Chapter 142 Echoes Beneath The Archive

• No one spoke for several seconds after Alric collapsed. The chamber remained still except for the uneven sound of his breathing as Kelvin lowered him carefully onto one of the curved stone benches near the wall. The young scholar looked disoriented, his face drained of color, his eyes struggling to focus on the people surrounding him.
• Lucia stayed where she was. Her attention remained fixed not on Alric, but on the space around him. She could still feel traces of the presence that had spoken through him lingering within the chamber. It had not disappeared completely. It felt more like a tide that had briefly touched the shore before retreating into deeper waters.
• The difference was that now they all knew the tide existed. Teren broke the silence first. “What exactly was that?” he asked quietly, though the strain in his voice betrayed how deeply unsettled he truly was. Ronald rubbed a hand over his jaw before answering. “Whatever it was, it was not ordinary influence. That thing responded to Lucia directly. It reasoned with her.”