Chapter 16: Lina’s Last Echo

It was Mara's idea.

Not Talwyn's. Not Julian's.

Hers.

They were gathered again—Caelum now fully within the Circle. The old maintenance room felt colder than usual, the silence pressed in tighter. The burnt-edged note from the Archives lay in the center like an open wound.

"She left something behind," Mara said, her voice as soft and sharp as a razor's edge.

Julian frowned. "Lina's gone."

Mara shook her head slowly. "Not completely."

Later that night, they entered Room 17-B, Lina's former space, now officially "unassigned."

It had been scrubbed clean.

The bed made. Wardings reset. Personal effects removed. A silent erasure.

But Mara stood still in the center of the room, eyes closed, fingers twitching like antennae. Her gift was delicate—not like Divination, not a full memory. She couldn't see thoughts, but she could touch the residue that lingered after deep emotion. Like ripples in standing water.

Caelum stood watch by the door, shadow-wrapped and alert.

Talwyn placed a hand on Mara's shoulder briefly. "Are you sure?"

"I'm not going deep," she replied. "Just the edge. Enough to know what she felt."

She knelt, palm brushing the mattress.

And then everything shifted.

The light in the room dimmed.

Not literally, but perceptually — like a curtain had been drawn across the world.

Mara's breath caught. Her fingers twitched.

Fear.

Cold.

Panic.

"She was awake," Mara murmured. "When they came. They didn't stun her. They used magic to mute her. She couldn't speak. Couldn't scream."

Talwyn clenched his jaw. "They silenced her?"

Mara's hands trembled. "She fought. She… pushed outward. The walls—she left something in the walls."

She turned suddenly, rising from the bed and placing her hand on the eastern wall. She closed her eyes.

For a moment—nothing.

Then her entire body staggered, eyes flying wide.

"Help—don't let them take me—don't let them hide me—"

"Something's wrong—don't believe the healers—"

Mara gasped and pulled her hand away like it had burned her.

Silence fell.

"She left an empathic imprint," Mara said breathlessly. "Not just a trace. A deliberate echo. She forced it in when they took her."

Julian looked stunned. "That shouldn't even be possible."

"It's not," Talwyn said. "Not unless…"

Caelum stepped forward, voice low. "Not unless she knew she wouldn't have a chance to come back."

He looked at Mara.

"Is she still alive?"

Mara hesitated.

"I don't know. The echo cuts off too sharply. It's like it was interrupted. Or locked away."

Julian's voice was tight. "They didn't just transfer her. They took her somewhere else."

Caelum nodded slowly.

"The medical wing," he said. "There's a storage chamber below it. I've seen staff with unmarked keys go there late at night. It's off-registry."

Talwyn's eyes narrowed. "You think she's there?"

"I think," Caelum said carefully, "that's where they keep things they don't want on record."

...

Back in his room, Caelum sat at the edge of his bed, staring at the flickering rune light on the wall.

Magic remembers.

That's what Mara had said. And now he believed her.

Not just because Lina's fear still echoed through stone and spell.

But because for the first time since arriving at Greystone, he wasn't the only one who had been made into a secret.