Chapter 52 – Siege of the Shattered Light
Jean saw the smoke before she saw the walls.
Gildcrest burned.
Not from fire—but from a torrent of magic that cracked the sky in violet arcs. Bolts of conjured thunder shattered battlements. Barriers flickered, frayed, and failed. Screams rang from the lower courtyards.
Whitney howled as they raced across the final hill.
Jean's heart dropped.
A dome of unstable arcana surged over the fortress—a siege dome, conjured by an expert in magical warfare. No ordinary mage could pull this off.
At the southern gate, Cassien stood bloodied, holding a shattered spear, flanked by wounded Envoy Knights.
He turned as Jean landed beside him, aura flaring. "About time!"
"What happened?" she demanded.
"Rogue Transcendent Master," he spat. "Name's Veyrith. Former Magister—excommunicated for obsession with draconic relics. He's after Luxclade."
Jean's grip tightened.
Inside the dome, Silvia fought on the walls, a blur of red and steel. Her blade Eclipsion gleamed with every strike, carving through summoned constructs and arcane beasts.
Jean breathed deep.
Light surged.
"Hold the gate," she told Cassien. "I'm going in."
Whitney leapt ahead, and Jean followed—bursting through the broken archway into a field of chaos.
Magic rained like a storm.
Veyrith floated above the courtyard, cloaked in shadow and purple flame, eyes locked on her. "Ah… the Emissary arrives. That sword doesn't belong to you. It belongs to the Age of Dragons."
Jean raised Luxclade.
"Then come and take it."
He unleashed a wave of gravity magic. The ground buckled.
Jean deflected it with a burst of light—a holy flash that blinded lesser mages. But Veyrith was no lesser mage.
Their battle lit up the heart of Gildcrest. Aura met spell. Sword met shadow. Whitney tore through summoned horrors.
But in one brief moment, Veyrith reached for Luxclade—and the blade screamed.
Light and fire erupted—rejecting his touch.
Veyrith howled. "So… it has begun."
Then vanished into a burst of smoke, his voice echoing in the wind.
"The seal is breaking. The dragon remembers."
Jean stood in the ruins of the courtyard, her blade still glowing.
And for the first time…
She heard it whisper her name.
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