EMPIRE HIGH: SCHOOL OF SHADOWS

The first chime had changed everything.

The second chime threatened to unmake it all.

It rang at midnight.

A sound that wasn't just heard—it was felt. Deep in the bones, like a call etched into the marrow. Seraphina jolted upright, heart racing. The echo rippled through the school's ancient stones like a forgotten memory awakening.

Across the dormitory wing, lights flickered. Somewhere in the East Tower, a gargoyle shrieked and shattered. The Vault did not whisper this time—it screamed.

And in the silence that followed, Seraphina heard a voice.

"He knows you're awake."

She didn't know if it came from inside her or from the mirror across the room.

Fifteen minutes later, she found herself outside the Bell Tower again.

Elijah was already waiting, leaning against the cold stone wall like a shadow carved from dusk.

"I figured you'd show," he said, without looking at her.

"It rang again."

"Yeah," he muttered. "But this time... it called someone else too."

Seraphina's stomach twisted. "Who?"

He handed her a slip of parchment. Old. Wrinkled. Burned at the edges. The ink glowed faintly.

It read: Thorn will not hold the door closed much longer. The Fifth House rises. The debt remains. — L.V.

She inhaled. "Liora…"

"She's pushing the Vault's boundaries now. Using echoes like breadcrumbs."

"Do we follow them?"

He glanced up at the Bell. "We don't have a choice."

By dawn, the entire school felt different.

A low vibration throbbed beneath the floors. Every enchanted portrait flickered. The stained glass in the central atrium cycled through elemental patterns it hadn't displayed in decades.

And in the Great Hall, the banners of the Four Houses had been joined by a fifth.

Black. Iridescent. Shimmering like oil and starlight.

Umbra.

Students murmured about it before the morning bell. No one claimed it. No one admitted to seeing it hung. Not even the professors.

Sera felt it like a hook in her spine.

"Elijah," she whispered as he appeared at her side, "did you—?"

He shook his head. "Wasn't me."

But his pin had changed.

No longer smoke.

Now… shadow rimmed in light.

A fifth symbol.

In Elemental Theory, Professor Vellum said nothing about the new banner.

He continued lecturing on elemental destabilization, but his eyes kept drifting to Seraphina.

As if waiting for her to do something.

Or for something to be done to her.

That evening, Thorn summoned them to his private chamber. The room was colder than usual. The books trembled on their shelves.

"I want the truth," he said simply. "What did Liora say to you?"

Sera folded her arms. "She said the Vault isn't a prison anymore. It's becoming a gate."

Thorn's jaw tightened.

Elijah stepped forward. "And we think it's already opening."

The headmaster circled them both like a wary lion. "The magic in this place is ancient—older than I am, older than the Houses. The Vault was supposed to contain what came before. Now, it wants out."

Sera's voice trembled. "You think we're the key."

"I think," Thorn replied slowly, "you're the lock. And someone is coming with the key."

That night, Seraphina returned to the Mirror Hall.

She didn't mean to. Her feet just… carried her.

The corridor was dark, save for a single mirror glowing faintly.

She stepped closer.

Inside, she saw herself.

Not as she was—but as she might be.

A crown of fire on her head. Veins glowing like constellations. And behind her, a city in flames.

The image flickered.

Now she stood alone. The crown gone. The flames extinguished.

And a single word whispered in the glass:

Choose.

Her breath fogged the mirror.

The word vanished.

The next morning, the fifth chime tolled.

Except there was no fifth chime.

There had never been a fifth chime.

And yet… everyone at Empire High heard it.

The bell tower stood silent, yet every student clutched their head. Magic writhed across the stone. Runes lit up in invisible ink across the halls.

The Vault was waking up.

By midday, House assignments were scrambled.

Students who had once been Fire found their pins cooling to ash.

Water-born students felt heat rising from their palms.

And a dozen students—all unaffiliated until now—found silver pins turning black with iridescent shimmer.

House Umbra was no longer empty.

It was forming.

And its first student—its chosen bearer—was Seraphina Cole.

Elijah met her in the Whisper Garden after class.

His eyes were distant. "The Vault is tethering itself again."

"To who?"

"To us. To them." He gestured to the school. "To anyone it marks. This isn't a curse anymore. It's a recruitment."

Seraphina narrowed her eyes. "Recruitment for what?"

He hesitated.

Then: "Liora called it the Echo War. A reckoning between what was locked away... and what survived."

She went quiet.

Then whispered, "And what are we supposed to do?"

His answer chilled her.

"Decide whether we guard the gate… or open it."

Late that night, Seraphina returned to her room.

The mark on her hand had returned, faint but visible under moonlight. The same black sigil. But now, a ring of runes circled it, pulsing gently.

She opened her locket.

The photograph inside had changed again.

Her mother was gone.

In her place stood… herself.

Older. Eyes rimmed with flame.

And behind her—dozens of students.

Wearing the Umbra pin.

In the reflection of the glass, something moved.

She turned sharply.

And found her shadow grinning.

Not mimicking her.

Grinning.

It stepped away from her body.

Forming into something else.

A mirror-version of herself. Taller. Empty-eyed. Smiling like it knew everything she didn't.

"Who are you?" she whispered.

It answered with her voice.

"I'm the choice you haven't made."

Then vanished.