The Ninth Bell
Hey. You found it. That QR code? It wasn't for everyone -- just you.
Welcome to the gang.
This is The Ninth Bell, your access point into the story. When you get the box, you get the book, a six month collection of activities, and access to Comic Cadet material online. No tests. No grades. Just the world, the story, and everything built around it.
Your box came with the full book -- Ladybird and the Time Thieves. All 20 chapters are yours right now. Alongside it, you will have six months of puzzles, printables, creative prompts, and story based activities to explore at your own pace. Either way, you belong here.
What even is Indovia?
Okay so picture this: a city where ancient stone towers have been plugged into neon networks. Sky-rails hiss overhead. Signal lines run through walls that are hundreds of years old. The past and the future smashed together, and nobody bothered to ask if that was okay.
At the center of it all is the Indovian Academy -- the institution that's supposed to keep the record. Protect the truth. Guard the history. Except… it's been quietly erasing parts of it. And someone just noticed.
The Unseen Threat
The activity archive
Inside your box is a six month experience built to go with the book, including puzzles, story riddles, printables, and Comic Cadet activities online. You can move through it at your own pace.
The Garden Node Signal
Something was transmitted through the meditation garden the morning the breach started. Can you decode what Ben's focus phones actually picked up?
What Saffron Heard
The static in the corridor didn't come from the Academy's systems. Three clues are hidden in Chapter One. Find them all and you'll know exactly who was listening.
Map the Academy
A blank floor plan of the Indovian Academy. Mark where each scene in Chapter One takes place. Add your own details. Trade maps with someone else.
Ladybird and the Time Thieves
01The Unseen Threat✦
Saffron sat still as stone in the Academy's meditation garden, surrounded by obsidian lilies and fireflies that glitched softly in and out of existence. Below her, the city buzzed and...02The Signal✦
Inside the digital security lab, the air crackled with static. Holographic displays skated across the walls, spilling code in frantic bursts of color. Maps, timestamps, threat levels,...03Into The Dark✦
They did not take a direct route. Indovia rarely allowed that. The Academy's transit spine carried them down through layers of the city in smooth, obedient arcs. Rails whispered past...04Echoes In The Code✦
Back at the Academy, the mood had shifted in ways no alert system could measure. The air still buzzed with its familiar electromagnetic hum, and sunlight poured through the hexagonal...05The Prism's Whisper✦
The lights in the Digital Security Lab dimmed. The room had protocols for emergencies. It knew how to flare when alarms tripped, how to harden when breaches occurred, how to seal itself...06The Labyrinth Archives✦
The access panel outside the Digital Security lab looked identical to every other station in the Academy, smooth glass, soft light, the Indovian crest etched so neatly it might as well...07Headmistress Aranor✦
The Labyrinth did not announce her arrival. There was no echoing footstep, no dramatic shift in light, no ritual threshold to cross. One moment the corridor beyond the door felt empty in...08Rules Older Than The Academy✦
Aranor did not follow them. She stood at the threshold as the door widened, her hands loose at her sides, her expression the same as it had been since they arrived, precise and patient and...09What Was Removed✦
The chamber of removed entries did not look different from the others. That was the first thing Saffron noticed. She had expected something marked, cordoned off in some way, a visual...10The Cost Of Knowing✦
Nobody spoke on the way back. That was unusual enough to be its own kind of signal. In the weeks since the team had formed, silence between them had always been working silence, the kind...11The Observer Test✦
The Digital Security Lab looked exactly as they had left it. That was the first thing Saffron checked, the way she always checked a space she had been absent from, not for obvious change...12Broken Permissions✦
Pip found it forty minutes into the administrative records. He did not announce it immediately. That was the first sign that what he had found was significant. Pip's natural instinct when...13The Record That Shouldn't Exist✦
The lower districts of Indovia did not look like the city above them. This was not because they were neglected, though some of them were. It was because they were old in a different way...14A Choice, Not A Command✦
They did not go back to the lab. Saffron made the call on the elevated walkway above the workshop district, before anyone had suggested a destination, before the momentum of return could...15When Systems Fail✦
The lab felt different when they returned to it. Not physically. The screens were where they had left them. The equipment was undisturbed. The room held its familiar electromagnetic hum,...16The Thieves' Logic✦
The message from Voss arrived six hours into the seventy-two hour window. Not through the Academy's network. Through the same independent routing as before, the channel that moved through...17The First Recovery✦
Somewhere around the fourteenth hour of the seventy-two hour window, the lab found its own rhythm. Not quiet, exactly. The screens continued their continuous readout. Riley's terminal ran...18What History Pushes Back✦
The partial release appeared at hour forty-three. Not through the relay infrastructure, which was closed. Not through the visitor authentication pathway, which Riley had shut down eleven...19Guardianship✦
The meeting with the council was scheduled for hour fifty-one. Not in the council's chambers. In the Reflection Atrium, which was Aranor's choice and which nobody disputed. The Atrium was...20What Remains✦
The window closed at hour seventy-two with the particular quiet of a thing that has done what it was built to do. No alarm. No announcement. The counter simply reached zero and the...
Six months of activities, puzzles, and extras are included with your box
Simple. Low pressure. Your pace.
To activate: upload your .mp3 to Squarespace Assets, copy the CDN URL, and paste it into the <source src=...> tag above.
Hive Assemblies
Sometimes we get together in real life. Hive members host circles, creative gatherings, shared story experiences, and spaces for people who actually get it. Dates get announced here and on the Guild List when they're happening.
Want to host one yourself? Send us a message. If you've got a space and a group of people who found their way here, that's already a Hive.
Enter the World of Indovia
The Ninth Bell is one signal in a larger world. Explore April's manuscripts, worlds, and archives to learn more about the studio and the universe behind the story.
Things people actually want to know
Real answers. No fluff. If something isn't here, email us.
Do I have to follow a set schedule?
I already read the whole book. Now what?
What if I need more time with a chapter?
Can I do this with friends or a class?
Is this free?
What if I have a question that isn't here?
Hello, World!