Magical awakening

On the frost moon of the year 189, I stood in front of the great bronze door of the Crimson Rose Academy, looking at the silver glow of my palm. This magical circuit, which should not have occurred, is now slowly growing along my veins, like an ice-crystal vine inhabiting flesh.

"Lin Xi, it's time to go to the astrology station." Charlotte, her roommate, banged open the bedroom door with a crystal ball in her arms, and the opal hair pin in her crimson curls flashed brightly. I quickly clenched my hand, but the silver spilled through my fingers and froze into frost on the ground.

The astrological dome's star orbiters were roaring, and 365 brass cogs were snapping and turning, casting the artificial Milky Way onto the ring walls. I stared at the crystal of Truth suspended in the air, the jewel that was supposed to reveal the essence of the soul, but now it reflected the dense silvery threads behind me - the magic circuits that connected all the students, now visible in my eyes.

"Put your hands on it." Edwin, the black-robed teacher, sounded like rusty cogs rubbing. As my fingertips touched the surface of the crystal ball, a sharp burning pain burst from my palm. A spidery silver light suddenly covered the sphere, the projection of the dome's star track was suddenly confused, and the gear made a harsh metallic scratching sound.

The crystal ball exploded in my hand.

The flying shard hovered eerily as it was about to Pierce my pupil. Edwin's pupil crumpled to the tip of the needle, and the dark purple energy from the wand's tip crushed the shard into a fine powder. The real pupil..." His whispered words made my temples throb, and some dusty memory was awakening in my skull.

The late night forbidden section smelled of dragon's blood ink, and I wore the gold leather cover of The Cloisters of Souls, cold sweat soaking through my college gown. On the yellowed pages, the "vessel theory," written in ancient Elvish, was burning: When the magical circuit of the awakened broke through, the soul would become a vessel for the ancient powers, a forbidden gift known as the "true eye," which had led to the downfall of the Emerald Dynasty thousands of years earlier.

The creaking of the secret door made me knock over the candlestick, and in the flickering light, Edwin's shadow twisted into a monstrous monster on the stone wall. The amethyst at the top of his wand was oozing black mist, which was transforming into countless screaming faces - several of them clearly the students who had been sent away the previous month in a "failed awakening."

"The Academy does not need uncontrolled containers." The moment the purple light skyrocketed, the silver thread in my eyes suddenly danced wildly. Edwin's magic circuit was clearly visible to me, like a marionette made of light. When I unconsciously pulled on one of the silvery threads, his spell caught in my throat and the wand fell through my stiff fingers.

At that moment a bell rang from the depths of the library, and all the sealed ancient books on the bronze shelves shook simultaneously. Something resonated through my veins across time and space, the dome's star chart was suddenly thrown off course, and Orion's three main stars were eerily aligned, casting daggers of light on the stone walls.