Prologue: Sablewood Academy
Sablewood sits tucked behind old trees, its brick soaked with magic. The school day runs long, but the promise of secrets draws students into the library after dusk. It’s where most tales begin. Sometimes it’s where they end. Miko hates it here. She doesn’t like arcane rules or their old rituals. Why do they trust dust-covered spells over their dreams? Why should raw gift mean life is mapped out? She asks herself these things but never says them aloud. Would you say them if you were her?
Saba, her best friend, stalks shadows looking for ghost cats. He almost gets caught last night. Now he grins, his coat still damp from the moon rain. “Try smiling for once,” he teases. Miko rolls her eyes. She’s tired. Or maybe bored with all this talk of ‘aptitude’.
Chapter 1: Cast in Ivory
Their Form Three class meets Professor Weyl in Room 13. Tick marks cover the floor, strong scents of sage, old chalk in the air. The windows are never open. “What’s today’s lesson?” Miko asks in a low tone. Saba leans close, so fast old Pinna scowls from two desks away. Today the big test starts. They’re not told what’s on it, only that the old headmaster is watching.
Hands shake chalk powder free. The test begins, and students chant by candlelight. Miko feels her wrists grow cold. Then the question comes: can raw intent override old words?
Chapter 2: Treasure Maps
After dusk, Saba finds an odd paper tucked behind a busted globe. He smugly calls it a clue. Miko wants it burned, nothing good hides in lost maps. Saba disagrees. “What if it leads to the Grimoire? The one nobody ever cracks?” He pauses. “You wouldn’t want real power?” She shakes her head. “How about a lizard again?” he jokes. “You spent a week with scales last time, Miko.” How many times do old pranks land young mages in trouble at your school?
Still, Miko folds the clue into her pocket anyway. The joke breaks her logic, bright spark in a gray week. 
Chapter 3: Midnight Pact
While most kids sleep, these two creep past wards. Steps light on stone, fear thick. If they’re caught, it’s detentions for a month. Yet the draw of what could be—strange books, real freedom—is stronger than their nerves. They use simple disguise, just like granny taught, only it’s more charm than strength. They find the Hall of Locked Tomes, a wide set of double doors Miko never dared touch before.
Chapter 4: The Heart of Circles
The doors whine open. They see the Grimoire—spine cracked but chained, set far from the weaker books. Caretaker Fowl is asleep in the chair, drool on his vest. Saba looks ready to run. Miko hushes him, walks forward. It’s like the book knows her already.
Lettering moves as if alive, shifting from gold to black. She tries to speak the word she’s memorized since first year, one her dying aunt whispered. Light curves around her hand. Something in the air snaps. Suddenly, they’re sucked into a vision—a field that looks wrong, sky bleeding violet. 
Chapter 5: Tests of the Veil
They’re trapped. Or maybe tested. Spirits of failed students whisper past, eyes sharp. Saba tries a return spell, it works only on small mice. Miko shouts that she’s not staying—not lost with fading memories. “We leave together! Right?” she calls. He laughs. “Sure, just like our math test.” Simple jokes still win tonight.
But the Grimoire wants a price. A memory, its pages whisper. Give something up, gain a path home. Miko’s fingers shake. Saba looks pale for the first time this year.
Chapter 6: The First Bargain
Rain starts. Real or a curse? Both. The vines in the book groan with each drop, writing turns to warning. Saba trades away a trick—a childhood skip-step he’d used to dodge fastballs and mean looks. Miko chooses the lullaby her aunt sang before sleep. The Grimoire ripples. There’s a way home, faint as string, set in the spell below their feet.
As they step through, Miko swears she hears someone else call her name. The voice sounds young and desperate. Would you look back or keep walking?
Chapter 7: The Library Unchanged
Both startle awake at their library desk. Saba quickly checks for fur or odd toes. None under his boots. Miko listens for music, but can’t remember the old tune now. A feeling of sadness lingers. Did it really happen? The clock reads 3:17 am. The Grimoire is still chained. Caretaker snores on. 
Somehow the map is missing from Miko’s pocket. On her hand, drawn in ink, a mark glows. It echoes the pattern from the book’s cover. Saba shuffles his spell cards, looking worried. “You think it’ll come back?” he asks. “Don’t you?” she says.
Cliffhanger: Unraveled Threads
The bell in the front hall rings on its own, loud, not regular for this hour. Other footsteps move in. There’s the sense someone else got out—or maybe in. The Grimoire’s chain groans as if stretched from inside. Miko knows deeper secrets just woke. What comes next she’ll have to face—the price is never just memory. 
Don’t you wonder what happens to those who lose their memories in places like Sablewood? Ever wish magic were that easy to touch—or just as heavy a load to carry?
