Noé hated history class.
Not because of the content—history was fine. Stories were fine. He liked stories.
What he didn't like was Professor Vantelle, whose voice had the energy of ancient parchment and whose eyebrows could erase entire timelines with one twitch.
"…and so," the professor droned, "the Chrono Accord was signed to prevent personal time interference spells, following the now-forbidden event known only as the 'Kiss of Reset'…"
Noé blinked.
Kiss of Reset?
The words hit like thunder behind his eyes.
The page on his desk shimmered.
And then—he wasn't in class anymore.
He was in a tower. Cold. Silent.
Moonlight everywhere.
Lysira stood in front of him. Her eyes were glass—fragile and afraid.
"You have to let me go," she said.
Noé stepped forward. His hand reached up to touch her cheek.
"I don't want to."
And then he kissed her.
The world shattered.
Glass. Clocks. Stars. All torn away like ink washed from paper.
"Noé—"
The voice echoed—hers, breaking—
And then—
He woke up.
Back in class. Back in his seat.
Mira was poking his arm.
"Dude. You were totally gone. You okay?"
Noé looked down at the page on his desk.
It was still glowing faintly.
Just one word:
"Reset."
"I saw your eyes flicker," Mira said, walking beside him through the corridor after class. "Not like 'sleepy flicker'—I mean like… the whole universe just skipped a frame."
Noé didn't answer right away. The corridor windows reflected a world that didn't match outside—clouds were moving too fast in one direction, and too slow in the other.
"I had a vision," he finally said. "Or a dream. I don't know."
"A bad one?"
"…I kissed someone."
Mira blinked. "That's not a bad thing."
"It was. Afterward… everything collapsed."
Silence.
They walked in rhythm. The stone under their feet felt wrong—almost like walking over an echo. Noé's steps didn't match the sound.
"You remember things sometimes," he said quietly. "Things that never happened."
Mira looked at him, smile fading.
"I've had conversations with you that you don't remember," she whispered. "Moments where I knew what you were about to say. That's not normal."
"I don't think any of this is," Noé muttered.
They turned a corner.
And froze.
Down the hallway, a version of Mira—exact same clothes, same wild orange hair—was walking the other way.
Toward them.
But she didn't notice them.
She passed through a column of light and vanished like smoke.
Noé's hands clenched into fists.
Mira didn't say a word.
This time, she was the one whose eyes flickered.
Professor Lior closed the enchanted map and rubbed his temples.
"This isn't a student anomaly," he muttered.
Kael stood beside him, arms crossed. The floating scroll between them showed a fragment of Arkana's campus—except time signatures pulsed like broken heartbeats.
"It's not just Noé, is it?" Kael asked.
"No," Lior said. "He's the center. But the distortion's spreading."
He tapped a red dot on the map. "That hallway earlier. A duplicate aura trace. Two versions of the same student walking seconds apart. One phased."
Kael didn't move. "If this spreads further—"
"It won't," Lior cut in. "Because we'll act first. Before the timeline can fold."
Noé found himself in the greenhouse near the east wing—his favorite place. Quiet. Green. Real.
He didn't expect Lysira to be waiting there.
"I saw you," she said without turning. Her voice was calm, but her hand gripped the edge of the marble bench so hard her knuckles were white.
"You saw…?"
"Her." She turned. "A copy of Mira. Not a clone. Not an illusion. A leftover."
Noé stayed silent.
Lysira walked up to him slowly. "Time doesn't forget. It leaks. And whatever you are, you're part of why it's breaking."
"I didn't mean to—"
"I know," she said. "But meaning doesn't matter when reality bleeds."
She looked up at him.
And for a second, something softer passed through her eyes.
Before either could speak, the sound of high heels clicked on the greenhouse path behind them.
They turned.
A woman stood between the vines.
She was breathtaking—long silver hair, skin like starlight, and a violet robe that shimmered like liquid dusk.
Neither student had seen her before.
But Noé felt a cold jolt in his chest.
The woman smiled gently.
"Oh good," she said. "You're all finally waking up."
The woman walked slowly into the greenhouse, her heels clicking softly on the moss-covered stone.
"Don't be afraid," she said, voice like a lullaby wrapped in wind. "I'm not here to harm you."
Noé's throat was dry. "Who are you?"
The woman smiled. "Someone who used to be forgotten. But lately… the world is remembering me again."
Lysira stepped forward. "You're not faculty. You're not registered. How did you get past the temporal gates?"
The woman tilted her head. "Do you think time bars doors to those who were born outside of it?"
Neither of them answered.
She turned to Noé, her eyes bright and endless.
"You've seen it, haven't you?" she whispered. "The fragments. The rewinds. The lives that never were."
His breath caught.
"I don't… I don't understand what I am."
"You're not meant to," she said gently. "Not yet. But you are beginning to remember… and that is what frightens them."
"Who?" Lysira asked.
The woman didn't respond.
Instead, she reached into her sleeve and drew a thin chain with a silver pendant—shaped like a half-open clock, its hands spinning backward.
She pressed it into Noé's hand.
"When you hear the sound again," she whispered, "don't resist it. Open the door."
Noé stared at the pendant. It glowed faintly—just like the rune beneath the manifestation circle days ago.
Lysira's breath hitched.
"Wait—this symbol. I've seen it before. But not in this world…"
The woman smiled.
"Exactly."
And in the next blink—she was gone.
Lysira and Noe stood in silence long after the silver-haired woman vanished.
The greenhouse felt colder. Or maybe just emptier.
Lysira finally broke the silence. Do you trust her?
Noe looked at the pendant in his hand. It pulsed faintly, like it was alive.
I dont know. But I think... she knows more about me than anyone else.
Lysira folded her arms. She talked like shes from outside the timeline. Thats impossible.
So am I, Noe said softly.
That shut her up.
After a moment, she turned away. Be careful. If that pendant is what I think it is, it doesnt open
doors. It tears them off their hinges.
And then she was gone, swallowed by the path of moonlight through the vines.
Later that night, Noe sat alone in the academy library, deep in the restricted stacks.His hands moved over forgotten grimoires, books bound in bone-thread, titles that shifted when
stared at too long.
He searched for any mention of clock-magic, time fractures, or a silver pendant that remembers
future memories.
Nothing.
Until
A deep, low boom echoed through the marble halls.
Noe froze.
Thenscreams.
He ran.
The Grand Courtyard was ablaze with panic.
Students scattered. Magic flared.
In the center of the cracked earth, the demon stood tallhumanoid, elegant, wrapped in a coat of shadows stitched with red lightning.
His eyes burned like dying suns.Where is the Core? he demanded, voice shaking the sky.
Professor Lior was nowhere to be seen.
Kael stood at the front, glyphs spinning at his fingertips.
Lysira beside him, time-runes already forming spirals around her wrists.
And Noe He stepped forward.
It wasnt a choice.
It was a pulllike gravity had reversed and everything else was falling away but this moment.
Noe, stop! Lysira shouted.
Too late.
The pendant in his coat ignitedwhite light pouring out like liquid fire.
And something broke inside him.
His eyes went silver. His mouth moved on its own.
Orbis fractus, tempus refusa
A wave of pressure exploded outward. The sky twisted. Windows shattered across the tower ring.The demon roared and launched forward.
But Noe didnt dodge.
He raised one hand and caught the attack mid-airraw fire and dark magic suspended like silk in his palm.
Memoria caesa, anima revecta
His voice wasnt his.
It was older. Ancient.
Each word etched symbols into the air, glowing and spinning, fusing into a circle of white runes.
The demon screamednot in fear, but in recognition.
You were sealed! Youre not meant to be
Iterum recludo. Core, awaken.
The runes collapsed inward.
And Noeno longer breathing, no longer blinkingmoved like a ghost through thunder.
He appeared behind the demon in a flicker. One finger touched the creatures back.
And in an instantThe demon vanished.
Not exploded. Not wounded.
Just unwritten.
The courtyard fell dead silent.
Then Noe collapsed.
Smoke rose from his body. His fingers trembled.
And his pendantcracked.
The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Lysira kneeling beside him.
She wasnt afraid.
She was crying.