Chapter 7: Echoes of Broken Oaths
The wind howled through the Bloodgrove, its scarlet-leaved trees whispering secrets long buried beneath the crimson soil. Once sacred ground for ancient druids, now it was a place of foreboding—a graveyard for those who dared trespass.
Kael stood atop a jagged outcrop overlooking the grove, his dark cloak fluttering like wings behind him. The moon bathed the land in silver, casting long shadows that danced with each movement of the wind. Below, his scouts were already in place, waiting.
Beside him stood Seraphina, her expression unreadable.
"This is a sacred place," she said softly, voice barely carried by the breeze.
"It was," Kael replied. "Now, it will be remembered for something else."
She looked at him, eyes glinting. "You plan to confront him here?"
Kael didn't answer. Instead, he pointed toward a ridge in the distance. A flicker of torchlight shimmered there—Aleron's army, making camp for the night.
"We won't fight," Kael said. "Not yet. But we'll shake the ground beneath his feet."
---
Aleron sat in the command tent, his hand clenched around a half-drunk goblet of wine. The taste was sour, or perhaps his thoughts made it so. Maps were strewn across the table before him, ink lines marking possible movements, ambush points, fallback positions.
"You're restless," Cassia noted, seated across from him.
"I can feel him," Aleron muttered. "He's near."
Cassia leaned forward. "Then we end it."
He shook his head. "Not yet. Something's… off. He's waiting for something."
Just then, a soldier burst in, panting. "Commander! There's movement—around the southern perimeter. Silent shadows."
Aleron stood instantly, Solstice flashing into his grip. "Ready the guard. Light the perimeter."
The camp erupted in shouts and steel. But even as soldiers rushed to posts, torches flared and magic crackled, Kael's plan had already begun.
---
Hidden in the grove, Kael's agents released vials of arcane mist, each whispering ancient words etched into their skin. The mist slithered across the ground like snakes made of smoke, twisting and turning until it reached the outer edge of Aleron's camp.
There, it began.
A series of illusions—shadows of long-dead enemies, the faces of comrades lost in battle, and the haunted visages of the fallen—rose from the earth.
Cries of fear erupted as soldiers dropped weapons or fired into illusions. Screams tore through the night as the boundaries between memory and reality blurred.
Kael, watching from above, whispered, "Let them taste the ghosts they left behind."
---
Selene Drakonheart didn't panic. She drew her blades and moved through the chaos like a flame through dry grass. Every illusion that reached her was tested by steel, and though her blades passed through them, she felt their sting in her mind.
"Enough!" she roared, stabbing one illusion that bore her sister's face. "This is trickery!"
Ilyana appeared beside her, forming a barrier of frost around the command tents. "It's Kael. This reeks of his magic."
Aleron emerged into the chaos, eyes locked on the illusions. "He's testing us."
Cassia joined them, her bow crackling with sacred fire. "Then let's send him a message."
She fired an arrow into the sky—its light shattered the veil of magic across the grove. The illusions dispersed like smoke in sunlight.
The night fell silent once more, the forest still and watching.
But Kael's message had been delivered.
---
Back in Nyxveil, Kael sat alone in the reflection chamber, a pool of dark water swirling at his feet. He stared into its depths as the memory of Aleron's expression replayed—confused, angered, uncertain.
"You could have struck," Lyria said as she entered, arms crossed.
"I could've," Kael agreed. "But doubt is a sharper weapon."
"You're delaying the inevitable."
"No. I'm building momentum."
He stood and walked toward a wall etched with ancient markings. With a touch of his hand, one of the seals glowed and peeled open, revealing a hidden stairway.
"I need to speak with her," he said.
Lyria's eyes narrowed. "Her? She's been locked away for years."
Kael nodded. "And it's time she returned."
---
Deep beneath Nyxveil, behind a prison of silver fire and bloodstone, lay a woman with golden hair like woven sunlight and eyes as dark as the void. She was once known as The Oracle of the First Flame, a seer who had defied the gods and was cursed with madness and foresight.
Kael approached her cage with reverence.
"Rise, Arinelle," he said.
The woman's eyes snapped open. "The threads are shifting."
"Yes," Kael whispered. "I need to know how to cut the final strand."
She rose, barefoot, wrapped in tattered robes of starlight. "You stand at the crossroads, Sovereign. One path leads to the death of kings. The other… to something older than time."
Kael clenched his fists. "Tell me how to defeat him."
Arinelle stepped forward until her face was inches from his. "You do not need to defeat him. You need to become something he cannot comprehend."
"And what's that?"
She smiled with a madness only truth could bring. "A choice."
---
In the aftermath of the Bloodgrove illusion, Aleron called a meeting of his closest allies. Inside a magically sealed tent, they sat around the war table.
"He's not just trying to win," Ilyana said. "He's trying to unmake what we believe in."
Cassia nodded. "The soldiers are shaken. Morale is dropping."
Selene paced. "Let's ride into the grove. Burn it to the ground."
"No," Aleron said. "He wants us to act rashly. We won't give him that."
"What then?" Selene asked. "Do we wait until he burns the capital?"
Aleron looked down at the map, eyes locked on the capital's symbol: a golden sun.
"No," he said softly. "We take the sun before he does."
Cassia blinked. "You're suggesting—?"
"Yes. We march back. We fortify Elarion itself."
---
Later that night, as the camp slept in uneasy quiet, Aleron sat alone by the fire, gazing into the flames.
He whispered, "Kael… Why couldn't you just let it go?"
From the shadows, a voice responded.
"Because letting go is a luxury of the innocent."
Aleron spun, sword ready—but no one was there.
Only the fire, crackling softly.
---
Far away, Kael stood in the Oracle's chamber once more.
"I saw it," he whispered. "He's going back to the capital."
Arinelle nodded. "Then your time is short. The moment of reckoning comes at the turning of the moon."
Kael closed his eyes.
> [Main Quest: Destiny Severed – Progress: 42%]
[Unlocked: Arinelle the Oracle – Status: Unstable Ally]