Chapter 10: The Hidden Codex

Elion didn't hesitate.

The boy's words still rang in his mind — "Maybe you'll last longer."

He turned sharply and followed down the side corridor, past filing cabinets and crumbling relics wrapped in cloth. The fog of the Department hung heavier here, like it wasn't mist but memory — lingering, watching.

He reached the corner.

The boy was gone.

But something was there in his place: a door he'd never noticed before. It bore no markings, no knob, no seams. Just a spiral carved faintly into the wood, nearly invisible in the dim light.

The mark behind Elion's ear burned gently.

Without thinking, he raised his hand and traced the spiral.

The door clicked.

It opened inward on its own.

Beyond it, a stairwell spiraled down, lined with black stone and silent lanterns. The air grew colder with each step, but not dead — alive with tension, like sound pressed between the walls.

As he reached the bottom, a long hall unfolded ahead.

Lit only by blue lanterns, the walls were lined with alcoves.

And in each alcove stood a statue.

Nine in total.

Figures in robes. Their faces hidden behind different masks — some smiling, some weeping, some cracked. Each held a different object: a bell, a book, a key, a horn.

Elion walked past them slowly.

At the end of the hall, he entered a circular room — smaller than the echo chamber, but older.

Dust hung in the air.

Stone shelves lined the walls, filled with scrolls and faded tomes. And at the center of the room sat a pedestal, holding a book bound in what looked like black leather, etched with a golden spiral.

He stepped forward.

The title gleamed faintly.

Codex of the Ninth Path: The Listener

His hands trembled as he opened it.

Inside, the ink shimmered unnaturally, shifting on the page. He flipped through the entries.

> To listen is to open. To open is to invite. To invite is to become.

> First Sequence: The Ear That Sees.

> Those who bear the spiral hear the voices of truth, even when it hides.

> Second Sequence: The Mouth That Does Not Echo.

> Silence is protection. Thought is the loudest scream.

The pages went on — maps, rituals, warnings.

Some were scratched out violently.

Others smeared in black.

Then he turned a page and froze.

There it was.

A drawing of the mask he had seen in the relic chamber.

Below it, a warning in red ink:

> If you have touched the Mask of Breathless Memory, you have already been seen.

> It listens.

It learns.

It leaks.

Elion closed the book.

His heart pounded in his chest.

And that's when he noticed a shape standing in the shadows.

The boy.

He leaned against the stone, arms crossed, watching.

— You found it — the boy said softly.

— This place… it was never built. It was remembered into existence.

Elion stepped back.

— Who are you?

The boy smiled, without joy.

— Just another Listener who forgot when to stop listening.

He walked over, placed a small object on the pedestal.

A tiny mirror shard.

— If you want answers… hold this while the spiral burns.

Elion stared at the shard.

— What will I see?

The boy's smile faded.

— Not what.

— Who.

Then he turned and disappeared back into the shadows.

Elion picked up the shard.

The mark behind his ear began to burn again.