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The Ashes of Oakhaven: Rise of the Sunbound Heir / Chapter 6 / 10

Chapter 6 - The Shadow Assassin in the Archives

Kaelen didn't turn around immediately. He kept his hand resting on the Codex of the Sun, absorbing the final fragments of ancestral knowledge while the air behind him dropped ten degrees in temperature. Frost began to spiderweb across the ancient stone floor.

"Vane sends his lapdogs even this far," Kaelen said calmly, his voice echoing in the vast subterranean library. "He must be terrified."

From the darkness of the alcove stepped a figure wrapped in shifting, translucent robes of midnight silk. It was a Wraith-Assassin of the Silent Hand—an elite killer whose blade was forged from compressed nightmare-stuff, capable of ignoring physical armor to slice directly through a victim’s life force.

"The King sends his regards," the assassin hissed, his voice sounding like dry leaves scraping across gravestones. "And your head."

With terrifying speed, the assassin blurred into a streak of black smoke, reappearing directly behind Kaelen with a curved, obsidian dagger raised high to plunge into the back of his neck.

Kaelen moved faster.

The golden runes on his back flared with blinding brilliance. Without looking back, Kaelen flicked his elbow backward. A shockwave of pure solar energy erupted from his arm, colliding directly with the assassin’s chest.

The assassin let out a choked shriek as the holy fire incinerated his shadow-robes. He flew across the chamber, crashing heavily into a towering stack of ancient scrolls, sending parchment flying everywhere before crumpling into a motionless heap.

Kaelen turned slowly, walking over to the fallen killer. The assassin coughed weakly, black blood pooling beneath his cracked mask.

"Who else knows about this archive?" Kaelen demanded, his eyes burning with golden fire.

The assassin managed a weak, jagged smile. "You... you are too late, Solari. The Inquisitor... he is already at the orphanage. He knows about the children."

Kaelen’s heart skipped a beat. Lyra and Joran.

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In a blinding flash of fury, Kaelen abandoned the archive, sprinting out the doors and leaping back onto his waiting wyvern. "Fly!" he roared into the beast's ear. "To Oakhaven Orphanage! Now!"

The wyvern shrieked, launching itself into the sky like a rocket, tearing through the night air toward the lower districts of the capital with lethal urgency.

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Chapter 7 - The Siege of the Lower District
Chapter 8 - The Fall of the Inquisitor
Chapter 9 - The Siege of the Obsidian Throne
Chapter 10 - Dawn of a New Era

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