Chapter 98. Whatever It Is, It Goes Through Both of Us
The name hung in the air like a curse.
"There’s... no way! The Hollow Circle was dissolved by royal decree nearly sixty years ago," Albert said slowly, his voice carrying the weight of history. "Every recorded member was either executed or exiled."
"Their lands seized, their names struck from every record... If this symbol is genuinely theirs, and if it’s connected to what happened eight years ago..." He trailed off, the implications hanging between them like a guillotine blade. "...then that dissolution was never as complete as the Crown believed."
"Or someone has been rebuilding it in the shadows," Olivia added quietly, her gaze fixed on the spiraling symbol. "Slowly... Patiently... Over decades, stitching itself back together in the dark, waiting for the perfect moment to tear the world open again."
The silence that followed was not merely quiet; it was oppressive, a physical weight that seemed to suck the oxygen from the room. Each person stood frozen, their minds racing through dark corridors of implication.
William felt a cold dread crystallizing in his chest. This wasn’t just a series of unfortunate accidents or magical anomalies.
This was a tapestry, a sinister, ancient design stretching back eight years, threads of blood and betrayal weaving through the present, tightening around the throat of the city.
"Why now?" William finally demanded, his voice cutting through the tension like a blade. "If this Hollow Circle has been rebuilding in the shadows for decades, why surface now?"
’Why here? Why this city? And why target the academy?" His pulse quickened as he paced a small circle, his mind already calculating tactical vulnerabilities. "That isn’t just coincidence! It’s more like a provocation, if I may call it that."
Albert let out a long, weary sigh that sounded like wind through dead leaves. "I don’t have the answer yet, William... But I suspect the answer lies in the intersection of past and present."
His eyes drifted toward Catherine, whose face remained as pale as marble. "I suspect it connects to Catherine’s presence here and to whatever they believe she still carries, whether she understands its value or not, from that expedition eight years ago."
Catherine flinched as if she had been struck. "Nrgh..."
"What could I possibly still be carrying?" her voice rose in a rare flash of defensive anger, though it trembled at the edges. "I left my entire squad in that tomb..."
"I brought nothing out of that dungeon except the coordinates for the rift’s origin point, and those were handed over to the Crown’s investigators the moment I stepped off the transport!"
"I am empty, Headmaster Albert... I have nothing left to give them."
"Perhaps it isn’t something tangible, Catherine," Albert said, his tone softening with a grim sympathy. "Perhaps it isn’t a relic or a spell... But you were there."
"You were the sole survivor... You saw something even if only for a heartbeat that the rest of your squad did not live to report."
"If this organization operates on the principle that loose threads eventually unravel their designs, then a living witness is the most dangerous thread of all..."
"To them, you aren’t just a survivor, but you... are a flaw in their perfect history."
The words landed like stones in water, sending ripples of discomfort through everyone present. William felt his jaw tighten until his teeth ached.
The thought of Catherine, someone who had already given everything to the service of the realm, being hunted like a stray dog simply because she had refused to die made his blood boil with protective fury.
’A loose end,’ he thought bitterly. ’They think she’s an inconvenience to be erased.’
Albert straightened his spine, the scholar vanishing entirely as the headmaster took command. His voice took on the iron authority that had guided this institution through countless crises.
"We cannot afford to be reactive anymore," Albert declared. "I want increased patrols around all affected sites immediately."
"Double the guard at the outer walls, and authorize them to use lethal force if any unauthorized mana signatures are detected." He turned his gaze to William and Catherine. "William, Catherine, I want the two of you to personally investigate the nearest disturbance point tonight."
"The one near the eastern training fields... Given your combined experience, you are the only ones capable of handling whatever might be lurking there."
He paused, then looked at Olivia. "Olivia, continue your research."
"Dig through every restricted archive you can access, but do it quietly."
"No official requests, and no paper trails. We cannot risk the Hollow Circle knowing we are closing in!"
Olivia offered a faint, humorless smile that didn’t reach her eyes. "Always quietly, Headmaster."
"I mean it, Olivia," Albert warned, his expression stern. "This is beyond academic curiosity now."
"I know," she replied softly. "I’ll be careful."
Albert turned back to William and Catherine, his eyes narrowing with a rare flash of raw vulnerability. "And listen to me carefully... if either of you encounters anything tonight that goes beyond residual mana or strange markings, if you feel the air change, if you sense a presence that shouldn’t be there, you retreat."
"Immediately! You report, you regroup, but you do not engage!"
"I would rather lose a night’s worth of evidence than lose either of you to whatever hell is circling this academy."
William met Albert’s gaze with unflinching resolve. He could feel the weight of his sword at his hip, a familiar comfort against the encroaching darkness.
"Understood, Headmaster..."
Catherine drew herself upright, the fragile tremor that had seized her moments ago forcibly suppressed beneath a rising tide of cold, steel resolve. William watched her closely, noting the precise moment her posture shifted.
The haunted woman who had been clutching Albert’s desk vanished, replaced by the warrior Grock, and Albert had spoken of the knight who could stand unshaken in the mouth of a hurricane.
Her shoulders squared, her spine became a rod of iron, and her eyes regained that dangerous, focused clarity that signaled she was no longer afraid of the dark; she was preparing to hunt in it.
"We leave now," she said, her voice no longer brittle but clipped and commanding. "We need to examine the eastern site before the moon rises and the shadows become too deceptive to trust."
...
They exited the administrative wing in silence, their footsteps echoing unnaturally loud against the cobblestones of the academy’s courtyard. The evening air had begun to bite, carrying the first sharp, metallic tang of autumn’s approach.
As they cut across the vast, empty training grounds toward the outer perimeter, the academy seemed to shrink behind them, leaving them exposed to the encroaching treeline and the gathering gloom.
Catherine walked in perfect lockstep beside him, her sword already unsheathed. The blade caught what little light remained, gleaming like a sliver of fallen star.
There was no hesitation in her grip now, only the practiced ease of a predator.
William kept his own hand near his weapon, his senses heightened to an almost painful degree. The wind whistling through the training dummies sounded too much like whispering; the rustle of dead leaves sounded too much like approaching footsteps.
"You’ve been quiet since we left Albert’s office," William said quietly, breaking the oppressive silence.
He glanced at her profile, noting the way her jaw remained clenched hard enough to crack bone. "What’s running through your head?"
Catherine didn’t turn her head, but he saw her throat work as she swallowed. "I’ve been dissecting what he said..."
"About being a ’loose thread.’" Her voice dropped lower, laced with a bitter edge. "For eight years, I built a narrative to survive..."
"I told myself I lived because I was faster than the others... because I was stronger... and because I refused to die."
"I made my survival... my own achievement." A muscle jumped in her cheek. "But if Albert is right and this organization is resurfacing because of me, then maybe I didn’t escape."
"Maybe I was permitted to leave... That changes everything, William..." Catherine clenched her fists hard. "Survival feels less like courage and more like... mercy granted by my enemies."
"You’re spiraling into theories you can’t prove," William countered immediately, though his own mind was playing the same grim game. "Albert was speculating."
"He was trying to make sense of chaos... Don’t let his fear become your truth before you’ve even seen the evidence."
"I can’t help it," she snapped softly, finally turning to meet his gaze.
Her eyes were hard as flint. "It’s the kind of speculation that fits too perfectly into every piece of this nightmare..."
"And I’ve spent too much of my life pretending the pieces don’t fit just so I could sleep at night... I’m done pretending." A flash of something ancient and fierce burned in her expression. "Whatever this is... whatever the Hollow Circle is... I won’t hide from it."
"I won’t wait for an official report to tell me what happened to my life... I want to be standing directly in its path when it finally shows its face."
William felt a surge of something primal, a fierce, protective loyalty that made his own blood burn hot in his veins. He reached out, not to comfort her, but to anchor her.
"Then we won’t be waiting for it to find us," William said, his voice dropping to a deadly serious register as they reached the edge of the eastern fields. "We’ll be waiting for it."
"And whatever it is, it will have to go through both of us to get to the truth."