Chapter 5 THE WARNING

Long after Lucen's departure, his words hung in the air like a persistent echo: “We will need to move her to the lower halls. Safer. The Veil has teeth today.”

The rhythmic clatter of his boots echoed down the corridor until it faded into the expanse of the fortress. Only then did I muster the strength to sit up straight.

“I'm not some precious artifact to be stowed away,” I grumbled under my breath.

Kaelith's gaze remained fixed on the doorway through which Lucen had vanished. “Don't let Lucen pry into your secrets.”

“Why not?”

“Because he's infatuated with danger, and it reciprocates his affection,” Kaelith replied. “He toys with perilous things and shows no regard for the wounds they inflict.”

I gulped nervously. “Is he your friend?”

Kaelith didn't respond immediately. His silence was a warning in itself. “Lucen is… useful. That's sufficient.”

It wasn't sufficient for me.

He pivoted towards the door. “Rest. We'll depart in an hour. If we're going to be hunted, it's better to face ill - prepared foes than well - drilled fanatics.”

When he left, the room felt both oppressively large and claustrophobically small at the same time. I slumped onto the bed, wrapping my arms around my knees. The tremors returned, not due to fear of the fortress, but because of the weight of all I had learned and the uninvited truths thrust upon me.

A power beyond my control and a prophecy perverted into a weapon.

Outside, the Veil sighed like a restive spirit. Inside, my breaths came in short, sharp gasps.

If I had the power to reshape the narrative, what path would I choose?

Save the man branded as a monster?

Or follow the path ordained by priests and kings and slay him?

The hour stretched and contracted in a strange, disorienting way, as if the Veil warped time just as it bent light. For a fleeting moment, I allowed myself to envision a world where the seam had never torn asunder. A world where crowns of light and shadow coexisted in harmony.

I banished the thought. Dreams were too fragile in this unforgiving place.

As morning deepened, the fortress seemed to come alive. The blue torches hummed with a gentle, otherworldly energy. Shadows drifted across the walls in languid waves. The entire structure felt sentient, observing me as I stood at the threshold of my room.

Kaelith awaited me just outside.

He hadn't knocked.

He hadn't called my name.

He simply stood there, arms folded, his gaze fixed on the distant windows as if strategizing battles beyond my imagination. The shadows coiled around him like loyal wolves, resting obediently at his feet.

“You're late,” he said without turning.

“I wasn't aware there was a schedule,” I retorted.

He glanced at me, his eyes scanning my face as if searching for cracks he hadn't caused. “There's always a schedule,” he said. “Especially when half a kingdom is thirsting for your blood.”

“Reassuring,” I muttered sarcastically.

“I'm not trying to reassure you,” he said.

“I noticed,” I replied.

The corners of his lips twitched ever so slightly. It was a minuscule movement, yet it sent a strange flutter through the pit of my stomach.

We walked side by side down the corridor. The fortress seemed to sprawl infinitely around us. Stone arches framed the passageways, and carved pillars rose like the ribs of an ancient, mythical beast. Through the windows, glimpses of the silver forest beyond were revealed, each view more haunting than the last. The wind from the Veil pressed against the glass with a soft, insistent murmur.

“Where are we going?” I inquired.

“Somewhere less vulnerable,” Kaelith replied. “The scouts will reach the outer woods soon.”

The reminder sent a chill through my bones.

The Luminous priests were relentless.

They always had been.

“And Lucen?” I asked cautiously. “He looks at me in a peculiar way.”

Kaelith's jaw tightened. “That was his civil demeanor.”

“ That was civil?”

“He once stared down a demon without so much as a blink,” Kaelith said. “That was uncivil.”

I blinked in disbelief. “What on earth does that mean?”

“It means Lucen is Lucen. He's not your concern.”

“Then what should concern me?”

He regarded me, his eyes dark and inscrutable. “Everything.”

We reached a junction where the corridor split into two paths. One sloped downward into impenetrable darkness. The other led to a balcony overlooking the forest.

Kaelith stepped onto the balcony first and motioned for me to stay behind him.

I complied not because I trusted him but because the Veil below seemed too alive and menacing to face alone.

The silver leaves rustled without a hint of wind.

The roots shifted like slumbering serpents.

The entire forest pulsed with a rhythm that resembled a heartbeat.

Something out there was watching us.

“Do you feel that?” I whispered.

Kaelith nodded once. “The Veil stirs when hunters intrude upon its domain.”

“Is that what the knights are?”

“They hunt truth, masquerading as heresy. They hunt power, masked as sin. They hunt anything that threatens their established order,” Kaelith said.

“And me.”

A brief pause.

Soft.

Unsettling.

“And you,” he affirmed.

Silence enveloped us like a suffocating shroud. I studied him in spite of myself. His posture was a perfect manifestation of self - control. His expression was as unyielding as the stone of the fortress. The shadows clung to him, yet at times, I sensed they were also restraining him, much like a chain restrains a dangerous beast.

“You said the prophecy was a falsehood,” I said softly. “Explain it to me.”

He didn't answer right away. When he finally spoke, his voice was even lower than before.

“There are three versions of the prophecy,” he began. “The one peddled by your priests. The one whispered by my people. And the one engraved in the very fabric of the Veil.”

“Which one is accurate?”

“All of them,” he said.

His eyes glinted like the light before a storm.

“And none of them,” he added.

I furrowed my brow. “That doesn't clarify anything.”

“It wasn't intended to,” Kaelith said. “Prophecies don't unveil the future. They expose the fears that mold it.”

A cold gust seemed to sweep through the forest. The shadows beneath the trees contorted violently, as if an enormous, unseen creature had shifted its weight.

Kaelith's hand tightened slightly on the railing.

“We need to move,” he said quietly. “Something is awakening in the Veil.”

I swallowed hard. “Something like what?”

His gaze shifted to me.

“Something that couldn't care less about which prophecy you're linked to.”

The shadows surged behind him like a panicked heartbeat.

And the forest below responded with a sound I had never before heard in any realm.