W **Chapter 7: Seren and the Vault Beneath**
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Seren never planned on trespassing into the Vault Beneath. In truth, she hadn't even known it existed—until the book whispered to her.
It was an old tome, bound in green leather and sealed behind a spell-lock in the Seminary's upper library. The title: *The Sky That Lied.* She hadn't been searching for it. It had simply fallen from the shelf.
When she touched it, something pulsed beneath her skin, and a message carved itself across the page:
> "Go to the 7th shelf in the Forbidden Wing. Pull out the false book. Step into the truth."
She stared at the words. They shimmered faintly, then vanished like mist.
Most people would've walked away.
Seren didn't.
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The Forbidden Wing of the library wasn't locked—just… avoided. Whispers followed anyone who went too far in. Shelves rearranged themselves. Time slowed.
She stepped through the curtain of cold air that separated it from the rest of the building and found the shelf. Sure enough, the seventh row held a book with no title, no author, and no dust.
She pulled it.
The shelf rumbled, and a hidden staircase appeared—carved into the stone, winding downward into darkness.
She hesitated, then took a deep breath and descended.
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The Vault Beneath was colder than she expected. Carvings lined the walls—symbols in forgotten languages, some of which moved slightly when she looked away. The air shimmered with magic, old and stubborn. As she descended further, she realized this was no ordinary archive.
This was a vault of **sealed memories**.
Her steps echoed too loudly. The shadows didn't behave correctly—they leaned the wrong way, danced without light. Something ancient had been buried here, and it had not entirely gone to sleep.
Finally, she reached the heart of the vault.
At the center stood a pedestal. Floating above it was a crystalline fragment shaped like a teardrop. Surrounding it were rings of script, humming softly.
It called to her.
She stepped forward.
> "WARNING: This relic is classified. Do not interact unless authorized by the Will of Kaelmire."
The warning was etched on the ground in glowing red glyphs.
Seren stared at it for several long seconds.
Then reached out anyway.
The moment her fingers brushed the relic, light surged from the pedestal, engulfing the chamber. She stumbled back, crying out as pain exploded through her arm. Symbols burned themselves into her skin—elegant, curved lines forming a circle bisected by an eclipse.
Visions slammed into her mind.
She saw a throne surrounded by darkness.
A shadow reaching across time.
A world being rewritten.
Then… silence.
The relic shattered, vanishing into a swirl of mist. The light faded.
And she was alone.
Breathing hard, she looked down at her hand. The mark glowed faintly.
> \[Skill Acquired: **Causal Echo**]
> *Allows limited glimpses into future outcomes triggered by emotional memory.*
"…What?" she whispered, shaking her head. "Did I just… gain a skill?"
For a moment, she wondered if she had lost her mind. But then she felt it—that strange awareness, that pressure in the air.
She wasn't alone anymore.
Something **else** had noticed her now.
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Above, far from the vault, Aether stood in the Hollow Star chamber.
He looked up sharply. His eyes narrowed.
"She found it," he murmured.
One of his shadows stepped forward. "You mean the memory relic?"
"No," Aether said. "Something older. Something that wasn't meant to be found until the sky began to lie again."
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And far beneath the Seminary, the broken fragments of the relic whispered through the void:
"The Aberration has been marked. The chain begins anew."
To be countinue...