CHAPTER FIVE: THE GLYPH BENEATH THE GATE (Part four)
The chamber returned to stillness.
No glyphs pulsed.
No hum lingered.
Just stone beneath breath and questions no one knew how to ask.
Liraen turned.
Not abruptly.
Not dismissively.
Like she already knew the moment had passed.
"Take your seats."
Her voice carried—not loud, but final.
They moved, slow and cautious.
Kaelen helped Yolti find hers first.
Selka walked behind Zephryn without speaking.
Bubbalor remained by the door, one eye glancing sideways toward the glyph that had just gone dark.
It didn't hum.
But it hadn't forgotten.
The room itself didn't look like a classroom.
No desks. No chalkboards.
Just layered platforms built around a circular center of pulse-sensitive stone.
A resonance field.
Used to amplify memory threads, emotional recall, and glyph studies.
Liraen stepped into the center. Her long coat shifted slightly—folds curling around her boots like water pulled by gravity.
She raised a single hand.
From the center stone, eight smaller glyphs ignited.
Not flaring.
Just present.
"These are the known root glyphs of the Lyceum's Pulse doctrine," she said calmly. "The youngest of them is older than this kingdom."
Each glyph shimmered in its own color—light, stone, flame, flora, crystal, water, lightning, and void.
Then she turned slightly—just enough to glance toward the place where Zephryn's glyph had awakened.
"And yet none of these… responded like that."
Zephryn didn't flinch.
Kaelen leaned forward.
Yolti whispered, "Are we gonna talk about that or just pretend it didn't happen?"
Selka said nothing.
Liraen heard all of it.
And spoke to none of it.
"Your task this week is to begin mapping your resonance lineage," she said instead. "Some of you will follow your blood. Some of you will follow your scars."
She looked directly at Zephryn now.
"And some of you… will follow the echoes."
The glyphs dimmed.
The class began.
But none of them forgot what came before it.
Not even Liraen.