Chapter 12 - The Crimson Fog
Adrian and Torren rushed into the grand balcony room, their swords drawn.
"Mother! The ocean is boiling!" Torren shouted over the deafening roar of thunder.
Eleanor rushed to the railing. The vast Atlantic ocean had retreated hundreds of yards from the cliffside, exposing jagged, black coral reefs that had been submerged for millennia. From the deep trenches of the ocean floor, a thick, crimson fog was rising, sweeping over the northern shipping ports and devouring everything it touched.
"Is it another attack?" Adrian asked, his knuckles white around his hilt.
"No," Eleanor said grimly, reaching for her dragon-bone staff. "It is the true owner of this world coming to reclaim what I took from her."
A high-pitched screech tore through the atmosphere. The crimson fog began to coalesce into thousands of winged shadow-beasts, each carrying blades formed of blood-red crystal. They swarmed the outer towers of Veyne Palace, tearing through the celestial barriers as if they were made of paper.
"Guards! Form up around the royal dais!" Torren roared, springing into action.
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As the guards moved into formation, the heavy doors of the grand hall burst inward. A tall, shrouded figure stepped through the debris. She wore a crown made of obsidian bones, and her eyes burned with pure, empty void.
"Ten thousand years, Eleanor," the figure hissed, her voice sounding like grinding stone. "You locked me in the dark and called yourself a mother. Now, watch your children bleed."
