The chamber had grown quiet.
Not peaceful—never peaceful—but weighed down. As if the air itself recoiled from what had been spoken.
Lord Caelan Virelios stood unmoving, eyes fixed upon the flickering seal above the grand table. The slow, spiraling patterns within its design were now jagged, twitching with each pulse. Cracks of mana hissed at the edges like a spiderweb under strain.
The Concord Council did not argue again.
Not after the Third Seat—Elandra of the Sylari—spoke her final words.
> "The Seal is not merely weakening. It is responding."
She had seen it in the Veilwater rivers that bordered her forest domain—rivers that once flowed only beneath moonlight, now stirring at dawn. The trees whispered in languages long dead. Her starlit visions, always serene, had filled with flame and silence.
> "The old balance is gone," she had said. "Something watches."
They were Sovereigns, all of them—beings who shaped the realms by existing. And yet… something deeper than fear lingered in the space between their glances. Something none dared say aloud.
Because not even Sovereigns whispered of what might return.
—
High above the mortal world, where the skies dimmed into perpetual twilight, the Astral Nexus glowed faintly.
It had once been the brightest star in the heavens—a knot in space where leylines converged, watched by the ancient races for signs of upheaval.
But now, it pulsed like a dying heart.
In the archives of the Elarion Scholars' Circle, a hundred seers pored through dusty tomes and ancient stone tablets, translating forgotten incantations. A single phrase had begun to reappear, etched in places that should never have shifted:
"The Fragment Awaits."
No one knew what it meant.
But it was being written in languages that hadn't existed for ten thousand years.
—
Far south, across the scorched dunes of Marakesh, a nomadic tribe had vanished.
Not raided. Not killed. Gone.
Their tents stood. Meals half-prepared. Mana flasks full.
One lone hunter, arriving late to the gathering, found nothing but silence… and footprints burned into the sand—shaped like no creature known to man.
> "We called down the stars once," whispered the shaman to no one. "Now they answer."
—
Back in the Concord Hall, Lord Caelan finally turned away from the seal.
His voice was cold and resolute.
> "This… will not be shared. Not yet."
He faced the others. "Panic weakens order. If the people learn the seal fades, kingdoms will turn on each other in fear before the real threat even arrives."
Highlord Draakos of the Draconids snorted. "So we wait? Hope it repairs itself?"
"No," said Caelan. "We prepare."
Elandra raised a brow. "Prepare how? You would arm children against the storm?"
He stared into the center of the table, where now a small ripple had begun to form within the seal—like an eye blinking open beneath the stone.
> "Not children. Champions."
Silence again.
Until the Ninth Seat, shadowed and soft-spoken, finally murmured, "You mean to awaken the Hidden Protocols."
Everyone stiffened.
Even Elandra's lips tightened.
Those protocols had not been mentioned in nine ages. They were remnants of the War Before Time, contingency plans woven into the laws of reality itself.
Dangerous. Incomplete. Forbidden.
Lord Caelan's answer came in a whisper.
> "If we are to face what rises beyond the seal… we may need a weapon this world forgot."
—
And far, far away…
In a land untouched by war or storm, where sheep grazed quietly and children laughed beneath autumn trees…
A newborn boy stirred in his sleep.
In the cradle of a humble cottage, bathed in moonlight, Aeron Nightveil turned restlessly. His breath hitched—just for a second.
And somewhere in his mind, like a voice behind a closed door, a whisper curled through his dreams.
> "Soon…"
—
Beneath the foundations of the world, where no light dared reach…
The formless presence stirred again.
Not anger. Not joy.
Merely… recognition.
As if something long-lost had opened its eyes.
The seal, once radiant and strong, now flickered one last time—and dimmed.
And a whisper echoed through the leylines of creation.
> "We begin again."
---
Chapter 7 End