning the space around him. The murmur of students, the rustle of pages, the hiss of the espresso machine—all normal.

But something wasn't.

It was like stepping into a room where someone had just been talking about you. The weight of unseen eyes pressed against the edge of his perception.

Lila frowned, tilting her head slightly, her gaze flicking between the glowing runes and the ceiling. "That's strange," she muttered.

"What?" Luke asked, pulling his attention from the Vault.

"The mana here—" she hesitated. "It's stable, but… too stable. Almost like it's being held in place by something, as if these runes are... reinforcing the space itself."

Luke frowned. "Why would they need to reinforce mana?"

Lila's gaze darkened slightly. "Because something—or someone—has been messing with it. Everhearth sits on an old leyline, but the kind of interference I'm sensing feels... artificial. Like it's being forced open."

Luke exhaled sharply. "You think the APA is involved?"

Lila didn't answer right away. Instead, she just watched the ceiling for a long moment before muttering, "I think we should be paying attention."

Suddenly, Luke sensed something odd. Luke paused, a faint prickling sensation on the back of his neck.. It wasn't just the usual buzz of mana he'd begun to notice since his awakening—this was sharper, heavier, like an unspoken command to turn around.

"What's wrong?" Lila asked, hovering just behind him.

"Something," he murmured, his voice low as he slowly pivoted. "I feel something strange." Mana rippled through his mana veins, causing a sensation he wasn't familiar with. His eyes were drawn across the expanse of the library's main hall, past the endless rows of bookshelves and the glow of the Vault Café. They locked onto a set of massive iron doors tucked into the farthest wall, half-hidden in shadow beneath an overhanging balcony.

The doors were unlike anything else in the library. Blackened with age, their surface shimmered faintly, as if catching a light that wasn't there. Intricate runes, similar to those carved into the library's exterior, sprawled across the iron in looping, intersecting patterns, their edges glowing faintly with a dull, bluish hue. Luke could feel them—not just see them—as though the runes were reaching out, curling invisible tendrils toward him, testing him. The mana in his veins surged in response, as if something inside the Vault was aware of him now.

"That's the Vault," he said softly. 

Lila drifted to his side. Her voice carried a rare tone of caution as she said, "Luke, be careful. I didn't notice it as strongly before, but there is definitely something dangerous on the other side of those doors. "

Luke stepped closer. "It's like... I don't know. It's pulling at me."

He squinted, focusing harder on the runes. As he did, the glow intensified, spreading out from the carvings like ink dissolving in water. For a moment, the air between him and the doors seemed to shimmer, rippling faintly like heat rising off asphalt.

"Careful," Lila warned, her golden eyes narrowing. "You're attuned to mana now. It's reacting to you."

Luke's breath caught as the ripple solidified into a brief flash—a faint image of something beyond the door. A vast, circular room, its walls lined with shelves and alcoves, each one filled with objects: old tomes, metallic fragments, even something that looked like a jagged crystal suspended midair. The vision was gone as quickly as it came, leaving him staring at the unyielding iron once more.

"What was that?" he asked, his voice hushed.

Lila tilted her head, studying him. "It's not just a vault for books or old records. It's a containment space—for things tied to mana, things your world wasn't ready to understand. And you... well, you just got its attention."

Luke swallowed hard, his pulse quickening. "Great. That's not ominous at all."

The runes on the door pulsed once, then faded back to their faint glow. The tugging sensation eased, but the weight of the Vault lingered in the air around him. He tore his gaze away, shaking his head.

"Let's not mess with that just yet," he muttered, turning back toward the main hall.

Lila followed, her expression unreadable. "Not yet," she echoed. "But soon."

Luke was about to turn away from the Vault when a sudden, bone-deep tremor rippled through the air. It wasn't the kind of quake you could feel with your feet—it was a vibration in the mana itself, a pull that seemed to come from every direction at once.

"Luke," Lila said, her voice unusually sharp, "something's happening."

"Yeah, I can see that," Luke muttered.

The faint hum of conversation in the library stilled, and a low murmur of unease spread among the students. Luke's eyes snapped to the Vault. The runes on the iron doors suddenly began glowing brighter again, the bluish hue surging like waves across their surface.

"What the—?" Luke whispered, stepping closer. The runes pulsed in rhythm now, like a heartbeat, but not one Luke recognized—it was slower, deeper, almost... deliberate. His mana veins tingled as if in response, and for a fleeting moment, his vision blurred. A shape—no, a sigil—etched into the doors flickered at the edge of his mind.

It wasn't unfamiliar.

Not in the way a dream fades when you wake, but in the way a word lingers on the tip of your tongue—just out of reach, just beyond memory.

"It's responding," Lila said, hovering beside him. Her golden eyes flicked to the runes, then darted toward the library windows. "Luke, this isn't isolated—it's everywhere."

Luke turned and followed her gaze. Outside, through the towering stained-glass windows, he saw the sky begin to shift. What had been a clear afternoon was now streaked with unnatural colors—deep purples and greens swirling like a stormfront twisting in reverse.

"This isn't normal," Luke said, his voice tight. "This is—"

"Mana," Lila cut in. "It's everywhere. The veil is weakening."

Another tremor hit, this one more intense. The chandelier overhead swayed precariously, and students began to scramble, their voices rising in panic. Books tumbled from shelves, and somewhere a librarian shouted for calm.

The runes on the Vault flared again, brighter this time, and Luke could feel the shift in the air.

Lila's eyes opened wide, "It's happening!" she shouted. "Something is happening at that particle accelerator!" Her tone was grave. "The APA—it's tearing open the barriers between realms. This place is tied to mana, so no wonder it's reacting this way!"

Luke stepped forward, his mana enhanced senses on edge. The runes seemed almost alive now, surging with light that ebbed and flowed as if drawing energy from the storm outside.

"What do we do?" he asked, his voice low but steady.

Lila hesitated. "We don't do anything—not yet. Whatever's happening at the APA is beyond our reach right now. The runes are anchoring this space. Maybe whoever built this campus, and these buildings, did know what they were doing. The runes are keeping these buildings standing!"

Luke wasn't so sure. The pulsing light from the runes intensified again, almost blinding, and he felt a strange pull in his chest, as if the mana in his veins was resonating with the energy.

"What happens if they fail?" he asked.

Lila's eyes darkened. "I don't want to find out."

The air shifted again, and this time Luke swore he heard something—a low, guttural sound, like distant thunder but layered with a strange, otherworldly tone. The Vault shuddered, and for a brief moment, the iron doors seemed to ripple, their surface bending like liquid metal.

"Lila," Luke said, backing away instinctively. "That doesn't look stable."

She nodded grimly. "It's holding. For now."

Outside, the swirling sky darkened further, and the faint, almost imperceptible scent of ozone filled the air. Luke turned back to the Vault, his fists clenching. The runes pulsed one last time, their light dimming slightly as if bracing for the next wave.

Then everything in Luke's vision fractured.

The walls didn't just stretch—they peeled, unfolding like pages in an endless book, each layer revealing another beneath it.

The library bent, snapped, reassembled—not like something shifting, but like something rewriting its own existence.

His body wasn't his own. Luke felt his limbs—longer, thinner, folded in ways that shouldn't be possible—then suddenly, they were normal again.

A pressure sank into his chest, something old and vast. And then—

He was yanked backward.

Luke barely registered his body being yanked off his feet before the impact sent a shockwave of pain down his spine.

"What's happening!?" he shouted, confused and somewhat fearful.

Before Lila had a chance to answer, everything snapped back to normal. Silence and stillness engulfed their surroundings, as if the world was holding its breath. Then, Luke found himself flying backward, struck by an unseen but powerful force. He flew all the way until he struck the Vault doors.

He hit the doors hard, and a wave of pain wracked his body. He opened his eyes and found himself lying on the floor, the Vault doors stretching upward next to him. Lila swiftly bolted over to him, helping him to his feet.

"What was that?" he groaned.

Lila hovered over him, her golden eyes gleaming with something between amusement and sorrow—but deeper than that, something unreadable.

"That, my friend, was the end of life as you knew it."

Then, even softer, almost too quiet to hear—"And the beginning of something you won't be able to stop."