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Chapter 31 - The Breaking of the Circle

Circa three centuries before the Binding Wars. Location: The Citadel of Seven Flames, atop the shattered Ley-Spine.

The Citadel sat at the world's bleeding heart — where leyline rivers collided and sparked like fractured stars.

Inside its highest chamber, seven figures cloaked in sigil-stitched robes gathered around a crystalline basin. Their faces were hidden, but their voices carried the weight of gods.

The air shimmered with raw magic, electric and wild.

The Meeting

"The leylines unravel faster than we can bind," said Varyen, voice rough with exhaustion."If we do not act, the world will drown in unshaped power."

"Then we must forge the Crown," said Elyra, calm and unwavering."Seven fragments, each tied to a leyline thread. Together, they will chain the chaos."

"And if one should seek to wield it for themselves?" asked Thane, fingers twitching near a hidden dagger."Power like that corrupts all who touch it."

A silence fell.

The Betrayer Speaks

Then, from the shadows, a voice — smooth, cold, and sharp as obsidian.

"We bind magic with chains of fear. But what if we could free it?""Not control, but release.""Not submission, but dominion."

All heads turned to Sereth.

Her eyes gleamed like fractured glass.

"The Crown is not the end. It is a cage.""The leyline itself calls for ascendance — not binding.""I offer a new path. One where I lead. Not you."

The Breaking

The chamber exploded in argument — voices raised, spells igniting the air.

"You threaten us all," Varyen hissed, reaching for his staff.

"Better to rule than be ruled," Sereth said, stepping forward."I carry the blood of the First Weaver. You carry only fear."

"Then you betray the Circle," Elyra said, drawing a blade forged from pure light."And force us to shatter the Crown to stop you."

Aftermath

The Circle fractured that night.

Sereth vanished — marked a traitor, hunted by all.

The Crown was broken — each fragment sealed away.

But Sereth's vision lingered in shadows and whispers.

"When the Crown is whole, I will return.And the leyline will sing anew."

Echoes in Time

Centuries later, her legacy is a ghost.

The fragments stir.The leylines pulse.And somewhere in the darkness, the traitor watches.

Waiting for the moment the world forgets again.

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