Silt: A Time Academy Examination

by C.M. Lehsten, Cheryl Baron (Editor)

At the Time Academy, students do not study history.

They learn how to create it.

Professor Marcus Halloway’s newest class is observe a thriving river village and record what changes over time.

No interference.
No warnings.
No conclusions.

At first, the land only grows richer.

Harvests improve.
Homes expand closer to the water.
Confidence settles over the valley like fertile soil.

But Halloway is not teaching them to watch catastrophe.

He is teaching them to understand how belief forms — and how civilizations destroy themselves long before anyone realizes danger has begun.

When one student breaks protocol and tries to help, the lesson turns deadly.

Because the most effective disasters are not sudden.

They accumulate.

Silt is the first Time Academy Examination — a dark academic horror story about patience, power, and the quiet engineering of collapse.

Perfect for readers who

dark academia with occult magic

slow-burn psychological horror

morally dangerous teachers

stories where knowledge itself is the threat

Every Examination prepares students for something larger.

The river is only the beginning.

89 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 21, 2026

About the author

C. M. Lehsten writes stories that will haunt your dreams long after the last page. Author of Festival, and other dark tales, she crafts horror that creeps from the shadows of Western New York—where the mist of Niagara Falls and the forests of Letchworth State Park seem to whisper secrets. Even before she could write, she spun sinister adventures for her imaginary friend, a habit that grew into a lifelong love of chilling storytelling. When not conjuring nightmares, she enjoys spoiling her grandchildren and exploring the woods with her husband of over thirty years—though she suspects some of those woods are better left alone.