The Ascendant Wizard-Chapter 122 - Hairline Cracks

The days that followed settled into a boring, but useful, pattern of the same things over and over. It wasn't dull, but it wasn't dangerous either, and that was just what Morena wanted.

Morena's routine had remained unchanged since the start of the classes, and even now it had only become tighter as her Matrix drew closer to completion. Meditation before dawn, classes when they appeared, study sessions when necessary, and long stretches of isolation where she focused entirely inward.

Her mind adapted quickly.

Her body, on the other hand, wasn't as keen to adapt, taking its time to change.

Each meditation cycle had gotten easier, to the point where she could enter and exit meditation in mere minutes, where before the elemental energy had felt scattered and resistant, now it moved with intention, flowing into her mental space and gathering around the growing structure at its center.

The void inside her mind was no longer empty.

It had taken shape and form.

Not complete, not stable enough to be called formed, but close enough that Morena could tell the time was near. A sign of faint lines, translucent and fragile, slowly assembling itself around a central axis; the specks of light she once saw drifting aimlessly now followed invisible paths, orbiting, settling, reinforcing the structure bit by bit.

A Matrix-in-progress was what it could be called.

Morena stopped every session before strain crossed into danger; she made no exceptions to this. As much as she wanted to force her way to forming it quicker, as much as greed whispered temptations to her, she didn't do it.

Rushing would only end up with it collapsing and her mind breaking; she had seen so many warnings and depictions of this in the books she read, even the teachers reminded them of it over and over again.

That restraint alone put her ahead of most apprentices, and her progress placed her ahead of her entire year.

By the eighth day after Varra's class, she could feel something else as well.

A pressure, subconsciously.

Not from mana or from within, but from the Tower itself.

It wasn't obvious at first, and it took her a while to notice it; maybe it was because her Matrix had begun to form that she could even pick up on it. Just a vague sensation, like being watched from behind, even when she was alone.

A subtle awareness that grew stronger the closer her Matrix came to stabilizing.

She noticed it most at night.

The Tower never truly slept, but the hours past midnight weren't ones that allowed apprentices to walk the hallways, a rule that no one dared to break. The corridors were quieter, the mana flow thicker, less restrained.

There were times when Morena returned to her room after late meditation sessions, not past the curfew, but still later than she should've risked; she sometimes felt the air tense, as if reacting to her presence.

She dismissed it at first.

Then the dreams started; they weren't nightmares, but that was the unsettling part.

She dreamed of hallways she had never walked, spiraling downward instead of up. Doors without handles; symbols carved into stone that shifted when she tried to focus on them. A vast chamber beneath the Tower, filled with pillars that pulsed faintly like a heartbeat, slow and steady, but not alive.

And always, at the center of those dreams, something incomplete.

Cracked.

Like a mirror fractured but not yet broken.

She woke from those dreams with her head aching and her Matrix humming faintly, as if it had been disturbed.

'AI. Any anomalies detected during sleep cycles?'

[Minor fluctuations in mental activity. Elevated resonance near Matrix framework. No immediate danger detected.]

It was an answer that didn't comfort her in the slightest.

If anything, it confirmed her suspicion that there was something within the Tower that wasn't normal. The only issue was that no one else mentioned anything about it.

On the tenth night, she chose to test it.

Morena delayed meditation until well past the curfew, waiting until the Tower's ambient activity dropped further. When the corridor outside her room fell completely silent, she sat cross-legged on her bed and began.

She did not absorb energy aggressively but instead tried to sense if there was a difference in the energy within the Tower.

The moment her breathing settled into the method's rhythm, the pressure returned, even stronger this time. It was clear enough that it wasn't a mere feeling in the back of her mind, but a clear intention she could sense.

It was then that she felt the pull.

Not from above, not from around her, but from below.

It felt as if it was coming from deep below the Tower; her mind reacted first, but then the Matrix reacted within it.

The incomplete Matrix within her mind trembled, lines brightening as if trying to respond. The sensation just felt wrong, disgusting, like it wasn't supposed to exist, like it had feelings.

Pain.

It felt like pain, no, it felt like it was in pain.

For some reason, she could feel this pain as clear as if it were her own, yet it didn't hurt her. It was like a distant memory, a fading haze, something she knew was there but wasn't affected by it.

She didn't understand it, and she didn't want to.

Morena cut the meditation immediately.

Her eyes snapped open, and she took a deep breath in as she forced the flow to stop. The pressure vanished the moment she broke the cycle, leaving behind only the faint feeling of something that had noticed her.

Her heartbeat took several seconds to steady.

'That wasn't normal. AI, run a scan in the database for anything that matches the signature.'

[Confirmed. That stimulus does not align with any recorded information from the current database; signs of mental influence have been detected. Mental activity was heightened to abnormal levels for a period of 43 seconds.]

'Source of the increase?'

[Undetermined. Internal brain scan shows external influence akin to the influx of a memory.]

That was troubling but also interesting.

The Tower was old, hell, it was ancient, according to some of the historical texts she had skimmed. It wasn't unreasonable to assume there were things beneath it, sealed away or forgotten.

But sealed things didn't usually react; they were sealed for a reason after all. So, what made her different for it to respond to her?

Morena didn't sleep after that; she was too concerned, too many thoughts flying around in her mind.

The next day, the Tower felt different; it was most likely just in her mind, but she found herself hesitating when moving about, as if she was being watched. But it was all in her head; it had to have been, nothing stood out.

Classes continued as normal, but she found herself dazing off in the distance or lingering in thought much longer than she would normally before. The encounter had left a deep impression on her, one she couldn't just shake or ignore.

Even Varra seemed to have noticed her distraction.

During a brief lecture on mana compression thresholds, her gaze lingered on Morena longer than necessary.

It wasn't suspicion or anything like that, more like she was observing her.

After class, Ren tried to speak, but she brushed him off gently. Elara noticed, but said nothing; even Liri looked at her with concern, though she didn't know why.

Morena returned to her room early and locked the door.

She needed answers.

'AI. Cross-reference Tower structural anomalies with recorded Wizard practices.'

[Searching...]

While the AI worked, she sat on the bed and focused inward, examining her Matrix carefully. Hairline fractures had begun to form along its outer form, not damage, but stress lines; the structure was under tension, adapting to something new.

It wasn't the same as overconsumption or instability like the books had described, but rather more like something had interfered with the Matrix.

[Results inconclusive. However, several historical accounts reference Towers constructed atop pre-existing mana zones or older ruins.]

'Old ruins?'

It was something that stood out. Could the odd sensation be something related to the ruins?

'What kind?'

[Records only mention it in passing; current database lacks any further details.]

Of course.

If she wanted more information, she would need to go back into the library, and while she did have points, she didn't want to spend them blindly searching for something she wasn't even sure was important.

Not to mention, with her Matrix forming soon, she would need to start buying and learning spells. They were bound to be expensive.

Morena leaned back against the wall, exhaling slowly.

'If something is sealed beneath the Tower... and it's reacting to Matrix formation...'

She didn't want to finish her line of thought because it could be dangerous; at best, she would stop practicing during the night and avoid doing anything that might draw the attention of the thing below.

But she couldn't stop practicing; she was so close to forming her Matrix that she was certain, within the week, it would be done.