Chapter 13: The Hollow Wing
Few students ever saw the lower levels of Valenforge Academy.
Fewer still returned with their minds intact.
The Hollow Wing wasn't truly a "wing" at all. It was a sealed descent, a network of ancient corridors beneath the main halls — older than the Academy itself.
Before Valenforge was built, this place had been something else: a laboratory, or perhaps a tomb.
Kael followed Master Riven down a spiral staircase carved into gray stone. The air grew colder with every step. Runes flickered along the walls, pulsing faintly as they reacted to Kael's presence.
"The Hollow Wing was constructed to contain resonance anomalies," Riven explained. His voice echoed through the narrow stairwell. "Your kind of power… belongs here."
Kael frowned. "My kind?"
Riven glanced back, expression unreadable. "The cursed, the inverted, the ones the world decided were mistakes."
They reached a massive iron door engraved with runes older than the Flow language itself. Riven placed his hand against it; light spread from his palm, unlocking layer by layer. The metal shuddered open, releasing a breath of stale air and faint whispers.
---
Inside, the Hollow Wing looked nothing like the upper Academy.
It was dim and vast, with long corridors of black glass and silver veins running through the walls. Flow-light didn't work here — only natural flame or willpower kept the dark at bay.
Kael could feel it immediately.
The air vibrated differently. His Hollow stirred like an animal returning home.
Riven gestured forward. "This is where you'll train. Every wall here was forged to withstand Flow collapse. Even if you lose control, it won't escape."
Kael nodded, though his chest felt heavy. "You think I'll lose control again?"
"I know you will," Riven said. "That's the point."
---
Training began at dawn the next day.
The first exercise was simple in theory — manifest Flow outward, then retract it without consumption.
For Kael, it was agony.
He sat cross-legged inside a circle of etched runes, sweat beading on his forehead. Each time he tried to project Flow, it collapsed inward before touching air. The Hollow refused to release.
"Push, don't swallow!" Riven barked. "You're still pulling from yourself!"
"I can't!" Kael shouted back, voice cracking with strain. "It's not listening!"
Riven watched calmly, unblinking. "Then stop trying to command it like a master. Listen to it like a beast."
Kael froze, breathing ragged. Slowly, he closed his eyes.
The whisper returned.
Why resist what you are?
"I'm not trying to resist," he muttered. "I'm trying to understand."
The Hollow's voice softened, almost amused. Then stop fearing the hunger. Feed it what it wants — without letting it eat you.
Kael hesitated, then shifted his breathing. Instead of forcing energy outward, he imagined a pulse — a heartbeat — that flowed inward first, then rippled outward like a slow tide.
The runes around him flickered once, then glowed steady.
Riven's eyes narrowed. "That's it. Don't overthink it. Feel the rhythm."
Kael exhaled slowly. The air no longer warped, and for the first time, the Hollow didn't devour his energy. It echoed it.
The circle around him pulsed like a living thing.
The Hollow had found a way to mimic Flow — not consume it, but reflect it.
Riven muttered under his breath, "Impossible…"
Kael opened his eyes. "What?"
"That pattern… it's self-sustaining. Hollow can't do that."
Kael didn't answer. Deep inside, he felt something stir — the same reflection from before, watching through the glassy walls of his mind.
You're remembering faster than I thought.
---
Days passed in silence.
Kael's progress was steady, but the exhaustion was constant. Every step forward felt like a conversation with a sleeping god inside him — one that was slowly beginning to wake.
He saw flashes sometimes when he trained — visions of another era, another life. Towers of silver light. Voices speaking in a language that bent the air. And always, always, the reflection smiling.
On the fourth night, he found a sealed room deeper in the wing — its door half-buried under old rubble. When he brushed the dust away, he saw ancient Flow runes etched above the frame:
"To Remember Is to Hollow."
A chill crept down his spine.
---
Before he could open it, a familiar voice called out.
"Breaking curfew again?"
He turned. Selene stood at the corridor's edge, her usual calm expression softening slightly in the torchlight. She was dressed in plain gray training robes, no adornment — as if she didn't want to be seen here.
"You shouldn't be here," Kael said quietly.
"Neither should you," she replied, walking closer. "But you're not the only one curious about the Hollow."
Her eyes flicked to the door. "Do you know what's behind that?"
"No."
"I do," she said, voice lowering. "It's the chamber of the Hollow Mirror. The first experiment that tried to contain inverted Flow. Everyone involved vanished. The Academy buried it… but they never sealed it fully."
Kael frowned. "How do you know all this?"
Selene's gaze turned distant. "Because my family helped build it."
The air between them thickened.
"Kael," she said softly, "whatever you find in there — it will change you. Maybe beyond repair."
He met her eyes. "Maybe I was already broken."
For a moment, neither spoke. Then, without another word, Selene turned and walked away, her footsteps fading into the dark.
Kael stood alone before the ancient door, his Hollow whispering faintly behind his heartbeat.
Open it.
He reached for the handle.
The metal was cold as death — and it smiled.
---
End of Chapter 13
Next: Chapter 14 — "The Chamber of the Hollow Mirror"