The road east wound through scorched plains and trembling forests, where even the birds flew in silence. News spread faster than fire: storms rising from cloudless skies, sacred rivers turning black, and dreams turning violent.
All signs pointed to one conclusion—something old was stirring, and it wore the face of shadow.
For three days they rode hard, avoiding towns and keeping to forested paths. On the fourth morning, the towering spires of the Eastern Archives came into view.
Or rather—what was left of them.
The once-glorious tower, famed for holding the oldest magical texts and oracles, now leaned like a broken finger pointed at the heavens. Its base had been cracked open, its upper levels scorched. Ash floated in the air like mourning snow.
"Gods," Aeron breathed. "This wasn't an attack. This was a message."
Cassian dismounted first, blade drawn, scanning the wreckage. "Then we read it loud and clear—he doesn't want us finding answers."
Liara approached the ruins cautiously, every step drawing her deeper into a strange, residual hum. Magic still lingered here—wild, fractured, and aching.
In the center of the Archive's inner hall, they found what was left of the Grand Keeper: her robes scorched, her staff shattered beside her. Yet, her hand clutched a single scroll wrapped in iron ribbon.
Liara knelt, gently prying it free.
Cassian looked over her shoulder. "Is it enchanted?"
"No," she murmured. "It's sealed... in blood magic."
Aeron's eyes darkened. "Kael's?"
Liara flinched. The name stirred something deep inside her, something unspoken.
She unrolled the scroll carefully.
The parchment unfurled to reveal an ancient sigil: three interlocking circles, surrounded by a ring of names—none of which were familiar. But in the center of the triangle, one word was etched in gold:
"VAL'TARAN"
Liara whispered it aloud.
Immediately, the air shifted.
Books burst into flames.
The ground cracked beneath them.
And a voice—his voice—spoke inside her mind:
"You seek truths I buried in blood."
"Keep digging, little soul, and you'll find yourself in the grave you escaped."
The Archives trembled once more, but this time it wasn't destruction—it was defense.
A golden shield flared briefly, revealing a hidden stair beneath the rubble.
Cassian grinned. "What's a haunted ruin without a secret passage?"
Aeron stepped in front of Liara protectively. "Let's find the heart of this place before he burns it from the inside out."
They descended together.
In the hidden vault below, they found a chamber untouched by the ruin above.
At its center: a stone tablet carved in ancient runes. Around it, three circles on the floor—each pulsing with a faint glow.
Liara stepped into one.
Cassian and Aeron, without a word, stepped into the others.
The tablet responded.
Words shimmered across its surface.
"The Trinity Bond is more than love. More than magic. It is the answer to a wound left unhealed for a thousand years."
"But answers demand memory. And memory demands pain."
The chamber sealed behind them with a thud.
And each of them began to remember...