Chapter 14: “The Second Gate” ---

Chapter 14: "The Second Gate"

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The academy didn't speak of the Binding Trial.

No announcements. No acknowledgement.

But students whispered.

"The janitor survived."

"They used the Low Chamber on him."

"He shouldn't have walked out of that place…"

By noon, Yui's name was no longer a joke.

It was a question.

---

Lucen didn't speak to him for two days.

Not out of anger. Out of restraint.

But on the third day, he handed Yui a box. Long, thin, locked with a six-digit rune.

"No one's allowed to open this," Lucen said.

"Not even me?"

Lucen didn't smile. "Especially not you."

---

That night, the flame returned.

But it didn't wait for Yui to summon it.

It sparked on its own, hovering above his palm like a curious eye.

He stared at it.

"You're not mine anymore, are you?"

The flame flickered—once, twice.

Then a second one ignited beside it.

A mirror.

Same size. Same shape. But inverted.

Where his fire was white, this one bled shadow.

Where his was warmth, this was hunger.

Then a voice, two-toned and layered, answered:

"The gate has opened. Choose the path."

---

Elsewhere—in the Chamber of Glass—

The silver-haired girl stood in a circle of shattered mirrors.

She was alone, until the Headmistress appeared behind her, her robes trailing arcane mist.

"You made contact," the Headmistress said.

The girl nodded. "He heard the call. The twin flame responded."

"And the second gate?"

The girl touched her chest. Her voice trembled.

"It's inside him now."

---

Back in his dorm, Yui stared at the box Lucen had given him.

He tried to walk away from it.

He couldn't.

Something—someone—was whispering from inside.

Not words.

Memories.

Not his own.

---

The box opened at midnight.

He didn't unlock it. It simply... split.

Inside was a dagger.

Bone-white, like the one Kael had held.

But older. Cracked down the center. A jagged symbol etched across the hilt: ᚾ — a rune he didn't recognize.

He reached for it—

And the world turned backward.

---

Suddenly, he wasn't in his room.

He was standing in a battlefield of mirrors, all cracked and tilting inward.

His flame floated beside him—but silent.

From the reflections, versions of himself stared back. Some younger. Some older. One bleeding. One smiling.

And in the center of it all—

Seris.

But she was chained. Kneeling. And crying.

"Don't trust them," she said. "Not me. Not the flame. Not even—"

Her voice was drowned by a shattering boom.

Every mirror exploded inward.

And from the shards, a figure emerged.

Armored. Hooded. Face unseen.

The same one who gave the order.

---

Back in the real world, Yui collapsed beside the open box, gasping for breath.

The dagger had vanished.

But the rune it bore had burned itself onto his palm.

And in the silence, the flame finally spoke again.

This time, not warning him.

But pleading.

"Don't open the third."

---

Above the tower, Kael watched the sky with narrowed eyes.

"The second gate shouldn't have activated without the Obsidian Key," he murmured.

Seris said nothing. Her eyes were locked on the clouds as they twisted, unnaturally.

Kael turned to her.

"Tell the Mirror Garden."

He paused.

"And wake the Dormant Girl."

---

Beneath the academy, where only rumors said the world still bled—

A heart began to beat.

Not human. Not kind.

And not alone.

---

Yui woke the next day with a burned hand, a half-remembered nightmare, and a single message carved into his window from the inside:

"They're not testing you anymore."

End of chapter 14