Chapter 13 - The Voice in the Ice
The largest of the shadow-beasts stepped forward. It did not snarl or bare its teeth; instead, its chest heaved, and from its jaws came a voice that sounded like grinding glaciers and shattering glass—a chorus of a thousand ancient, forgotten whispers.
"Little spark," the voice echoed directly inside the minds of everyone in the delegation, causing Kaelen and Lyra to stagger and clutch their heads in pain. Elara, however, stood unyielding, her eyes glowing with a brilliant, steady blue. "You think because you overthrew the puppets in the south that you hold the strings of this world? The throne you sit upon is built over a cage. And the lock is rusting away."
"Who speaks?" Elara demanded, her voice carrying a multi-layered resonance that pushed back the freezing dread pressing against her companions' minds. "Identify yourself, or be unmade."
"We are the rot beneath your foundations," the creature hissed, its violet eyes locking onto Elara’s glowing gaze. "The First Sovereign thought he could bind the primordial dark to build his shining empire. But shadows cannot be destroyed, girl—they can only be contained. And now that you’ve broken the old seals in the capital, the northern gate stands wide open. Come, little waif. Let us see if your royal blood can freeze the tide of oblivion."
With a chilling screech, the pack of shadow-beasts dissolved back into the snow, melting into the shadows as if they had never been there at all.
May you like
Kaelen breathed heavily, sheathing his sword with a trembling hand. "Your Majesty... what was that? What gate are they talking about?"
"An inheritance," Elara said grimly, looking toward the highest peak of the Dragon’s Teeth, where a strange, pulsing pillar of black light had just begun to pierce the heavy clouds. "The founders of this empire kept dark secrets to maintain their absolute power. My mother tried to warn me before she died, but I didn't understand. Now, we must finish what they started—or watch the world burn."
