---
Kael walked for two days without rest.
The ambush was an experience that simmered on his skin.
The vocabulary of this Vire resounded more than the shouts of the mercenaries.
> "Why now?"
"Why me?"
He didn't have answers.
Only direction.
His book pulsed as he passed a weathered monument,
an obelisk marked with blood runes, half-buried in moss.
The book vibrated.
> [Ancestral Library Detected, Vire Lineage Only]
▸ Verification: Blood-locked access granted
▸ Warning: Contents are not verified by the Order of Silence
Kael pushed aside the vines.
Beneath the monument, a stairwell led into blackness. Not cold, but heavy.
---
The blood-library wasn't large.
Just one chamber, long and curved like a ribcage.
Shelves lined the walls, made of bone.
No paper. No ink.
Only slabs of dried flesh, etched with blood-sigils that moved when Kael looked at them.
Most were dormant.
But as Kael stepped inside, several flared with light.
One floated free, hovering before him.
> "...what are you?"
The sigils twisted, then unraveled into written words, readable only to his kind.
---
> Fragmented History Log, House Vire
"Before the Thrones fell.
Before angels burned our towers and demons razed our temples.
We ruled by silence. Not fear. Not flame.
We sealed our blood to protect what the gods wanted buried.
And in the end, we were betrayed… not by the heavens. But by one of our own."
▸ Entry incomplete. Page torn by internal override.
▸ Further access requires Sovereign Will Level II
Kael stepped back, breathing shallow.
> "One of their own… betrayed them?"
The sigil flared again,
this time burning the name Vire into the air with crimson flame.
Another sigil surfaced.
It bore a child's name.
One Kael didn't recognize, but… somehow felt.
And underneath it, a final phrase appeared:
> "One survived the culling."
"He walks the world with sealed memory."
Kael's hand trembled.
He wasn't just descended from House Vire.
He might be the last.
---
End of Chapter 23
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