Chapter 5
The manor groaned with movement—guards shouting, doors slamming, and unseen enemies scuttling through corridors like rats in the dark. Elira was pulled through it all by a guard who barely spoke, his orders clear: Keep her safe. Lock her away.
They led her not to her chamber, but to a tall, iron-bound door hidden behind a tapestry at the far end of a silent wing.
Kael's private library.
It was nothing like she expected. No warm hearth, no gentle scholar's corner. The air was thick with dust and old power. Tomes of forbidden spells, ancient family records, and war diaries lined the towering shelves. The scent of ink and iron was suffocating.
The guard shut the door behind her with a heavy thud. She was alone.
Elira walked slowly between the shelves, her eyes scanning unfamiliar titles—Grimoire of Bound Blood, Treatise on Soul Contracts, The Lost Winter Wars…
Then she saw it.
A thick black ledger, worn and nearly falling apart, hidden behind a stack of disorganized maps. There was no title on the spine—only a faded mark resembling a serpent eating its tail.
She opened it on instinct, her fingers turning brittle pages.
And there it was.
"Vexley."
Her heart stopped. Her name, scrawled in red ink. Not in a ledger of noble alliances or social records—but under a section marked: "Sacrifices and Offerings."
She read it once. Then twice. Her vision blurred.
According to this… her family had been involved in dark rituals. Blood seals. Forbidden pacts.
Her name appeared again—marked with a star.
"Subject failed. Power not activated. Executed prematurely."
Elira staggered back, breath catching.
She had not died for love. Not entirely.
She had died… because something had been taken from her. Something locked within her blood.
And someone had known.
The door opened behind her.
She turned, ready to speak—only to find Kael standing there. Alone. Silent.
He held a scroll in his gloved hand, its seal broken.
His expression was unreadable, but his eyes… his eyes burned.
"How long were you going to hide this?" he asked quietly.
She said nothing.
Kael stepped closer, holding the scroll out between them. She saw her name written across it, followed by symbols she couldn't decipher.
"You were meant to be more than a pawn," he said. "Your bloodline was part of something ancient. Dangerous."
Elira looked up at him. "Did you know?"
"I suspected. But I didn't expect you'd be the one to awaken it."
Her breath caught.
"Awaken… what?"
Kael didn't answer.
He simply raised a hand—and the room changed.
The walls dissolved into shifting smoke, the shelves faded, and the world around her bent like heat in the air. She was standing not in a library… but in a realm of shadows.
And Kael's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
"It's time you remember what was taken from you."
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🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 6: The Shadow Memory
Elira stands inside a forgotten realm built from her stolen memories. Here, she sees fragments of her past—and something far worse: a masked figure watching her from the void.
And when she tries to escape, a voice whispers in her mind.
"Your soul belongs to me. Again."