The silence that followed the disappearance of the Second Fragment didn't feel like a moment of peace at all.
It was a thick, held-back silence, as if the Hall of Fallen Letters were barely breathing, unsure whether things were truly over.
Marikka stayed still. Her chest felt heavy.
She could hear two heartbeats: her own… and another one that didn't belong to her.
A deep, echoing vibration that hadn't vanished with the Fragment but clung to her like a second shadow.
The book trembled in her hands.
Not with fear.
With alertness.
Cedric slid down the wall with a defeated groan.
"Please tell me it's over. I'm not asking for much. Just five minutes without cosmic entities."
Aurelian didn't smile. He was pale—unusual for him.
"No. Its passage destabilized the Lower Halls. And its trail is still active."
Marikka felt a sharp vibration ripple through the floor. A clear signal.
Something was coming.
Not a Fragment.
Not an echo.
A creature.
A sound like tearing parchment echoed from the corridor they had crossed earlier. A second vibration followed—stronger, faster.
It was quick.
And hungry.
Cedric straightened up instantly.
"No. NO. I refuse to believe this. Doesn't the Athenaeum have a daily limit on horrors? A quota? A regulation?"
Aurelian raised a hand and traced a glowing rune in the air.
"Minor Binding."
Ink condensed into a vibrant, pulsating sigil.
The vibration in the corridor surged forward.
Marikka tightened her grip on the book.
She sensed the creature before she saw it.
When it emerged from the shadows, Cedric let out a scream that no human vocal cords should reasonably produce.
A serpent-like mass of living parchment slithered toward them, long as a small dragon, made of dozens of bound scrolls twisting and folding onto themselves. Its movements were jerky, erratic, almost frantic. Two dark ink blotches—its eyes—blinked open on its shifting body.
A Vermis Rilegator.
One of the most aggressive archivistic beasts.
"Wonderful," Cedric muttered. "A giant, overdue-assignment snake. Great. Love it. Let's run."
The Vermis struck Aurelian's rune with astonishing speed.
The sigil shattered into pieces of fading light.
Aurelian cursed under his breath.
"Too large. That spell won't hold it."
The creature lunged.
Marikka didn't run.
Instead, she knelt, placed her hand on the floor, and listened.
The creature's vibration was a frantic rhythm—
Hunger.
Aggression.
Guilt.
And beneath it… something else.
A vibration coming from the Hall itself.
A vibration of the Athenaeum.
It was waiting for a command.
Marikka closed her eyes.
She didn't speak.
She didn't form a complex thought.
Just an intention.
Open.
The wall to their left creaked.
Cracks spread across its surface.
And then it began to split open like a book caught in a gust of wind.
The Vermis froze, sensing danger—
but it was already too late.
Aurelian used a deflective spell to shove it sideways.
Cedric, determined not to be entirely useless, threw a notebook at the creature.
It bounced off and hit him in the forehead.
Marikka pressed both hands firmly against the floor.
Open wider.
The wall gave way completely.
Beyond it wasn't a corridor or a room.
It was a whirlwind of shifting text, a pit of rejected memories the Athenaeum only opened to contain unstable beings.
Cedric trembled.
"I don't want to know where that leads. Truly. I'm far too young for this level of existential horror."
The Vermis clawed desperately at the ground, its layers of parchment tearing as it was dragged toward the opening.
Marikka felt another vibration.
Pain.
Fear.
A pure survival instinct.
But the creature was too unstable to remain free.
With a final contortion, it was pulled into the vortex.
The opening slammed shut.
Silence.
Cedric dropped onto the floor.
"Okay. Enough. Truly enough. It's official: the Athenaeum hates me."
Aurelian didn't respond right away. He was staring at Marikka, not with fear… but with understanding.
"You didn't ask it to open. You commanded it."
Marikka lowered her gaze.
It was true.
She hadn't begged for help.
The Athenaeum had obeyed her.
Cedric pushed himself up, swaying slightly.
"Fine, wonderful, splendid. Now can we… go back? Sleep? Pretend none of this ever happened?"
Aurelian exhaled slowly.
"No. The Second Fragment left a trace in the Drafts Lost Sector. We need to follow it."
Cedric stared at him as if Aurelian had proposed adopting a cactus-dragon hybrid.
"I vote no. No. Unanimous no. Motion rejected."
But Marikka felt a new vibration.
Not a Fragment.
Not a creature.
A human.
A clean, razor-sharp vibration.
One that wasn't searching for them…
but evaluating them.
Aurelian's expression hardened.
"The Order of the White Page. They've detected us."
Cedric swallowed a scream.
"NO! NOT THEM! I prefer the parchment snake! I prefer a thousand parchment snakes!"
Marikka held the book close to her chest.
The vibrational link from the Fragment still pulsed within her.
And the White Page Order was not known for their gentleness toward anomalies.
They left the hall while the walls shivered faintly, as if the Athenaeum itself were preparing—
Not to protect them.
Not to hinder them.
But because the world had already changed.
And they would have to move before it changed again.