The moment the council raised its hand, the temperature in the hall dropped.
Not enough for anyone else to notice.
Enough for Aiden.
The air felt thinner.
Sharper.
Like reality itself had become a blade.
Seraphine remained still.
The council's gaze never left her.
"You are not recorded in current continuity."
The words echoed again inside Aiden's mind.
Not recorded.
Not remembered.
Not allowed.
The realization struck him harder than he expected.
The academy wasn't trying to imprison Seraphine.
It was trying to erase the possibility that she had ever existed.
Aiden stepped forward.
"No."
The word left his mouth before he could think about it.
For the first time, the council looked at him.
Not as a student.
Not as a Choir Bearer.
As a complication.
"Aiden," the lead council member said calmly, "return to your assigned position."
"No."
The answer came easier this time.
Stronger.
The hall became silent.
Students nearby had stopped moving.
Stopped blinking.
Stopped breathing.
Frozen.
Like pieces of a painting.
Aiden's pulse accelerated.
"What did you do to them?"
The council didn't answer.
Instead, one of them tilted their head slightly.
"A correction is in progress."
A chill ran down his spine.
Correction.
The same word they had used before.
The same word they used whenever reality didn't behave the way they wanted.
Aiden looked around.
The students remained motionless.
Perfect.
Unnatural.
Wrong.
And then he noticed something else.
One student near the back.
A young boy.
He wasn't frozen.
His eyes were moving.
Watching.
Aiden stared.
The boy stared back.
For a brief second, the boy lifted a finger to his lips.
A warning.
Then he froze again.
Like nothing had happened.
Aiden's heart skipped.
He had seen it.
Someone else had seen it too.
Someone else remembered.
The council suddenly turned toward the back of the hall.
Toward the boy.
Aiden's stomach dropped.
They saw him too.
The lead council member took a single step forward.
The hall trembled.
Not physically.
Conceptually.
As though a page of reality had just been grabbed by invisible hands.
The boy's face twisted.
Not in pain.
In panic.
And then
He vanished.
No light.
No sound.
No explosion.
One moment he existed.
The next moment there was only empty space where he had been standing.
Several students shifted automatically to fill the gap.
None of them reacted.
None of them noticed.
It was as if he had never been there.
Aiden couldn't breathe.
"What did you do?" he whispered.
The council's expression remained unchanged.
"There was no one there."
Aiden felt rage rise inside him.
Raw.
Immediate.
Terrifying.
Because part of him knew they believed it.
Not because they were lying.
Because they had rewritten the truth itself.
Seraphine suddenly grabbed his arm.
Hard.
"We need to leave."
Aiden looked at her.
For the first time since meeting her...
She looked afraid.
Not worried.
Not cautious.
Afraid.
That terrified him more than the council ever could.
"Why?" he asked.
Seraphine's eyes were fixed on the empty space where the boy had stood.
Her voice barely escaped her lips.
"Because if they can erase someone while the world is watching..."
She swallowed.
"...it means they're losing control."
The hall shook again.
A crack appeared across the polished floor.
Thin.
Jagged.
Impossible.
From within the crack came a faint whisper.
A voice.
Ancient.
Broken.
Awake.
And somewhere deep beneath the academy, something whispered Aiden's name.
Not through a Call.
Not through memory.
But through something older than both.
"Aiden..."
The voice sounded like it had been waiting for centuries.
And this time...
It knew exactly where to find him.