"Not all shadows are born from darkness. Some are forged in light—and twisted by betrayal."
---
[Bloodroot Forest – Near Nightveil Border]
The air was still.
No birds. No insects. Not even the wind dared whisper here.
A shadow peeled away from the bark of an ancient tree. Draped in serpent-scale armor, the assassin moved without sound. His eyes were black, slit-pupiled—the mark of the Serpent Hall's Whisper Division.
His target was clear. Ash Nightveil.
But this wasn't a mere contract.
This was a test. One that, if passed, would grant him entry into the Serpent Hall's Inner Vein.
He whispered a curse into the soil. It slithered forward, a shadowy wisp that melted into the forest floor.
> "He'll never see it coming."
---
[Nightveil Clan – Inner Courtyard, Ash's Pavilion]
Ash stood before the freshly engraved obsidian slab—his mark still glowing faintly in the dark: Ashborn.
Lyra watched him in silence. She had seen his strength. She had felt the change.
But this… this was ambition.
Not just for power—but authority.
"Ash," she said softly, "you're drawing eyes. Not just within the clan. Beyond it."
"I know."
"And the Elders?"
Ash's eyes narrowed. "They'll move soon. One will test me. The others will watch."
Lyra's lips pressed into a thin line. "You're provoking them."
Ash turned to her, voice low. "No, Lyra. I'm showing them where the fire starts. If they want to dance with flames, they'll learn what it means to burn."
---
[Northern Expanse – Ruins of the Starcleft Shrine]
Selene's boots crunched over frost-glazed stone. The shrine had been abandoned for over a century—since the last astral convergence shattered the land.
Beside her, Kale knelt, brushing frost away from an ancient sigil. "It's a binding seal. But someone tried to break it from the inside."
Selene stepped closer. "Anything inside?"
Kale hesitated. "A prison. But not for a creature."
Selene's eyes sharpened. "For a soul."
She touched the sigil. Her frost aura flared—and the seal shattered.
A breathless moment passed.
Then whispers bled from the cracks in the air—soft, brittle voices echoing in ancient tongues.
One name repeated.
> "Ash… Ash… Ash…"
Selene's pupils constricted.
"…He was here."
Kale glanced at her. "In your past life?"
She didn't answer. Just pressed her palm to the shrine wall—and a flame surged beneath the frost.
Not hers.
> Violet. Faint. Fragmented.
Selene trembled.
"He was dying… and yet still trying to protect something here."
---
[Nightveil – Flame Trial Grounds, Underground Pavilion]
Deep beneath the clan's surface, an Elder stood before a circle of observers. Vaelin. His expression was unreadable, but the tension in the air was sharp.
Projected in the air before them: a replay of Ash's Gate of Endurance trial.
Elder Mora frowned. "Three soul fractures… and he rebuilt his core without external guidance?"
Elder Rho added, "That's impossible without a stabilizing artifact. Or… outside inheritance."
Elder Vaelin's eyes narrowed. "Exactly."
There was silence.
Then Mora asked, "You believe he holds a foreign legacy?"
Vaelin's lips curled faintly. "Not foreign. Forbidden."
That one word shifted the entire room's weight.
---
[Ash's Pavilion – Late Night]
Ash sat alone beneath the moonlight, cultivating.
But something was wrong.
The flame threads in the air—normally vibrant—flickered and dimmed. They recoiled from a faint aura threading toward him. A shadow too quiet to be natural.
He opened his eyes. The courtyard was silent.
Too silent.
Ash rose, stepping toward the shadows near the tree line. He extended his hand—and the Silent Ruin Arc shimmered faintly to life. No light. No heat. Just tension.
Then the assassin struck.
A blade wreathed in dissolving serpent mist slashed toward Ash's throat.
Ash twisted, the blade grazing his shoulder instead of his neck. Blood splattered across the stones.
> [System Alert: Foreign Poison Detected – Initiating Core Purge]
[Warning: Voidroot Venom – Progression: 3%]
The assassin moved like a whisper, reappearing behind Ash.
But Ash was already gone.
His foot landed silently behind the killer, palm thrusting forward. The Silent Ruin Arc detonated in a pulse of cold collapse.
> No light. No sound. Only decay.
The assassin staggered, his left side imploding inward as his ribs twisted unnaturally.
He spat blood. "Impossible—flames don't work like that!"
Ash's eyes glinted, violet and cruel. "Mine do."
The assassin dropped a talisman, igniting a teleport glyph.
Ash's flame lashed out—but missed.
Gone.
He stood still for a long moment, blood trickling from his arm.
Then his gaze turned cold.
> "Someone inside the clan sent him."
---
[Nightveil – Matriarch's Chambers]
The Matriarch stood beside the ancient flame mirror, watching ripples shimmer across the surface.
The assassin's escape echoed in the reflection.
Behind her, a voice rumbled.
"You allowed it."
The Matriarch didn't turn. "Of course."
Elder Rhaegar—one of the few trusted by her since her youth—folded his arms.
"Why?"
"To force Ash's awakening. The Ashborn cannot remain reactive."
She stepped closer to the flame mirror.
"And now he knows someone inside wants him dead. The next move will be his."
---
[Ash's Pavilion – Dawn]
The courtyard was scorched. Blood still stained the stone, but Ash had not slept.
Lyra returned from the outer ring, her eyes sharp with worry.
"An assassin?"
Ash nodded. "Poisoned. But the system purged it."
She noticed the stiffness in his movements and the faint bloodied bandage.
"You're hurt."
Ash glanced down. "A scratch."
"A near-death scratch."
He didn't respond.
She moved closer, pulled a small vial from her robe, and pressed it into his hand. "Drink. It's from mother's private stash."
Ash raised a brow.
"She'll ask questions later," Lyra added, "but you'll live longer."
He drank it.
Warmth flooded his core. The pain dulled—but it didn't vanish.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
Lyra paused, caught off guard by the sincerity. Then nodded.
"I told Kaelen. He's furious."
Ash's lips curved faintly. "Good. He'll need that fury when the next blade comes for him."
---
[End of Chapter 14]