He looked around. Almost every student looked the same: wide-eyed, silent, and trembling. Even Professor Jade’s usually cold expression had softened.

  "This," Professor Nora began, lifting the vase with both hands, "is the Word of Memories. It allows us to glimpse echoes of the past: Moments, emotions, and lives long faded are all imprinted on objects like this vase and the very stones of this world.”

  He paused, his gaze softening as he traced the cracks along its surface. "The Word draws forth what has been forgotten. It reads the lingering emotions of those who once lived and gives them form so that the voices of the dead may be heard again, if only for a moment."

  His eyes lifted to the students, many of whom were still wiping tears from their cheeks. "You're wondering why you're crying," he said quietly. "That is the toll of this word. The emotions bound within those memories don't just appear; they flow through the one who speaks them." He gestured toward the class. "And, as you just experienced, they also touch those who listen."

  He set the vase down carefully. "That projection was gentle. A farewell steeped in sorrow yet filled with love. But imagine if the memory had been one of pain, betrayal, or death. If the last thoughts of a dying man were forced into your mind, their weight would crush you.”

  Nora’s voice grew lower, almost reverent. "That is the burden of this gift. Words shape reality, but they also scar the soul. The backlash of emotion, the exhaustion, the strain... These are the price every Chronicler pays."

  He turned his gaze across the silent room, his tone grave yet resolute. "In the weeks ahead, you will learn how to endure it and live with the marks these words leave behind. But remember this: No matter how strong you become, every word will change you. Once spoken, they always leave something behind."

  Professor Nora’s expression softened. "Be ready to face your fears instead of ignoring them," he said quietly, his gaze lingering on Kael a heartbeat longer than on anyone else. Then, he turned and left the ballroom, his footsteps echoing faintly until the door closed behind him.

  Kael stared after him, his mind a whirl of thoughts. Face your fears instead of ignoring them...It almost felt like a message meant only for him.

  He leaned back in his chair, unable to still the restlessness inside him. The Word of Memories... The thought alone sent a shiver down his spine. If that Word can reveal the emotions of the past, then it’s more than just a weapon. It’s a key. A bridge between what was and what is.

  Until now, he had believed the power of words was only dangerous, corrupting, and painful. But this was different. Maybe words aren’t meant to destroy, he thought. Maybe they exist to show us what we’re too blind to see.

  While Kael was still lost in his thoughts, Professor Jade’s calm voice pulled him back. "I know today's lecture was unsettling," she said, her tone measured. "You've witnessed something most chroniclers never see this early in their studies. I’ll allow questions, but only those within the boundaries of today’s topic.”

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  Several hesitant hands rose; the students were still pale and their emotions were raw from the projection.

  “Yes,” said Professor Jade, pointing at a trembling boy near the front.

  “What about the other words?” he asked. “If each one has its own backlash, what are the others?”

  Jade’s eyes darkened slightly. "We only know of three that have been safely recorded," she answered. "The one you witnessed today and two others. You’ll learn about them in the next few lectures.”

  She turned and scanned the room until her gaze fell on a girl who was still wiping away the last traces of tears.

  “You,” she said, pointing at the girl.

  "W-Well," the girl stammered at first, her voice trembling, but she forced herself to speak clearly. "If the word can show memories within objects—" she hesitated, "—then could it also reveal the memories of a person's mind?"

  A ripple went through the hall. Chairs creaked as every student turned toward her. Some stared in shock; others, with morbid curiosity. A few looked as if they wished she had never asked the question.

  Professor Jade’s expression remained calm, but her voice softened and took on an air of understanding. "No," she said gently. "That is not possible. The Word of Memories cannot touch the living mind. It can only reveal echoes imprinted upon the world, memories sealed within objects, not thoughts still breathing inside someone’s soul.”

  A collective breath of relief passed through the hall. Kael felt it, too. Beneath that faint comfort, however, something in him twisted with disappointment.

  So the mind remains untouched... or at least that's what they say, he thought, frowning. A question burned at the back of his mind.

  He raised his hand. Professor Jade noticed immediately and gestured for him to stand up.

  "But then," Kael began slowly, his tone calm yet sharp. "How did the labyrinth traps manage to draw out our past memories and possible futures if the words can't reach a person's mind?"

  The question hung in the air like a spark.

  Several students shifted in their seats and whispered. Jade’s lips curved into a faint, approving smile. Her eyes glimmered, not with amusement but with recognition.

  "Finally," she said, her voice steady, "someone has asked the right question."

  “Contradictory, isn’t it?” Professor Jade said, her smile faint but knowing. "Those traps functioned the same way as the fire traps you encountered. They were built on conditions: if triggered, they searched within you for emotions tied to your strongest memories. Sadness, grief, joy... anything that could challenge your resolve.”

  She let her gaze sweep slowly across the hall. "They didn't read your minds," she continued. "They reflected them. They drew from your memories and used them to shape illusions and visions of what could be based on what has been.”

  She folded her hands behind her back, her tone growing firmer. "So, to return to my earlier point, the Word of Memories cannot be used to invade another person’s mind. It is impossible to see or feel the thoughts of the living.”

  Her voice carried an unmistakable finality, calm yet sharp enough to end all debate.

  "Enough for today," she added after a pause, her tone softening again. "You've seen and felt more than enough for one lesson. Recover well, and we’ll continue tomorrow.”

  As the students began to pack their things, Kael remained seated, her words echoing in his head. The traps showed paths of destiny, images shaped by past memories.

  That means my future isn’t fixed. Those deaths, that vision, they might be changed through my choices.

  A flicker of hope lit his chest, brief and fragile. But it faded just as quickly, replaced by a cold weight pressing down on his heart.

  If those visions came from my own memories, he thought bitterly, then something inside me is already leading me down that path. Something dark enough to make me destroy everything I care about.

  He sank back into his seat, his eyes drifting toward the window. Outside, brown leaves fell silently from a bare tree and swirled in the wind like forgotten pages. Kael watched them drift away, wondering if people were any different, carried by memories, never knowing where they’d land.