Chapter 58: The Essence of Noxarion
The days that followed were the strangest of my life.
Not because of the silence — though that was unsettling enough — but because of what lay beneath it. Astaria Academy, once a hive of laughter and lectures, of dueling chants echoing across training fields and the soft rustle of pages in its endless libraries, had become something else entirely. A fortress, yes. A sanctuary, maybe. But mostly… a cage.
The storm had passed — or so it seemed — but the air still crackled with the memory of war. And everyone could feel it.
Students whispered in hallways, their voices trembling like leaves caught in a ghost’s breath. Professors doubled the number of patrols, their robes trailing like shadows as they moved between checkpoints. Even the great bell of Asta
